The official photographer of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas athletics department recently discussed how the school helped him prepare for his job.
According to a press release shared by the UNLV, Lucas Peltier was accustomed to playing sports growing up but prefers to capture them with his camera these days. He is also the photographer for the professional soccer team, The Las Vegas Lights FC and counts USA Today Sports among clients that he freelancers for.
According to Peltier, who graduated in 2021 with a bachelor of arts in journalism and media studies: “I had a few amazing professors at UNLV. Jim Laurie and Vernetta Thomas were my first photography professors [in the Greenspun School of Journalism & Media Studies] and they taught me the fundamentals of photography, as well as inspired me to pursue a career in it. Jon Castagnino was another former professor who had a big influence on my career. I was a part of his student-run sports broadcast, “Rebel Report,” at the time and his organization helped me gain more experience in the sports industry.“
Peltier said there was an art form to the way he captures images when asked about the difference between his camera equipment and the average cell phone camera.
According to Peltier: “I could get very technical here but at the end of the day it’s about quality. While camera phones are convenient, they’re not for producing a photo intended for a magazine or billboard. From a sports photographer’s perspective, I’m not going to get a high-quality photo across a football field with a camera phone.”
