Check Out Sara Skotzke’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Skotzke.

Hi Sara, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I first discovered my love for sports photography during college while interning for the University of Akron’s Sports Marketing Department. Though I paused my photography career after graduation to launch my business, Sara’s Genealogy Research, a unique request from a genealogy client brought me right back to the sidelines.
The client was looking for a local photographer to capture professional action shots of her granddaughter’s senior soccer season at Strongsville High School. Drawing on my college football photography background, I took on the job and fell in love with the challenge. Recognizing that soccer demanded a different technical approach, I spent the following spring training alongside the University of Akron Zips Women’s Soccer team to hone my skills and master shot anticipation.
Now, I regularly collaborate with the Zips, Akron City FC, and several other teams each year. Capturing the perfect action shot is a rigorous process, but I believe that every photograph tells a story—and in sports, a single image can say it all.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The steepest learning curve came with adapting to new sports. In college, my experience was limited strictly to football. Surprisingly, I now consider football a relatively slow sport for photography; the game moves in short-yard increments with very little continuous back-and-forth action. Transitioning to sports like soccer or lacrosse was a completely different challenge. The pace is incredibly fast, and because the action moves in all directions, anticipating a team’s next move is incredibly difficult. I am constantly learning with every sport I shoot, but that challenge is exactly what makes it so rewarding.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
While I specialize in soccer and action photography, I love covering games for all kinds of sports. My favorite part of the job is working with teams over an entire season—building a connection with the players makes a huge difference. When you know the team, you can catch a player’s eye or share a quick moment of acknowledgment mid-game, which adds an extra spark of energy to the shot. I also make it a priority to only publish positive, flattering images. Action sports can produce some awkward poses, and no athlete wants to see themselves looking bad. My ultimate goal is always to tell the true story of the game while making sure every player looks their best.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
When I got back into photography in 2021, I felt like a fish out of water. Transitioning from film to digital came with a steep learning curve, but I was fortunate to reconnect with Jeff Harwell, an amazing sports photographer I knew from my early days at the University of Akron. In my opinion, mastering lighting is one of the toughest parts of sports photography, but Jeff knows exactly how to handle any situation. Whether I had questions about equipment or shooting at night, he was always happy to help. I learned so much from him back then, and I still do today!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sarasgenealogyresearch.com/sgr-media-shots
• Instagram: @sgr_media_shots
• Facebook: @SGRMediaShots