Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK
Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK
For me it’s always bittersweet when the last day of an Olympic Games comes to pass. Today was no different; after 16 days of covering 20 different sports it all begins to blur into one big dream (or nightmare depending on who you are), where you can’t really appreciate what you accomplished until it’s done. I’m finding it hard to gauge where these games will rate in comparison to my past experiences; there were highs and lows, there were great things and bad things. But through it all I think collectively the team at NEWSWEEK did a bang-up job. Personally I am quite happy with my photo take from here, although I am very disappointed with the performance, or lack thereof, of some of my Canon gear. The fact that many integral moments and photos were missed entirely because of camera malfunctions, has made me really reconsider, as many of the sportsshooters in the industry, if I should make the switch to black lenses.
Day 16 would be run on little sleep, which has been par for course over the last 15 days. After seeing Mike off with our 2nd nice dinner in almost 3 weeks, we hung out until about 4:00 drinking beers and reminiscing about this experience and past ones as well. After packing some bags slightly buzzed, I finally hit the sack. My alarm rudely woke me up about 2 hours later at 6 a.m. to go catch the start of the Men’s Marathon at Tiananmen Square. I was hoping for a better photo opp than the cycling road race showing the Chinese landmark and giving one of the few photos from the games that actually said “China”. Even though I was a little hung over and feeling a bit nauseous, I made it to the photo position 15 minutes before the start. I was in good shape and it was a beautiful blue bird sky morning.
Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK
Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK
Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK
After grabbing a cab and making a quick pitstop at my hotel to edit my photos, reconfigure my bag to shoot the next two events, and take a quick catnap, it was off to the men’s water polo final. It would be the U.S.A. vs Hungary, with the underdog American team beating all the odds and the tough European teams in their bracket to end up in the gold medal game battling against the highly-favored Euro-Champs. The game started off on a fast pace favoring the American team, and after a 4-meter penalty shot by Captain Tony Azevedo the Americans found themselves surprisingly in the lead. But it proved to be a tale of two halves, with the Hungarian goalie Zoltan Szecsi placing up his own Great Wall of China in the goal. The Hungarians won the match 14-10, and it turned into a hug and kiss fest for the Europeans while the Americans hung their heads low on the pool deck.
Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK
Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK
On my way back to the MPC, I ran into a little group of local kids playing some table tennis. I had to stop and play a couple point with them. Even at their young age of 9, my college beer pong experience was nothing next to their mad Chinese pong skills. I said thanks, gave them a handful of NEWSWEEK pins, which made their day, and took a photo of them.
With little time to spare I hauled ass back to the Olympic Park to a spot that I scoped out for the closing ceremonies. I found a spot outside the Birds Nest with my friend Al Bello where we set up a shot with the reflection pool and a secondary shot with some Chinese guards. The reflecting pool was shot on a DS Mark III set at F11 @ 3 seconds with a 14mm lens. The guard shot was with a 24-70mm set at 24, F4 @ 2 seconds with a off camera flash w/pocket wizard set to rear curtain synch. I was very happy with these closing photos, especially the one with the guards because it was something that I really had thought and planned out ahead of time.
Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK
Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK
The last day of the Olympics ended on a good note for me, with some of my strongest frames I’ve had in days. I can’t believe it’s over. Time for some PED (Post Event Depression). Thanks to everyone from Newsweek – Simon, Mike, Vince, Susanne, Beth, Leah, Mark and Michael. Special thanks to Simon for having the vision and the guts to put together this experiment in photojournalism and give us the free rein to make photos as we see it and say things as they are. Thanks for all of you who have watched and read our little Olympic journey along the way, I hope it was as entertaining and exciting for you as it was for us. I’m more than ready to jump on my plane tomorrow and get back to my family, but not before a “big night” on the town with some friends!
Zai Jian!!!
