Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

I’m writing the first half of today’s blog from the media bus going to tonight’s USA vs China basketball game. The skies have just opened up and the mother of all thunder and lighting storms has just hit. Glad I’m on the bus and not schlepping across the parking lots getting soaked!

Usually when there’s an event that is going to create this much interest they issue tickets for the photographers, so even if you have a pass you can’t get in without the ticket. This just ensures that there’s room for people to work. For some reason that escapes me, they didn’t do that for tonight’s game. One of the most long-awaited match ups of the Olympics??? Beats me. Now I’m sure there are a few campaigners that have been courtside jealously guarding their bit of hardwood floor since the wee hours of this morning. However I like to think I’ve matured beyond that kind of behavior but more likely I’d just rather shoot all day then go see what’s up.

 
Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

 
Grant Hackett of Australia. Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

Diver warming up for competition. Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

Divers Warm-up for competition. Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

Michael Phelps of the USA swims en route to a new World Record in the Men's 400M IM. Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

I love swimming. I started competing when I was six years old, was a member of the last Men's team at UCLA, and I swim on a Masters Team three days a week when I'm not traveling. I've probably spent more time in the water than I have of land—well, probably not but definitely more time than I have in a classroom or taking pictures. And watching the Phelps phenom makes me want to hop in the pool right now and do some laps, because he makes it look so easy and has more natural swimming talent in his left toe than I do in my entire body.  I’ve been very fortunate to follow his career from when he won his first National Championship at 13 years of age, to this week in Beijing when he chases after history.

Michael Phelps of the U.S. reacts to his New World Record. Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

                                                                                                                                

Michael Phelps of the U.S. places his goggles. Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

Michael Phelps of the U.S. Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

I've got to confess something:  I slept through my first Olympic assignment yesterday.  Yep, IT happened.  I got done completing my first blog at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning, after a day that had lasted 22 hours. I knew I was in bad shape as soon as my head hit the pillow, because my wake-up call was set for 7 a.m. I never heard the alarm go off. Luckily I didn't miss anything terribly important.   I also knew that I had to photograph the women's fencing match that evening that the U.S. eventually swept all of the medals in, and I would have been pretty worthless on one hour of sleep anyway. At least that's my excuse.   Why am I telling you this?  Well, just to admit that IT does happen.  And because we're supposed to give you a peak "behind the curtain" in this blog. So far I've slept a total of 7 hours in the past two days, and that will be pretty consistent for the next two weeks.  That being said, you just better be able to count the amount of times IT happens on one hand during your entire career.

So I tried to make amends today by going back to the venue that I was supposed to go to yesterday and I photographed the Men's 56 Kg. preliminaries in weightlifting.   The problem is:  Donald is photographing the finals of weightlifting tonight, which means I should have headed to another venue this morning: ANY other venue (in the interest of providing you guys with a good variety of images.)   The problem is we decided to change from our carefully pre-planned schedule last night, and at 3:50 a.m. weight lifting looked pretty good to me on the schedule. I didn't see that Donald was already assigned to the finals in the evening, and covering this event would allow me to get almost 4 hours of sleep and make it to the venue in time.  So I'm having a bit of a rough start at these Olympics—but that's good because it can only go up from here.   Morale is still very high.

As you may know from my first blog posting, I'm a bit of a gear head.  Gear doesn't make the picture, but it can allow you to make a frame that you otherwise wouldn't be able to. To make the frame at the top of this blog (above,)  I was able to borrow an 800mm 5.6 lens from Canon (both Canon and Nikon set up shot at the main press center and loan equipment to photographers, as well as make repairs on site, which is priceless!)  The 800mm is a lens that's just been released by Canon and I really wanted to see what I could pull off with it.   One of the reasons that this lens is useful is that there are only 4-5 of them here at the Olympics—and what that means is that there are very few other photographers who will be shooting with it.  Why does this matter?  Because you can shoot from positions that others aren't in (because they are shooting with different (shorter) lenses...) and this gives you a little more breathing room, and a better chance of making a unique frame. The Olympics are all about trying to make frames that no one else is making—and that's something that's very difficult to pull off when you're competing with the best 1,500+ sports photographers in the world.  

The lens was a blast to use—it's incredibly sharp and it allowed me to push myself a bit and shoot the picture above full-frame. I was standing about 30 feet away from the weight lifters, which is ridiculously close for an 800mm. The picture is of Turkish weightlifter Sedat Artuc who made it through qualifications.  These guys are truly amazing to watch! 

Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK