Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/10/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Let me ask one question so we can establish a criteria about shooting Commonwealth Games, Pan Am Games, Summer & Winter Olympics along with World Track & field Games since 1968? Here's my experience as a photographer on assignment for magazines and or as a photographer member of the Canadian team to each of these events. Anyone else out there with this shoot time experience? Hands - up! :-) And due to those events a couple of administrative situations also occured: 1994 Commonwealth Games... Victoria... Canada. Photographic media co-coordinator, responsible in training a staff of 125 volunteers as Photo Marshalls for a year prior to Games opening ceremonies. These people control the many photo positions in venues and have to deal daily with accredited media photographers! Trust me that in itself is a chore beyond your wildest imagination! 1998 Commonwealth Games... Kulalumpur, Malaysia Advisor to the national press agency BERNAMA for media photographer photo positions and training photo marshal staff similar to above.. So I'm going to try and pass along a few things about these games and what it's like working within very small confined Photo Positions jammed with photographers of all nationalities. The first thing is.......... these are not high school track meets and you as an accredited photographer can not go wherever you please. There are fixed Photo Positions at each venue long before the Games begin. And like them or not? That's your spot or go home! You can not roam around and pick any old place you want. On top of that you must deal with people who's language isn't English! Or whatever your language is. That in itself can be an incredible challenge at times! Particularly when you are missing your assigned sport whilke tryingto communicate! Unfortunately the person or persons selecting photo positions may never have attended any other international games! ERGO? The position locations are horrible little areas with sometimes several hundred photographers jammed in like sardines. Your normal lens length? A 300mm plus a couple of extenders in your pockets for openers. Maybe at home your 80-200 is a big long lens. Here? Forget it in most cases. Or as many do, use 400mm - 600mm and read my lips.... "YOU CANNOT USE TRIPODS!" Only monopods, period or hand hold. There's never enough room anywhere for the shooters, let alone adding one tripod and if you try, you wont have any trouble from the Photo Marshall, it'll be your buddy photographers ! Possibly I can answer some of the posts, maybe? Certainly from a working sports photographer's perspective. Maybe? 1/ >>> Excellent images, fantastic! But you'd have thought someone would have >>> removed the dust spots from image 21, wouldn't you? <<<<<< I looked at the frame! Spots? Do you have any idea how many thousands of images are flying by the multitude of photo editors from the many photo agencies covering these games? This tiny quick grab sample of excellent sports photography and all you can come up with is......... >>you'd have thought someone would have removed the dust spots from image >>21, wouldn't you? <<< My God get a grab on yourself, just look at the beautiful photography! It's not your local high school event! 2/ > I bet all the ignorant athletes from Australia and England who dropped > out just before the CWG are regretting it now! Went off without a > hitch, both in terms of facilities and security (must have been the > No.1 target for a terrorist attack in the last two weeks):<<<< No question India took a great deal of heat about the preparation and time frame. But this kind of "so called not being ready on time" happens at nearly all games. It did here in Victoria, Montr?al in '76 and I think to some degree Munich in '72. And Atlanta had some concerns. But it goes with the territory. However the TV news sure made it look like a disaster area, whether the fine people of India liked it or not. What we in Canada and other Commonwealth countries were seeing was on video and not the writings of some biased writer's opinion. And as far as athletes pulling out? I don't consider them "ignorant at all!" There were many here who were damn close to doing the same thing. Look you can't call them "Ignorant!" because attending and competing is their lives and given what the international video news were showing telecast from Delhi!! You can't blame them! We saw footage of a "huge snake" of some kind that was found crawling about in the athletes village. Now how the hell do you think athletes accustomed seeing snakes behind glass in a zoo are going to feel about that in the athletes village? Along with cow dung and other excrement lying about that we do not see here nor most other commonwealth counties. Even though we know about it, when you see it live time on the tele it does make one have considerable doubts about attending. But that doesn't make them ignorant! The good part was... they came off quite successfully and when that happens everyone only remembers it as a "Great Games Event!" And that is all that matters! Regardless of all the previous crap. 3/ "Besides the obvious and sensibly banned items also prohibited were cameras, laptops and handy cams.<<<<<< This has to be the height of stupidity! Regardless of the terrorist possibility. I've never seen that at any event, certainly cameras. That's security beyond common sense completely stupid. But the stupidest security thing myself and several other photographers in Barcelona Summer Olympics 1992 was the security guys at the entrance to the swimming event make a guy with a metal leg prosthesis take it off and hop through the metal detector doorway. Then get him a chair so he could put it back on! Now that's even worse than India security. But over reaction can be found at all games no matter what country. But cameras? 4/ >>There is ignorance here as anything else, whipped up by the media - after all most athletes are quite ignorant of world realities. <<<<<<<< Excuse me? Maybe yours, but Canadian athletes receive major briefings before going to any games regarding all the local customs, rules, regulations and ethics of the country we're visiting. We leave absolutely no room for local custom screw-ups! Ours are not the least bit ignorant of the countries we attend! >>>> Before the games, reading media coverage, one would feel that if you >>>> set foot in Delhi, you would either get targeted by militants or be consumed by dengue fever or have a stadium roof fall on your head or be bitten by a cobra<<<< I'll go back to live TV video coverage being broadcast directly from Delhi that was enough to make anyone who was seeing it for real to have major doubts regardless of what you say. I agree the written stories could always be taken with a large serving of salt in case the journalist was padding his story. But real-time on TV? Sorry mate, it didn't leave much to the imagination of what the conditions were! And I will go back to my earlier comment.... "It all turned out beautifully, everyone came home Ok some with medals and some without, but they all had a pretty good time and that's all that will be remembered! Another side to the Games of any kind. Once you have been shooting many and in the heat of battle with so many photographers of the world, certainly as many as I have. I never watch them on the TV. The emotional side takes over... "I wish I was there, just one more time!" Then the reality of time and age kicks in and you know you'd never make it to the closing ceremonies ! And probably go home in a box. :-) His last picture was his best! ;-) cheers, Dr. ted