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Tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims had already jammed the hazy river banks at the holy confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers at 3 AM as I arose from my tent. I was in north India to photograph the most auspicious bathing day of the 45-day Kumbh Mela Festival, the largest religious gathering in the world. This year, up to 70 million are expected to attend.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Unfortunately for some photographers, the Indian authorities decided to lock down river traffic, effectively shutting us off from access to the holy site, as our journalist camp was located across the river to the southwest. I piled into a rickety, wooden boat with a German photographer, three hours before sunrise, as we attempted to flout the traffic ban and traverse the river to the site. We managed to cross the water without difficulty but we were unable to land on the other side as the banks werew heavily guarded by unflinching Indian police who shooed our boat away at every turn. I began to think that getting into Iraq would have been easier. We eventually maneuvered a couple of miles upstream and we were able to dock on the north side of the river, along with two AFP colleagues.

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Thinking that we were in the clear, we walked back down the river bank towards the site. Yet the Indian authorities again blocked our way and forced us to hike through an endless, circuitous maze of checkpoints and back roads as dawn quickly approached.

After countless negotiations with various police officers and hours of hiking, we managed to break away from the herded route and make our way to the spot called Sangam, which is considered the holiest of places to bath as it is at the exact meeting point of the three rivers. Just as the sun began to rise, the Juna Akhara sect, an unpredictable lot of thousands of naked Sadhus (holy men), paraded past me through the dust and down to the water to bathe. Notoriously unfriendly to photographers, one Sadhu slapped my camera away as he danced past on his way to the river.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

The collective energy of the masses was palpable and quite a beautiful thing to experience. The pilgrims buzzed with excitement as they approached Sangam and yelped with ecstatic joy as they finally were able to immerse themselves into the holy, albeit heavily polluted, water. As the day wore on, millions of pilgrims filed down to Sangam to have their holy dip, which supposedly wipes away all sins and paves the way to salvation. A certain Getty Images photographer, not without sin and not wanting to miss the opportunity, eventually joined them.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

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New Revlon Spokesmodel Sheryl Crow and Ron Perlman, Revlon Chairman were seen arriving at a downtown restaurant for the launch of Revlon’s newest product, Revlon Colorist on January 28, 2007 in New York City. Rumors have recently sparked of Perlman’s romantic interest, in not-so-natural-blonde Crow, since his split from blonde icon Ellen Barkin. Maybe blondes do have more fun?

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A lot was written in the national media how if Peyton Manning couldn’t win the “big game” his career wouldn’t be validated. He answered those critics with a win over the three time Super Bowl champions New England Patriots led by Tom Brady. With the snow falling outside, we were nice and toasty inside the outdated, ugly RCA dome.

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

The first half was fairly lopsided, with the Patriots clearly dominating the game and the score. I remember speaking with some of the other guys at halftime, that the game was over and the Patriots had it wrapped up. But in the second half, it was a whole other team that took the field for the Colts.

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

I was shooting with three other photographers, Andy Lyons, Doug Pensinger and Doug Benc, and we decided to take quadrants of the field and stick to it. That usually is the best way of covering a game with four people, although it can be frustrating to be limited in you movements for fear of ending up shooting next to another colleague. We had two editors Rebecca Butala and Travis Lindquist who were not allowed on the field to collect cards, which was a bit of a hassle, but ending up working out ok.

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

The scrum at the end of the game brought on the usual amount of chaos. Most other still photographers, NFL Films and TV, are either trying to get within a couple of feet of Peyton or Dungy at the end of the game. Simple physics makes this very difficult to do. Peyton is not a very expressive person, and most of his “jubo” looked like dejection. Maybe if he wins the Super Bowl next week in Miami, he’ll smile.

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Streamers and confetti fly around members of the Chicago Bears during the NFC Championship trophy presentation at Soldier Field. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

“This is the blueprint of the Chicago Bears. Great defense, run the ball well, make a few plays in the passing game. We ran it down their throat in the second quarter. This was typical, traditional Chicago Bears football.”

—Quarterback Rex Grossman following the Bears win over the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship game.

You are so right, “good Rex” breath. An unbelievable win in the NFC Championship game. In Chicago. In the cold and snow, over the “favored” New Orleans Saints. It was a great game to cover and to watch. The Indianapolis Colts victory over the New England Patriots was equally exciting, putting Peyton Manning in his first Super Bowl. And for the first time in NFL history, not one, but two African-American coaches will be on the sidelines leading their teams.

Rex Grossman and head coach Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears bask in the glory of their NFC Championship win. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Much will be written and spoken, ad nauseam, about the upcoming Super Bowl between the NFL’s pride of the Midwest, the Colts and the Bears. Between the NFL Network, ESPN, local television stations, newspapers and sports radio stations, the sheer volume of information about the teams and the game will be…well…ridiculous. Rather than rehash the obvious, I’d like to share some of my favorite photographs from the NFC Championship game and give readers a bit of insight on how we cover a game like this for Getty Images.

Our group in Chicago last Sunday included four photographers: myself, Jamie Squire from Kansas City as well as Al Bello and Nick Laham, both from New York. Squire, the 2006 Getty Images Sport Photographer of the Year, is an outstanding photographer with a keen eye. Bello, a several time winner of the same award, is our Sports chief photographer and one of the best boxing photographers on the planet. Laham, a transplanted Australian, has taken to covering American sports with tremendous success since he came to America a couple of years ago. Our editors were Chris Chambers, a New Jersey native and New York Jets fan who moved to Chicago a few months ago after working in our Los Angeles office and Michael Heiman, a great “Borat” impersonator from New York. The guys with the tough jobs, our runners, were Mike Shayotovich, Media Sales Manager and Jeff Meister, a member of the Sales Ops team, both from the Getty Images Chicago office. I say “tough jobs” because the runners are responsible for getting the photographers’ CF cards from the field to the editors, who are located in the media/photo transmit room inside the stadium, whenever anything important happens during the game. Or, simply when the photographers tell them to run a disk in if they feel they have good or important pictures. They run (or at least walk fast) back and forth from the field to the transmit room throughout the game.

Mike Shayotovich (L) and Jeff Meister of the Getty Images Chicago office seem pleased about the outcome of the game and their chance to “run” for the photographers during the NFC Championship game. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

The great thing about covering a game with two or more photographers, in theory, is that no play or moment important to the game is missed. For example, I missed a touchdown pass play from Rex Grossman of the Bears to Bernard Berrian because I was moving from one end of the field to the other behind the Bears bench when the play happened. Jamie and Al were in the end zone, on opposite sides of the field, to shoot the play. At the end of the game, we had specific assignments which we had discussed the night before. Al and Jamie were to follow the coaches, Nick was to shoot players and fans and I moved into the roped off area in the middle of the field, wearing my cute little orange vest, to shoot the trophy ceremony. We cover the field of play in “quadrants” which we do at any big game and which we will also do at the Super Bowl. Each photographer is responsible for his or her section of the field, the end zone and the bench closest to them. During the regular season, most of us cover games alone. This is more than challenging, as we do a great deal more running around the entire field to photograph game action, coaches, warm-ups, outstanding players and other special requests that our clients might require. At playoff games, we must also pay special attention to the fans, before and during games, and to any pre-game or half-time entertainment that might occur. Despite a smaller area to cover in a playoff game, our intensity is ramped up so that we cover anything and everything that happens in our area.

Bernard Berrian hops into the end zone after making a terrific catch for a touchdown against the Saints. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

For the photographers, a chance to cover a Championship game in our home towns involving teams that we grew up with, is always a special treat. In Chicago, the mood for this years’ Bears team and the playoff games was decidedly different than 21 years ago when the Bears last had a Super Bowl bound team. One writer on sports radio in Chicago talked about the “collective civic anxiety” that gripped the city before the playoff game a couple of weeks ago against the Seahawks. Another writer made an interesting point on the same show. In 1985, Chicago sports teams hadn’t won a damn thing since the Bears won the NFL title…in 1963. The city so embraced the ‘85 Bears that fans will be talking about them…until they die. This year just wasn’t the same. The writer mentioned that since the ‘85 Bears won the Championship, Chicago sports fans had the opportunity to celebrate 6 NBA titles by the Michael Jordan-led Bulls and, shock of shocks, an actual World Series title by the Chicago White Sox in 2005. The fans seemed to know what it took to win a title, especially considering Jordan’s consistant heroics throughout his career. The Bears just didn’t provide the same heroics this season as the team did in 1985. But Bear fans still loved their team and the team didn’t disappoint them. For once.

There was an awful lot of “man hugging” going on, as shown here by John Tait and Olin Kreutz, as the Bears finished off the Saints in the NFC Championship game. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Here are some of my favorite shots from our crew from the game last Sunday:

Adewale Ogunleye of the Bears celebrates a late sack against Drew Brees of the Saints. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Jon Stinchcomb, Terrence Melton and John Owens of the Saints have nothing to celebrate as the snow falls in Chicago. (Nick Laham/Getty Images) Chicago Bears matriarch, 83-year-old Virginia McCaskey, daughter of George Halas, enjoys the final moments of the NFC Championship game from a golf cart on the sidelines. Virginia attended her first NFL Championship at age 9 in 1932. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Running back Thomas Jones flys through Bears and Saints in the second half. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Running back Cedric Benson smiles at teammates after scoring a second-half touchdown. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Ruben Brown lifts Rex Grossman after a TD pass against the Saints. (Nick Laham/Getty Images)

Adewale Ogunley dumps water on head coach Lovie Smith at the end of the game. (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Brian Urlacher of the Bears breaks up a pass intended for Marques Colston of the Saints. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Reggie Bush of the Saints flips into the end zone for a touchdown after out-running the Bears defense. (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Desmond Clark of the Bears signals first down against the Saints. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Photographers from Getty Images, including members of the news and entertainment divisions, will be working throughout the Super Bowl week to provide great coverage and images. We will have a larger group of editors and support staff working than at any other event outside of the Olympics or the World Cup, to bring our clients the best possible coverage. And I will continue to yack, ad nauseam, on this blog about the Bears, the Colts the game and how we cover the Super Bowl.

So, I will be in Miami in February. All sincere apologies to my wife and son who will be braving the Midwest cold while I’m in Florida working for a few days nex week. As I did last year when covering the Super Bowl in (sheesh!) Detroit, I will miss our wedding anniversary. I wouldn’t miss it again, for just any other team. But she knows, deep down in her Texas soul, that it’s the Bears in the Super Bowl and I just couldn’t miss it.

Who knows when, or if, it will ever happen again. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Jonathan Daniel wears the orange vest in snow following the game. Loser. (Photo by Mike Shayotovich)

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Fashion designer Thom Browne worked with artist Anthony Goicolea on this haunting, hypnotic video:

Thom Browne

Anthony Goicolea

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With iPods, portable DVD players, laptops, Blackberries, et al now the rule not the exception, we strive for total control over what input our minds receive. In tandem, studies have surfaced that show the perils of multi-tasking, while the spiritual communities maintain that the key to a happy life is mindfulness, or giving one’s full attention to the present moment. Here’s a Flickr set that quite hilariously and horrifically shows what can happen if we let our techno toys usurp too much of our focus:

Via

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Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

The temperature in Park City has averaged about 20 degrees Fahrenheit this weekend, making bundling up an absolute necessity and standing outside for longer than a few minutes uncomfortable to say the least. But standing outside for hours at a time is exactly what our roaming photographers do every day of the festival, from the morning hours when people are getting their morning coffee to the evening hours when after-parties are in full swing.

Frazer Harrison, Scott Halleran (pictured above), Peter Kramer and Evan Agostini are our men in the trenches. These four Getty Images photographers are braving the cold and spending hours upon hours on their feet every day to catch the action and try to capture the other side of the festival – the shopping, the skiing, the parties and the other relaxing aspects of the Park City experience. It is a difficult job, as it is a guessing game – they never know exactly where the action will happen. That is why their photographs are so special. For instance, Frazer was lucky enough to capture some pictures of Elle and Dakota Fanning taking a skiing lesson from Picabo Street by sheer tenacity and Scott Halleran got some great shots of Sienna Miller drinking a coffee (or perhaps it was tea) while window shopping.

Scott Halleran/Getty Images

Back in the portrait studio yesterday, the highlight of the day for the Getty Team was having Heather Graham join our team photo (see below!), and a personal highlight was meeting Anna Farris, a Seattle-ite (best known for her role in the Scary Movie franchise as well as Lost in Translation).

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Now I am back to work and off to read about the Oscar nominations!

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