The O, July 2
All Images © The Oregonian
The O, June 1
All Images © The Oregonian
AJ Chavar is on Fire
Image © Juliette Lynch (another immensely talented photographer – check her work out here: quememueve.blogspot.com)
Y’all should send him a big congrats for some good news he just received – I won’t spoil it, ask him about it.
Check out his work here: AJChavar.com
and here: VeteransListeningProject.com
and here: ApartFromWar.org
The O, June 2
All Images © The Oregonian
The O, June 3
All images © The Oregonian
The O, May 27
All images are copyright of The Oregonian
Olympic Gallery Reception at Syracuse University
I’m happy to announce that Syracuse University has funded a gallery of my work from the Beijing and Vancouver Olympics. The collection of photos will hang in the Panasci Lounge in the Schine Student Center From April 1, 2010 until Mid May. There will be a catered gallery reception on April 1, 2010 at 6:00PM until 8:00PM. Any and all are invited to come. Doctor Lawrence “Doc” Mason, a photo professor at the university will be speaking, and I will be talking about my time at both games – I hope to see you there!
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 9
Photos by me. Photoshop work that is above and beyond anything I’ll ever be able to do done by this guy.
This may or may not be a rough draft- in the original photos, the bottom edge is kept in the frame, to give a better sense of height. We’re working on creating a “fish-eyed” version that shows this. Stay tuned.
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 8
We’re off to the ski jump hill, then short track speed skating today.
I continue to be indebted to Donald Miralle for his help with pans (also, a BIG congrats to him for winning World Press – check it out HERE). I’ll get an OK panning shot at 1/60th of a second, he can get a tac-sharp shot at 1/4 of a second. No man knows how he does it.
How does one go about taking such preposterous photos as the last two? Well, let me tell you – you stick close to Al Bello and Don Miralle for the day, and you are bound to end of up a situation like the photo below…
Hanging out under the ski jump. The hands on the far left of the frame belong the Sports Illustrated’s Bob Martin. Left to right is Getty’s chief of sports photography for north america, Al Bello, former Getty-photog-gone-freelance, Don Miralle, and yours truly. I don’t want to make some ridiculous comparison for what it is like hanging out under a ski jump, but It is pretty eerie. You start taking photos when the whistling sounds like it is going to land on top of you. Then, only silence and shutters clicking.
Next, we’re headed to hang out with the Apolo Ohno, but first, some Chinese vs. Korean tension, slowed down.
This old chap was kind enough to leave his foot still (for the most part) for 1/8 of a second.
And now – Apolo Ohno’s seventh medal, with photos from the qualifying, semi and final round.
Apolo hangs out with friends.
His signature tactic – hanging out in the back of the pack, drafting, then making a mad dash for the front in one of the last laps.
Like everyone at the Olympics, these guys move fast. Also, they seem to be able to skate horizontally.
Apolo taking first place in the semi-final round to advance to the finals. I would dare to consider this a decisive moment.
Token celebration shot. To be honest, this guy is incredibly cool, calm and collected. The photographer next to me pointed out Apolo was skating around and yawning before the final race (he really was). When he skates, he seems to move slower, and much more gracefully, rhythmically than the other skaters, who look they are getting ready to collapse. Whatever he is doing, it is clearly working well for him, and it is pretty awesome to watch. My second favorite athlete to photograph these games, behind Shaun White.
Alexia Grant goes to Syracuse student
We currently interrupt our Vancouver Olympic coverage to give a big congratulations to fellow Syracuse student and friend Juliette Lynch for winning the Alexia student grant!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the grant, it was started by the parents of Alexia Tsaris, after their daughter, who was studying photojournalism at Syracuse, was killed in the terrorist attack on Pan-Am 103 on December 20, 1988. At the time of the attack, Alexia was returning home from a semester abroad at Syracuse’s London program. The grant of $10,000 is used to promote a photo essay, proposed by applications, which will focus on social injustices and cultural differences. This is the first time in a few years the recipient has been a Syracuse student, and on behalf of Syracuse photo-j students, I can happily say we couldn’t be more proud. Check out her work, here: http://www.JulietteLynchPhotography.com , and to Juliette, congrats.
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 7
Downhill Skiing and Skeleton today. Everyone moves so fast.
This is how the skeletors start the race.
This is how the skeletors finish the race. They come up out of their own mist like serious bad-asses. Then they abduct you to their space ship.
This photo, along with the next two are going to tell you the same thing (guys going around a corner). This is bad photo editing by me at 1AM. But I like all three and this is my blog.
All the cookies in the cookie jar to the first person to figure out what this is.
My favorite skeleton photo at the moment. I’ll probably hate it tomorrow, but for now, I really like it.
A brief interlude before heading over to the ski-hill (where I could use some work). I took this photo while thinking of good friend AJ Chavar, seems like something he would shoot. that kid kills it – a very talented guy who I am excited to watch to see where he goes as we both graduate.
These hats are so, so pitiful – but can we really expect anything less from Americans? An epitome of over-sized, cheaply made, over-priced goods you can buy and then throw away to (not) remember your time at the Olympics. Naturally, they’re the hot ticket item, all the loud-mouth yanks have them, God bless. (Ok, sorry, my cynical rant is over).
Yard. Sale.
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 6
I shot snowboarding yesterday. Words really can’t express what it is to stand on the edge of a 22 foot halfpipe and watch the best riders in the world launch into outer space two feet in front of you. Without a doubt, the most insane feats of athleticism I have ever seen -they charge harder, faster, higher, meaner and gnarlier than anything- floating and flipping through the air as if alien specimens. The first and only Olympic sport I would personally pay money to see again. Your head spins. (Again, Im posting more photos than I should – it’s a rough edit at 1AM)
Shaun White (who just won his second Olympic gold) is the only rider other riders stops to watch. The score from his qualifying run would have won him the gold. It was so blatantly clear from the very beginning. A composite image tracking White through the air on this boost is in the works.
This is white on his way DOWN. I have shots of him from this sequence at a higher altitude but he has gone into the TV lighting (cropped out because it is ugly).
Kazuhiro Kokubo was a real contender for silver or bronze, I was personally rooting for him – he charged super hard. Unfortunately he slipped out as he crossed the finish line on both his finals runs, securing a trip home empty handed.
I don’t even like this photo, it just seems so clean and mandatory though.
On the other hand, I really, really like this photo – I don’t even care that it isn’t sharp. I wish I had shot more guys this tight.
I hope photo people like this shot. I do.
Back to White to close us out.
The guy is a pretty big rockstar, and the story of how he first got sponsored and started riding is pretty cool Doesn’t seem like such a bad life to live.
The coolest part of the night was standing two feet from him as he ran over to his posse. He was incredibly genuine and friendly and polite with everyone. After all the hugs and high fives from teammates and friends and corporate schmucks and Olympic trolls, he took this quiet moment with his Mom, which I thought was pretty cool.
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 5
I’ve never been one for facades or presentations – I tend to prefer straight-laced honesty. With that said, I would just like to express that I am not very pleased with myself tonight. I can shoot better. Today was weak. That is all.
United States rider Lindsey Jacobellis ignores pleas from an NBC correspondent for an interview after crashing during the semi-finals. After a heart-stopping crash only yards away from the finish line and a gold medal in Torino, Jacobellis was a strong contender for gold in Vancouver.
(As a closing note – I can’t tell you how often I make fun of sunset photos. But what the hell, this was the first time in a week the sun has come out long enough for a photo, and it was the end of the day on the bus – Vancouver, the ocean water and mountains looked amazing. This corner of the globe aint so bad.)
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 4
Posting lots of photos (too many) today. Two quick lessons I learned. 1) I really wish the sun came out in Vancouver more often. 2) Hockey pucks are really, really small and move really, really fast- ay?
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 3
I was lucky enough to shoot the men’s moguls qualifying round and finals tonight. These guys sure know how to huck themselves off mounds of snow. Enjoy.
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 2
I have much less time to post than I originally thought I would, often spending up to 6 hours a day on a bus and an hour walking from house to bus center, bus to event and back. Here are a few from the first few days.
The opening ceremonies.
Austria’s Gregor Schlierenzauer during the prelims of ski jumping.
Apolo Ohno and JR Celski (left) pull into second and third place during the mens 1500 meter short track final. The silver medal Ohno won is his sixth medal, tying him for most winter Olympic medals ever.
Vancouver Olympics, Entry 1
Lets get one thing straight: I suck (suck, suck) at blogging. It is pretty obvious. But as I get ready to shoot my second Olympics, I’ve promised some good friends I will blog every few days about my experiences. I’m determined to keep up with it, if only for my own work flow and memories. So here we go.
This will be my first Olympics as an actual photographer, not an assistant. I am pretty excited for it, though the amount of gear and prep time I’ve needed has been pretty astounding. For instance, I learned the Olympic committee won’t let photographers on the hill for the alpine skiing events without proper crampons – $300 and a few hours of research later, and I’m the proud new owner of Asolo mountaineering boots (reviewrs of the boots commented how they had just returned from the summitting a few of the Chilean Andes – the boots worked great!) and Petzl crampons (photos to come, I’m sure). Wahoo.
Other goodies have included Mountain Hardware ski bibs, weather shells for the cameras, extra batteries, hand warmers with gaffers tape for the cameras to keep warm, pocket wizards and mounting gear for remote shots, laptop cases, 4 terabytes of hard drives (back up your stuff!), a new watch, googles, etc etc. That doesn’t even get into the lens, cameras or finding and negotiating freelance assignments. All in all, it’s been a journey.
The photo above is a small portion of a weeks worth of packing. I’m pretty pumped. Feel free to stay tuned.
London Leftovers, Part 1
I recently went trolling through the tombs of my semester in London. Photographically, I had just finished the biggest shooting experience of my life (Beijing), and suddenly found myself shooting some of the worst images of my career. My friends wondered what was going on, my professors showed their discontent through my grades. Amidst the rubble, I found this.