All Hail the Queen.

From inside the Forbidden City

Left Over Glass, Entry 9

Nikon D3, 24 - 70 f/2.8
ASA 6400, Aperture f/9, Shutter 1/1000

Walking the Alleys II.

Left Over Glass, Entry 8

Nikon D3, 24 - 70mm f/2.8
ASA 6400, Aperture f/9, Shutter 1/2000

Walking the alleys.

Left Over Glass, Entry 7

Canon EOS1D Mark III, 500mm f/4
ASA: 1250, Aperture: f/4 Shutter 1/640

I talked to my Dad today, to tell him I probably wouldn't have time to meet up (he is also in Beijing, but we've only seen each other twice in the three weeks we've been here), and before I could barely get the words out of my mouth, he exclaims, "Here! I have someone for you to talk to!"

Hmm. Ok. I figure it has to be an old business friend of his who I won't remember. Yet the voice of a young hipster girl comes on the phone. Well this is unexpected. we better get to the bottom of this telecommunications quagmire.
"Hello, whose this?" I ask.
"This is Shawn Johnson!' I hear in a pippy response.

Ah. I see. It becomes clear that my father has taken it upon himself to be in the company of the 16-year-old, multi-olympic-medal gymnast, and also to make sure that she talks to me, and I her. For what reason? The answer to that question is beyond man's grasp.

Well, to make a long story short, I really have nothing to say to her (God forbid I think about congratulating her on her medal tally). I decide to cut to maybe the one thing we have in common - I tell her I work as a photographer and shot a nice frame of her on the balance beam. She seems mildly interested - about the same interest you have when you hear your grandpa got a hair cut.

Needless to say, we kept it short, but I thought it made for an amusing story. The photo is above.

Left Over Glass, Entry 6

Nikon D3, 24 - 70mm f/2.8 set at 60mm
ASA: 1000, Shutter speed: 1/1000, Aperture: f/3.2

This blogging thing is addicting - when you know you have an audience (even if its only my Mom and friend dave (read: sarcasm)), you want to keep them updated. Anyway, I'm also realizing how hard it will be to tell all the stories and publish all the photos I want - even with the pressures of an audience, it's a time consuming thing to do, and it's hard to remember all the details of crazy nights and photo-filled days.

Anyway, I was going to go to bed, I have to get up in about 3 hours, but Dave and I were talking and when I tried to get offline to go to bed, he held me to posting - this one is for him.

More coming soon

It has been a ridiculous 72 hours with many good stories and a few good photos. I'll try and post tonight, if not sooner.

Over 10 for Under 10

We showed up at the Bird's Nest today, more than 10 hours before the Men's 100m final - this for a race that lasts less than 10 seconds. Still, it was pretty cool watching the best photogs in the world set up their gear, and then watch a man run faster than any man has ever run before.

No photos for today, we're getting up in 3.5 hours to (hopefully) watch Phelps do his thing one last time (actually, this will be the first time ive even been in the building when Phelps swam, so it will be a real treat).

Keep in touch. - Andrew

Left Over Glass, Entry 3, 4, 5

Canon EOS Mark III, 400mm f/2.8
ASA: 1250, Shutter: 1/1000, Aperture: f/2.8


Canon EOS Mark III, 400mm f/2.8
ASA: 1250, Shutter: 1/1250, Aperture: f/2.8


Canon EOS Mark III, 400mm f/2.8
ASA: 1250, Shutter: 1/1250, Aperture: f/2.8


Today's theme is floating above/before the moment, taking place in men's gymnastics.
For these shots, I was assigned to hold spots for Vince while he covered other sections of the gymnastics meet. So far, he usually leaves me with big glass, 400mm, 500mm, 800mm, etc. So it means I (A) have to shoot for a very tight compositional moment, and (B) get very lucky. I like these shot a lot, I think I accomplished both.

Left Over Glass, Entry 2

Canon EOS Ds Mark III, 45mm Tilt Shift
ASA 1250, Shutter: 1/400, Aperture: Approx f/2.8
We've shot gymnastics 4 or 5 days now, and while Ive made some images I'm really proud of (Im sure I'll post them soon enough), they all feel very stock-ish (as in, a stock photo that you see in the newspapers). I wanted to get away from that, and focus on the athletics, prior to the action, prior to the celebration or defeat. I think it's a nice moment. For this, I once again used one of the tilt shifts and shot over the wall, looking down on the french gymnast team as they trained for the vault. I like it, the tilt shifts are really fun to play with and challenge you in many ways a normal lens doesn't.

The Left Over Glass Series, Entry 1

Canon Mark IIn, 45mm tilt shift
ASA 500, Shutter: 1/1600, Aperture: Approx f/2.8
(Russia's Women's Synchronized 10m Platform Diving)


"Left Over Glass" - self proclaimed term for when you are assisting someone, and they say you can shoot with whatever lens they dont use. The Left Over Glass series is comprised of images I shot from where Laforet told me to be, with the lens he didn't use, it leaves you to be creative.

So for this image... Laforet was under the pool shooting through an underwater window, leaving me above the pool. We used cutting edge technology to notify him when the divers were about to hit the water...aka, me on a dodgy chinese cell phone yelling "SHOOT!"

I shot this from my knee with his patented tilt shift. He liked it a lot, I'll take that as a compliment.

Clinic.

This is from a day or two before I left for Beijing.

In The Meantime...

For any of you who check in on this site every now and again (I haven't actually checked to see if anyone has been to this little blog, let alone, returned) I'll put more photos up soon enough. There are regulations about putting photos up on personal blogs when you are an accredited member of the media, and I need to look into the rules further.

As for now, life has been fun - it's been pretty hectic, but we get to carry a lot of big glass (Nikon 600mm f/4; Canon 800mm f/5.6) which has been really fun to shoot with. I havent shot sports in about a year, and its been a relief to see Im not a total failure. 

In the meantime, check out these sites, its been cool getting to rub shoulders with/ see these guys work:

PeterReadMiller.com

Bill Frakes.com

VincentLaforet.com

DonaldMiralle.com

MikePowellphoto.com

SolNeelman.com

Doug Mills (NYT shooter, no website)

Jamie Squire.com

(there are 1000+ others, but those are the names that come off the top of my head...)

Oh, and also check out the work the Newsweek shooters ( who Im assisting ) are putting out at...

http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/olympicpix/default.aspx

Grainy Night in Beijing's Alleys

China's Finest

With Inspirational Credit Given to Nick McCann (http://yandymhood.blogspot.com/)

Dragonfly.

Superman.

Great. Wall. Vender.

Ladies and Gentleman, we are floating in space

(the title is a good song by the band spiritualized)
Well, after a prolonged blog drought (unintended) I am back with a new batch of photos - fresh from China. I arrived yesterday, and spent no time at all hightailing it out to the Great Wall. I'll be here until August 24th assisting Vincent Laforet as we shoot the Olympics.

The humidity was incredible - think London fog, but 100 degrees. And even though there are only a few sections of the wall available to walk on, (meaning the place was chock full of tourists) It was still pretty incredible. I found that it wasnt only the wall that made the place spectacular, but also the razor-sharp ridge line the wall balances on. I had fun - please enjoy. (and as always, please critique and comment at will).