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 ...

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 ...

 Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK  I don't smoke but it just sounds cooler than ''coffee and Powerbars.''So coffee has stopped working sometime in the last couple of days. I can’t seem to get a buzz off a large coffee with a double red eye. Or whatever it’s supposed to be called. All I know is this would normally get me running up ...

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK I had in-field access for a short period tonight to shoot the pole vault qualies and got lucky. As they say it’s better to be lucky than good. The 200m finals were happening right next to me. I used to love shooting this angle on Michael Johnson and he always made a good pan. His running style kept his ...

6 hours of bus time today. An early trip out to the men’s triathlon, then back to the MPC, out to the Velodrome then back to the MPC. Finally out to Workers Stadium for Brazil vs. Argentina football. A pretty packed day but I managed to pick some of the venues that are farthest away from each other. Another thing, normally I do work and write on ...

I’ll admit it I went a bit MIA this morning. Donald and I were both due to head to the triathlon this morning. I was heading to my room at 2:30 this morning and the idea of another early start just killed me, so I sent him a text. “Not going to tri, enjoy”. I’d had multiple late night early starts and know my snaps will suffer if I keep at it like ...

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 ...

Photograph by Mike Powell for NEWSWEEK Big day today....Michael Phelps going for gold #7 and the 100m final. Against my better judgment, I’m down at the pool at 7 a.m. to make sure I get the position I want for Phelps. Tying Mark Spitz’s record medal count is a great story and one of the few long time Olympic records left. Just days before ...

7.30 a.m. National Stadium Photo workroom.I’m loath to admit this, but this mornings’ photo meeting at the track stung a little. Getting infield access at the Olympics is a prized trophy. For many of the Olympics I covered that was my domain and I guarded it jealously. To be able to shoot with that kind of freedom and only having to share the ...

I was looking forward to shooting the Canoe and Kayak event today; I had never seen a man-made whitewater course and and the sight intrigued me. As it happened I watched the river get filled on TV from the photo workroom as it was bucketing down rain outside.  It had taken a long time to get out here on the bus so I was committed to shooting ...