Well I’ve made it –  7,295 miles later and I’ve landed in Korea.  Nearly there (Beijing.)  From this point on the blog will evolve a bit – the majority of my posts will now come to live on Newsweek’s Blog site.  I’ll do my best to continue to make a few non-Olympic posts here and there on this site – Tech Tips seem to be quite popular.  That said, there’s absolutely no need to stop checking this blog – I’ll make sure to put the first paragraph of every blog post here on a daily basis – and a link will then forward you onto the Newsweek site so that you may see the remainder of the post and photographs.

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I am fortunate enough to be working with an assistant during the Beijing Olympic Games.   He flew out yesterday with some of the gear I had shipped to him so that we could split up what we were bringing and not get killed with excess baggage expenses… here’s the important note to photographers who have not yet made it out there:  the Chinese customs opened every case of gear – and inspected EVERY single piece of gear by hand… luckily enough – we had made sure to go our local Chinese Embassy and get the proper “Equipment Confirmation Letter” stamped (a list of your equipment, value, and serial number (in TRIPLICATE)) – although it took 2 days to get the letter.. it was worth it!

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I'll be on a 747 for 18 hours!!! Image ©Vincent Laforet

I’m off to the airport to get on my flight(s) to Beijing… if you don’t hear from me within 48 hours – well then perhaps I’m a victim of the “Great Firewall of China” – but I think I’m prepared to overcome that and post away… thanks for the great response to the blog so far (over 9,000 visits OMFG what have I started!?!?)  Plenty more to come…

A little side bet – how many pills will it take to knock me out?  Trying to sleep through the early part of the flight so that I get on “Beijing Time” – 12 hours (exactly opposite sked yipee…”   What say you?