The 6 Best Sports Photographers in Milwaukee

Sports photography usually invokes the idea of the game-winning shot or closeups of athletes using long lenses. But sometimes it’s great to get court-wide views and creative compositions that challenge our ideas of game coverage. That’s why we’ve decided to find Milwaukee sports photographers that provide a variety of different approaches to the genre. Whether you’re looking for documentary-style coverage or sports portraits for high school athletes, we’ve found the most gifted sports photographers in Milwaukee for your next event! 

1. Leigh Emmett of LFE Photography

Action and portrait photographer Leigh Emmett finds herself on the sidelines regularly, working to document the fast-paced world of sports photography. She covers university sporting events across Wisconsin, including Carroll University and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Leigh’s work showcases the grace, emotion, and intensity that comes with sports.

We love how she finds just the right angles for intense eye contact, shouts, concentration, and other elements that go far beyond simply getting the shot for documentary purposes. She also uses varying shutter speeds as well, while most sports photographers stick to freezing the action with faster speeds. But Leigh gave us a delightful surprise in using slower shutter speeds to convey motion through her work.

2. Mike Tittel

Originally from western Kansas, Mike Tittel finds inspiration as a photographer in capturing authentic moments as often as possible. As one of the most talented sports photographers in Milwaukee, Make has worked with several household name brands in the sports and outdoor industry, including Columbia Sportswear, Patagonia, and Adidas.

When not shooting for high-end national sporting good brands, he covers fitness, lifestyle, tourism, and hospitality angles in his work. Whether you’re in need of indoor gym or yoga studio work or a photographer to capture images from the cliff face or mountain trail, Mike manages to find the angle that best tells the story of your brand.

3. Matt and Sarah of Haas and Haas Photography

Matt and his freelance partner Sarah Haas are the photographer couple behind Haas and Haas Photography. One of Matt’s strengths is that he doesn’t focus on any one genre of photography. Whether it’s sports, portraits, events, or commercial shoots, Matt brings his entire skill set to the fore in order to find a unique solution for each client. As a photographer and director for magazines, Matt knows precisely how to create images that bring people back for second and third looks.

Having partnered with brands like The Washington Post, the Plaza Hotel, Alta Peruvian, and many more agencies and businesses, Matt has fine-tuned his generalist approach to an astonishing degree. We particularly enjoy his fitness and ski lifestyle images, using impressive environmental portraiture that shows us athletes in their element.

4. D3 Photography

D3 Photography is a team of talented sports shooters that cover youth, college, and professional sports teams. Beyond Milwaukee, they also shoot in Minneapolis and other cities in the Midwest. Baseball, basketball, ice hockey, wrestling, diving, soccer, and football are a few of their regular sports.

We enjoy how D3’s photographers mix up their viewing angles with wide angle and normal views, while telephoto lenses bring you up close and personal. Sometimes it’s nice to get a feel for the entire court and the motion of both teams in the game, or have a full-body take on a hockey player to appreciate his gear and exhausted expression up close.

5. Claudio

Claudio is a music, sports, portrait, and editorial shooter that happens to be one of the top sports photographers in Milwaukee! One aspect of Claudio’s work we really enjoy is his fearless approach to composition and artistry. He embraces lens flare, as well as cutoff and off-center compositions, in a way that gives us a sense of place and story.

Lighting flares make us think of summer nights on a grassy high school field, and his compositions can place us right behind a player about to make her game-winning kick. As a more documentary style of photography, sports images are often about simply securing the moment as it happens, but Claudio often uses an artistic approach that’s refreshingly different.

6. Kat Schleicher Photography

Freelance commercial and editorial photographer Kat Schleicher covers sporting events in Milwaukee and the surrounding area. Educated at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Kat graduated with a BFA and uses a mixture of portraits, environmental portraiture, and documentary photography in her sports and fitness coverage. Some of her most distinguished clients include the University of Wisconsin, NYU Langone Health, Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, and Scholastic Magazine.

Kat has a special talent for finding poses that convey action, motion, and power, especially in her fitness photography. Looking through her portfolio, you’ll find yourself sweating along with her subjects! Best of all, she makes great use of monochrome photography to highlight patterns, textures, lighting elements, and posture over distracting color to tell a compelling story with her images.

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