Life goes on at the Olympic Village
For two weeks I have now been living in a bubble - where only sports exist and everyone is thrilled, so what happened on Wednesday?
Another morning commute along the Central Line to Stratford and down to the MPC, once again no idea what the journalists would like me to cover today - so it was a waiting game. First request was for Taekwondo for Thursday - sure thing, so got an idea for tomorrow already. Then the messages come that one of the journalists is having his 'forced' day-off and other one is finishing the articles from yesterdays Volleyball and Beach Volleyball.
So hold on a minute - that means that there are no requests for today? What am I doing at the Olympic Park at 8am??? But the way I look at this assignment to the Olympics is that even when I am not asked to cover something, I should somehow 'document' the games - be it taking pictures of the venues or other sports, just for the archives of the papers I work for. Whether they appreciate this - I am not sure, but at least I feel like I am doing something above what I have been asked to do. And also - I do drop by the Handball Arena quite often to take pictures - so far followed most of Norway's Women's matches here.. I just hope I get to cover the Semi-Final on thursday as well :-)
We had the first day of BMX racing today - so decided to go over there and snap few pictures, the sport is always good for some dynamic images. Arriving well in time, as it is the first day and you want to know what's what over there - Photo Marshall's show on the map where we can take pictures, so we all choose our spots and put our gear down. Then FIVE MINUTES before the racing starts.. the TV has told the organisers that we have to be moved.. now up to now the way photo positions/organisation has worked has been good.. but to move 90% of photographers on 5 minute warning.. can't say that the organisers/TV made many friends amongst the photographers. The only positions we were allowed .. the gave rather poor/messy/ugly backgrounds, which is a shame when you want to bring out the best of the sport in your images.
To rub salt into the wounds - some of the 'Poll Photographers' (they are the ones who can go almost anywhere, as they work for the big agencies) - I looked at couple of them in a GREAT spot to capture images.. during FIVE riders passing them, one of them just kept on watching the riders, and the other one seemed quite busy txting/tweeting his mates. Maybe this was just my 'jealousy' speaking as I wasn't allowed to a place i regarded as good.. but even in general it gives a bad impression when photographers do not actually work while court-side.. but tweet/text/eat instead.
Afterwards I walked around the park a little to snap more shots of the area, before heading to Men's handball match between Sweden and Denmark and after a long break my 'royal-connection' once again seemed to work. First of all the Swedish Royal couple were at the stands, and they both really were into the game and I got some nice pictures of the King jumping up and celebrating :-) Somehow I doubt the Queen of England would be seen jumping up and down when Wayne Rooney scores in a football game?? After spotting the Royals - I also noticed that the Finnish Culture Minister was at the stands.. I only know what he looks like because I saw him at EuroBasket2011.
Day finished after that - surprise the client newspapers with few images of the King and Minister.. head to the Hotel and enjoy some Pot Noodles for dinner.. busy day on Thursday (possibly) with Taekwondo, interviews, handball.. or depending on results, it could be only Taekwondo??
Talking of living in the bubble of Olympics and also having been traveling since early July.. yesterday I went for the first time to a Tesco supermarket (or any supermarket in the UK) in a LOONNG time. It's just been a long spell with eating out, buying food from small shops.. interesting how a small thing like going shopping felt 'new' after such a long time.. I bet hearing that makes my wife happy, she'll be sending me shopping for the next month saying how I thought it was nice and exciting :-)
In a way it was nice to have a day for myself - not having to follow the journalists around, sort of gave me a chance to draw breath and look around.