The Sports Shooter Academy is a hands-on workshop that gives participants the opportunity to cover real sports events with a faculty of award-winning photographers. Each evening participants will edit their work with the faculty, receiving one-on-one critiques in the process. Events at past workshops include: Track & field, baseball, swimming & diving, volleyball, horse racing, water polo, boxing, rugby, beach volleyball and surfing. Classroom session topics include: Remote cameras, location lighting and digital workflow.

The mantra of the Sports Shooter Academy is: See Better, Shoot Better.

There is a limited amount of space in this workshop. The application below is your key to attending so please fill it out completely. The short essay portion is very important, so please take a few minutes to consider what you will submit. We also require that you provide us examples of your work, so please give us a URL of a site that shows off your work (SportsShooter.com members we recommend that you build a "Hidden Gallery" through your member page).

NOTE: At this time all of the student and non-student spots in the workshop have been filled. If you want to be placed on the waiting list, complete and submit the application. Any openings due to dropouts will be filled from the waiting list.

If accepted into SSA IX, the registration fee is: $750 for SportsShooter.com members; $825 for non-SportsShooter.com members. (As they say: Membership has its privileges.) Full-time college and university students accepted into the workshop will attend tuition-free through a grant from Nikon, USA. (Thank you Nikon!)

Other companies supporting Sports Shooter Academy IX include: Samy's Camera, liveBooks, Think Tank Photo, LPA Designs, Pocket Wizard and HonlPhoto.

SSA IX participants will be able to attend the Sports Shooter Workshop & Luau, Jr. on Wednesday April 25 for free and with reserved seating. This event is a day of photography education and inspiration featuring presentations by Dave Black (high-speed shutter speed sync photography); Los Angeles Times Emmy Award-winning videographer Myung J. Chun (basics of DSLR video); and USA TODAY staff photographer Robert Hanashiro (speedlight portraits, including a live demo shoot).

Nikon will be holding a free equipment clean and check clinic plus will be showing off their latest cameras, lenses, speedlights and accessories. Samy's Camera and HonlPhoto will be on site with special deals for attendees.

THE coolest sports photography event got even cooler!