Photojournalist: Tagwa Moyo. Filling in the gaps.

Tagwa Moyo (external link) , ‘17, is currently based in Vancouver, freelancing as a photojournalist, focusing on sports. He is also the founder of DARBY Magazine (external link) , a Canadian soccer magazine, when he noticed the lack of coverage the sport received while working in the field. He recently started a new position as FIFA community manager at Electronic Arts.

Follow Moyo’s day as he covers a soccer game for Canada Soccer.

My day starts at the end of the day before because I got to charge all my gear. I make sure my SD cards, compact flash cards, batteries, laptop, and all my camera gear are okay. So, that happens the night before so that I have peace of mind going to sleep and that all my gear is going to be good when I wake up.

The first thing I do, like most people, is check my phone. I’ll look at other photographers I enjoy and see what they’ve done so I can get some inspiration. I’m not a breakfast person at all. My stomach can’t handle it.

I usually wake up, scroll through social media, and go through websites or magazines to get the juices flowing. Photography and sports photojournalism are the same things really every day, so it’s always trying to figure out how to change things up.

On days when I’m covering a match, I’ll message my editor and ask, “Is there anything in particular that you need for this match or anything I should be aware of?” In this case, Canada Soccer likes me to do more documentary photography than regular team photos.

We’ll go through all of that through messaging or a quick meeting to make sure we’re on the same page because when you’re at the game, it’s hectic and I might not hear or see from them at all.

I like to be at the stadium when I’m doing photojournalism of games around two to three hours beforehand, so this game was at eight, and I got there around 5:30 p.m. and picked up my media pass and meal. I get used to the space and eat my media meal.

Around 6:30 p.m. is when the teams start arriving, so I go out and capture that. I capture the teams walking in, getting ready and inspecting the pitch. Then closer to 7:15 p.m., I’ll start editing and filing the first batch of photos, usually shots of player arrivals and any important environmental captures.

I go out again and shoot more. I’ll come back and file the last bit. Right before kickoff, I empty the cards and head back out to shoot the game.

I usually file when I’m shooting the game. At 15 minutes in, I file shots to my editor, 30 minutes and halftime. Then again 60th minute, the 75th minute, and the 90th minute, which is the end of the match.

Then after that 90th minute, that's when the real work starts because, during those little sessions where I’m quickly editing, I’m not looking in detail at everything.

So it's after the game when I'll stop and sift through every single photo that I took. And usually, I'm working from when the game ends at 10:30 p.m. till I’ve filed all the images to the client and can finally close my laptop at 2:30 a.m.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.