# Olympic shooter interview



## jaomul (Mar 2, 2014)

Pro Photographer Jeff Cable Explains What It's Like to Shoot The Olympics | Popular Photography | Popular Photography


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## The_Traveler (Mar 2, 2014)

"78 GB in an hour and a half. " :crazy::crazy:


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## imagemaker46 (Mar 3, 2014)

I read what he wrote with great interest, but shooting 78GB of images in 90 minutes is overkill, plain and simple. I've worked around other photographers like this that over shoot events for different reasons, one of them is that they are paranoid of missing anything the other is that they don't think when they shoot, they just point, shoot and hope they end up with a great frame. These are the photographers that other photographers hate to sit near, the constant blasting of random spray shooting is distracting.

He mentions that there is no difference between Summer and Winter Olympics, there is a huge difference, especially to the photographers that are working all the mountain events as opposed to any of the indoor venues.  When you have to add all the heavy snow gear, crampons for climbing the mountains, and a 40lb backpack, it becomes a huge physical challenge, then throw in the changing conditions, of cold, snow and wind.  When you shoot the indoor venues, you show up in running shoes and a light jacket, sit in a chair and shoot, that's it.  The Summer Olympics you are not dealing with all the bulky clothes, but you are surrounded by twice as many photographers, covering twice as many events, unless you are assigned to shoot only one event, it's really not a challenge. He mentioned only covering hockey and water polo, that's not a difficult way to spend time at the Olympics.

I leave for Russia in 7 hours for the Paralympics, I am assigned to cover all the alpine events, that's 70 different variations of 4 sports, on two mountains.  I already know that it will be one of the most physically challenging events that I will have done. I contacted friends who shot alpine at the Olympics so I wasn't going in blind.  It's a 20 minute walk from my hotel, a gondola ride up the mountain and then a 15 minute walk to the sub-press centre, and from there a walk to the venue and find a spot to shoot from. My journey to the mountain will start at 8am, last event on some days starts at 8pm. During breaks I have to make quick selections and get them sent out, at the end of the day the remaining edited images are then uploaded for the media to use.  Will I shoot 78GB a day, not even close. I have 3 8GB cards to use, and will be quite selective of how I shoot, quality beats out quantity every time.  

Pretty much everything else he mentioned is true, especially the burn out once the Games are over, there are no dates or days of the week while working, for me tomorrow is day 1, I finish on day 17 and then go home.

As a side, I have shot eight Summer and Winter Olympics.


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## The_Traveler (Mar 3, 2014)

imagemaker46 said:


> As a side, I have shot eight Summer and Winter Olympics.



And not one of those times have you asked me if I wanted to go.

With very rough estimates of image size (assuming ~19 M/image) he shot about 45 frames per minute for 90 minutes.
That seems like a lot to me.

but of course, I'm not a Pro :hail:


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## imagemaker46 (Mar 3, 2014)

No that's a lot by any standards.  I have to say this is the first Olympic event that I will be using digital, the last Olympics I did was in 2000. I know things have changed quite a lot, but when it comes to pictures, it doesn't matter if it's film or digital, content is what counts, not the number of frames shot.


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## vintagesnaps (Mar 3, 2014)

What struck me was 'veteran' - since Vancouver? some experience too in the Olympics just prior to that, which doesn't seem all that veteran. 

I don't know how someone constantly firing off rapid shots would actually see what they're looking at. I feel like you have more time than you'd think to get some shots; if you count seconds sometime it's more time than you might expect. Seems more a matter being set where the action will go next, etc. I'd think too the drawback would be having thousands of pictures to hunt thru to find what's usable much less what's good. 

As usual Scott you make a lot of good sense. (I'm taking mental notes...) Have a good trip and hope you enjoy the experience there.


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## imagemaker46 (Mar 4, 2014)

I just arrived in Sochi after three flights and 24 hours, I have two days to scout out the venues, and get over some jet lag. The glamour of it all.


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## The_Traveler (Mar 4, 2014)

have a great time.
watch out for Russian women.


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## imagemaker46 (Mar 5, 2014)

Love the Russian women.


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## The_Traveler (Mar 5, 2014)

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