Underwater Photography At The Bejing Olympics
By Jason Heller, August 20, 2008 @ 02:00 AM (EST)
There's a great interview on Sports Illustrated's website with photographer Heinz Kluetmeier , who apparently has covered every Olympics for SI (with the exception of Innsbruck) since the Munich Games. He and his assistant, Jeff Kavanaugh, landed the signature underwater shot of the Olympics: Michael Phelps beating Serbia's Milorad Cavic to the touchpad in the 100 butterfly.
As underwater photographers, we all wonder how those Olympics shots are captured, and who the lucky souls are who get to do it. Well, it's not as glamorous as you might have thought (it never is, professional photography is hard work just like any other profession). After a lot of hard work and prep, it's really a matter of shooting wirelessly and tethered to a computer, a la studio photography.
Kluetmeier says "what we wanted was a live feed from underwater and also the ability to keep a camera underwater for days.", "We are shooting eight frames a second. You can miss the touch with a hundred frames a second with a high-def camera. We got lucky because as Michael Phelps hit the wall, we got the picture."
And apparently it's a highly competitive gig. I'm dying to see a shot of all the cameras at the bottom of the pool.
"...you almost have to ration the space in the bottom of the pool. It is very valuable real estate but guys want to get stroke shots and pretty pictures."Congrats to all the photographers who are capturing great underwater images from the Olympics, keep up the good work!
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