Living in a bubble: The crazy things about being a photographer at the Olympics

I woke up this morning (once again about an hour before my alarm was set to go off - arghhh) and went down to breakfast at the hotel. The funny thing is...it is a lot like the movie "Groundhog day" where I just keep repeating the same thing every day. I walk the stairs and never take the elevator, And I get the same food (boiled eggs, ham, cheese, coffee, croissant) every morning. This morning I went downstairs and there was a family of three at breakfast and I thought "What are they doing in our press hotel?" For the last couple of weeks, this hotel has been press only, so it was weird to see "normal people" here. This made me think about the craziness I am living in here.

Let me explain...

Living in the bubble

Speaking of things that are not "real world" here, myself and others are going into our 3rd week living in the Olympic bubble, and have no clue what is happening outside of the Games. My brother mentioned the stock market, my girlfriend mentioned something about the Bay Area, and I am completely clueless here. All we hear is tidbits of news about Simone Biles or Léon Marchant. And then we are off again shooting, editing, posting and moving to the next event. It is as if there is nothing outside the Games.

Where are we?

I have been taking trains all over Paris but other than seeing the Eiffel Tower, Sacré Coeur and Versailles, I have just seen one venue after another. In talking to other photographers here, we all say that we have to remind ourselves that we are in France.

Losing things

I mentioned that I lost my hat (I think I left it in a cab), but I have also lost at least one lens cap, an iPhone charging cord and one ProGrade memory card (downloaded so no images lost). This is probably due to the pace and exhaustion. All small things, so nothing to sweat over.

Hygiene (or lack of it)

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area where we have very little humidity, and even though I visit the rain forest of Costa Rica at least twice a year for my photo tours, the sweat here is really different. In Costa Rica, as soon as we return from our day of shooting, we can either go for a swim or take a nice shower. Here, I leave the hotel in the morning and usually do not get back until after midnight. We all go from sweating to air conditioning (where it all dries up), then back out sweating and back to air conditioning (if we are lucky). By the end of the day, the sweat is caked on and I feel disgusting.

Walking - so much walking!

I walk between 7-10 miles every day at home. And thank goodness I do that, because we are all walking a ton here. As I mentioned before, they have us taking trains to the venues, but it is not uncommon to walk a 1/2 mile or more to get to the press entrance of the venues. Yesterday I walked 25,000 steps (almost 12 miles) just getting to and from the hotel and venues.

The pace

When I walk at home, I walk at a decent pace, but nothing crazy. Here, all of us photographers are moving as fast as possible to get from one place to another. At the venues, as soon as the competition is over, watch out because a swarm of photographers will be heading from the competition area to the press room. And we are not sauntering, we are hauling butt to get our laptops, download, edit and deliver on schedule.

The pain

Even though we often use monopods when shooting with the big lenses, we are also hunched over when shooting low angle shots, sitting on uncomfortable benches, and lugging all this gear all over the city. All this adds up to sore bodies. Most commonly, the main complaint from photographers (young and old) is back pain. 

What to take each day?

I know that when I leave my hotel room in the morning, there is no coming back, so choosing the right gear is essential. I have 4 cameras and 9 lenses to choose from, and depending on what sport I am photographing, I have to decide in advance what I think will be the optimal gear for the day. Two days ago was the first time shooting water polo at the big pool (since we moved venues after swimming is over and right before the water polo medal rounds), and when I got to the new venue, I saw that they had the shooting positions much farther back than the other venue. Mainly because the pool is so much bigger. I had my RF 100-300mm lens but did not bring a 1.4x tele-adaptor. Ooops! But I do now!

Need more time every day

From waking up until going to sleep, I am trying to keep up with all your comments and questions (on the blog, social media, and email). I don't get to everything, but I am trying. And then there are the emails from people back in the US who have no idea I am here, and they want a response within hours. Yeah, that does not happen. :)

Sirens

From the minute I arrived in Paris, I heard the sounds of police sirens as the police force moves around the city. This has been a non-stop occurrence for the last 2 1/2 weeks.

Lack of sleep

At home I try to get at least 7 hours of sleep, going to bed around midnight and then getting a slow start to the day. Here, I am lucky to get 5 1/12 hours of sleep and there is no down time. It is go go go.

The pressure

It is Wednesday here, which means we are getting towards the end of the Olympics here in Paris. Both the men and women of USA Water Polo are in the finals, so we have some big matches coming up. The pressure increases for the athletes, the coaches, the staff and me. I need to get great shots of the action and reactions, hopefully good reactions. 

The pending completion and transition to the real world

A couple of days before the Games began, I photographed a press conference for the USOPC and the team doctor was there. One of the questions that was asked of him was about the post-Olympic transition for the athletes. What is it like for most of them who go from being in the lime light to going back to regular life and their regular jobs? And his answer was "this is a real thing that has to be dealt with".  I can relate to this too. In another week, I will be back home, cooking my own breakfast, and dealing with the real world again, I will be back to photographing personal events and teaching on photo tours. I will likely go back to writing this blog once a week. And then I will start the preparations for the next Olympics in Italy (and that process starts in two weeks).

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