Photo Blog (click to view)
History
The Roman's built a military camp on
the Lake Geneva shore, near current day Lausanne. When the Roman Empire fell,
Lausanne was move to top of a nearby hill, because that was easier to defend.
For a time, French Protestant
Preachers would seek refuge here, before returning to another part of France to
work quietly on the reformation. If they were exposed, they would return to
Lausanne to hide-out for a while.
At the start of the Napoleonic Wars,
officials decided it was in the cities best interest, to become part of the
Swiss Federation.
Modern day
Today Lausanne is surrounded by
picturesque vineyards.
It is the smallest city in the world
to have a metro urban rail transport system. Once you have walked from the Lake
Geneva shore line, up the steep hill to Lausanne, you will know why the metro
system has no problem meeting their yearly operating expenses.
During World War I, the
International Olympics Committee moved its headquarters from Paris to Lausanne,
and it has been here ever since. On the same grounds, is a very nice Olympic
Museum, filled with art work, equipment, memorabilia, and a behind the scenes
look at an Olympian’s life in the Olympic village.
Today there are 55 international
sports organizations with offices in Lausanne, and it is home to the Court of
Arbitration for Sports.
When Sport's entered the political
arena, an arbitration court was needed to resolve dependencies between the
athlete's and those upholding the rules. Arbitration is the process whereby
both parties, agree to have a discrepancy, resolved by an independent and
impartial arbitrator. Most recently many of the arbitrations seem to revolve
around the issue of doping. In my opinion, it is very sad that international
sports have evolved into yet another political quagmire of differing opinions.
What happened to the sporting mentality in sport?
My History
The 1992 Summer Olympics was hosted
in Barcelona. Paralympic Archer, Antonio Rebollo Liñán shoots a lighted arrow
from the ground, through the pitch-black darkness, 60 ft (20 m) above, in what
looks like a strong wind, to ignite the Olympic Cauldron, during the opening
ceremony, and likewise, igniting a frenzy of interest in the Olympics. Not only
did he light it, it was nearly a perfect shot.
The total distance from where
Antonio shot the arrow, to the torch was about 230 ft. It is said, that feat is
not a difficult shot, for a skilled archer. The difficult part, is doing it, in
front of a stadium full of spectator's and million's a TV viewer's. Some 200 archers
underwent psychological evaluations, and Antonio was the one that they felt was
best suited to not let that bother him. Four were picked, and Antonio was
chosen as the first alternate. Best suited, but because he was from Madrid, and
Barcelona prides itself on being Catalonian, they really wanted a Catalonian
archer to light the cauldron. Two hours before the event, the pressure didn't get to Antonio, but it did get to
the organizers. They decided the best choice was to give the honors to Antonio instead. The attendant who handed the bow and arrow to Antonio was visibly shaken, but Antonio
was solid as a rock. The drama is intensified by how methodically and concentrated he aims, draws back slowly, pauses slightly, then let's it fly, with great confidence and demeanor. two
seconds later, whoosh, the cauldron is ablaze, the crowds bustout in cheers, and the organizers can finally breath again.
The organizers had a way to light it
manually, had he missed. But he said, "No, I brought a second arrow. If
the first misses, I guarantee the second will not.". There was no need for
that second arrow and in 700 practice attempts over the course of several months
before hand, he only missed twice. For months, once a week, he would fly from
Madrid to Barcelona, to practice.
The pedestrian view of the high
diving platform overlook's the city skyline below. A photographer's best dream.
The motto that year was "Friends for Life". It just doesn't get any
better than that, in both vision and feeling.
Bob Martin snapped a shot of Tracy
Miles performing a straight back dive, off of that high dive. I think I saw it
in Life magazine in 1992.
When I was in my early 30's, a next-door
neighbor had a very nice in-ground pool. He was much older than I, his wife had
died, and he had three daughters who would visit him from time to time, but
nobody ever used his pool. He said that he maintained the pool, like his wife
liked it to be maintained, when he told me I could use it anytime I wanted. I
got the feeling that he liked my character, trusted I would not abuse his
offer, and that it would make him feel better, if someone got some use from it.
"Sure, that would be great. You sure are kind."
Not wanting to intrude on his
privacy, I only used it when he wasn't home. Once I was at his pool, and a 10-year-old
or so, female gymnast, aspiring to be an Olympian, came over and tried to teach
me how to perform a straight back dive, off the side of the deep end of his
pool. No board, just right off of the cement rim that was about at the same
level as the top of the pool. I can remember her saying, "Craig, it's
eeeeassssy!!! All you do is, bend your knees as much as you can, spring up as
fast as you can, arch your back as much as you can, and It will naturally pull
your feet way above your head. You will enter the water perfectly vertical and
head first.". I think she sensed the skepticism, in the look that I gave
here. Upon which, she proceeded to demonstrate a perfect looking straight back
dive from pool-side. Perfect vertical entry with hardly any splash.Then while
wading in the water, she urged me to give it a go. "Craig, come-on!!! it's
eeeeassssy!!!". She sure exuded a lot of confidence in me, and it
started rubbing off on me. "Geeee, I don't know? Welllll?!?. That didn't
look that difficult. OK, I'll give it a try.".
That was the last thing I said,
before I nearly broke my back. One of the those classic, "What the hell
was I thinking?", moments. Let's slow down and put it in perspective.
That's the voice of someone who can perform an unassisted standing backflip off
of a 4 inch (2cm) wide balance beam. And stick the landing, back on the beam,
exactly where she launched from! I'm a dude who has never performed a gymnastics
movement in his life. There is nothing at all that is natural about that
movement. It takes a tremendous amount of spring to generate the needed hang
time, a tremendous amount of back strength to generate the rotational movement,
and a tremendous amount of inner core strength to pull your straight legs all
of the way over your head. I was lacking in everything but guts. The only think
perfect about my dive was the perfect tidal wave that it created. To my credit,
I did somehow manage to get all of my body in the water. No-one was there to
watch, but if they were, they surely would have been busting out laughing at
me. "Here, hold my beer, and watch this !!!"
Hurt back and hurt ego. I said to
her, "Thanks for the free lesson, but you are probably better suited to
teaching real athletes.". To top that lesson off, as I was exiting the
pool right after that miserable dive, via the pool-side ladder, I busted
through the top rung, and my momentum carried me all of the way through the
middle and bottom ladder rungs as well. Just another normal day, of nothing
going my way. Embarrassed as well, I immediately removed the ladder, took it to
a local pool shop, and had them replace the thick plastic rungs with stainless
steel rungs. To this day, I always step on the side of ladder rungs nearest the
rails, never in the middle.
Bob snapped a photo, just as Tracy
reached the apex of her dive. Her front was facing the sky, with her back arched in a
semicircle, directly over the famed Sagrada Familia (a famous Barcelona
architectural landmark, created by Gaudi), as if she were a superhuman,
shielding it from an Alien invasion. The quality of that photo was not great in
my opinion, but it showcased the artistic supremacy of Bob, and made me a fan
is his for life. If you have ever seen a high dive in person, the amount of
time a diver is at the Apex, is probably around 1/1000th of a second. In fact,
it happens so fast at real speed, most people don't even see it. He had to have
both, the artistic vision to position himself in the perfect place to take that shot, and impeccable timing to pull it off.
Bob is from England, has photo
journalized the last 15 Summer and Winter Olympics, and every top international
athletic event in-between. He has been published in Sports Illustrated, Time,
Newsweek, Life, and the New York Times. Bob holds the coveted National Press
Photographers Association - Photo Journalist of the Year award (I think twice), and currently is a piad consultant, by the International Olympics Committee, to consult on photographic issues. I have never aspired
to be a great, nor even a professional quality photographer, but I could not
pass up the chance to spend a few hours listening to him talk about what he
views as his greatest achievements. The equipment, the setup, the research, the
day's events, the chance encounter's, what he had for breakfast. He remembers
every shot, like it was yesterday.
I asked him if there was anything he
missed about the photography of days long past? He said that he still misses
the old school black and white film photograph's, because those are the only
photos that still eclipse modern day electronics. (I agree, there isn't much better than an Ansel Adams Print. The color just gets in the way of the view.)
Do you post edit your photo's? In
Commercial photography, any type of post editing is both allowed and expected,
but sports photography has to be virtually as taken. The only accepted
technique, is adjusting the contrast a bit. Sport's has to be true to life, to
be acceptable.
Are there any great shot’s left? Sounded
like he enjoys Paralympic events and athletes, and see’s that as the next level
of great photography.
That experience was a special day
for me.
Bob's Site
Photo Blog (click to view)
Thank you for reading.
I'll see you next time,
Craig