The Pressure of Photographing the Olympics

[Nick Walker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLeOVfhts7E - 10 mins 20 sec (published 1st Jan 2017).

Also excellent video by British photographer Simon Bruty - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVEtPBJ8f7Y (published Dec 2016) - if you want to miss the preparation chat and get to the meaty part of taking the images, skip to 9 min 45 secs.

Bob Martin and Simon Bruty are highly regarded sports photographers who I have had the pleasure of either working with or working alongside at sporting events. They are both very decent guys.

[john beardsworth]

Thanks for posting, both were indeed interesting.

[BrownBear]

Excellent!

PRESSURE

No single word better summarizes pro shooting, at least the stuff I mostly did- Industrial, scientific, event and aerial. Gotta get it right the first time every time because there are no second chances.  Never got into sports photography because I already had all the pressure I needed. Only thing comparable in pure business terms was the aerial work. By contract terms, if I muffed a shoot, it meant the flights for reshoots were on my nickel. At close to $2,000/hr for a helicopter plus fuel or $1,400/hr for my usual choice in fixed wings, a 3- to 4-hour shoot was no small consideration.  PREPARATION is the most important word in that light! 

[JJon]

This was great. I want to shoot Tokyo 2020.