Day 2 – Multisport Marathon

Today I decided to scout out the Rio Centro area that holds Badminton, boxing, weightlifting, and table tennis before heading to swimminginals in the evening. I was relieved to find these venues, like many here in rio are well lit and have decent shooting positions of you can get to them. That’s one thing I live about shooting the games is the strategy involved just in the timing of things like the bus schedule, different sports schedules at varying venues, and finally being able to walk into a venue and either find the shot quickly or plan ahead for one.

After shooting a Multisport Marathon at Rio Centro, I went back to Olympic park to shoot swimming finals which ended up being an epic night with three New World Records! The men’s 100m breast, women’s 100m fly and women’s 400m free all fell in spectacular fashion, and the night ended with the USA taking the gold in the 4×100 free relay. It was awesome…

Day 1: Swimming

Spent the day on (and under the pool deck), an exciting day with a couple broken world records in Men’s 100m breast and Women’s 400im. Here’s a few of my underwater photos, which I was happy with. While shooting for Sports Illustrated at Rio, our images are being directly ingested from our cameras as they are shooting through an ethernet cable into their servers, a great system for ease of transfer for photographers and editors! So many of my photos from the events I don’t see until a day or two later. But I will post them as I back them up, so you can follow along!

Hours away before the start of the Games!!!

With the Olympic flame making its way to Maracana Stadium to light the Olympic cauldron, you can feel the excitement in the media center and around town. I just jumped into one of several packed buses of journalists and photographers making their pilgrimage to document the “official” start of the Rio Olympics. 

Here’s a selection of some of the other fireworks displays from the Opening Ceremonies I’ve had a chance to cover…

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Setting up underwater cameras at Rio 2016 Olympic Aquatics

We always have to get the Olympics several days before the start to get acclimated, scope out venues and schedule, and start setting up cameras. The underwater venues take extra time in setting up the underwater remote cameras. Back when I started doing the underwater cameras 16 years ago, there was only a couple of us in the water, now the coverage under the surface since the Beijing games has really expanded with up to 10 cameras down there at a time, including large and expensive robotic rigs, that can shoot at any 180 degree angle with zoom, focus, liveview and preset shot functions as well.

Shooting for Sports Illustrated at these Olympics, the plan has been to have my static Aquatech camera in the swimming venue and the robust robotics rig in the diving/water polo/synchronized swimming venue. Here’s a couple behind the scenes photos and videos of our underwater setup, which wouldn’t be possible without the help of the consummate professionals like dive master Simon Lodge that the BOC and FINA place on the pool deck to facilitate the installation.

Be sure to check out my instagram feed @donaldmiralle as well as Sports Illustrated’s and the rest of the team of great photographers we have here covering Rio!

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Day -2 First competition of the Rio Olympics: Women’s Soccer!

There are a lot of photographers itching to get going and start shooting actual events, so it was nice to get a jump start on the Games with football starting on Day -2. One of the sites for football is at Olympic Stadium, which is also the site for the athletics, it was quiet enjoyable shooting SWE vs RSA and BRA v CHI, especially with all of the Brazilian fans! Here are a couple of my favorite plus some behind the scenes. Be sure to check out my instagram feed @donaldmiralle as well as Sports Illustrated’s and the rest of the team of great photographers we have here covering Rio…Enjoy!

Still Alive… and Kicking!

It’s coming up on two years since I last posted and I am happy to say I am still alive and kicking! Although I have taken some time off from the blog, I have been hard at work in the studio and in the field, and taking on assignments all around the country in addition to teaching photography classes in the community this past year. In the time since my last post in 2013, I am happy to announce I was awarded the Clio Award for the Washington Nationals Advertising campaign and have won a few Picture of the Year International awards!

It has always been a dream of mine to own a photography studio; and finally in 2013, I built a photo studio called Leucadia Photoworks. LPW is not only a studio but also a creative space for photographers in the San Diego area acting as a platform for our collective vision, the development of local talent, and the promotion of the photographic arts. Located just a few short blocks away from the beach in the artist and surf community of Leucadia, our fully-equipped 1,000 sq.ft. studio space, complete with a cyclorama at our disposal is also available for rental (www.leucadiaphotoworks.com).

 

 

 

Leucadia Photoworks was born out of the void I saw not only for affordable studio space for photographers in North County San Diego but also a platform where local photographers could share their vision and foster new young talent. We run workshops, have monthly photography shows and other fun events here! LPW is a photo collective comprised of nine talented photographers I hand picked in the North San Diego Area: founder Donald Miralle, Kristy Walker, Greg Merino, Todd Glaser, Teresa Fae, Tim Eubanks, Matt Wright, Anna Pietrowski, and Mike Lewis. Please follow our events calendar to keep up to date with our photography workshops, member art shows, book sales and other events at our studio and follow us on our instagram handles (@leucadia_photoworks and @donaldmiralle)

 

SHOOTING SPORTS: TIPS FROM THE PROS

Former Editor for Sports Illustrated and Newsweek, Jimmy Colton has put together a fantastic piece about tips for sports photography on the NPPA site. Includes images and words by legends like Walter Iooss and Neil Leifer, and insight into their greatest photographs. I’m honored to have been included in this group. Check it out:https://nppa.org/news/shooting-sports-tips-pros

Lime Rock Motorsports Photography Workshop 2012!!!

Copyright Jackie Buys, 2010 student.

Capturing the speed and beauty of auto racing is one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of sports photography. The Lime Rock Park Motorsports Photography Workshop offers you the opportunity to learn and improve your skills at the most scenic race track in North America. Legendary George Tiedemann and I are the instructors this year and  Lime Rock is offering both one-day and two-day workshops during Historic Festival 31, August 30 – September 2, 2013. To learn more about this great weekend of photography and racecars go to  to sign up now go to http://www.motorsportsphotoworkshop.com. Spaces will fill up quickly!!!

Motorsports Photography Workshop IIII
Historic Festival 31 on Labor Day Weekend
August 30 – September 2, 2013
Lime Rock Park, Conn.

Studio Work for Asics

Been doing work for the Asics Running Brand through Vitro Agency in San Diego, who are a pleasure to work with and has been a great experience. I shot the LA Marathon for them which was right up my alley and also a fantastic way to see the city I grew up in. In addition been doing some studio work for them, with models and product, which I really enjoy doing. Here’s a outtake from one of the shoots, enjoy!!!

Gallery: “World Champion Sebastien Kienle” – LAVA Magazine Cover

If the phrase “World Champion” precedes your name you’re pretty much a bad-ass. Sebastien Kienle is no exception. The 2012 70.3 World Champion hailing from Germany was in the lead at his first Kona Ironman World Championships last year, en route to crush the bike course record, when not only did he manage to get one flat tire, but two. And he still finished fourth at the end of the day.

I caught up with Kienle in St. George Utah before his 70.3 race there, to shoot him for the July cover of Lava Magazine. After hanging out with him for a couple days I realized the guy’s a machine, down to earth, and he will be in the lead again in Kona. I used my Nikon D800 paired with the Pocket Wizard Flex TT with the new beta firmware, to consistently freeze action shooting over 1000th of a second synched with profoto 7b strobes! Here are some of my favorite pics from our shoot, hope you enjoy!

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