Photographer David McIntyre
Literally thousands of photographers, writers, TV cameramen, and other media covered dozens of sporting venues at the Olympics in Beijing. As David McIntyre arrived at his camera position, he scrunched in between photographers sitting elbow to elbow. They’re the competition.
With all the competition, how can anyone make a unique image? Short of popping the batteries out of Mr. Elbow’s camera, one must out think and out shoot them…which is understandably, easier said than done.
According to the stats, the Men’s 4x100 relay was going to be extremely close race. The USA Men’s team was not favored in the race. McIntyre anticipated, if the USA Team pulled off a win, a huge emotional outpour at the starting block would spontaneous erupt.
During each leg of the race, he kept his 400mm f/2.8 lens trained on all four USA swimmers as they powered through the water lanes. He meticulously photographed each relay tag, until the final lap. USA Jason Lezak was stroke for stroke with France’s, Alain Bernard, closing on the finish line. As Lezak touched the wall, Team USA exploded in victorious exuberance and celebration. Teammate Michael Phelps, raised both arms and let out a yelp that could be heard throughout Beijing’s Water Cube stadium.
Figure 1
In McIntyre’s Canon Mark III, those images were “in the can”…but not all the elements were right. Team USA clustered around the starting block, cheering, shouting, clapping, hugging each other…except for Lezak, who was still in the water trying to figure out who won. When he looked up and saw his time, the Gold was theirs. At that instant, Lezak pumped his fits in the air and join his team in the celebration.
For McInyre, “the” moment would not be complete until all the exuberance could be seen on the faces of Team USA. He waited and watched…at last, it came together. For a split second, the jubilation, the arms raised in victory, the astonishment on faces of Michael Phelps, Garret Weber-Gale, and Jason Lezak, told a greater story of “the” Moment.
The images before and after are fine for recording the event, (Figure 2 to 6). But it all came together in (Figure 1), which lasted a micro moment.
Now for the nit picking. Ever since I first saw the frame, the out of focus white pool marker across the shoulder of Michael Phelps, has always bothered me. If McIntyre could change camera positions, that would be a good solution. But when one is sitting elbow to elbow with the competition, one cannot move side to side, not to mention up and down. The Olympic credential gods have no sense of humor about seat change request as the event is taking place. In this case, there’s not a lot you can do, except shut-up and shoot.
It would be nice to have Cullen Jones, the fourth USA teammate, cluster in the topside pool celebration. But that didn’t happen. All so many great pictures could be made better, if history would cooperate with the needs of the photographers.
McIntyre also amputated two fingers tips on the right hand of Michael Phelps. That’s equivalent to adding 1/100 of a second to the over all time of the next Phelps race. It could have cost Phelps the Gold…
But hand it to Team USA. It’s a great moment for them…and a great moment for McIntyre.
Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6
