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The story of the tournament is Swimming God Michael Phelps of the USA. He is entered in 8 events and is attempting do something never done before. Win gold medals in all eight. We will be all over him. What happens over the next 8 days is amazing. Phelps breaks 5 world records, and wins gold in 7 out of 8 events. He would have had 8 golds but one of his teammates is disqualified in the relay medley heats and team USA cannot compete in the final. I have never seen anything like him in the pool. This is a special time to be involved in swimming.

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As for us as team Getty Images. I think we get gold medals as well in several events.

Photography – I can honestly say I had no expectations going into this event. It was indoors and we had a lot against us, overall it was not ideal. But you know what? We still did our thing. Myself, Ezra Shaw, Cameron Spencer, Quinn Rooney, Robert Cianflone, Mark Dadswell, Kristian Dowling, and Vladmir Rys got down to business, and worked every angle possible in that stadium. This group of guys blew me away. Not one complaint came out of their mouths. We all rotated the positions the way it should be. It kept us fresh. It kept us motivated. They followed a heavy brief. Shot every finish. Yet they still had time to create some wonderful photographs. These guys were a pleasure to work with. Also don’t let me forget freelancer Lucas Dawson who did the entire sponsor brief. It was a tough job and he handled his business like a true pro.

The stellar editing team in action.

 

Editing – A world-class team of editors were bestowed upon us for this tournament. Captain Mark Kolbe and Senior Editor Rebecca (Queen of Red Dots} Butala led the way with their quiet, calm leadership, and stellar editing. Will (The Thrill) Jones, Dean Mouhtaropoulas, Ashlee Ralla, and Graham Denholm filtered in and out as well between water polo and fell right in step. These are the unsung heroes of this job. They help put our pictures out around the world. They deal with us hovering over their shoulders, touching their screens, asking if they sent this picture or that. That is like them coming over to us photographers and pressing the buttons on our camera while we are shooting the event. But they deal with us.

 

IT – The Lone Ranger David Lum was a one man wrecking machine. He attacked the venues with his Sweet IT skills and hooked us all up with what we needed to speedily get the pictures out. There were many setbacks but Dave was impressive!

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Day 7 of the swimming was a morning session filled with 50 meter starts. It seemed like thousands of heats with competitor’s names so long they stretched across my heat sheet. There were 5 photographers that day and we were well covered.

I decided that this would be a good time to try my 4×5 speed graphic camera and shoot some film. It keeps me motivated to try something a little different. This camera is from the 1950’s and is a whole different style of shooting.

Here I am working with the 4×5 camera.

Unlike today’s digital pro-cameras with fast motor drives and endless frames to shoot, this camera gives you a shot of one frame at a time with a manually loaded sheet of film and the camera mounted on a tripod. It takes awhile to get into a rhythm. I place myself at the starting line, shoot a few frames and then move downstairs. I have a pool bib today and have access to the pool deck. I set up at the start, check with the officials to see if I am in their way and shoot a few more frames:

Al Bello/Getty Images

The last day comes and goes without incident. We get the job done, pack up, and it’s time to go home. As I sit on my long flight from Melbourne to LA and then to NY, I go over everything from the event in my head. By the time I am home I will have been gone for 21 days. It is hard on my family. I miss my wife and kids. It will be really good to see them. My wife Debbie is an incredible woman. I also think of the new friends that I made from Getty Images Australia. It was good for me because I was dealing with a lot of people I have not worked with before. They made my stay in Australia a wonderful experience. They are a crew full of talented people with very bright futures in this business. In the end of an event like this all you hope to get are a few laughs and a few good pictures. I think we achieved that. The situation was not ideal but we made the best of it. We came out of this event more experienced, better, educated, and the best part is I reacquainted with and made a whole bunch of new friends from down under.

 

 

 

 

Tags: FINA Swimming Championships, photos

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