About Me
Sports photographer, documentary graduate, and a person who will happily stand in freezing rain for ninety minutes on the off-chance of one good frame.
Hello, my name is Thomas Brown.
I am a photographer who has had an interest in photography from a young age. My journey began in primary school when I came second in a photography competition, and it has not really let up since.
I am a sports photographer working across Shropshire, Staffordshire, the West Midlands and North Wales, and I still volunteer for local clubs alongside commissioned work — partly because it keeps me sharp, and mostly because grassroots sport is where the best pictures are.
I studied for two years at Telford College in Creative Media, with an additional year studying Art & Design, followed by graduating from De Montfort University in 2022 with a Bachelor's in Graphic Design. As of July 2024 I have completed my two-year part-time online master's in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography at the University of the Arts London, and now hold an MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography.
Please feel free to get in touch about any enquiries you may have.
Documentary habits, applied to sport
A master's in photojournalism changes what you notice. It taught me that the frame after the goal is usually better than the goal, that the person watching is as much a part of the event as the person playing, and that a set of photographs should have a beginning and an end.
In practice that means every gallery I deliver contains the arrival, the preparation, the sport, the reaction and the aftermath. Clubs get the goals — of course they get the goals — but they also get the frames that will still mean something in ten years, when nobody can remember the score.
The design background does the rest. I sequence galleries rather than dumping them, I crop consistently so a set reads as one piece of work, and I name files so that a volunteer secretary can find an image in two years without ringing me.
How I got here
- Primary school
Second place
A photography competition at primary school, and the first time it occurred to me that this was something a person could be good at.
- 2016–2018
Telford College
Two years studying Creative Media, followed by an additional year in Art & Design. This is where I learned to look at pictures critically rather than just make them.
- 2019–2022
De Montfort University
BA in Graphic Design. Composition, hierarchy and typography — the reason my galleries are sequenced rather than dumped.
- 2019–present
Volunteering with local clubs
Ice hockey first, then football and tennis. Hundreds of hours of unpaid touchline time, and the best education available.
- 2022–2024
University of the Arts London
A two-year part-time online MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography, completed in July 2024.
- Now
Commissioned work
Clubs, sponsors, local businesses and regional press across Shropshire, Staffordshire, the West Midlands and North Wales.
What is in the bag
Nothing exotic. Reliability beats novelty when the fixture cannot be repeated.
Bodies
Two full-frame mirrorless bodies, always. A lens change at pitch level costs thirty seconds you do not have.
Long glass
70–200mm f/2.8 as the workhorse, with a 300mm prime for athletics and anything played on a full-size pitch.
Wide
24–70mm f/2.8 on the second body for benches, celebrations and everything within three metres.
Aerial
A class-marked drone flown inside the UK Open category, with Operator ID displayed and Flyer ID current.
Lighting
Portable strobes and modifiers for squad portraits in cold clubhouse corridors.
Backup
Dual card slots in camera, two drives at home, and a third copy off-site before the cards are formatted.
Where you can find me
I post work throughout the season, and I am based in Newport, Shropshire — please do not confuse this with Newport, Wales.
Let's get your season on camera.
Fixtures, tournaments, team portraits or aerial work — tell me the date and the venue and I will come back with a plan and a price.