topic Re: The World of the Olympic Sports Photographer in General Discussion

The World of the Olympic Sports Photographer

Tronhard — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 01:53:43 GMT

Back in 1994, I was a volunteer with the Victoria, BC Commonwealth Games and had the chance to move with those games, and potentially the Olympic Games, as a IT technical support person for media. There is a cohort of technical teams who lead a semi-nomadic life, servicing the various sets of games (Commonwealth, Winter and Summer Olympics) and travelling every two years with each venue. In the end, I did not pursue that opportunity, but it gave me an insight into the environment of the specialist games sports photographer at that time. Since that time, there has been a total revolution in the technologies involved and it has changed even more in the five years since this film was made.

To me, this film was a confirmation of the elements that made Canon produce the kind of camera the R1 is - watching the video, one can see how the digital platform has rapidly changed in the last decade or so, with each games engaging with significant changes in the time within which images need to be on line, how people saw the games and looked at the photographs that were captured.

What each iteration of media technology has done is compress the time within which a photographer works to take the image, transmit it and have it processed, filtered and published on-line down to a matter less than a minute - as they say: essentially as close to real time as possible. One can see how that has placed demands on the Olympic Committee to plan the venues, and the host nation to equip them for the artistic needs of the photographers and the technical demands of transmitting images in real time to very remote locations. It also explains why the specialist sports cameras are biased towards fast focus, high frame rates, smaller MP capacities, and fast, reliable transmission technologies, using both wired and wireless pipelines.

What I also appreciated was the competition among photographers, their influence on the layout of venues and branding styles, and the design of their tools. It's definitely worth the time to watch.

Whether one is interested in the specific tech of the cameras or not, it's an interesting view into the world of the elite sports photographer at the world greatest sporting event.

For those interested, there is a great blog from sports photographer Jeff Cable, who is at the Olympics and gives some good insights into life as a freelance photographer at the games:
Jeff Cable's Blog: Living in a bubble: The crazy things about being a photographer at the Olympics

Re: The World of the Olympic Sports Photographer

Tronhard — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 01:05:51 GMT

If anyone sees this from the USA can you please advise if you can see the video on You Tube? Someone on another platform said it was not available in the USA - they live in New Mexico, apparently.

Re: The World of the Olympic Sports Photographer

FloridaDrafter — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 01:12:58 GMT

Trevor, I can view it, no problems.

Newton

Re: The World of the Olympic Sports Photographer

Tronhard — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 02:02:27 GMT

Jeff Cable, in his blog, was using the R1 predominantly and had the following to say in his blog:
His wish list for the R1 before it was announced:
Jeff Cable's Blog: My wish list for the next Canon professional camera

Jeff Cable's Blog: Capturing photos of the men from USA Gymnastics - Wow, this Canon R1 is AMAZING!
"I know what many of you are thinking. You are thinking "Do they have any Canon R1 cameras at the Olympics to loan? And the answer is YES! It looked like they had about 40 pre-production units and they are loaning them out to people for a 24 hour period, so that they can try it out. I am lucky in that I have two of them for the entire games. They also had pre-production units of the Canon R5 MKII.

I can tell you this. I wish I could keep my hands on the Canon R1 and Canon R5 MKII after the Olympics, because I am totally addicted to them now. If you saw the last blog post, with the incredible success I had with the new focus system, you know why. And I used both cameras this morning to photograph Simone Biles and it was incredible once again. And this time I was shooting at 40 frames per second. Now I have a ton of images to go through, and share with you all."

Re: The World of the Olympic Sports Photographer

Tronhard — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 02:01:46 GMT

Thank you Newton, I thought that would be the case. The guy who complained it was not viewable is rather inclined to be contra whatever is posted on that site!

Re: The World of the Olympic Sports Photographer

Tintype_18 — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 23:00:51 GMT

Were you in Atlanta for the 1996 games?

Re: The World of the Olympic Sports Photographer

Tronhard — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 09:40:08 GMT

Sadly, no. I was in Canada at that time. I would love to have been there and had the opportunity, but I had family commitments, and they came first.

Re: The World of the Olympic Sports Photographer

Tronhard — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 09:44:29 GMT

Stunning Images from the Paris Olympics. One can see how the comments are true about incorporating elements of the Olympic Games and the hosting venue are used to effect.

I love the full moon beneath the Olympic Rings... but they are all amazing! The Can-Can girls doing their thing at Mont Maître as the cyclist goes by are excellent.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-c9425ca9-5c30-4ae0-b059-3eae6abcc18f

Re: The World of the Olympic Sports Photographer

Tintype_18 — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 12:28:38 GMT

An aside: I live about 125 miles north of Atlanta and traveled to the Carolinas. During the games, I cut across north Georgia to avoid the traffic. A close friend was a civil engineer and worked with the Forestry Service to create the whitewater course on the Ocoee River.

Re: The World of the Olympic Sports Photographer

Tronhard — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 06:14:17 GMT

That is cool. Yep a lot of people are involved in many, many ways to set up the infrastructure and processes required to host a major games. It starts off before the last games are over, for some (e.g. planners) when the bids to host are being prepared.