Meet Casey Ritt | Sports Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Casey Ritt and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Casey, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
The launch and popularization of Instagram happened right around the same time as I started pursuing a professional beach volleyball career on the National Volleyball League and the American Volleyball Professionals Tours. There is very little money to be made in such a niche sport, unless you successfully market yourself to sponsors as both an athlete and a person.

Quality content became the name of the game for attracting national and local sponsors to supplement income, enabling me to keep traveling to tournaments across the country. I started reaching out to local photographers for photo shoots, collaborating on out of the box ideas, and learning as much as I could from them. I also started bringing my own camera to tournaments, spending my down time between matches taking photos of my friends and sharing that content with them.

Sharing those photos helped my friends and teammates gain sponsors as well, allowing them to continue to try to pursue a career as professional athletes, but also allowed them to share their successes and updates with family and friends back home in a time period when live streaming technology wasn’t as broadly available as it is now.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Sports photography came to the front of my life as a result of severe injury. While I was mostly “retired” from professional level volleyball, I was still playing on the regional semi-pro tours and on several very high level “old lady” fun teams. I started having shoulder overuse pain which I thought was normal for an “older” athlete, so I ignored it for several months.

Suddenly symptoms worsened, I lost feeling and reflexes in my right arm, and the pain became agonizing. I went in for imaging. I had severely ruptured two discs in my neck and the disc herniations were compressing my spinal column, crushing the nerves to my right shoulder. The doctor was utterly shocked I hadn’t been paralyzed at any point in the last few months. I was told the jolt from driving over a pot hole in the road could have been enough to do it. We made plans for surgery.

Prior to surgery, I was utterly terrified and felt my identity as an athlete had been taken away from me. I never knew if I would get functionality back, let alone play again. My friends and teammates were all ramping up for the summer season, and I was left in the dust. I was desperately looking for a way to feel like an athlete, be in a community, and give back…all without paralyzing myself.

So I picked up the camera. I got a longer range lens so I could stand safely away from the action, and started attending rugby and volleyball events. Both are amazing, fast growing sports in the US, but there are very few photographers on the ground taking photos for local events.

Following my dad’s practice, I would take hundreds of photos each event, but made sure to edit and upload them either same day or next day. I shared the album links out directly at first, but after having to give my personal email to too many people’s aunts, I started a profile and a website and started posting them there. Free.

The response was immediate, overwhelmingly positive, and phenomenal. The gratitude, pride, and joy which the athletes and referees expressed, it brought me back from injury isolation. I wasn’t a dusty, broken, ex-athlete, I was a valued member of the community who people looked forward to seeing and interacting with.

Surgery went well and at the ripe old age of 34, I now have two artificial discs in my neck. PT is going well, and I should be able to start easing into playing in the next few months. But I will never put the camera down again.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Dining- -The Ginger Pig in Sunnyside. Thai inspired street food. The Stir Fry Cabbage is honestly one of the most flavorful things I’ve ever had in my life.
-Ester’s Pizza. The creative woodfire pizzas are great, but the carrot cake is a home run.
-Inga’s Alpine. Best fries in Denver.

Activities-
-Find some rugby or volleyball to watch! The Island and the Oasis sand volleyball facilities have open hours and full bars, plus most of the parks have pick up games during the summer. Head over to Infinity Park in Glendale not just for pro rugby, but there are semi-pro and club rugby matches there nearly every weekend too.

Nightlife-
-Dancing and drinks at the Irish Rover on South Broadway. The DJ on the weekends plays awesome 90s jams & remixes, which makes it a great “sing at the top of your lungs while you dance” kinda spot.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d dedicate my shoutout to my father, Dan Ritt. Sports photography was a way for him to be involved in my volleyball career, be active at games, and support me from day 1, even when he didn’t yet know the rules, strategy, or game complexities. While playing NCAA D1 at Colgate University in New York, my father only missed 4 total matches throughout my 4 year playing career. He would take nearly one thousand photos per match, then spend the flights back to Colorado Springs editing them, and generally had them uploaded to be shared with all players, coaches, parents, and supporters by the end of the flight. His generosity and dedication to making everyone around him feel supported and loved through photos is something I try to emulate at every event.

Website: https://linktr.ee/critt_sports_photography

Instagram: @critt_sports_photography

Image Credits
For the personal photo of me with volleyball: Photo Cred: Joni Schrantz, @joni_schrantz The rest of the additional photos were taken by me: Casey Ritt, @critt_sports_photography