Shoot your shot: how I became the photographer for CF Montreal of the MLS.

*Deep exhale*

Ok. Let me start by saying that I usually avoid clichés like the plague (appropriate comparison) because I feel like it typically takes away from the message.

BUT.

SHOOT YOUR DAMN SHOT!

For those who don’t follow professional soccer here in North America, there’s a unique situation that has come up due to COVID. The US/ Canadian border requires a 14 day quarantine when entering Canada. Logistically, this makes it impossible for Canadian MLS teams to host home games, regardless of fan attendance or not. As such, all 3 Canadian MLS teams (Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal) all opted to move their “home facilities” to the United States. Vancouver ended up in Salt Lake, Toronto in Orlando, and Montreal in my back yard (Fort Lauderdale, FL!) What’s especially interesting is that CFM is sharing the home stadium of Inter Miami in Fort Lauderdale, FL and for CFM home games, there are no fans (not enough demand to justify a game day staff) while Inter Miami home games do allow fans.

If you know me, you know that I follow Montreal sports pretty regularly (GO HABS GO!) and when I found out that MTL moved their first half of the season to FTL, I reached out immediately.

Essentially, I sent them a DM through Instagram (since it doubles as my portfolio) introducing myself and declaring myself ready, willing, and able to shoot for them if they needed. Within a day or two I got a response back with what seemed to be a “thanks but no thanks” response.

Fast forward a week or so and I have a DM from THEM! “Well, well, well… how the turn tables.”

They asked me to shoot the upcoming game against Columbus Crew (2 days from the date of the message) and I replied, “Thanks but no thanks.” KIDDING. I absolutely accepted and was now officially going to shoot an MLS game! This is awesome right?! I finally get my foot in the door of professional sports! I had no clue just how awesome this was going turn out to be.

So I shoot the game, all goes well, images are awesome, and the team is happy. A few days later I decided to buy tickets to attend the CF Montreal vs Inter Miami game because it would be allowing fans. Another few days pass and it dawns on me that I might be able to shoot again for CFM, so I reached out. I was told to just enjoy the game as a fan and they’ll reach out in the future if they need anything else. Again, another few days pass and I receive a message from them asking if I was still up to shoot the game. I happily obliged, gave my tickets to some friends, and got to shoot the game (CF MTL won!)

As if this wasn’t awesome enough, I’m speaking with the Manager of Digital Content and he tells me that the players want me to come shoot their training session! I’m so stoked at this point. Aside from that, I was also asked to shoot the final home game before the 3 week international break vs Cincinnati. I’ve essentially been hired on as the temporary team photographer while the team is based out of Fort Lauderdale!

As of this writing, I have no idea where this whole journey will take me. All I know is this has been an incredible experience that I would have never had without shooting my shot!

I’ll be sure to keep you all posted on any future developments and share whatever insight I pick up along the way! Keep tuned for some upcoming blog posts regarding new equipment, sport photography settings, and more!

-MA