Here’s a quick video of the still camera remotes at the Beijing Olympics.   I didn’t have time to shoot, blog AND edit video during the games - so I didn’t get a chance to look through and cut this video until now.  It shows close to 100 remote cameras  - ALL - focused on the finish line of the men’s 100M Final - THE  - marquee event of any summer Olympic games (with the exception of Phelps this time around of course.) 

(Click on the image above to start the video.)

Photographers showed up as early as 5:30 a.m. - for a 10:30 p.m. race that lasted less than 10 seconds… and as I wrote in a previous blog post - it was a hilarious scene to witness at times… maddening to some who had other photographers “bump” their cameras off target at the last minute… and these were often photographers showing up “late” (late being 4-5 hours prior to the race) bumping the photographers’ cameras that had been set up 17 hours prior to the race….   Bill Frakes of Sports Illustrated had 17 of his remote cameras set up for the race alone… and he shot #18 handheld of course.  Nuts!

This is quite a site - even for professional photographers (you’ll see a quick shot of photographers taking photographs OF the cameras midway through the video…)  I love the little Canon G9 used to shoot this - perfect little camera to have on you at all times.

When you think of it, you’re looking at close to $1 million worth of camera gear used for remotes alone when you add the lenses, Pocket Wizards, cords and mounts in this video… All to get that “one” great shot… enjoy!

N.B.: You will need to have Apple’s free Quicktime plugin installed on your browser to see this video on either a Mac or PC.  If you’re still having trouble - you can also see a lower quality version of this video on YouTube at the link here.

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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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…)

Photographers don’t generally relish shooting podium pictures because they so rarely yield a good image. Typically, they reluctantly shoot the ceremony so they can say they “have it” should their bosses back at the office ask for it later. But on occasion, a picture of real quality presents itself, as it does here. In my selection for Picture of the Day, by Vincent Laforet, you see a wonderful version of the podium picture, showing the American beach volleyball duo of Misty May-Treanor (right) and Kerri Walsh as they enjoy their moment of gold-medal glory. Adding to the dramatic quality of the picture is the wonderfully dense color palate, which is the result of the heavily overcast cloud conditions of the day. It’s perhaps not the most technically challenging picture Vince has made, but it is a moving and memorable photograph of athletic accomplishment nonetheless.—Simon Barnett, Director of Photography, NEWSWEEK

 

 

China's Chen Xue and Xi Zhand defeated the Brazilian team and won the bronze medal in the women's beach volleyball game. I made this image with a 15mm fisheye lens set to f22 in an attempt to accentuate the raindrops and absolutely miserable conditions. Photo by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

 What a day–I’m amazed that not only I, but also my cameras and lenses survived. At 6 a.m., after only two hours of sleep, I got a call from Simon Barnett to strategize on the remaining four days of the Olympics. Little did Simon know he was cutting into 1/3 of my bedtime for the night. But it was time to go anyway–even though I would have bet a healthy sum of money that there was absolutely no way that the gold medal match of women’s beach volleyball was going to be played in the conditions I was seeing out of my hotel window. The rain was torrential. (more…)

Yulis Gabriel Mercedes of the Dominican Republic scores a point against Mu-Yen Chu of Taipei during the men

 I had a tough time being creative today. The venues just seemed to have too many obstacles in the way of unique photographs. Things just didn’t seem to open up–and some days that’s just the way it is.  You accept it and move on, hoping you’ll have better luck the next day. (more…)