Editing the Gymnastics and Usain Bolt at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games August 14, 2016

In addition to editing the Gymnastics I was lucky enough to be part of the team editing the Men's 100m final. Photographers Lucy Nicholson and Kai Pfaffenbach both shooting the finish line. In total 11 cameras firing simultaneously at 16-18 frames per second for a race that took less than 10 seconds. First on the wire was Kai's remote picture below, moving to the wire in about 190 seconds.

As you can imagine my screen was busy. At first a strange calm and quiet, a nervous pause when nothing is coming in and you fear the sudden rush of data will crash the servers. Then the exhilarating rush of pictures. The art is not to panic, don't miss the window with the first finish line picture (it can come in any of the 11 windows) and then edit carefully. There are going to be a lot of pictures and other editors are looking at the work of other photographers. You move too many pictures and you drown the good ones, making it hard for clients to find the best; too few, and you may miss a key shape or moment.  

My favorite? Hard to say, so many great pictures. I love the fact that Google used Lucy's picture of the classic Bolt pose as their lead image. This would have been seen by millions with a Google search of Bolt or Rio Olympics. Hundreds to chose from and Lucy's picture is the one chosen - respect.  Shame about the toes and fingers being cut off  but more about that later as that's one of the key struggles shooting and editing in the gym.

Usain Bolt poses for a picture as he celebrates winning the Men's 100m Final at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil August 14, 2016.    REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

But the Men's 100m Final is about winners and losers, so I think my favorite is the chest thumping Bolt who looks calm and triumphant in victory while the faces of his competitors faces are taut with spent energy and defeat. It would have been even better had the white pole not been in the background but as I have said previously we don't live in a perfect world.

Usain Bolt of Jamaica (L) win the gold medal as Justin Gatlin of the USA come second to take the silver in the Men's 100m Final at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games August 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

To see more of the day's action in pictures at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games click here 

Editing the Gymnastics & Archery at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games August 12, 2016

Very much a change of pace today as the Trampoline took centre stage at the Rio Olympic Arena. The pictures take on a rather erie sense of calm as the athletes seem to fall gracefully from the skies only to be propelled up again twisting and turning. Switzerland based photographer Ruben joined Mike to help cover the competition in the gym.

Rana Nakano of Japan competes in the Trampoline Gymnastics Women's Qualification Round of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.   REUTERS/Mike Blake  

I am very drawn to this almost abstract image and it took me a while to work out why. I think I like its graceful confusion as the eye jumps around the picture with no time to pause while the athlete is timelessly suspended at the peak of their performance. The eye moves from the highlight of the feet against the black background and red of the leotard, then simultaneously out right and up and left and down to the hands that both seem to float in space, severed from the body.  The position of the hands then beckon you back into the image towards the Olympics Rings, soft in tone and focus, in contrast to the black, white and red.  The image then comes together to make sense just before the athletes twists and falls.

Ruben's picture is wonderful in its timing and design. Athlete Nicole perfectly horizontal as she falls past the Rio 2016 logo.  The judge to the far right has his head tilted slightly left to mirror the judge on the left forming a visual bracket bringing your eye into the centre of this letter box shaped picture.

Nicole Ahsinger of the USA competes in the Trampoline Gymnastics Women's Qualification Round of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.  REUTERS/Ruben Sprich

Later in the day I also edited Lucy's pictures who was shooting the heats of the 1500m, 400m and 100m at the Track and Field. No finals tonight, so relaxed and fun, the detail of the Olympic Rings earring catching my eye in the mass of flowing hair.

Rosangela Santos of Brazil wears Olympic ring earrings as she competes in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Women's Preliminary 100m Round 1 at the Olympic Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.      REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

To see more pictures from the day's action at the Rio 2016 Olympics click here

Editing the Gymnastics & Archery at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games August 11, 2016

As a follow on from last night's post I am pleased to see that the Wall Street Journal enjoyed Kai's picture as much as I did. A big showing for the German who takes visual risks.

For the few that are concerned about my diet (and there are one or two) a slight improvement as a break between Archery Individual semi-finals and the start of the Women's Individual All-Round final gave me time to hunt out something green.

I thought I'd take the time to describe a little about my workflow. Each photographer has two or three Canon 1DX mk2 cameras which are either cabled or connected via wireless. The pictures are streamed from the camera directly to our servers. These cameras shoot 14 to 16 frames per second. As you can imagine I actively encourage the photographers to keep their fingers off the button. This below gives you an idea what a second's worth of pictures looks like.

At the gymnastics we have five photographers. Each photographer has a 'window'  that is pointed to their folder in the server. One photographer, who operates the remote cameras that are overhead, can have up to five separate windows. The photographers send short bursts of pictures at the end of a routine. As the pictures come in I open each folder, scrolling through the pictures full screen, looking at every image. I mark the picture I intend to crop and file with a blue mark and when I reach the end of the photographers last burst of pix I mark it brown. This is what my screen looks like. The Archery event at the top, as which happens at the same time, just to make it even more complex.

Once the image is open in full screen I decide on the crop (see below) and send it to the processors, Darrelle or Gary. They check it for quality, caption it and add the codes that send it to our global clients. We call this the wire. On average the pictures move from gym to clients in about 90 to 180 seconds. We are fast. Tonight I looked at 5000 pictures.

Here is the picture from the example above as it moved on the wire. I have cropped it to leave a clean background. As part of the Olympic Ring logo has been cut off in the original picture I decided to balance it by cropping in under the rings to remove the microphone at the bottom of the frame. I cropped in close to the right so Simone 'looks' down into space to the left of her face.

Simone Biles (USA) competes in the floor routine of the Women's Individual All-Around Final August 11, 2016 in the Rio Olympic Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.   REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

This is what I do, this is what I love, so sounds easy, doesn't it? Believe me, miss a picture a photographer loves or a key moment from the event and you are as popular as a ref who gives an away penalty in the dying seconds of a game the home team have to win.

To see more pictures from the day's action at the Rio 2016 Olympics click here