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.
Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK
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
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
Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK
Sometimes you actually do find something different and merrily shoot away and send it in the editor. Who doesn’t get it “‘cause it doesn’t look like a real sports snap.” (Note: this hasn’t happened with the NEWSWEEK crew).
“Something different” soon becomes commonplace. Track finish line remotes used to be pretty rare. Underwater remotes didn’t really start (I believe) until Heinz Kluetmeier of Sports Illustrated started putting one in the pool at the Barcelona Olympics in “92. Now the swimmers are tripping over them. Lovely pictures but not something different anymore. Same with shooting from the catwalk in a stadium, it’s just another angle now.
I’ve found that here at the Games as soon as you put a lens on longer than 200mm you’ve got very little chance of looking different. Not that you can’t shoot good pictures, they come from almost anyplace. But the lens starts to dictate the style.
Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK
Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK
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!!
