Yesterday I photographed the USA Swimming and USA Tennis press conferences. And then just about an hour ago, I photographed the USA Basketball conference.
Needless to say, Michael Phelps was the star of the show for USA Swimming, and their were a ton of press there to photograph and interview him.
Not only is he the winningest Olympian, but he was just given the nod to carry the American flag, leading the team, tomorrow during opening ceremonies. Very cool!
As you can see, he was pretty relaxed and happy in his interview. The big question was centered around him standing for upwards of 8 hours during Opening Ceremonies. This is always a challenge for these athletes right before they compete.
I saw this person trying really hard to ask a question and decided to focus on his hand instead of Phelps. Since this room is dedicated to Q&A from the press, I felt that this would help tell that story for you all.
After Michael Phelps had come and gone, they brought up Katie Ledecky.
She had a good time up there as well.
And then I attended the USA Tennis conference with all the tennis players. But, as you can imagine, the stars of the show were Serena and Venus Williams, mostly Serena.
Not a whole lot of emotion from the Williams sisters.
They had just come from practice, and they looked tired.
But I managed to get a couple of nice smiles from them.
A reporter asked Coco Vandeweghe how she felt about being at her first Olympic Games. She answered by saying how special it was to be an Olympian just like her "old mom". Coco's mother was an Olympic swimmer many years ago.
And photos from today's USA Basketball conference
Along with taking the big Canon 200-400mm lens to get the tight shots of each athlete, I brought a Canon 16-35mm lens to show you all what the press room looks like. This is the largest of the rooms, usually reserved for the higher demand teams / individuals.
Here is a photo of Carmelo Anthony and Draymond Green having a little fun while one of their teammates was answering a question.
Kevin Durant was listening intently.
As was Klay Thompson.
After the guys had all talked for a little bit, the communications manager had them all stand up and get together for a team shot. I quickly hopped up on a ledge in the back of the room and shot 4 successive shots of them to make a panorama. (I had planned on doing a pano shot anyway, so this worked out even better.)
Then they split up around the room so that they could be interviewed in smaller groups of press.
Carmelo Anthony was very popular, especially since this is his fourth Olympics, and a chance for him to win his third gold medal.
Klay was also being interviewed by a large crowd or reporters. I waited for the video guys to light their faces to give me some directional light.
Who the heck brought a selfie stick to the Olympics??????
As I was walking out, I passed by Carmelo and raised the Canon 1D X Mark II and 200-400mm lens to grab a couple of tight shots of him. I like this one the best.
All this and the Olympics haven't really started yet. The real work starts tomorrow!
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1 comment:
Haha, there are always people with the PRESS badges and smartphones... - it seems the Olympics is no exception. Friends, relates etc. get their free passes.
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