This shot confirming Michael Phelps victory in the 100 M butterfly took years or planning. ©Heinz Kleutmeier and Jeff Kavanaugh/Sports Illustrated

I finally got one of the issues of Sports Illustrated today from the Olympics (a good friend of mine had mailed it to me because I was “lucky” enough to make it into the Leading Off section - no - not a photo that I made, but a photo of me - in the scrum of photographers covering Phelps getting a hug from his mother after the race…) and I saw something extremely refreshing:  the credit read:  Photo by Heinz Kluetmeier and Jeff Kavanaugh. (more…)

©Damon Winter/The New York Times

Off to a crack-o-dawn shoot this morning…. so here’s an early post:  If you haven’t done so already - check out Damon Winter’s Neighbors Lens series - something that I think truly separates Damon from most newspaper photographers out there.  It’s absolutely inspirational - not only is it old school - but man does the guy have … well … you know…  cojones.  Double exposure on 8 X 10 sheets of film - two exposures on one single sheet of film over a 4-8 hour period - an entire day’s work… wow. (more…)

One of the most common questions that have been posed by people on this blog is:  Do you delete your images in camera and do you delete images on your server or in your Aperture Library?

I think it’s a very important question, and my answer for the most part is: No - I don’t.

Why?  Well here it is:  I’ll point to the following events in specific:  My coverage of Hurricane Katrina, and my coverage of (actually pretty much any) Olympics.  In all of these events - I was often rushing to make a deadline and under severe pressure.  I had a clear idea of what the “news of the day” was and what images I needed to get out first, and I was all too often sleep deprived - in that state, I become pretty close to being my own worst editor.  

And here’s a big lesson: once you make that initial edit - you almost NEVER MAKE a second edit of that work - EVER.   All too often you move on to the next event or day - and never get the luxury of looking back.

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Nikon D90

So - IT happened - Digital SLRs can now shoot HD Quality video - and the repercussions this will have on our industry are going to be pretty fascinating to watch in the upcoming years. While most newspaper photogaphers will be thrilled not to have to carry both SLR and video camera systems to perform their new duties, sports photographers may find that these cameras create serious headaches for them going into venues with broadcasters who own exclusive rights to the video content being broadcast from that very venue.  These will be very interesting times that will lead to some very precedent setting debate.

I had a very strong feeling that this was coming down the pipeline and mentioned it in several previous articles over the past few years, including  the “Cloud is Falling” article that I wrote a few months ago.  I should mention that never had I heard anything coming out of either a Canon or Nikon rep about video - it was kept TIGHTLY under wraps - until Nikon revealed the Nikon D90 yesterday.   The buzz about this upcoming announcement was circulating amongst a few people “in the know” at the Olympics - I hadn’t heard any solid information on the details of this camera but did know something was coming out  - and I was expecting it to be announced at Photokina in about a month from now.  The rumour going around was that one or more manufacturers might be releasing a camera that could shoot both video and still images - but not simultaneously.  This first amateur camera can neither autofocus, nor simultaneously shoot stills and video.   That - my guess is  - will be what the professional cameras will do - and soon. (more…)

Well, I just got done copying the files from my trusty 17″ MackBook Pro and 3 External Hard Drives over to my server overnight… and here are the facts:

In Beijing, with a total of 6 cameras, I shot: 28,444 files for a total of a whopping 480 Gigabytes of Images!  That’s INSANE!  Even I am shocked.

So I looked into at what Sports Illustrated shot during the Olympics with their ten staff photographers there - SI shot over 300,000 images of which their staff kept 17,000.   One of their editors took that down to 1046 “super selects” and then their director of photography Steve Fine, edited his selection down to 135 images.  That means their “best of” turned out to be 0.045% of what they shot.

These numbers may - and should - look crazy to most of you.  But truth be told - it’s what happens when you have cameras that now shoot bursts at 10 frames per second - and when you’re likely firing not one - but two or three cameras at once (via remotes.)  In fact mon ami Bill Frakes had more than 18 cameras firing at once each time someone crossed the finish line at the Athletics (Track & Field) venue for example-  so imagine the volume coming out of the track venue.  Hallucinating.

With simple arithmetic, it looks like I shot just a little under what the SI shooters did - but there is one important distinction:  I saw many of them editing their images live on the back of their cameras.  In other words - they would look at every series of images after they’d shot them (either during events or in between each rotation for example) and delete the poor or out of focus images - this to make sure that a “bad” one didn’t make it into the magazine - as someone else would end up editing their images.  I on the other hand - never deleted a single frame - and that’s because I would be the only one editing my take each day (and not have to explain myself for missing a key frame to any editor.)  I don’t believe in deleting images on the back of the camera myself - I’ve deleted quite a few keepers out of “sleep deprivation” or just by rushing in the past, and in fact missed more moments that happened right in front of me because I was “chimping” (term used for looking at back of one’s camera, and jumping up and down and howling like an ape, when one finds a good image, often showing it off to the person to the left or right of you.)  So I keep everything.  Given that those guys tended to mount a few more remote cameras thanI did - I’m sure it evens out things a bit further. (more…)

Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

 By the time many of your are reading this post, I will be on my way to the airport to catch my flight back to New York City. The Beijing Olympics will have concluded and thousands of others will be making their way home—some with gold medals, some with memorable images and stories, others with bruised egos and many with goals of practicing for the next four years in order to shave an extra few hundredths of a second off their performances in time for the London games in 2012. I for one couldn’t be happier.  This has been the best Olympics I’ve experienced, and while the host country has played a good part in this, other factors have been much more instrumental in making this a “great success” as Borat would say. (more…)

Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

 For those of you that are just waking up in the U.S., The “Redeem Team” won gold today against Spain while you were sleeping.  It was the NBA’s—I mean Team U.S.A.’s—first gold medal since the 2000 in Sydney. I must admit I wasn’t expecting much action or reaction at the conclusion of this game,  but boy was I wrong.  It was a pretty good game, and I’ve rarely seen such excitement out of NBA players even at the end of an NBA Final.  Spain gave them a good run, and early on they were ahead, but at no point did I see Team U.S.A. break that much of a sweat—they just played solid basketball and had great performances from Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. It was a real treat to see those three and their teammates so genuinely excited at the conclusion of the game and when they received their medals.  I’m at the closing ceremonies and getting ready for that—so I’ll just drop a few quick pictures in for now. (more…)

China's Liang Huo competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Sometimes, the Olympics throws you a bone.  Today the sky was clear and the sun was beaming down on the translucent roof of the Water Cube venue where the 10 meter diving semi-finals were taking place. This made for a beautiful day of shooting, both from overhead and from the side angle.  The bone in this case, is not only the nice light but also the fact that the one guys who was favored to win the competition had the longest hair of the group and tended to keep it wet before he dove.  Therefore, when he did, water drops would shoot out over an almost perfect black backdrop–a photographer’s dream. There wasn’t a single photographer worth his/her salt who wasn’t looking to take advantage of this convergence of factors and make a nice frame. Here is another version of Liang Huo. (more…)

A tilt shift view of the first ever BMX Olympic Competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

 Today, for the first time ever, a gold medal was handed out in BMX at the Olympics. It was also:

    * The first time that I saw a perfectly clear sunset in Beijing.

    * The first time that I was able to sit down for lunch at our hotel.

    * The first time that I took a nice mid-day nap.

    * The first time that I experienced a completely random act of kindness: a volunteer walked up to me out of the blue and gave me two Olympic bracelets.

    * The first time that I’ve made it two weeks without the need of antibiotics to fight off a severe cold or flu at the Olympics.

    * The first time that I did not have to run in a mad dash to catch the bus at the end of the day.

    * The first time that a good friend of mine ate scorpion and centipede.

    * And today was the first time that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.   (more…)