Visions of China: A 2008 Olympics Picture Blog

Picture of the Day: August 24, 2008

2008-08-24T16:24:51Z

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

The Olympics are over, and the sports event has generally been considered an entertainment triumph. What will quickly come back into sharp focus, however, is that China is a world power whose politics will continue to loom large. This communist nation is getting ever more powerful. Its political, economic and humanitarian actions—and inactions—will be a major factor in shaping our world. This picture, by Donald Miralle, while acknowledging the sporting spectacle, also conjures up the uncertainty about what lies ahead. For me, as Picture of the Day, it is an appropriately ominous image on which to close. —Simon Barnett, Director Photography, NEWSWEEK

See a gallery of NEWSWEEK's photography from Day 16 of the competition

Farewell Beijing - it’s been a “Dream Job” to cover these Olympics

2008-08-24T16:03:35Z

Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

By the time many of your are reading this post, I will be on my way to the airport to catch my flight back to New York City. The Beijing Olympics will have concluded and thousands of others will be making their way home—some with gold medals, some with memorable images and stories, others with bruised egos and many with goals of practicing for the next four years in order to shave an extra few hundredths of a second off their performances in time for the London games in 2012. I for one couldn’t be happier. This has been the best Olympics I’ve experienced, and while the host country has played a good part in this, other factors have been much more instrumental in making this a “great success” as Borat would say.

First and foremost, Simon Barnett, Newsweek’s director of photography, and the magazine’s decision to have the three of us blog daily has been the deciding factor in making these game more fulfilling for me than ones prior. Becoming part of the blogosphere has proven to be one of the most interesting and rewarding things I’ve done as a journalist. I studied print journalism in college and have worked as a photographer for over 18 years (since the age of 15), but I never really enjoyed writing on deadline, and always found something a bit lacking with simply sending photographs into a publication and hoping the “best one” or frankly at times any of the ones would make it in. There’s nothing more frustrating than missing a picture, or not being able to make one - and having nothing to show for all of your hard work and effort for the day. The blog has given us a new avenue to express ourselves and share things about our days out here—regardless of whether of not we have visual proof of it. It’s been quite cathartic at times (see the “Time for a Little Introspection” blog post) and the feedback from you guys has really had an effect at keeping the wind in all of our sails I’m sure. I know it has for me.

Although I’ve already praised him in a prior post, I would like to thank Barnett at Newsweek again for rolling the dice with this blog and giving it the green light. After all, you’ve got to admit that no one knew exactly what would come of this prior to the games or if it would be a success or a total disaster... by all accounts I think it’s been a success and that everyone has benefited from this in some way. I hope I’m not coming off as a sycophant, but the truth is that having us blog was a pretty visionary thing to ask us to do, at least in my book. Sure, we’re definitely not the first to blog, but blogging was our major focus at these Olympics and it heavily influenced both what and how we shot—in many ways the magazine almost came second. And while some may not yet see the significance of that—or agree with it—to me it’s crystal clear that this kind of two-way exchange with our audience that we need more of in our industry, we need more personal and behind the scenes accounts—and a goal of making unique images that adhere to our own personal visions as opposed to the size of the page or hole we need to fill in a layout is the future of journalism. As you may know, the major magazines have been having a tough time out there; circulation and ad revenue have been dropping consistently in the past two years, and at times people question whether or not magazines and newspapers will be around a decade from now. If these publications continue to experiment and think out of the box as Newsweek did with this blog, I have no doubt that they’ll be around for a very long time. In fact while the dream title for any photographer a few years ago may have been to be a “staff photographer” at some large publication, I can see being a “Photoblogger” as being the next big thing. Maybe we'll need a different title to separate us from "bloggers"—to clarify that we work by professional journalism standards, as opposed to writing at will and without regards to hard facts. Who knows, only time will tell.

With all of the content available out there my guess is that people are not looking for content that tries to serve the “average” reader—that "reader "being determined by polls and surveys. I think that with the easy access to information and online publications that the Internet is providing us with, people will now go to specific blogs and publications that interest THEM. There is a tremendous amount of room for growth in this area in my opinion and my eyes sure have been opened over these past few weeks. I launched my own blog a week prior to the Olympics and while I am a total newcomer to this blogging world, I’ve already sensed a greater amount of energy and potential in these endeavors than I have with almost any publication in my career. I’ve found it fascinating that professional photographers and hobbyists, as well as people who don’t necessarily have a keen interest in photography, have come to visit and comment on these blogs—and expressed how much they've enjoyed them. Although we the photographers have no real idea of how successful this blog has been in terms of hits, etc., if you type "Olympic Photo Blog" this Visions of China is one of the top results to come back from Google—so that must be a good sign.

It’s one thing for us to blog about our everyday lives out here, but it’s also incredibly interesting for us to see the comments, and apparent level of interest coming back our way, often asking for more. Imagine writing about your daily life or job ... do you think people would really take interest or care? If there’s anything that I’ve learned in my years as a photojournalist—is that most people would tend to answer “no.” I’ve photographed people doing some of the most interesting jobs, and others doing some of the most banal ones. For the most part, people tend to ask me: “What would you like me to do?” And I’ll always answer: “Do what you would normally do if I weren’t here right now. Pretend I’m not here.” A few get it, but most are confused by this. Some answer that what they do is “incredibly boring;” “who would want to see that?” I tell them that it’s my job to find the beauty in what they do every day and to get to the heart and soul of who they are, sometimes in the matter of seconds, at other times over a few hours or days. To this day, I’ve never met a single person who I found “boring.” If I did, it was because I wasn’t doing my job properly. And that’s a big lesson in photojournalism and in life. The “grass is always greener” and someone else’s life may always seem more interesting than your own... but never be surprised when other people find you life interesting—even if only for the simply fact that your life is different from theirs. What the blog has allowed us to do is to hear back from you—and that’s something you really rarely get when you work for a traditional medium that tends to be a one way interaction and can become a bit monotonous over time... you can only stare at your image in a magazine with you name underneath it for so long. After a while that wears off and you wonder if people are really looking and/or appreciating the images you are making—and more importantly if you are adequately communicating other people's stories through those photographs. Photography is ultimately not about how good of a photograph you make as a photographer—it is about sharing a moment in time, or of someone else's life, with others.

Overall, these Olympics have been fantastic. While the Chinese do tend to adhere a bit too literally to the letter of the law (which causes the typical “renegade” individualist photographer to cringe more often than not) they have been incredible hosts. No matter how silly, illogical, or downright asinine some of the rules that have been thrown our way have been, I’ve never come close to losing my temper at a single one of the photo volunteers here—they’re simply doing their jobs, and doing them with incredible kindness and a genuine smile on their face. I can’t tell you how many times someone has rushed to open a door for me, offered to carry one of my bags late at night, asked me how my day was going, or offered me a bottle of water or roster at the start of the game. Never ever have the volunteers and staff been this kind and generous at any Olympics. That is truly the one memory I will come away from here.

I studied Chinese literature, history and culture quite a bit throughout high school and college as I’ve always been fascinated by this part of the world. The cultural revolution that concluded approximately 32 years ago in this country has left it changed for the better in my opinion. While there is still the lingering sign of the socialist way of thinking and bureaucracy, this new generation of people is clearly set on being both a significant force in our global community and economy and in doing so without an outward level of aggression. The people here are incredibly kind—don’t mistake that as a condescending comment in any way. That kindness is founded on a deep mix of devotion to excellent education, hard work, and innovation. China has changed so much since I was first here 7 years ago—and I’m sure it will change even more quickly in the upcoming 7 years. I hope it will continue to change for the best—although what exactly that is, is hard to define for just about any culture.

Despite the difficulty at times that Donald, Mike and I felt with the “pool photographers” having a superior level of access to good shooting positions, I found out that more than 90% of photographs that run in publications worldwide originate from that pool of photographers (given that each pool agency has numerous subscribers, and most smaller publications cannot afford to send a photographer to cover the games). I just hope the IOC continues to see the value in having independent photographers, sports-specific specialist photographers, and individual publications, continuing to contribute to the photographic coverage of these games with their unique visions and perspectives. The IOC has done so historically, and the Olympic mission would suggest that they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Regardless of the hurdles we faced, I think that the three “Dream Team” members from Newsweek and countless other non-pool photographers had the chance to produce some pretty memorable images from these games. The image doesn’t always come from the “best” position—at times it does come out of nowhere, from the most random spot... you never know. Being obsessed with having “the” spot can become an unnecessary and dangerous obsession altogether. The one thing that has irked us more than usual is not the fear of not having the "best" spot, but of not having one at all. There were quite a few venues at the Olympics where the non-pool photographers had no view or ability to cover certain key parts of the event—and that's a problem that needs to be addressed prior to the next Olympic games.

One of the big changes at these Olympics was the practice of allowing us to go through the "mag and bag" right from our hotels and onto the bus straight into the main press center and all subsequent events without ever having to go through security again. This has saved and incredible amount of time and anguish (you never know how long the security lines will be and that makes you hesitate in trying to squeeze in that other event you're thinking of thinking of rushing to.) I'm a pretty big fan of this and hope it continues in future Olympics. The downside of this, and there always is one of course, is that we've lived in a virtual bubble for this entire Olympics. Contact with the culture and people has been much more limited than in previous games, and on a personal note that's a shame. Of course we've had a chance to interact with the Chinese at the games—but they have been living by the "Olympic rule book" and set of codes, which is a strange little universe and culture in it of its own. I've also discussed with some other people that there was a little bit of "energy" and "Olympic spirit" missing from the crowds at these games—the level of energy has been much higher at previous games. One colleague opined that this change had more to do with the fact that they sold beer and allowed the spectators to drink it at their seats in Torino... who knows...

As far as this blog, it’s been a pleasure to contribute to it every day, and to read your comments every day—I have read them every morning and I'm sorry I haven't had time to respond to every one of them. My usual daily routine involves loading the blog comments when I wake up (it takes a long time to load on our hotel Internet connection) and running to breakfast. I then usually catch the bus with one minute to spare and read the comments on the ride to the Main Press Center—and have no internet connection to respond (we can’t do it via e-mail; that would have worked much better...) On the ride back home at night I’m usually working on the next day’s blog—and then the cycle starts all over again! So my apologies for not responding enough to all of your comments—but please don’t think they’ve gone unappreciated.

A big thanks also goes out to Mike, Donald, Al, Melinda, Mark, Leah, Sue, Beth, Peter and the many other friends and colleagues who have helped make our coverage of the Olympic coverage happen.

In the end, I’m happy with many of the photographs and posts I’ve produced, and I’m lucky to have survived yet another Olympic games relatively unscathed. I heard this morning that more than 2,000 members of the media have been prescribed antibiotics at the Main Press Center over these past 16 days. While I’m never quite sure if we were worthy of that “Dream Team” title, I do know that this has been a "dream job." I’m definitely not taking for granted the incredible opportunity that was given to us: Simon told us to “go out and make great photographs—don’t worry about medals.” And that means that Donald, Mike and I were part of a minuscule group of photographers at these games that were given a chance to go out and have fun. And as a result, this has been the best Olympic games that I’ve ever experienced. I usually leave the games on day 17 completely exhausted, slightly depressed and frustrated with bumps and bruises to my gear, body and ego. At the conclusion of the Athens Olympics, I swore to myself that I would never cover another one. This time I’m leaving full of energy and eager to cover—and hopefully blog from—the next Olympics.

Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

End of the Line

2008-08-24T15:11:31Z

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

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

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

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!!!

U.S.A. Wins First Gold Medal in Men's Basketball in Eight Years

2008-08-24T10:52:10Z

Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

For those of you that are just waking up in the U.S., The "Redeem Team" won gold today against Spain while you were sleeping. It was the NBA's—I mean Team U.S.A.'s—first gold medal since the 2000 in Sydney. I must admit I wasn't expecting much action or reaction at the conclusion of this game, but boy was I wrong. It was a pretty good game, and I've rarely seen such excitement out of NBA players even at the end of an NBA Final. Spain gave them a good run, and early on they were ahead, but at no point did I see Team U.S.A. break that much of a sweat—they just played solid basketball and had great performances from Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. It was a real treat to see those three and their teammates so genuinely excited at the conclusion of the game and when they received their medals. I'm at the closing ceremonies and getting ready for that—so I'll just drop a few quick pictures in for now.

Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Three More from Diving...

2008-08-24T05:04:46Z

Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

I had to rush back and pack last night after the men's finals. There was nothing ground-breaking and given that I'm covering the U.S.A.'s basketball game immediately followed by the closing ceremonies tonight, I thought it best to pack every piece of gear and clothing that I could, so that I wouldn't need to rush that before running off to the airport in 14 hours. (Quick tip—the single best thing I did in packing for these Olympics was to use a point and shoot camera to take a picture of the inside of every bag and case that I packed on the way in, and print out an 8X10 color copy of each picture and tape it to the inside of the case before I left... this saved me so much time in packing everything up... no more guessing which lens goes in what case, etc...)

I'm now on the floor of the bronze medal basketball match between Lithuania and Argentina—there's less than 34 seconds left as I type and you could hear a pin drop in this stadium.... ZERO energy here right now. hope that changes for the U.S.A. game...

Here are a few more images from last night. The first two are of China's Liang Huo who was the Olympic favorite in the men's 10M diving final. He came in fourth, behind Australia's Matthew Mitcham in a stunning upset that prevented the Chinese from a gold sweep in diving. Given that I've shot diving from the overhead position, beneath the surface through a window, and from almost every possible side angle, I decided to take my last tilt-shift of the games, as well as to play with pans shot between 1/8th and 1/15th of a second.

Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Off to the airport

2008-08-24T00:36:43Z

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

Picture of the Day: August 23, 2008

2008-08-23T17:20:15Z

Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Vincent Laforet shot this image of China’s Liang Huo during the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition using a 300mm at f2.8 (wide open) at 1/2000th of a second. Vince photographed this image on a clear, sunny day in Beijing with lots of light streaming through the translucent “Water Cube,” the venue housing the diving competition. He describes capturing this frame simply as being at the right location at the right time of day to utilize the light. The circle of water droplets streaming from Huo’s hair, frozen in time and accentuated by light, make this image my choice for Picture of the Day.
—Susanne Miklas, Deputy Director of Photography, NEWSWEEK

See a gallery of NEWSWEEK's photography from Day 15 of the competition

Floating (or Sinking) to the Finish Line

2008-08-23T12:35:39Z

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

The end is in sight. We have one more day of the Olympics before we can call it a wrap, pack our bags, and get back to our homes and families. My second-to-last day was mostly spent at the Water Cube, which was fitting as it is an arena where I spent many long days here in Beijing. The women’s synchro team free routine final was hopefully going to be a good one, with Russia looking to continue their domination by making it four in row at the Olympics. I had my underwater set-up still in the pool from the day before so it just made sense to shoot the actual final today as well. En route to setting up the remote I took some snaps of the team’s warming-up which is sometimes more interesting than the competition itself. It brought back memories of the Athens Olympics where I was given carte blanche to shoot synchro team practices without the use of any scuba gear. Times have changed… Reuters photographer Wolfgang Rattay and I checked the focus and framing of our cameras, and then we took some funny photos of each other in the pool. Good for the blog and to send home to the family!

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

Photograph by Wolfgang Rattay—REUTERS

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

As expected the Russians scored a near-perfect routine, and collected their 4th consecutive gold medal at the Olympics with Spain and China receiving the silver and bronze respectively. The biggest story of the night was when one of the Japanese synchronized swimmer, Kobayashi Hiromi, hyperventilated during the final and had to be pulled to the surface by a teammate. The large but quick Chinese lifeguards in matching Speedos did not hesitate to come to her aid and she was stretchered off. Hope she’s OK…The photos today were a little better than yesterday’s, so I was happy with that. But it was also good just to see all the guys at the pool who I only get to see at the big swimming events when we do our underwater thing. Part of me felt sad knowing it was my last day in the Cube, and the other part of me would be happy never stepping foot in the building again.

One more day to go!!!

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

Lost in the Woods

2008-08-23T11:27:57Z

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

T Minus One

2008-08-23T08:09:45Z

China's Liang Huo competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Sometimes, the Olympics throws you a bone. Today the sky was clear and the sun was beaming down on the translucent roof of the Water Cube venue where the 10 meter diving semi-finals were taking place. This made for a beautiful day of shooting, both from overhead and from the side angle. The bone in this case, is not only the nice light but also the fact that the one guys who was favored to win the competition had the longest hair of the group and tended to keep it wet before he dove. Therefore, when he did, water drops would shoot out over an almost perfect black backdrop--a photographer's dream. There wasn't a single photographer worth his/her salt who wasn't looking to take advantage of this convergence of factors and make a nice frame. Here is another version of Liang Huo.

China's Liang Huo competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. He was in first place and favored to win going into the final. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

The top frame above was shot with a 300mm 2.8 - at 10 frames per second on an EOS 1D MKIII--a 1/2000th of a second to freeze the water drops and at f 2.8 to blur out the background (and at 1000 ASA.) The second, tighter frame, was shot with a 400mm 2.8 at the same settings--you lose body parts, but can appreciate more details, such as the water coming off of the fingers on right hand at the top of the frame.

So it was a good start to day fifteen of the Olympics for me--there's never anything better than when the elements line up for you just right. At that point you just have to recognize them, figure out where to shoot the picture from, with what lens and settings and just sit back and "spray and pray" as we say. This happens maybe 1% of the time--most of the time you really need to work much harder at "making" and image as opposed to just sitting back and "taking" one. What I mean by making is that while you in no way help to create what is happening in front of you (i.e. you can't set things up--you can't tell someone to go here in this spot of light, do this or that in a certain way that might make a better picture, or do something again--that is forbidden in U.S. photojournalism and any editorial work you'll see shot for NEWSWEEK.) Therefore the only thing you can do is to get very involved in studying the smallest nuances of every movement in an athlete, backgrounds, lighting and every other details. You have to take them all as they are and work hard at getting that perfect image. If the light sucks, you need to find a way to shoot the image in a way that will not emphasize that. Same goes for the backgrounds, etc. Motion blur and shooting wide open with long lenses to minimize depth of field are two of the tricks photographers use to de-emphasize ugly backgrounds. Shooting from overhead is another common solution as well.

China's Liang Huo competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Back to diving. I got a few nice comments about the overhead shots that I made of the female divers yesterday. My wife, who I tend to listen to--she's a photographer and photo editor and we work very closely together--really took to those images and suggested that I consider making a series of "portraits" if you will (albeit of real action--nothing set up) and try to put a series together. My first instinct was that I had already made one or two nice frames, and I didn't really look forward to going back up to the catwalk as it's extremely hot and humid up there and I tend not to like shooting the same thing two days in a row. But, as usual, I think she was right. When you look at these images, it's like looking at fighter pilots in their G-suits, training to fight the effects of the high velocity moves they perform in their jets, which put incredible gravity forces on their bodies. Or maybe it just looks like those images of people in wind tunnels. Either way, I've always wondered what it must feel like to be diver doing these routines. While I'll hopefully never find out what it feels like first hand, these images will give you an idea of what it looks like. Without further ado--here is my series of portraits of the 10 meter divers of this 29th Olympiad.

U.S.A.'s David Boudiat competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Canada's Ross Reuben competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Russia's Gleb Galperin competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

U.S.A.'s Thomas Finchum competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Cuba's Jose Antonio Guerra competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

U.S.A.'s David Boudia competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

The UK's Peter Waterfield competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Cuba's Jeinkler Aguirre competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Canada's Riley McCormick competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

The UK's Thomas Daley competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Germany's Patrick Hausding competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Mexico's Rommel Pacheco competes in the men's semifinal of the 10 meter diving competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

As far as the T Minus One headline, while we're all happy and honored to have been here for these two Olympic weeks in Beijing--and I don't take for granted that many of you would do quite a bit to find your way out here had you been given the chance--it's been a marathon and everyone is looking forward to some well-deserved rest and time with family and friends back home. As I type, there are 3 photographers passed out around me--their heads buried in their arms with their gear at the ready. An hour ago, people started to take down some of the signage here as mementos. I think I've caught my 3rd or 5th wind--and am very lucky to feel good and "not quite dead yet." Maybe the knowledge that there is only 24 hours to go is helping me feel just a little more rested than I really am--I'm sure I'll pass out for the entire flight home.

Picture of the Day: August 22, 2008

2008-08-22T18:21:36Z

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

Some sports are notoriously difficult to photograph. Handball comes to mind; it's a sport in which the action is so fast and unpredictable that you need more than a little good fortune to make a great picture. Then there are the sports that so naturally present good opportunities for photographers that you can pretty much guarantee getting something memorable. One such sport is rhythmic gymnastics--where beautiful images present themselves to the photographer at a fast and furious pace. My choice for Picture of the Day is an excellent example, shot at Friday's group all-around qualification, and shows Aliya Garayeva of Azerbaijan. Donald Miralle captures this intriguing picture from an overhead position, using a zoom set at the 115m focal length, 1/100th of a second at f2.8. It succeeds as a piece of sports art; the fact that the gymnast's face is obscured by her foot actually adds to the abstract quality of the image, making you linger over it a little longer. Good images from "easy sports" are fairly common, but spectacular ones, like this shot by Donald demand a little something extra. —Simon Barnett, Director of Photography, NEWSWEEK

See a gallery of NEWSWEEK's photography from Day 14 of the competition

Day 14 - A Day of Firsts

2008-08-22T16:47:28Z

A tilt shift view of the first ever BMX Olympic Competition. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Today, for the first time ever, a gold medal was handed out in BMX at the Olympics. It was also:

The first time that I saw a perfectly clear sunset in Beijing.
The first time that I was able to sit down for lunch at our hotel.
The first time that I took a nice mid-day nap.
The first time that I experienced a completely random act of kindness: a volunteer walked up to me out of the blue and gave me two Olympic bracelets.
The first time that I've made it two weeks without the need of antibiotics to fight off a severe cold or flu at the Olympics.
The first time that I did not have to run in a mad dash to catch the bus at the end of the day.
The first time that a good friend of mine ate scorpion and centipede.
And today was the first time that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Here is the stock shot that has the rings in the back - a photo that clearly places this sport at an Olympic venue. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

48 hours to go!

We're in the home stretch--the key word here being HOME! This Olympics has been wonderful--very likely the one that I've enjoyed the most of my career in no small part to this blog and the type of photographs that we've been asked to produce for NEWSWEEK. But two weeks away from home is tough on anyone. And I'm starting to count the hours until I get to see my wife and son again.

Here is another tilt-shift shot shot from a side angle. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

The day started of as most days have these past two weeks--with less than 2 hours of sleep and a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call. I headed over to the BMX venue for the first time and despite everything that my body was telling me, I was very excited to photograph the inaugural medal event for the sport in the Olympics. I owe a big thanks to Mike Powell for letting me have a go at this sport--although we were both scheduled to cover BMX together, the rainout yesterday changed our schedules quite a bit and he was very gracious in giving me the nod to go ahead and take a crack at it.

A tight shot on the 3rd jump--full frame with a 500mm f4 lens. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Therefore I felt a bit of pressure to produce today. I showed up two hours prior to the start of the race to place my remotes on the field and to secure a head-on shot with the Olympic rings in the background. The venue is very tough to shoot, as there are very few good shooting positions. No low angles to shoot from and make the athletes "fly." The pool photographers were able to place remotes wherever they wanted--for some reason I was only offered one spot, which did not yield much. I knew this instantly when I was shown the "one" spot I could place a remote by the photo venue manager... and frankly would have called it then. But I was there anyway and you never know--some crash could have gone right toward the camera, and I would have killed myself if I hadn't gone through the trouble, especially since I knew my two teammates wanted to be here as well. Unfortunately nothing much happened in the one spot we were offered, so the remote did not lead to anything worth showing.

A shot with a 50mm set to f2 at 1/4000th of a second to isolate the busy background. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

This is a very dynamic sport. The crashes are amazing and a key part. Unfortunately none of the official non-pool spots had a good clean angle of the crashes. In fact, they happened underneath us--we were completely blocked, so the action ended up being pretty straightforward.

A shot of the second jump with a 500mm f4. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Given that I didn't really have a clear shot at the crashes, I decided to shoot with a tilt-shift lens and try for something completely different than what everyone else was shooting. Here is a second version--a little quieter than the first image in the blog. I can't decide which one I like the most just yet. But I think the tilt-shift approach works particularly well with this sport: for one it gives a very miniature feel to the images--almost a doll-house effect. The venue looks pretty surreal to start with, and in many ways the bikes are so much smaller than most of the athletes, which adds to the effect that using this type of lens from a slightly elevated angle produces.

A slightly different moment shot with a tilt-shift lens. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Finally, I ended the day at Athletics (Track & Field), and I didn't really come up with anything that was all that special from within the venue itself. The one image I did see took place while I walked into the venue, during the first clear-sky sunset I've seen over this two week period. I decided to focus on the fans, color and light and shadow, mixed in with a little geometry as I photographed them walking to their seats prior to the start of the evening session.

Fans at the Birds Nest. Photograph by Vincent Laforet for NEWSWEEK

Saved By the Bell Lap

2008-08-22T15:36:08Z

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

All sport should be like the Beach Volleyball Olympic finals. Here’s the recipe for success. Loud music, the “Beach Girls” and Brazilians in the stands. I don’t care if there are Brazilians in the sport—you should just give some tickets to Brazilian fans each time there’s an event. Beach Volleyball has figured out this recipe and it works brilliantly. I didn’t need coffee to stay awake here—I was up and having fun.

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Talking of “The Beach Girls,” they’ve been a bit of a story on their own at the Games, with photographers hurrying back from sessions at the beach to report on what the girls where wearing this time. While they were a titillating sidebar to the sport, at this point in the Games they constitute what I would call cruel and unusual punishment. Anyhoo, I’ll be home soon, ‘nuff said…

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

The finals were held in the middle of the day with all that goes with that, including a nasty, contrasty overhead sun. I know it’s supposed to be a beach scene but the nighttime atmosphere is so much better. The U.S. team won handily in the 3rd set and literally as they where dropping to floor in celebration about two hundred volunteers with rakes and shovels ran onto the court to start prepping it for the medal ceremony. For crying out loud give the guys a sec to get their jubo done and more importantly let me shoot it! I was blocked on the best images and of course they where happening toward me. What ya gonna do?

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Another night at track and I was banging my head against the wall to try and pull something out the bag. Going over to the long jump I found the ugliest, messiest pit I have ever tried to work at. Instead of being the pro and trying to make it work I shot a couple of frames and left. Long jump didn’t happen in my world tonight. This set the tone and I went to the back of the photographers stand to sulk and shoot a little long glass.

I was a little down on myself for taking the easy way out. A chat with some old friends also licking their Olympic wounds of one description or another, Pascal Rondeau of L’Equipe, Koji Aoki of AfloSport and so on (it’s quite an international bunch) got me back on track. We’re not all down on the Games, it’s just late in the game and we’ve all picked up some scars.

The last lap of the women’s 5000m and I switch to a wide lens and drop the shutter speed and try a slow pan of the pack. It a technique I used on the velodrome a few days ago but these guys are much further away and going much slower, which makes this a really low percentage shot. Well it saved the night for me (see pic #1)

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Bryan Clay of the U.S.S. comes in at the end of the decathlon 1500m but wins the decathlon gold. Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Men’s 4 x 400 semi’s. Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK

Cirque du Beijing

2008-08-22T15:33:39Z

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

Today was a much-needed treat covering what could be the Cirque du Soleil meets the Beijing Olympics: Women’s Synchronized Swimming and Rhythmic Gymnastics. Both of these sports are beautiful to behold, a mix of artistry and athleticism. I started at the Water Cube, getting there three hours early to fine-tune the underwater remote we had set-up the day before. I had a very specific photo of the swimmers entering the water shot from directly below showing the unique ceiling and Beijing logo to give it a sense of place. It was fun to set-up with Getty Chief Photographer and good friend Al Bello, and we took turns with his dive gear placing, focusing and firing the cameras. We had to be very careful not to bump the other photographer’s cameras while staying close to the bottom because the synchronized swimmers were in middle of practice. Even though the teams didn’t line up perfectly for my camera, I was happy with the frames I ended up with, but have finals tomorrow to improve on.

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

Then I jumped in a cab and headed directly to the rhythmic gymnastics prelims, which was a solid hour away in rush hour traffic. After quickly editing my synch swim and eating a weak snack of bean cookies in the back of the cab, I crashed out for about 20 minutes. When I arrived at the gym, I was already about 10 minutes late for the first rotation, and met the photo manager who escorted me to the catwalk position which I had reserved 48 hours before to ensure a spot. I started off like Machine-Gun Kelly, trigger happy at first because the subject seemed so photogenic in their sparkly outfits, streaming ribbons, and ridiculous flexibility. After realizing every competitor was like that I slowed down and just started working on composition and peak moments. After moving from my initial position, which was near directly overhead, I moved a bit more side-on for the team competition, which was a mistake but the photo marshal wouldn’t let me move back unfortunately. So again something to work on in the finals tomorrow…

Photograph by Donald Miralle for NEWSWEEK

Day 13 Highs and Lows

2008-08-21T19:10:51Z

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

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…