U.S.A. soccer pulls off the upset! Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

U.S.A. Softball gets upset. Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

The last couple days I just feel it slipping. My interest in photos is fading, I’m finding it harder to get out of bed in the morning, and I just seem to be missing things or making mistakes. And when I’m not making mistakes my cameras are either backfocusing or not working all together. It’s like there is a little gremlin in my camera back that is sabotaging my Games. For example, today was the first time I was granted access to placing an underwater camera in the pool (unfortunately for me it was for women’s synchro, not Phelps) and I flooded a camera in one of my housings when I first jumped in the water. In 10 years, and hundreds of times in the water, I have only ruined one camera. But this time I just didn’t check everything twice before hopping in, and next thing I know the housing is filled like an aquarium. To top it all off, the camera that was ruined was not mine. I luckily packed two housings, so after dropping some f-bombs on the pool deck, I placed the back-up system in the water.

I’m not sure if it’s that I’m just worn down from shooting, editing, and blogging everyday, or if I’m just missing home, but I just feel like I can’t get it going. I feel that I’ve made a strong set of photos to this point and would love to finish it off strong, but the last couple of days I’ve been down and out. It’s been a great assignment for NEWSWEEK, with much of the creative control and scheduling of this assignment left in our hands. Kudos to Simon Barnett and the photo staff at NEWSWEEK for giving us this opportunity and placing us in this position. Nevertheless, I feel a bit depressed and in a funk, and one of my close friends commented, “don’t go to that dark place” when he saw me yesterday. The truth is the Olympics is a very long and stressful few weeks for any photographer, especially if you are leaving family back at home. I feel like every Games I do shaves a couple years off the back-end of my life. But for me it is the pinnacle of sports photography, where the finest sports photographers in the world congregate to shoot the top athletes in an arena that transcends sports. I just want to get this thing wrapped up on a good note and get back to the comforts of home and family.

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

 

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

My day started with a setting up of an underwater remote for synchronized swimming. After about 3 hours of set-up for a very thought out shot, and flooding a housing, I set off for the women’s softball gold medal game. The defending Olympic champions that had never lost a gold medal game in their history and the team was heavily favored against Japan. But today proved to be Japan's, as they cashed in on their opportunities and the U.S.A. did not, twice leaving the bases loaded. After shooting the standard jube, traditional throwing of the coach, and having a photographer go ballistic toward the staff at the photo staff at the park, myself and about four other American photographers from the Southern California area jetted out of the stadium in the hopes of finding a taxi in time for the U.S.A. vs. Brazil women's soccer gold medal game.

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

After about 45 minutes of standing in the street we landed a taxi and Robert Gauthier of the LA Times, Michael Goulding of the Orange County Register, Sean Haffey of the San Diego Tribune, and I made the trek across town and bolted through the mag n’ bag with about 5 minutes to spare in the final half of the game. But according to the other photographers sitting there the entire game we swanned in just in time and didn’t miss anything. The game went to two fifteen minute overtime periods, and the U.S.A. scored big in the first one and never looked back. I had a gentleman’s bet on the game with Mike Powell for the amount of 1 Yuan (still need to collect) since I had a hunch after I shot the U.S.A.’s victory over Brazil last month in San Diego, when U.S.’s top scorer Amy Wambach broke her leg. Day 13 is over, and it had high’s and lows for myself and many of U.S. women’s teams.

We are on the home stretch now, with three days left…