Sarah Birch of Birch Photography first became a part of the Paintball scene back in January 2015.
She began as hobby photographer from Victoria and in the past had studied photography at school
as well as work experience at a number of Victorian Thoroughbred Race Courses, taking Winning
post shots & learning from two of their Photographers on site.
Starting as a small Facebook page, Sarah wanted to share her photo’s around to all the players from
the tournaments she travelled to, with the boys from NRG Paintball Team. Her goal at the time was
to travel with them to Paintball World Cup Langkawi, Malaysia where NRG would be competing for
their second year. Her aim was to hopefully qualify and represent Australia as part of the Media
team.
Her first ever event was Bass Coast 3 Man in Victoria. After this Sarah attended a number of
Paintball events in 2015 such as: R.A.W Paintball Series (4 Rounds), Monkeys Paintball 4 Man
Scenario (1 round), & SAPPA 3 Man in South Australia (2 Rounds) in hope to be noticed overseas.
She contacted the organisers of Paintball World Cup Asia and indeed got her Media pass to head
over in November and experience a large scale international event for the first time.
Paintball World Cup Asia was a great experience for her, gradually building her knowledge of the
game and giving a greater understanding of what Paintball has to offer. Seeing exactly how big and
just how many countries participate in Paintball was amazing to see.
Before the years close she attended the two day event Ultimate Cup held at the Melbourne
showgrounds, and shortly after was also asked to be the Official Photographer for the Monkeys
Paintball 10 Man Series at the end of the year.
Back for another year, 2016 was a big year for Birch Photography as she became Official
Photographer for the R.A.W Paintball Series / NXL Australia Series, and also Monkeys Paintball series
which covered a range of speedball and bush ball events ranging from 3 Man, 4 Man, Battlefront and
10 Man. Also included for the year were interstate trips to Wagga 3 Man (New South Wales),
Revolution Paintball (Tasmania), and Masters at Super 7’s (New South Wales), along with another
International trip to Paintball World Cup Asia this time held in Kula Lumpur, Malaysia.
2017 & 2018 saw even more events being added to the calendar, continuing on with Monkeys
Paintball Series, R.A.W Paintball Series, NXL VIC Australia, Wagga 3 Man, along with Hot Shots 2v2
Series, Extreme Buddies Series, Vic5’s, and PYANO (South Australia).
Sarah says “seeing her pictures turned into profile pictures and cover photos on Facebook along with
the occasional print work is great but the most enjoyable part to her job is the many friends and new
family she has joined along the way”. To her “Paintball is Family”.
No doubt the 2019 season of NXL Australia will not disappoint, Sarah will be stepping out there once
again covering nearly all of Victoria’s events. This year’s goal for her is the big one, aiming for NXL
World Cup Florida in November, wish her luck!