After two plus years, we have a good sense of what thresholds we need for which events. Bryan Berlin (World Cup photog) spent a LONG time getting qualified for FIFA through local soccer games and up. We took advantage of Thanksgiving weekend when credential demand was slow and sent him to a single game in Florida on the Friday to qualify him in a way that had been hard for us up until that point.
What is still hard for us: Met Gala (a more “known” fashion photographer may help there), Oscars, Golden Globes and F1. F1 much demand from our photogs, but very high and specific bar that is hard for Wiki to thread (photos bought at market rates).
Also some places, like World Economic Forum, have an exclusive with Getty so we are functionally locked out.
The photos work hard to get credentials. A British photog got himself qualified for BAFTA TV awards! A high school girl in Bay Area got herself credentialed for NHL. Olympics are country by country so smaller countries (like Armenia) are sometimes more strategic to credential through.
Working on better pictures of the Pope thanks to a Rome-based fashion photographer who joined us.
Remember, a number of the WikiPortraits photogs are professionals. They are just volunteering their time with us.
But we also help folks who are like “My mom is willing to help buy my first camera camera, what should I get.”
WikiPortraits meets people where they are.