A Day in the Life of a Skating Photographer

Get a Olympics photo credential and you've got it made?

No, it's only the beginning.

The credential is only the first step to capturing the action on the ice.  Certain high interest sports also require having a ticket to the event.  Writer and photographer tickets are apportioned among the various National Olympic Committees, and the the NOC's who credentialed their country's journalists in the first place distribute the tickets.  For U.S. journalists that means signing up on a list for the high interest events and then waiting to find out if you will get into the event you want to cover.  Demand always exceeds the number of available tickets, and there is always the risk a smaller outlet will have spent the money to be at the Games only to find they will not get to cover all, if any, of certain events.

As you might guess the skating events are usually considered high interest events, and so it was when we arrived here.  But after the Pairs Short Program it was recognized there was more room than journalists planned for, and only the Dance and Ladies finals were kept as ticketed events.  What a relief for a small outlet photographer.

After the Dance final, the IOC then decided the Ladies final would also not be a ticked event, and the doors were thrown wide open to any journalist with a credential.  That brings us to today, the day of the Ladies Free Skate.  Here is my day as it has, and will, unfold.

5:00 AM -- Got up to make my way to the arena for the event that beings as 5:00 PM.  Getting to the arena is a convoluted process.  Caught the 5:35 bus to the "Sky Train," the public rail system.  The bus was perfectly times to miss the first train out of the station, and so we wait for the next.  Arrived at the station near the main media center downtown and hustled over to the busses that take us to the arena, 25 minutes away.  Just made the 6:30 bus.

6:55 AM -- There are already 30 photographers lined up for the first-come-first-served prime photo positions rinkside.  I knew I was not going to get one of those and didn't even try.  For the Ladies Short Program the Japanese photographers showed up at 7:30 AM thinking they would get the best spots.  But the Korean photographers beat them to the punch and were there at 5:30 AM.  So we all knew beforehand there would be an escalation and both groups of photographers would be here before sunup, if not sleeping in line at the front door!  I had my sights set on a secondary position, judges' side in the upper bowl, hopefully one of the places with a decent sight line.  The guy next to me on his computer telephone connection who is talking up a non-stop storm said he was here at 5:30 AM and was 25th in line for a rink-side position.  I think he has been talking on that thing since then.  Another reporter told me that they closed the press room at midnight and reopened at 1:30 AM.  Some of the photographers went outside for the hour and a half and then came back in, and have been here all night.  Later heard that two photographers hid in their lockers when the room was emptied so they would be first when it reopened a few hours later.

7:00 AM -- Lucked out and got a space where I generally hoped to be.  I would rather be on the judges side and a little too high than rinkside on the back side, but we all (or our editors) have our preferences for the shots we want to get.  You need to be rinkside the way they have things organized to get a good medal shot, but that one shot is not worth having to shoot the event from the back in my view -- particularly when there will be no U.S. medallist, so the rafters it is.

Left some gear to mark my turf and returned to the press room.  You can't mark your turf with a sign or a card, but can if you leave some gear and visit your place occasionally to protect you space.  At the Ladies Short Program our Asian friends marked every seat first thing in the morning with just signs and business cards, with several photographers from each agency.  The staff, thankfully, took them all down.  I don't know how these agencies afford to have half a dozen photographers tied up for a day covering one event, even if it is Yu-Na, who is a superstar and sells a lot of papers back home.  The cost of a photographer in the field is not cheap.

7:00 AM to 4:00 PM -- Kill time for nine hours in the press room.  Can't really leave the building if you want to keep you spot.  So we work for nine hours on this and that.  The press room is ringed with large flat panel TVs which allow us to watch every event taking place at the time simultaneously.  Being in Canada, the curling channel is very popular.  Also bobsleigh, hockey and skiing showing around the room.

Six hour until start time!  No one here but sleepy photographers.

4:00 PM -- Time to make final preparations for the event.  The rinkside photographers get escorted to their places where they must remain to the end.  If you forget anything, tough luck.  A problem comes up, tough luck.  An old man's bladder and prostate, tough luck!  The rest of us can run back and forth to the press room if we need to.  Final equipment check, cards check, batteries check, laptop check and notes check.

5:00 - 9:00 PM --  Finally what it's all about, shooting the event.  Some of us (me) will be standing the whole time.  Others have seats.  A few even have tables for laptops and are sending photos to their agencies during the event.

Try and stay awake during event reviews and warmups!  Edit photos in the camera if you can.  Don't forget to shoot kiss and cry.  Try and get some coach shots.  If you change the settings to shoot kiss and cry or do something creative remember to change them back for the next skater!  Take good notes.  Kibitz with your neighbors.  Check your camera setting over and over and over.  Losing photos for a key skater will ruin your whole day.  Don't event think about getting anything to eat!  Food here is, .. well starving is preferable.

9:00 PM -- The awards ceremony.  The guys down low get that shot. Those of us up top do the best we can looking down.  If we are lucky someone down low will remember to ask the skaters to look up towards the group in the upper bowl.  If not, you get what you get.  Moving to a better position for the awards is against the many rules in this event.

9:30ish PM -- The final press conference.  Pick up all the results papers, quote sheets, etc. from the event.  Shoot the talking heads and hope at the end the skaters will stay a moment for a photo-op.  If they are wearing their medals, better yet.  If you have a deadline, you are finishing organizing your photos and copying cards.  If not (me) you can go back to the hotel.

10:00 PM -- Start the trek back to the hotel.  Bus to media center to train to bus to hotel.  Stop in the media center to check for late breaking notices at USOC office.  Pick up a bite to eat in the food court for the train ride.  The food courts is dreadful beyond description.  Have had more McDonalds the past two weeks than in the previous five years.

12:00 AM -- Back at the hotel.  Backup cards on laptop and external disk.  A prudent person always keeps two copies of their photos, so if anything happens to one set, there is a backup.

1:00 AM -- Finally done for the day.  Try and get some sleep for an early start the next day.

For the photo curious, what we shoot with and carry as backup:

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Copyright 2010 by George S. Rossano