It’s the morning of the last day of the Olympics and I’m getting ready to hit the road and go home. As much as we’ve all looked forward to this moment there’s always a feeling that something important is over. Regardless of the trials and tribulations of the last two weeks, I’ve enjoyed the Beijing Games. Although it has felt like a rather sterile Games with the events and media being kept within the Olympic bubble I can’t fault the volunteers that have helped us do our jobs everyday and made us feel welcome.

I’ve put a selection of my work together here, it’s still too soon to do a proper edit and only time will tell if this work stands up. I’ve found I need a little space from the event to edit work without the emotion of the day. Thanks for following along and sending me e-mails with your comments. They were all appreciated.

Cheers,
Mike

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

 

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

 

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

 

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

 

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Big day for me, my last at the Beijing Games. When I was planning this with NEWSWEEK it was a magazine job and the mag closes Saturday night. I’ve been to enough of these to know that getting out of Dodge a day early can really help the exit strategy. So I’m off.

Got to shoot the men and women’s cross-country mountain biking today, had a lot of fun. It was one of the few events where they let the crowd get close to the athletes for once and that all added to the atmosphere but no cheerleaders today, my wife will be glad to know!

I spent most of the day humping through what felt like tropical jungle. It must have been 95% humidity and I was in full “Bridge on the River Kwai” mode. I know, wrong country and all, plus it’s probably just a little park but it felt like a full on jungle to me when I was bush whacking between course sections and walked straight into a giant cobweb which had a giant scary looking spider on it! I spun around to beat a hasty retreat only to walk smack into another one with an even bigger spider on it. What is this a set from Lord of the Rings or what? After extricating myself with only a few strands of web left dangling I decided to stay closer to the course and got on with shooting the race.

Most of what I shot today was on my 50mm f.2 shot at f2. I’ve been using this technique for much of the Games. It allows me to shoot a standard but still have a blown out background that just hints at what’s there rather than being more literal. Most of the photographers I met today are winding down and looking forward to getting home, some are complaining about how soon their agencies have then going on the next job. There’s not much down time when you work for the wires. When I was in Allsport many times I would come to the Games directly from one assignment, like the Tour de France and go off to another straight from the Games or shortly there after. Sounds exciting and it was but I am happy that I’ll be going home and spending some time with the family, the kids have one week left of school hols when I get back so I’ll try not to answer the phone.

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

I don't smoke but it just sounds cooler than "coffee and Powerbars."

So coffee has stopped working sometime in the last couple of days. I can’t seem to get a buzz off a large coffee with a double red eye. Or whatever it’s supposed to be called. All I know is this would normally get me running up the walls, but now, not so much…the net effect is that when I shot a half a game of handball on my way over to the track I was a step behind the players and didn’t make a single snap. Fortunately when I got to the more familiar ground of the track things improved.

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK 

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK 

Walking through any part of the Olympic green it’s hard not to walk through someone’s snap shot. It seems to be a national pastime, taking pictures in front of all the stadiums. Tonight on the way to track I finally made a pic of something that wasn’t running, throwing or riding.

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

6 hours of bus time today. An early trip out to the men’s triathlon, then back to the MPC, out to the Velodrome then back to the MPC. Finally out to Workers Stadium for Brazil vs Argentina football. A pretty packed day but I managed to pick some of the venues that are farthest away from each other. Another thing, normally I do work and write on the buses. Today for some reason every bus I got on I made by the skin of my teeth, and usually involved me sprinting across the bus depot with all my kit only to find that the bus was packed. I either had to stand, or didn’t have any wiggle room to work. This is a sign that we’re getting close to the end, more people are going to less events.

The start of the men's triathlon.

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

 

Matty Reed of the United States exits the water during the men's triathlon.

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK 

 

The men's triathlon cycling.

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

 

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Going to bed last night at 2.30 a.m. and getting up this morning at 6 on top of the cumulative sleep deficit left me a little worse for wear today. It also left me with a severe dose of writers block. I’ve started this blog several times today and didn’t get far each time. Usually something sparks an idea during the day and leads to me being able to knock out a few para’s on something that at least interests me.
 

Phelps got his eighth gold medal but we’re all a bit jaded now and quite frankly except for yesterdays near miss on #7 it all felt a bit pedestrian. How jaded can you get! I’m sure I’ll look back and be glad I was there for at least some of it. Anyhoo, that didn’t spark anything in the old noggin.

So I waited ‘til the end of the day to see if anything at the track got me going and was standing in another photographers moat trying to figure out what to do next when I over heard another snapper talking about how he was going to try and do “something different” tonight.

“Something different.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that one. From editors and photographers. I guess it’s the holy grail of snappers. I got thinking about it and tried to put my finger on what “something different” actually is. Well of course it’s lots of things.

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Simon Barnett, the DOP at NEWSWEEK has given us a very free rein to go shoot “something different”, but sometimes it hamstrings you. You see a very nice picture that on most days you would eagerly shoot. But being at the Olympics there are 300 shooters already trying to shoot it and the pool guys have better access and 200 remotes under it, over it and probably on it! So your shrug you shoulders and wonder off in search of the illusive “something different”. Or you shoot it anyway and hope for a unique moment. It’s amazing how different images can be even when your all shooting the same thing.

 

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

At the Winter Olympics in Turino I shot a whole series on a 50mm lens shot almost wide open at f2. I really liked the feel of the images and wanted to try more of it here. It’s not so easy at the summer Games, I’ve found that I’m further away from the action. But every now and then I’ll get a shot and by the end of the Games I’ll have a handful that will show a style that I have been trying to build on for some time. I’ll put a gallery up near the end if it all comes together. Shooting this way means letting go of shots I know will work in favor of trying for an image that might not work and even if it does nobody else might like. Sometimes I can do it and other time I lose the courage and fall back on my sport shooting background. I’ll try and keep plugging away though. In an attempt to shoot “something different”, even if it’s the kind of work nobody else would want to shoot!!

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Big day today....Michael Phelps going for gold #7 and the 100m final. Against my better judgment, I’m down at the pool at 7 a.m. to make sure I get the position I want for Phelps. Tying Mark Spitz’s record medal count is a great story and one of the few long time Olympic records left. Just days before coming to Beijing I was in a restaurant in Los Angeles and Spitz came in for breakie. I photographed him for a Swatch watch portrait series prior to the Atlanta Games, maybe seeing him that day was an omen. 

At past Olympics I would have been at the track by now fussing over the upcoming 100m finals, discussing the various merits of each athlete in with a chance and going over positions for the day. The 100m is one of those blue ribbon events that create a lot pressure on photographers. Rightly so; it is all over in 10 secs or less, and sometimes it’s hard to see who’s going to win until the very last 100th of a second. If you're going to shoot tight you better be confident in your lane choice, or be ready for a quick change. I’m still torn between shooting the final on a long lens or going for a wider shot that shows the atmosphere again.

The morning at the pool paid off with a nice snap of Phelps. Since the relay he’s been quiet after winning medals, but today he really celebrated after he tied Mark Spitz for 7 golds in one Olympics—an amazing feat. I was shooting from a balcony at the opposite end of the pool on a Canon 800mm f5.6. He reacted straight up at the scoreboard above my head. Nice start to the day. Now I get to head over to the track and see if I can do as well on the men’s 100m finals tonight.
 

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

7.30 a.m. National Stadium Photo workroom.

I’m loath to admit this, but this mornings’ photo meeting at the track stung a little. Getting infield access at the Olympics is a prized trophy. For many of the Olympics I covered that was my domain and I guarded it jealously. To be able to shoot with that kind of freedom and only having to share the space with a select group of very professional colleagues is an honor that I enjoyed immensely. I knew many of the athletes competing, some on a personal level; the in-field group was family, maybe a little competitive at times but brothers in arms nonetheless.

When I left Getty Images to work on my own, my career had taken a turn away from event coverage and more toward feature and commercial sport work. I don’t for a moment question that choice but I was a little apprehensive about how I would feel not being Johnny on the spot on the in field. As the photo chief handed out the in-field bibs to the agencies I did indeed feel a pang for the old days.  Walking back to the MPC (main press center) I was feeling a little melancholy and needed a pick up. A kick in the pants more like. The Games can get emotional and keeping it all together is part of the trick making it through the 16 days of Glory….

Game on, off to the Gymnastics, woman’s individual all–around  and I think I’ll try and give the Canoe/Kayak another crack, the sun's out today.  It’s payback time.

After a few days of gymnastics you start getting that déjà vu feeling. The performances start looking familiar—they should be, the gymnasts are doing pretty much the same routine for all the events. The trick for me is to move around and shoot them in different ways and angles so your photography doesn’t have that same feel. Again trying to capture a feeling of place and action I chose to use shorter lenses when I started out today, then switched to a more traditional look on the beam later.

It was time to go out and get in position so I donned my rain jacket and covered my gear in ponchos to try to keep the rain out. It was now darker at this outdoor event than inside at the gymnastics venue, so making award-winners probably wasn’t on the menu today. 30 minutes of action later and the event was delayed due to lighting. After hanging out at the media lounge drinking coffee for a while they canceled until tomorrow. I think this is the first time I came back from a water event wetter than the competitors. I’m used to these kinds of delays at the Winter Olympics where I usually cover the Alpine ski events. Often you go up the ski hill at the crack of dawn knowing that the event will probably be canceled or delayed due to poor conditions but you have to be in position and ready—weather changes quickly in the mountains. I remember spending 3 or 4 days doing this at the Nagano Olympics, which was plagued with bad weather in the early days. Up the hill every morning, early, find a spot stand there for a couple of hours shivering, delay, stand around for a couple more hours, cancel. Try again the next day. Funnily enough I prefer the Winter Olympics.

So at this point I’m sitting in a puddle coming back from the event thinking that I haven't got much to show for the day.  So I need to pull a picture out of the hat here and save my day. Guess I’ll squelch my way over to the fencing and see if that works. All in all a lot of time and effort spent for small rewards.

Trying to step away from the crowd and shoot something different can hard some days. I felt I’ve shot my own pictures a few times this Games, Women’s beach volleyball and Women’s Gymnastics have produced a couple of frames that personified my ambitions to shoot action with atmosphere. Today I felt I got beaten into submission and fell back on my long lens sports shooting repertoire. I don’t think the pictures are horrible; I quite like them, only quite though. They just aren’t what I wanted to shoot. The wrestlers at the end of the day saved it for me, those guys are tough, I mean rocks.

The day started at the pool with several finals, one of which was Phelps going for another Gold (200m freestyle), which he did in a new world record. Only I think he’d used up all his emotions the night before and was keeping a lid on things so he could qualify a short time later in the butterfly. Which set the tone as other medalist kept it quiet. Session over the men’s team gymnastics was still on next door so popped in there for the last couple of rotations. After that I had planned on going over to the boxing again and trying for a ringside seat. Men’s bantamweight prelims, should be pretty quiet, nope all the pool shooters where there and as I explained yesterday, overhead boxing is one of my least favorite things to shoot. Although a friend of mine and very good boxing photographer, Al Bello, reminded me of a picture I took at the Seoul Olympics. Coming to Oscar De La Hoyas fight late I rushed into the stadium found the first photo spot in the stands I could find just in time to shoot a pic of Oscar on his knee praying and pointing skywards to a Stars and Stripes that was overhead. If I remember, he’d lost his mother not long before the Games. The picture told it all. So overhead boxing does work sometimes.

I had a bit of an Olympic moment on the bus back from wrestling today. Scored a great pin from a couple of Iranian journalists. They saw whom I worked for and where very keen to let me know that Iranian people love American people. We all agreed that people weren’t the problem, governments were.

The good thing about shooting the whole Games is if you don’t have a Gold medal performance one day you can come back the next and have a crack. Here’s to tomorrow, Gymnastics and Table Tennis. Good night.

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

I’m not one for walking around with ear buds plugged in my head all day, shutting the world off. But during the Games a little music helps things along and keeps you in a good mood. I go to my comfort foods at this time, flavours that have seen me through the last few Games. During the day Jamiroquai, I first heard him while in Nagano before the Winter Olympics and he saw me through some pretty awful weather standing on the side of mountains during delays. At night, during late night editing sessions, I go to Miles Davis. For some reason he helps me stay up at night, probably because 3am is only time you should be listening to jazz, it’s just the right time.

I started the day at Beach Volleyball as sport that grew up on the beaches of my adopted Southern California and made it’s way to the big show. These athletes are remarkable to photograph, as close to the grace of dancers you’ll find in any sport that isn’t judged. The height they get out of sand is beyond my comprehension. You can tell from the pics that I am enamored by the serve and you’d be right. I’ve seen so many spike and block in your face shots that they all start looking the same. Not that I won’t shoot them but tonight this is where my head was. The serve shot of Ana Paula is my favorite shot of the Games so far.

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

Opening ceremonies puts me on my heels for the first couple of days. Lots of pressure and always a very late night. Last night was no different. I finished work at 3.30 am grabbed a quick beer and some food with Vincent then headed up to repack for today’s Men’s cycling road race. It was 4.30 am by the time I got my head down and of course after thinking I’d dodged the jet lag bullet here it came. I basically lay there awake until my alarm went off at 7.30am and headed down for some breakie and onto the first bus of the day.

We had not secured one of the limited places on the small buses that would stop at Tiananmen Square so I was planning on shoot the start getting on a bus and heading the finish. As it happened, about a third of the photographers that had won the position lottery for the buses didn’t show so I just slid on and went to work. That made life much easier for the day.

On the bus over I got to catch up with Graham Watson a fellow Brit, gent and excellent cycling photographer. In fact he pretty much set the bar for quality work in the genre. It’s always nice catching up with some friends that I really only see every few years.

I’ll admit I’m a bit of a cycling fan/geek and any time you get the list of competitors together of this caliber I get pretty excited. Unfortunately the last thing you get to do when covering the events is actually enjoy them.

I managed to get around to a couple of spots on course then decided to shoot about 150 down from the finish as opposed to right at the line where everyone else was. Well the sprint didn’t fully open up in front of me but they were pushing hard and I didn’t have to bang bars with everyone at the finish. Bonus!

 

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK