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!

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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PHOTO OF THE DAY – 2011 IRONMAN

KONA, HI – OCTOBER 8:   A general view of the mass swim start for the the 2011 Ford Ironman World Championship on October 8, 2011 at Kailua Bay in Kona, Hawaii. (Photo by Donald Miralle) Canon EOS-1D Mark III Lens: 15mm Aperture: F5 Shutter 1/1000th sec ISO:640

LONDON OLYMPICS – Day 5 Phelps Greatest Ever

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30 minutes after Michael Phelps fell to a young South African kid who no one had heard of before, Phelps rebounded after his loss in his baby the 200M Butterfly to become the most decorated Olympic athlete ever by achieving 19 Olympic medals. After receiving gold in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay, Phelps broke the record for an athlete with the most Olympics medals (18) which was held by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina. He now holds 15 gold medals, 2 silver medals, and 2 bronze medals. 9 of Phelps gold medals were won by individual events and 8 of them were won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which I had the pleasure of witnessing.

The coolest part of the night was when I and Al Bello were in the hallway getting our scuba kits ready when we ran into Phelps, gave him a hug and congratulated him on his unbelievable accomplishment. Of course neither of us had a camera or iphone on us! I remember shooting him 14 years ago at the US Nationals in Seattle when he was an ackward 14 year-old kid who won the US title in the 200M Butterfly. You knew he was going to be a stud, but never dreamt he would be the best ever…Congrats to Michael and his accomplishment, unbelievable!!!

LONDON OLYMPICS – Day 3 Recap

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LONG DAY…Hit up white water canoe and kayak which was good, but made me a bit late for Swimming Finals which is always stressful. But worked out in end after my initial B finish line position wasn’t accessible the A position gave me some good jube angles and shots which was fine. Thanks to Costas and Aquatics Center crew for accomodating. Sorry to say that todays blog will be a bit short because it’s 4am and got to get some sleep but for now I’ll let these pictures do the talking…nite!!

LONDON OLYMPICS – Day 2 Phelps Misses Medal #17, Lochte strikes Gold

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First night of Swimming Finals at the Pool was without drama as Phelps in a position he is not used to got knocked off the podium in the 400m IM and finished in 4th! Ryan Lochte struck gold in the Men’s 400-meter Individual Medley and utterly defeated Michael Phelps, who did not look like himself. Lochte finished with a time of 4:05.18, which is the second fastest only to Phelps’ world and Olympic record 4:03.84 from Beijing. Excellent performance from Ryan Lochte, and I’m sure Phelps will find his 17th soon, maybe on sunday in the Medley Relay…Great to see the Getty crew of Al Bello, Adam Pretty, and Clive Rose and the rest of the familiar faces I see on the pool deck every four years. I love shooting swimming and it feels great to be at the pool again. Here are some of the photos from today, hope you enjoy and as always your feedback and comments are appreciated!!!

Best of the Pan American Games

“STEEPLECHASE FINAL” –  Mario Alfonso Bazan #7 of Peru, Marvin Blanco #771 of Venezula, and Derek Scott #755 of the USA compete in the Men’s 5,000M Steeplechase Final during the Athletics Competition on Day Fourteen of the XVI Pan American Games on October 28, 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico.  (Photo by Donald Miralle for Mexsport/COPAG)

As doze off on my return flight home from the XVI Pan Am Games in Guadalajara Mexico, it seems like yesterday when I was coming off no sleep from my best friend’s wedding in LA, and stepping off the plane running directly to the swimming pool to shoot the swim finals and set up the underwater remote cameras. Through the sleep-deprived haze of two straight weeks of nonstop shooting and editing I’m trying to recollect some of my memories. Shooting for my good friend David Leah’s agency Mexsport (formerly Allsport’s Latin America agency) as the official photographers of the Games and COPAG, was definitely a highlight of the trip.

Here’s a view of me setting up underwater remote cameras on the bottom of the competition pool. You have to give yourself a couple hours before the event to setup and test, and a couple hours after the event to pull camera and edit, which makes for a very long day. (Photo by Christian Palma)

But well worth it for frames like this…

And this…Amazingly both shot with a relatively slow frame rate of the Canon 1D Mark II that I use for the full frame sensor, great color reproduction and low grain at high ASA’s.

This is my fourth Pan American Games, and after Rio in 2007 David landed the contract for Organizing Committee for Guadalajara and immediately asked me to be part of his team. I jumped at the opportunity to work with him knowing not only did it mean great access including rockstar parking at each event venue and pool photo positions (a.k.a. best photo positions reserved for the largest photo agencies) but also good times hanging out with an old friend. Our excursions to the Argentinian Steakhouse La Matera, and the “Nightcaps” consisting of beer in our hotel suite while we watched Austin Power clips before having to wake up a couple hours later to work an 18 hour day, helped me forget we were actually there for work. Shooting beside good friend Al Bello made time fly by as we helped each other while we chased the light on the ground or in the water. Watching Al get blind-sided and pummeled by a rogue wave at the Puerta Vallarta Open Water Swim, loosing his dive mask and still managing to out shoot me is a memory that will always make me smile. Catching up with photographer friends that I only see every 2-4 years at either the PanAms or the Olympics and meeting some new faces and names is always a pleasure.

“SHARK-MAN” –  World Record Holder and Olympic Champion Caesar Cielo of Brazil swims to win the Men’s 50M Freestyle in a New Pan American Games Record during Day Five of the XVI Pan American Games at the Scotiabank Aquatics Center on October 20, 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico.  (Photo by Donald Miralle for Mexsport/COPAG)

“THIS END UP”  – Team Brazil warms-up for the Technical Routine Preliminary Synchronized Swimming during Day Four of the XVI Pan American Games at Scotiabank Aquatics Center on October 19, 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico.  (Photo by Donald Miralle for Mexsport/COPAG) 

As my plane bounces and wakes me up in my connection in Phoenix Skyharbor, I can still hear the overly repeated mantra of the Games yelled by a man with a bad accent, “Come Celebrate the Fiesta of the American’s!!!!” Still ringing in my head like some form of Chinese Water Torture, he should have said come “celebrate the photographic free-for-all of the America’s”! With very loose photographic rules and positions and photographers running all over the field of play it felt like an event held decades ago that was wide open and  set up for unique photo opportunities that you normally couldn’t get at a large multi-sport event today. With some risk comes reward, and the PanAms were a breath of fresh air and made my year for shooting editorial sports. Here are some of my photos that hopefully show that, and a gallery on the bottom of the page with my favorites…enjoy and your feedback is always appreciated!!!

“DARK SERVE” –  Christina McHale of the USA serves against Team Brazil in their Semi-Final Doubles match during Day Four of the XVI Pan American Games at Telcel Tennis Complex on October 20, 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico. (Photo by Donald Miralle for Mexsport/COPAG) 

“HIGH FLYING” –  Josue Louis of Haiti  competes in the Men’s High Jump Competition during the Athletics Competition on Day Thirteen of the XVI Pan American Games on October 27, 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico.  (Photo by Donald Miralle for Mexsport/COPAG) 

“TRIANGLE RUNNERS” –  Runners compete in the men’s 5000m final during Day 10 of the XVI Pan American Games at Telcel Athletics Stadium on October 24, 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico. Juan Carlos Romero of Mexico went on to win the gold medal. (Photo by Donald Miralle for Mexsport/COPAG) 

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