Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

A diver practices for the men’s 10 meter platform diving competition at the Aquatic Center on July 26, 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Best drink: Caiparinha

Worst drink: Too many caiparinhas

Best suprise fast food: Mcdonalds hut on the beach in Copacabana

Worst fast food: Bobs or whatever it was that made me sick for two days

Best food: Porcao

Most awkward thing: Peeing on ice in bathrooms

Best event: Sailing

Toughest sport to shoot: Boxing

Hardest thing to do: Explain anything

Most asked question: When does the bus come?Question most asked to me: Are you from Estados Unidos?

Coolest thing to see each day: The cristo (corcavado)

Cruelest joke: Our hotel on the beach, because we haven’t been there yet and I’ve been here 3 weeks.

Worst day: Loosing 2 cameras at the water ski event which due to high wind was cancelled. The same day, not enough wind caused the cancellation of sailing.

Thing that got old fastest: The daily hour (plus) ride to the main press center.

Told most often: “You can’t be there.”

Most intimidating: Force national checking accredidation with machine guns.

Best problem solver: I am “Denis” (nickname) from the Getty Images’ Sao Paulo office. Without him, surviving would have been impossible. Special thanks to you!

Best thing: The team assembled to cover the games: Harry, Rebecca, Jeff, Donald, Denis

Life savers: Leo and Camila from boc who took care of me when first getting to Brazil - including a special shopping trip when I had gone a week without my luggage.

Scariest thing: Being on the road in any sort of transportation. They drive crazy here but as Denis says “this is normal.”

Best looking venue: Joa Havalange

Worst looking venue: Zico Football Center

Oddest moment: Sitting in the jungle waiting for the bikes to fly by.

Best moment: Closing ceremonies

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images 

Closing ceremonies at the XV 2007 Pan American Games. 

Best distraction: My iPod

Toughest thing to do: Get in to any event

Best thing to do: Take photos at events

Biggest pet peeve: Everyone stands in front of every entrance or exit and any other place I have to go while dragging all my gear.

Most thankful for: A blessed, safe trip, full of adventures and new learning experiences.

Here I am on the pool deck in action shooting the diving practice session before the finals.

Thank you Brazil!

Denis Lacerda, Harry and Streeter Lecka stop for a beer with the locals in Copacabana. (Photo by Rebecca Butala)

I was warned by my Brazilian neighbors at home that Rio is very dangerous and was told not to bring any valuables. I thought…”You mean like the $30,000 in camera gear I’m packing?” Of course, I didn’t listen. Not only did I bring my camera gear, but I wore my regular watch, which happens to be a very good watch that I haven’t taken off in over 15 years.

As much as I loved the movie “City of Gold” which depicts life with no shortage of violence in a Rio de Janeiro slum known here as a ‘favela’, I think of Brazil as a nation of soccer players, carnival partying, caipirinha drinking, beach-goers. Kind of like a laid back Hawaii. Was I naive to think this?

Like all big events, there is an extra measure of security that can’t go unnoticed here. We go through metal detectors before entering any venue, police are stationed and very visible on the streets and military with M16 machine guns stand guard at the airport or other areas requiring a higher level of security.

Away from these “secure” areas however is another reason we sat on a plane for more than 10 hours. These are the local places — the neighborhood restaurants, the places with local food, where menus don’t come in English. These are the places where all your senses are tested and come alive, where you learn to communicate with a smile, a gesture, and a word resembling Portuguese.

We had one of these moments walking back to our hotel from a local restaurant called Shirley. A bunch of locals at a neighborhood bar motioned to us, pointed to his hoisted glass of beer and winked. We accepted his “invitation” and minutes later we were enjoying a cold one practicing our Portuguese and they their English.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a shady cabbie wanting more money and felt the aggression of a packed stadium of screaming soccer fans cheering their Brazilians and wishing death on the Americans. I don’t photograph war, but I’ve been to my share of countries and have heard warnings for many of them. Caution works so much better than fear and smiles go a long way. Less than a week to go and I’m still wearing my watch.

Here I am up in the rafters at the gymnastics venue which I ended up not liking. Photo by: a photo marshall, Andre Lobo

Word spreads quickly amongst our photographers. Some venues have the potential for pictures, others should simply be avoided like a root canal. Gymnatics, or as we’ve been calling it, gymnasties, is an event no one wanted. Even the most graceful athlete looks clumsy with a background of railings, broadcast equipment, and signage. We make an exception for finals of events, which are always covered.

With my expectations lowered, I arranged to put a remote camera overhead in the rafters for the gymnasties final. I chose to remote the floor exercise as it was a nice blue background and it was the only discipline that both men and women competed on increasing my chances for a picture.

Harry How/Getty Images

AJ Rayment of Canada competes in the Men’s Vault final during the Artistic Gymnastic on July 17, 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Thirty minutes before the start of the final, I made my way into the upper grandstands when I stumbled upon a fast food stand. Realizing that I wouldn’t be able to eat for at least 8 hrs and having had breakfast 4hrs ago, I quickly made my way to the line for food.

As I got to the front, the server motioned to my 50 reis note I was holding (about $30), pointed to another line to his right and said, “payee”. When I got to the front of my 2nd line, I ordered a bag of Ruffles and a Gatorade, as a hot dog didn’t appeal to me and it was the only other item on the menu. The cashier waggled her finger at me and said “no 50″ meaning no change for 50. I looked through my wallet, and found nothing smaller. Not wanting to go hungry and in frustration, I said “Visa?” she nodded.

Pressed for time, the cashier slowly wrote on two pieces of paper, then handed them to me and by this time I knew I was going back to the other line, my 3rd line. The icing on the cake to my dining experience came when I saw the server pour my Gatorade out of the capped bottle and into a plastic cup, no lid. Normally, I wouldn’t mind, but my hands were already full with a 400mm lens, an 80-200mm and a waist pack of accessories.

Miraculously, I made it to an open seat wolfing down the chips and the Gatorade. From this seat, I noticed a small area that might make for a background from my elevated spot and focused my shooting to this area of the mat for the first discipline, men’s floor exercise. I got lucky as the best picture I made with this background was the eventual gold medalist.

Harry How/Getty Images - This is the shot I found while eating my chips and Gatorade.

Diego Hypolito of Brazil competes in the Floor Exercise on his way to a gold medal on July 17, 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

With the exception of shooting the medal ceremony from ground level, every discipline I shot was from the upper stands. I went up and down stairs every 3 discipines. My remote didn’t get me the photo I wanted and I didn’t have anything to eat again until 11:30 pm. Making a photo and getting something to eat isn’t the easiest thing to do sometimes.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

National League all-star Barry Bonds #25 stands in left field during the 78th MLB All-Star Game at AT&T Park on July 10, 2007 in San Francisco.

After attending this year’s Stan Kalish Picture Editing Workshop, I decided my next blog entry would include some multimedia material. The Kalish Workshop was a great experience for me and I would highly recommend it to anyone in the photo business. It opened my eyes to  to how good this “new” form of media is at telling the story.

I attended this year’s MLB All-Star game armed with my computer a - M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 2-Channel Mobile Digital Recorder in the hopes of putting together a multimedia slideshow.

This is my first attempt at putting together a multimedia slideshow since attending the workshop. It was put together using Soundslides Plus, which is a great program for a beginner like me but has its limits. I also found that the M-Audio MicroTrack, while good at gathering sound, took forever to boot up after turning it on. The batteries (which are rechargeable, not replaceable) died after about an hour and a half, which I found frustrating.

If anyone has a suggestion about good sound recorders, I would love to hear them. I am still new to the sound recording game, so I apologize in advance for the quality. It was hard to record good sound at a sports venue, so much of what you record is not allowed to be broadcast or used and it is very hard to collect “clean” sound as there is a lot of background noise to deal with.

While surfing the net for info on multimedia, I came across this blog: http://www.multimediashooter.com/. There are some really good posts on here and if you have a minute or two, check it out.

The piece below was made to try and give you an idea of what it’s like to edit an event on-site when the game gets close and you are not sure which way it’s going to go. In case you weren’t watching this year’s All-Star game, it came down to the final inning. The National League who hasn’t won in 11 years almost came back to tie it at the end. Our worst fear as on-site editors is EXTRA INNINGS! Enjoy!

Click the photo below to start:

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Jaqueline Mourao of Brazil competes in the women’s cross country mountain bike final at Outeiro Hill on July 14, 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

I cannot watch any TV while I am here because we stay so busy, but I do feel like I am in a TV show. Actually, I guess I do get a couple of chances to watch but it is all in Portuguese so I have just given up. However, I must say it is funny to watch the O.C. or Girls of the Playboy Mansion in another country.

Back home one of my favorite shows is Man versus Wild on the Discovery channel. It’s about a guy that is dropped off in remote locations all over the world and goes into survival mode to get out of any predicament safely. I’ve always wondered what that would feel like and for the first time, I now know. Maybe on a different level, but I know.

As a couple of days have gone by now, I have made my way through the jungles of Brazil all the way back down to the ocean. It sounds silly I know, but from the BMX mountain biking competition in the mountains to the rowing competition in a lagoon, I feel like I have survived the wild of my job in Brazil. At least I have survived the first few days.

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