August 7th, 2008, Beijing, China. Morning...

I met up with my two teammates, Donald Miralle and Vincent Laforet, in Los Angeles and Seoul and continued on to Beijing. It was the perfect place to transfer through as it gave me a chance to think back on my first ever Summer Games in Seoul 1988. You never quite experience the Olympics the way you do the first time, which could be said about many things but we’re sticking to the Olympics here. I’d grown up on on tails of photographic heroism whilst covering the Games and wanted to do my bit. Working all hours, being cast into the Olympic cauldron and coming back with “the goods” are all things I wanted to test myself at. Eleven Olympics later I still have a taste for that environment and I’m back for more.

We didn’t get the big “wow” effect of landing at the giant Beijing terminal; we must have come through a smaller satellite building. However, we were efficiently whisked off on our bus to the accommodations called “The foreign experts building”. Which kind of added a little more pressure to the expectations our DOP at Newsweek has been hoisting upon us already. “Experts”? That’s kind of assuming a lot without ever having met.

I opened the curtains this morning and stared at a grey/green wall of something. I’m not sure if this is the fabled smog of Beijing or just some morning mist, it looks like this most mornings from my house in Topanga, CA. But I tell you one thing this isn’t the Beijing I last visited 12 years ago covering the “Tour of China” bicycle race. That Beijing I could ride a bicycle around without fear of cars. This one's more “Blade Runner’ish”

Olympic snivel warning-

What is it with beds at the Olympics? Whoever makes the specs for the “Olympic media bed” must be 4’ tall and be numb from the neck down! I’ve slept on floors, camp cots and now a concrete block, here in China. No wonder everyone has such great posture, they sleep on the firmest mattresses in the world. The best one was at Sydney where we stayed at an old hospital, for midgets I assume, as the beds had metal head and foot boards and I’d wake up with my feet jammed between the railings of the foot board feeling like I’d had my feet handcuffed! Which isn’t always a bad thing I just wasn’t expecting it….. Anyhoo snivel over, in a couple of days I’ll be so tired I’ll hardly notice the bed, and think of all the money I’ll save on chiropractors.

I’ll let you know how our prep day goes later.

Cheers, 

Mike

I’m not sure there’s an event I ever cover that requires as muchadvance logistics planning as the Olympics. Travel plans start up to ayear before The Games, and from there on you continue to prepare untilthe games begin. In this post, I will discuss how I did my best toprepare for these games in advance, and how I packed all of myequipment for the Olympics—something that took well over a month on itsown in the end. (You can find a gallery of how I packed my equipment,and a detailed explanations of each step here.)

This is the gear I had to chose from. ©Vincent Laforet

Firstof all, you’ve got to understand that every Olympics is different. It’srun by a different host committee every two years, and the rulesnaturally tend to change with each Olympics. So most of the stress ofgetting ready comes from never being quite sure what you will—or willnot be—allowed to do: how many—if any—remote cameras you’ll be allowedto use and where you’ll be permitted to put them. (Not to mention whatthe venues will look like, what the lighting and background will be,and where you’ll be able to shoot from—all pretty key unknowns untilyou arrive.)

In the past - all of the Olympics have had “PhotoVenue Managers” these are volunteers who are in the photo business—andusually have many Olympics under their belts. They know who you are—youknow who they are and how to get in touch with them in advance—and youcan make special requests months in advance and work out any potentialconcerns that might arise. Basically they’re there to make sureeverything goes smoothly (no one trips on a camera or photographer onlive TV) and just as importantly to help you get the best imagespossible.

This Olympics, these veterans haven’t been invitedback. A group of local photo managers will be assigned to each venue.And truth be told—that’s nerve wrecking for all photographers headinginto Beijing—we have no idea what to expect. The rule book can bere-written, and there likely isn’t much we’ll be able to do about it. Ido hope we’ll get along just fine with the local Photo Venue Managers,even though most of them are said to be young adults detached from the“security” team with no prior photo experience. Add to that anylanguage barriers, and the fact that no advance planning waspossible—well... it could be rough (not sounding too good is it?) Soneedless to say, the stress level, and uncertainty of how successful ofan Olympics this will be is at an all time high.

Don’t forgetthat on top of all of this uncertainty. We still have to worry aboutthe following at each event we cover: We don’t know who will win/loseor become the news, where that will happen, when that will happen, orfrom where we can get the best picture from, or with what lens andexposure (nor when we can put our guard down or take a meal/bathroombreak) .... you never know this until the event happens—live—and inphotography there are no second chances; you are either the “hero orthe zero” with little in between. This is why photographers, who bynature are used to capturing what is a sometimes chaotic series ofevents, like to have at least the basics figured out before they get tothe venue, so that they only have to worry about making “the” picture.

Me... loading gear. ©Vincent Laforet

Thisis part of the Olympics the readers never see (and hopefully what theseblogs will help reveal)—and while it’s frankly not their problem, it’sours, in a big way. What we have to do on our end, is to plan on doingbusiness as usual, and come prepared with all of the necessary gear(even though we may not be able to use much of it!) and we’ll need tostay on our best behaviors and stay patient, no matter how bad thingsmay initially present themselves...

Another new development withthese Olympics: You have to decide what it is that you’re going tobring far ahead of time, because the Chinese government is requiring usto get an “Equipment Confirmation Letter” to bring gear into and out ofChina (I guess they’re afraid we’ll sell it??? Normally an Olympiccredential is sufficient for any host country) It’s quite strange, asno Olympics that I’ve covered prior to this has required such a form(although it’s always best to get a list (or Carnet) of anyprofessional equipment you’re carrying in and out of a foreign countrystamped by your local customs) but it was necessary this time, and itrequired a visit to the Chinese Embassy... just one more thing to do.It makes it more difficult because you can’t decide last minute tobring an extra lens or camera... once the list is stamped by theChinese Embassy, you’re done.

One of the biggest challenge for aphotographer is knowing what to bring. If we were covering just onesport, it would be easy. Most photographers could probably bring 2-3cameras, and 2-3 lenses, max. But given that we’ll have a few dozensports to chose from, and that the equipment needed to cover each sportcan vary widely, it’s a challenge to say the least. And don’t forget:we have to carry everything, so the more you bring, the more you breakyour back. I am easily bringing more than 200 lbs of equipment with me.

This is it! All packed. ©Vincent Laforet

Onecommon trick photographers use to make “exceptional” images is the useof remote cameras. There are many fantastic angles that you cannotphysically shoot from; however if you mount a remote camera there aheadof time, with a bit of luck you’ll get an amazing image. This of courserequires us to bring extra cameras, lenses, radio triggers and mountingequipment, doubling the amount of gear we bring. But the pictures arealmost always worth the effort. One key thing to realize: remotecameras have to be mounted far ahead of an event. Sometimes you have toleave a remote in a catwalk for the entire duration of an event (up toa week) because you won’t have access to it during the event (forsecurity and safety purposes.) That means you have to make intelligentdecisions on how you use that gear and where you put it. For the men’s100m final in Athens, I showed up at 5 a.m. to put up remotes—for arace that didn’t start until after 10 p.m. that evening—and the racelasted less than 10 seconds.... Hopefully you now have a better idea ofall of the work and time that goes into “getting the picture.” Multiplythat by 2 weeks and you realize that covering The Games is a LOT ofwork—and requires a lot of advance planning.

What I’ve gone ahead and done is to create a separate web gallery that shows each step of the packing processfor those that are interested. You’ll get an idea of what type ofequipment I’m bringing and how I pack it. Writing it out in this postwould make it a bit too long, so I think the gallery is the best way togo.

The next step will be to unpack everything once I arrive andto make the decision each evening (prior to the next day’s events) asto what I’ll need to bring with me to best pull off an image. The Gamesare challenging, exhausting and mentally trying. But it’s the“Olympics” for photographers if you will—part of “our” games—where youbring the world’s best photographers into one place and have acompetition to see who can come back with the best images.... but aphotographer must always keep the following in mind: it’s amarathon—not a sprint!

More to come in the upcoming days.

(Vincent Laforet is based in New York and one of threephotographers photographing and blogging the 2008 Beijing Olympics forNewsweek. You can see more of his images at: http://www.vincentlaforet.com/ and his personal blog http://www.laforetivsuals.com/blog)