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
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
Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK
Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK
Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK
Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK
