By Daryl Lang

The 2008 Olympic Games opened with fears that censorship, air pollution and the heavy hand of the Chinese government would overpower the Olympic spirit.

What a difference a week makes. With the Beijing Olympics in their second week, public interest in the games is high and scandal is at a minimum.

These Olympics have put sports photographers in a good mood. Photographers and editors interviewed over the last few days universally praised the Beijing Olympics as the best-run games in years.

"It's pretty amazing actually," says Getty Images photographer Shaun Botterill, who is covering his tenth Olympics. "Volunteers have been unbelievable. . . . You walk around and people are opening doors for you."

"It's a great experience," says Associated Press photographer David Phillip, who has photographed every Olympics since 1996. He said Beijing has "the best Olympic accommodations I've ever stayed in."

Not that there haven't been concerns. Before the games, news agencies were appalled to find their Internet connections were being censored and monitored. Television coverage of the opening ceremonies was criticized for relying on computer-generated fireworks. Video footage from British television showed several journalists being pushed and briefly detained by police officers at a pro-Tibet demonstration near the games on August 13.

But within the Olympic venues and the press center, photographers say they have had no problems with the Internet and reported no interference with their jobs.

At least 20 photographers and media outlets are publishing photo blogs from the Olympics, and nearly all are filled with enthusiastic reports.

"The only negative right now--and I'm not alone in this, it seems--is that my photo vest is starting to have that 'not so fresh' smell to it," Vincent Laforet wrote on a Newsweek blog.

"Coming back to Indiana athletics sure will seem boring after the Olympics," reads a post from Indianapolis Star photographer Matt Detrich.

The big photo agencies have all dispatched scores of staff, including their top editors and their public relations people. Agencies are offering special Olympics packages to their clients.

The games are especially important to Getty, the official photo agency of the Olympics, and one with a strong reputation to defend in the competitive business of sports photography. Getty has a team of 76 staff at the Olympics, including 40 photographers.

But the biggest photo army seems to be the Associated Press, which has about 95 photo staff at the Olympics, including 70 photographers, according to director of photography Santiago Lyon, who was in Beijing last week.

During the games, the AP is transmitting 800 to 1,000 Olympic photos a day--which is about a third of its total photo report, though not all subscribers have access to that many images.

Each Olympics brings advances in technology, enabling photographers to file their digital images slightly faster--now comfortably less than ten minutes from camera to client at high-profile events. Photographers still rely on cables as the fastest way to send images from each venue to their editors.

For Reuters, this is the first Olympics where photos have been edited off-site through the company's Paneikon software system. "It's a huge change for us," says Reuters global photo editor Tom Szlukovenyi, speaking from Beijing. Reuters has over 80 photographers and editors at the Olympics.

With so many photographers at each event, the competition can come down to a matter of inches and milliseconds--who seizes exactly the right moment in space and time. And it's also about hitting all the bread-and-butter shots news clients want, like reactions of the gold medalists.

"There are certain things you have to do, you must have," Szlukovenyi says. "Partially, it's about what you miss, not what you have."

"We're under a reasonable amount of pressure to get the guys who come in one, two and three," says Botterill. He advises first-time Olympic photographers to slow down and take time to get familiar with a sport before trying to photograph it. When shooting whitewater sports last week, for example, Botterill says he arrived early to scout the course and talk to the coaches and athletes. That helped him to position himself in the best location. "The thing about whitewater, when it's your turn to do it, you just pray for a nice day," he says.

Lesser-watched sports allow some freedom to experiment. Photographers say fencing, with its white costumed players against a dark background, is a favorite event to shoot.

Pool photographers--shooters who get special access because of the number of clients they serve--can rig remote cameras in places like overhead catwalks or looking up from the bottom of a swimming pool (SCUBA gear required). Several photographers-- including Getty's Adam Pretty and Heinz Kluetmeier of Sports Illustrated--were fortunate enough to have underwater cameras trained on swimmers Michael Phelps and Milorad Cavic as they touched the wall at the end of the 100-meter butterfly, with Phelps winning the gold by 1/100 of a second.

Photographers say their days are jammed with covering events, riding buses from venue to venue, and catching up with colleagues they only see every two years. Until the games end, there is little time to review the massive amount of work shot by friends and competitors. "Your free time is usually spent eating and sleeping," says Phillip.

Related post on PDNPulse: PDN's Ultimate RSS Feed of Olympic Photo Blogs
Aug. 21 update on PDNPulse: Olympics: Trying To Pop the Bubble