A Cumbrian 16-year-old is quickly making a name for himself as a professional sports photographer.
Brett Thurlow, of Workington, has been busy snapping the action in everything from speedway to rugby league across Cumbria and beyond over the past year.
He’s already landed roles as an official photographer for British Speedway, Rugby Football League, Whitehaven Rugby League, and The National League – which have also taken him across the country for away days.
He has also had his photographs featured by several national sporting and local media outlets – ourselves included – all while juggling his day-to-day life as a Lakes College student, studying digital and IT.
But it all started for Brett after he was gifted an old camera by his stepdad, when he was just 12 years old in 2022.
He said: “My stepdad gave me a little camera, I think it was a Canon Powershot S40 and he basically said, can you use this? I said well, I’ll have it, but don’t be surprised if it ends up sat on a shelf and never gets used!
“But I started photographing bits in my back garden, like plants and stuff like that, I did enjoy it, but I wasn’t big into it.
“A few months went by and I got another camera for free off my grandad, that was a Nikon, and that was my first real camera I used for sports photography.”
After spending some time doing general photography with his new camera, Brett had the idea to reach out to Workington Comets promoter Andrew Bain, to see if he could photograph a practice day.
He said: “He was more than happy for me to do it, so I went down there and took some photos of speedway and kind of fell in love with sports photography from that moment.
“But I had been invested in sports in the local area. I used to go to Derwent Park with my grandad and I’ve been going since 2015, so from a very young age.
“I was quite big into sports from the watching side of things, but doing sports photography has opened a whole other door for me.
“Just that message to Andrew has opened world a world of things I could have never imagined, to not just speedway photography, but football and rugby league photography.
“In Christmas 2024 I also got in contact with another speedway photographer and they actually sent me some Canon 1D Mark Threes, and it’s only over the past few weeks that I’ve upgraded to a mirrorless camera, which set me back quite a bit of money!
“But whenever I’m not at college, you’ll find me somewhere doing sports photography.”
Last year, Brett decided to set up a professional portfolio of his work and said he was inspired to do so by sports photographers Taylor Lanning and James Wilson.
He added: “They were probably my biggest inspirations to even start speedway photography and set up my portfolio.
“But I took inspiration off them and just thought you know what, we’ll give it a go, and post images on social media and if it takes off, happy days and if it doesn’t then never mind.
“I’m now an official photographer for Cumbria Crack, BBC Sport Cumbria, British Speedway, Whitehaven Rugby League and rugby league in general.
“I also got my National League accreditation in November and I started doing more Carlisle United games, so that was a really big step.”
Brett said it’s the unexpected, special and shocking moments in sport that he loves photographing best.
He said: “In football it’s a very good goal and in general, sports celebrations are always really nice.
“It can be a bit of a daunting feeling when you’ve got a football coming towards you at 60mph, but it’s become second nature now!
“There will be times where I’ll just get on with it and have world class riders walking past me and I won’t think anything of it.
“But there will be times where I’m sat thinking, ‘I just had a conversation with Dan Bewley’, he knows who I am.
“I get asked by my friends if I ever get starstruck by these riders, but it has really just become my normal life now and I absolutely love it.”
A typical day will see Brett head out to matches, games or meets come rain or shine and for away days, he will often set off at 7am to follow teams across the country to photograph them.
Brett will typically take around 4,000 to 5,000 photos per sports event he attends before he later spends a few hours editing them.
He said: “It’s often very late nights and very early mornings! Especially when I’m coming back from somewhere like an away game. I do most of it on my phone on the way back and then when I get home.
“I will spend about four to five hours editing pictures but at the end of the day, when I see my pictures out there, it’s worth it.”
Brett said he has been warmly welcomed by all the different teams he has photographed so far.
He added: “I did Workington Reds for a time and everyone down there from volunteers to staff and players all knew my name and were really good with me.
“That crosses over to speedway as well, from the guy that sells the programmes to the riders, I can’t thank Workington Comets enough really, especially Andrew Bain, he’s been absolutely incredible.
“I’ve only done one home and one away match for Whitehaven Rugby League so far, but they’ve already taken me in and trusted me with the responsibility of being club photography.
“They all go above and beyond and it’s really appreciated.”
Brett said he is hoping to go full time with his photography in the future.
He added: “I do want to do it full time, that’s my ambition. It doesn’t feel like doing a job, I’m doing what I love and started as a hobby and it has snowballed into a bigger and bigger thing.
“But I love travelling around the country with family and getting paid for what I love doing. My nan and grandad are like my taxi service and I really appreciate them for that, they take me pretty much everywhere! All my family have been quite supportive of what I’m doing.
“In the next few years I’d love to do things with EFL and with speedway I’d love to go abroad to Poland, that’s a big dream of mine and do Speedway Grand Prix. But I just want to keep taking photos of sport.
“I really like doing this stuff for the local community, and for helping out media outlets like Cumbria Crack!”
You can keep up with Brett’s work by following him on social media.
You can see more of Brett’s work here.
