[Leica] WAS: photos from RNC NOW: Olympic photo positions.

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Didier showed: the way it was! ;-)
> That's nothing compared to this crowd of impacted photogs and digicams:
> http://www.pbase.com/vthian/athens_olympics_2004%26page=all
> (From the recent olympic games)

Hi Didier,
Thanks for posting these Athens Olympics photog photo position situations.
They sure brought back a flood of good, bad and ugly memories for me
considering I covered the Olympics from 1968 until 1992.

I noticed some of the viewer comments of "fun?" It isn't fun for these
photogs in the positions shown as it's damn hard work of 12 hours or more
standing in the pit packed like this all day! One would think some of the
viewers might understand it isn't a bunch of happy snapping photogs on a
Sunday afternoon stroll in the park.

If reaching the Olympics for the athlete is the ultimate goal in their
sport. So is reaching the level to shoot the Olympics as demanding for the
photographers as for the athlete. Certainly as they're packed in here. The
unfortunate thing is, the numbers of positions allotted for photographers
has increased dramatically each Games. However the amount of space to
accommodate them has hardly enlarged at all, obviously by the situations
seen here!

However, the mental attitude one must work with is..... "This isn't for the
rest of your life, it'll be over in a couple of weeks!"  Accept it, do your
job as best as you can and get on with life after it's over. Remember,
editors don't give a damn if you're naked and freezing or sweating under the
noon day sun..... they want pictures, and better than everyone else's!
Nothing less. And one surely doesn't say.... "I didn't get any pictures
because we were crammed in worse than sardines!" And if you showed him a
picture illustrating the photo position and numbers crammed in, his response
would be nothing more than , "So what the hell, big deal, that's no excuse
for no pictures! Where the hell is the winner?"

By viewing these photographs one can appreciate the "work and dedication"
required to cope with being a photographer at the Olympics and yep it's "all
fun!" ;-) Yeah right! :-(

ted