I’ve just discovered Newsweek’s blog devoted to Olympic photographers - they’re detailing everything that goes on behind-the-scenes, and it’s fascinating. The amount of effort needed to get decent shots is ridiculous. They have to pre-approve and sign every bit of kit in and out of the country, to start with (this guy took a month to plan and a day to pack all his gear, which is apparently normal), then there are forms for everything, vast numbers of officials to negotiate, and if you want to set up a remote camera, you sometimes have to put it in place a week beforehand - with all the correct safety precautions, of course. In the first two days one of the main photographers got 7hrs sleep.

I love the fencing shots here, both technically and aesthetically. That can’t have been easy - the sport is so fast that snapping the moment of contact must be a nightmare. I always enjoy watching the fencing, but I’m guessing I’ve already missed it…There are also great shots showing the violence of judo.

The current top post is devoted to women’s beach volleyball. It’s possibly telling that my eyes went straight to the tech details:

Shot on an 85mm f1.2 at a 1000th of a second

Ye gods. I’d have to sell my car to get a lens like that. Via Shoot the Blog.