With hordes of still photographers having a field day at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, some --- in efforts to stand out from the crowd --- were too artsy prior to and at opening ceremonies, notes Grumpy Editor after surveying the art output over the weekend.
Examples of two Associated Press photographers’ efforts zeroing in on Olympic subjects with strikingly strange results that, amazingly, captured eyes of some editors who ran with them:
A blurred AP shot of a gymnast from China running in a training session. What was odd was the fuzzy result wiped out the participant’s legs and arms, making the scene sort of spooky.
Another AP cameraman captured a New Zealand woman gearing up for equestrian events by running with her horse. The photo showed only her legs and shoes alongside the horse’s hoofs. Although identified (along with her horse’s name) in the caption, she was cropped off at the thighs.
Friday night’s opening ceremonies, capped by fireworks over London’s Olympic Stadium, gained the most attention on front pages over the weekend.
One artistic AP photo, showing the aerial display, looked like a colorful inverted glass bowl over a green splotch, with nothing distinguishable. Nevertheless, it was spread over the upper half of the front page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
While staff photographers were on scene from the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, New York Times and Houston Post, among others, AP’s Morry Gash focused his camera the traditional way in capturing the five Olympic rings glowing over the stadium.
Gash’s normal shot was used on front pages of a number of U.S. dailies, including The (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) Tribune, Bradenton (Florida) Herald, The (Munster, Ind.) Times, Gloucester County (N.J.) Times, The Boston Globe, The (Lorain, Ohio) Morning Journal, Knoxville’s News Sentinel, Sacramento Bee and the Chicago suburbs’ Daily Herald.
Washington Post’s photographer also snapped a similar front-page shot.
The Houston Chronicle’s lensman at opening ceremonies zeroed in on 20 U.S. athletes, including one from Cypress, Texas --- all sporting the U.S. participants (now widely cited) made-in-China jackets, shirts and berets.
Being a bit different, the New York Times photographer clicked on a squadron (nine to be exact) of Mary Poppinses, holding black umbrellas, descending into Olympic Stadium. The front-page art appeared over the headline:
A Five-Ring Opening Circus, Weirdly and Unabashedly British.
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