Dateline Beijing:  It all ended just as it began 17 nights ago in the Birds Nest in the Chinese city of Beijing.  In 1984 on August  12th the night of the Los Angeles Olympics Closing Ceremonies  I was presented a 45 recording of a song called Let the Nations Play.  Tonight as the athletes of the XXIX Olympic Summer games celebrated their accomplishments, the first verse kept going through my head:  "Let the nations play, let the athletes of the world run free, let sport unite humanity, let the nations play."

Over the past 17 days I hope you have enjoyed the photographs, tales of adventure, photographic techniques and a bit of opinion. 

While I had a blast doing this blog, and getting perhaps more than my fair share of "fifteen minutes of fame"  it's the athletes who are the stars. My thanks for giving us so many great performances and action to make great pictures of.

Here are some pictures from the last 24 hours of my "Dateline Beijing" adventure:

The Gold Medal games of both women's and men's basketball ...

 

...and the Closing Ceremonies

 

Over the next few days it will be packing and flying back to Rochester.  I am sure some of you are wondering exactly how many shots I took etc.  Stay tuned. My final blog on Beijing will have a dateline of Rochester, with a recap of the 17 day's worth of exploits.

To quote the great American journalist Walter Cronkite:  "And that's the way it is."
Richard
The Photon Wrangler

 

 

Dateline Beijing:  Some people say that Synchronized Swimming is not a sport. After spending time at the Water Cube this afternoon, I would take exception!

Imagine combining the grace and pageantry of the Cirque du Soleil with über water aerobics. Add a dash of Ester Williams; that is when she was a movie star.  She also happened to be a swimmer who was on the 1940 US Olympic* team. After that she hit the silver screen doing water ballet. Go figure! It was Hollywood at its heyday.

Once you get past the waterproof theatrical makeup, emotional faces, nose clips and gobs of hair gel, what these swimmers do in the pool is simply amazing. And at times it drives them to exhaustion.

If by chance you ever get the chance photograph this SPORT, take a medium-length zoom and blast away... it's fun.

















Oh yes, Argentina captured the Gold in Men's Football











* The games got cancelled that year due to the start of World War II

Happily treading water
Richard
The Photon Wrangler

Dateline Beijing:  It was a late night and an early morning.  The new day started as the night had ended, with the USA against Brazil in a gold medal final.  It was the USA Women's football team that took the gold last evening and in Beach Volleyball it was the men's turn to take the top podium spot.

At the football game I tried something that I rarely do, that is use a tele extender at night.  Here in Beijing the lighting is fantastic and being able to go the ISO 6400 gave me the freedom to experiment.  Not all the shots were done that way, but you have to look really close to tell the difference.  So instead of a 200-400mm zoom what I had was more of a 350-600mm zoom! (or in that range, I was using a 1.7x converter for those of you who are mathematically inclined).

One thing I found out shooting soccer, oops FOOTBALL for everyone but us Americans, is you can't have a long enough lens! They do get close, so make sure you can either zoom back or grab something shorter.

This morning it was off to the BEACH (Ok the sand stadium) for the Gold medal game between the USA and (yes once again) Brazil.  The men's game is more of a power game both on offense and defense, so hammered spikes* and roofs** not to mention the occasional six pack*** were on ample display.

And lastly there is the Modern Pentathlon - a sport where you; Run, Swim, Fence, Shoot and Ride a horse.  These have to be the gutsiest of all Olympic Athletes.  After all you're probably not going to do yourself any personal damage,  Unless you get hit by a car while running, eaten by a shark while swimming, stabbed while fencing, or shot in the foot by an off-the-mark bullet.  It's the truly brave that enter the Show Jumping Arena on a horse they first encountered 10 minutes earlier; things are bound to be awkward.

Still high in the saddle
Richard
The Photon Wrangler

Volleyball Definitions
* Spike to hit the ball down  past the opponent at a high rate of speed, when done properly it is called a kill.
** Roof:  To block a spike
*** Six Pack:  When the blocker misses the roof and blocks the ball with his or her face. The blocker must then purchase and share a six-pack, of a cool beverage,  with his or her teammates.

Dateline Beijing:  The origins of wrestling date back to Olympia in Ancient Greece.  Since the start of the "modern" Olympics, the sport has changed somewhat. For instance, wrestling is now done on a padded mat, not in a dirt circle. No longer are the matches to death or near death. There is a winner and there is a loser, but the loser gets to go home and try again. The use of body oil is prohibited and wearing clothes is no longer optional, you must wear appropriate apparel.

It's a sport that combines speed and sheer strength, whose practitioners are highly trained and have unbelievably strong necks!  They come in all shapes, sizes, and genders.

As I said, the ring is a padded mat. Unlike so-called "professional wrestling," there are no "Lucha Libre" moves, no "foreign objects" (brass knuckles are considered a no-no), It's bad form to bite.  Lastly, no high-risk maneuvers off the top rope, there are no ropes.

But there is action, and it's in three rings at once.  If you're shooting high school wrestling you can probably get close enough to the ring to shoot with a 70-200mm zoom.

Oh, I forgot to mention NO EYE GOUGING!

Not yet down for the count
Richard
The Photon Wrangler

Dateline Beijing: It's going to be something of a potpourri today. One thing about the Olympics is that if you are looking for variety in sports, this is the place to be.

BMX Bike Racing became an Olympic sport for the first time at theses games. For many of us lensmen, this is the first time we have shot the event.  These guys and gals get way up in the air and make for some good snaps. The lens of choice was the 200-400 zoom, which this seems to be an emerging standard. What was hard to find was a clean background, that would still let you get the face. What the heck, you can't always be choosey.

Beach Volleyball - Ok come on, there isn't an ocean within hundreds of miles! So how can you have BEACH Volleyball.  Hey, I grew up in Santa Monica, HOME of Beach Volleyball (sorry Manhattan, Hermosa and Santa Barbara). But just south of the Santa Monica Pier and north of the Life Guard headquarters is the place they claim it all began.  that is where Gene Selznick ruled the net.

This was Beach Volleyball of another sort, staged in an arena with press tribunes, cheerleaders and blaring music.  AND THE CROWD WENT CRAZY! (an homage to Cubby the original Beach Volleyball announcer)

The surroundings were odd, but the play was great! Captured with a 70-200 mm zoom

Now for something totally different.  I had always wanted to photograph Men's Heavyweight Weightlifting  Last night I got the chance and was not disappointed!

Armed with a 200-400mm zoom 1/500sec lens at ISO 1250 I found a spot head on and just recorded what was happening.

The winner of the Event was Matthias Steiner of Germany on the last lift of the night with at Clean and Jerk lift of 258 kg.  But that wasn't the only story; he practically took off his head on an earlier missed attempt.

Volleyball Players and BMX riders aren't the only ones to get "Hang Time"

Pressing forward
Richard
The Photon Wrangler

Dateline Beijing:  "Mackson, what is that thing hanging around your neck?" (imagine the words being spoken in English with a European accent).  The question came from my longtime friend Giuliano Bevilacqua who has been covering the Olympics since 1964 in Tokyo.  In those days it was an 8 day trip by train and boat just to get there!  By his calculations, this Olympics is his 22^nd.  He is quite the character and quite a photographer.  We first met doing swimming in the late 1970's. He was always at the morning practice sessions with a long lens made even longer with a tele-extender, walking along the edge of the pool snapping away.  And keeping with his personality, he was giving everyone a running commentary on what he was shooting!  We have been paling around at the last few Olympics

Here's Giuliano at swimming a few days ago

I digress...  So what is around my neck that he was asking about?  Before leaving for Beijing, I wanted a camera that I could carry with me all the time.  The equipment I use to cover the events is hardly something you would wear.  We just announced with Motorola the new ZN5 handset -  5 megapixels sounded good to me and it's always on and ready to go.  You have been seeing the pictures from this camera throughout my postings over the past 12 days.

Here are a few pictures that frankly would not have been made without the ability to just reach into my pocket and fire away.  By the way, it has 4 ways to transfer the images - Blue Tooth, WiFi, CMDA, plus you can take the memory card out and stick it into a reader.

A smiling Photo Marshall (they all smile here!)

Even the Traffic Police smile, as the sign says from this grab shot out of the car.

Sports Illustrated's Robert Beck shoots a few faces in the crowd at beach Volleyball

It didn't quite feel like Malibu

Fans and the medals ceremony for Women's Single's Tennis

And this camera does wonderful panoramas

Here I am as photographed on the ZN5 by Leo Mason who is pictured above editing his Beach Volleyball pictures on the bus back from the event.

Still clicking away
Richard
The Photon Wrangler