Katie Lozancich is a freelance sports photographer based out of Sacramento, California. Her work has been published in all types of magazines across the globe and featured in major advertising campaigns. Her credits include Teton Gravity Research and Freehub Magazine, among other outdoor brands. She is also a documentary filmmaker and a talented artist.

Katie came to Landmark to share her experience in the field and to show students her process for taking photos. For photo shoots, she goes out with a film crew and shoots for hours to get really good content. Lighting is the first thing that she thinks about. Then once she has the lighting she experiments with types of composition. With photography, you can experiment and learn a lot about it. One example Katie talked about was a panning shot of a bike going fast. “That was just a really cool shot,” she said.

At an early age, Katie recalled getting a National Geographic magazine with a ton of photos in it. Then when she was in college, she watched a lot of Warren Miller and Teton Gravity Research films. She talked about how she entered five thousand photos into a Red Bull contest and was a semifinalist. “It was a big achievement,” she said. She also talked about the first time she went freelance and what that process was like. She said, “The first time I went freelance it was really scary, but I took the leap and I have been doing it ever since”.

Katie talked about building connections within the photography community to get recognized. “Don’t be afraid to call people and to be curious and you can end up with a cool internship,” was one piece of advice she gave. She talked about what she learned in her own internship and said that when you are there you learn new skills and meet new people. She also talked about how to reach out to artists that you like and see if you can meet them for coffee, but do not be upset if you do not hear anything back or if they say no.

To be a photographer, Katie said you do not need a fancy camera. You can just do it on your phone and develop a style of photography. “Just be curious and to take a lot of photos,” she advised. “If your school has a newspaper, take that opportunity to submit photos to get yourself out there.”