The Single Most Awesome Photographer at the Olympics

  Kyle Wagner

Sports photography is usually home to the highest-of-high tech camera technologies, because its subjects move so swiftly, and in such limited bursts. It's not the place you'd expect to find, say, a gigantic old 4x5 large format view camera. And yet!
The photog in question (so many questions) is David Burnett. He's actually been going to the Olympics since 1984, and was featured recently in the NY Times. Here's a quick excerpt from his interview:

Q. There's no room for a mistake with a 4×5. Maybe it should be an Olympic sport: photographing moving events with a 4×5.
A. I always remind people that every four years it's the photographers' Olympics, too. You have the best photographers in the world, all in one place, shooting the same thing.
You know what happens on the last Saturday night of the Olympics, right?
Q. They have a closing ceremony.
A. No, that's Sunday night. Saturday night, at the end of the last event at track and field, we put all of our equipment down in one of those carved-out paths on the side of the track, and some photographers run a lap. I've done it five times now.

You can check out his past Olympic work at the Times, or his personal page for other photos. Or just stare at the background of every event NBC broadcasts from now until the end of the games to try to get a glimpse of him and that wonderfully absurd 4x5. [Pop Photo via Petapixel]
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The Single Most Awesome Photographer at the Olympics