"high risk" photos comment by Reuters chief photographer at Olympics

Yeah! Dedicated to those who claim that B&W photography is dead for photojournalism..

I have seen these photos many times and could not tell you if they were in b&w or color. And, I was the one that provided the reference.

Maybe it does not matter?
 
"Good photographs won't cut it, I am competing with a 1,000 photographers here" said Adam Pretty, the chief photographer at the Olympics for Reuters

thanks, bob. that was well worth the time to go through each photo.

greetings from hamburg

rick
 
Reuters photographers are some of the best out there. Bar none. Their former Global Picture editor (Tom Szlukovenyi) used to work in Toronto and in fact, one of their best editors used to shoot in Toronto as well but now calls New Jersey home where he is in charge of Reuters' North American coverage.
 
.. a total failure was no worse than a merely good photo as neither would be used...

facinating...

While the "golly, gee whiz, that is stupendous" label is very relative in photography, we do need to set out personal goals very high and not settle.

I hope I am not someday remember as "he made a lot of pretty good photographs"
 
While the "golly, gee whiz, that is stupendous" label is very relative in photography, we do need to set out personal goals very high and not settle.

I hope I am not someday remember as "he made a lot of pretty good photographs"

my goals/oblectives for photography have changed over the years.
as an amateur persuing a hobby i can be a bit lax in this regard...but when i get into artist mode it bcomes a more serious matter and i become the dreaded critic of my own work.
 
There are some stunning images that are only possible because of high speed autofocus and shooting burst sequences of 20 images in a row. Technically professional but that's just for the short moment of ahhh and click to the next. Of course when it got printed and published globally is was a sucess. That's the news business. The most interesting ones usually are made because one photographer decides to break out of the bulk and takes a position where no one else is positioning his monopod.
 
I have always been a photogrpaher who prides himself on carefully framing and shooting one shot. I have learned recently that this approach does not work well in some situations - this is one of them. Here I would imagine its all about the best and fastest focussing camera and the one with the highest speed shooting mode to get just that one shot. The one where the fast super tele or zoom is going to be the only lens that works.
 
As amazing as some of these photos are, I still remember some of the photos taken at the Munich Olympics 1972, especially these of US athlete Mark Spitz during his swimming competitions, and I wonder to what extent improved camera technology has an impact on sports photography of large scale international events.

EDIT: Anyhow, thanks a lot for sharing the link!
 
As much as technology is making some photographs easier to get for the lay photographer (of that there is no doubt), people are not giving enough credit to these photographers. I've worked beside some of the photographers in the gallery and can say that they're not all sprayers. The best sports photographers know their sports inside out. Absolutely. You'd be surprised at how little they actually lean on the shutter. Having said this, 10 fps is obviously going to be more advantageous than 3.5 ;)
 
The best sports photographers know their sports inside out. Absolutely. You'd be surprised at how little they actually lean on the shutter.

I can only assume but ... re-acting within parts of a second and a profound knowledge would be most helpful for this kind of photography. My hats off for these photographers, amazing work!
 
how did this become a gear thread?

my take on the op comments had more to do with a personal philosophy about setting goals for being a better photographer...

no?
 
High risk at 10 fps? Hardly. Getting such shots with a Crown Graphic, on the other hand . .............

10 fps will not catch "the moment" except in rare random cases. One had to anticipate "the moment". I shot a lot of action sports, like soccer and baseball, way back in the 5 fps days and it was no where close. So far away that I am certain 10 fps will not do it either. I ended up shooting just in the auto wind or 2 fps mode so I would not waste film. But I did get pretty good at anticipating "the moment".

I have a daughter in law who insists on shooting her Canon high end DSLR at 12 fps. I can see where "the moment" happens between her frames so she ends up with $4,000 worth of equipment taking soccer mom type shots.

Even more depends on your positioning and overall approach.
 
Risk is scary for many photographers. As Adam notes, with high risk come high rewards and this is usually borne out when those photos get played well in newspapers/magazines/online etc.. Straying from the pack (hard as it can be at the Olympics where positions are strictly defined) is one form of risk ( ie-you could miss out on The Shot but if you're the one who gets The Shot while away from the pack, the rewards are there).

Gear can help but as David Burnett illustrates perfectly, it's not the whole deal.
 
Terrific post Brother Michaels, thank you.

But please don't knock those of us who struggle

to produce a pretty good picture consistently. :bang:
 
I have always been a photogrpaher who prides himself on carefully framing and shooting one shot. I have learned recently that this approach does not work well in some situations - this is one of them. Here I would imagine its all about the best and fastest focussing camera and the one with the highest speed shooting mode to get just that one shot. The one where the fast super tele or zoom is going to be the only lens that works.

Would chime in also, and disagree on this. At least until they make 500 fps video cameras, and individual frames can be picked out of the video feed. That would take care of the 'decisive moment' part, but all the other skills of a photographer, sports or otherwise, could hardly be called invalid in light of that.
 
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