Official photos from Lahti worlds online, available by email
Four months after the meet, photos of WMA Lahti worlds are online and for sale. Click here for the store. A pair of young Finnish fotogs took more than 7,500 pictures — helpfully arranged by age group and then event. I saw myself high-jumping at Lahti for the first time. It was a Herculean effort to catalog these shots, so the prices are steep but understandable — 6 Euros ($9) each for an electronic image (sent by email) and up to 12 Euros each for a large print (8×12 inches). And unlike my shots, these were taken at all venues, including cross country and the marathon course. (Mine were mainly at the main stadium.) I have hundreds of shots yet to post, so the Finnish dudes beat me! Oh well. Check out their great work.
5 Responses
Photogs weren’t big fans of the pole vault. HeeHee! Bubba
Not the M70 LJ either.
It was the Finnish photogs that asked me to help them out on the 2nd day of the Championships as they couldnt cope with the demand at their service desk in the registration hall. I know and am thankful that they gave out a lot of my cards in order that hopefully I captured stuff they didnt get. Even more so that I was one person I did what I could. The two Finnish guys were seriously under resourched and where never going to be able to cover all events. Three stadia and non stadia events at the same time no way.
The quality of the pics that are on the site leave something to be desired. It is obvious and I know from talking to the guys that they were not sports photographers. They did the best they could and after all their main aim was to produce the overview booklet of photos that were for sale.
Athletes can view my photos at http://www.rikko2photo.co.uk and they are not as expensive as the ones on the Lahti website.
So happy browsing guys!!
Truth is, Lesley, myself, Doug Smith and Ken Stone were far more often seen behind the camera on the track than the Finnish official guys. (Some of us were frequently in front of it too!) I know that many visitors to Lahti were disappointed at how low-key the service provided by the meet organizers was. If there was one thing the organisers could probably have been sure about it was that athletes want to see pictures of themselves.
Problem is, many of them want to see stuff without having to stand in line, and one person’s ten minutes browsing is another person’s delay. The Lahti photogs were, I gather, basically a bunch of students doing a project. They learned pretty fast, but hadn’t any experience of T&F, and I guess that shows at times. I’ve few complaints personally – they got shots of me in my two events, and I bought from them!
The Lahti guys were not helped by having all their computer gear in the main TIC building. After it was too late to do anything about it,they found that they could only access it there from 9am to 6pm. They needed to be able to work late into the night to keep up with demand, and to be frank, the organisers ought to have anticipated this.
My own extensive galleries from Lahti are on my web site at http://www.tomphillipsphotos.co.uk They major on the Brits, because that was my brief, but there’s lots else, and the US and Australian galleries have been popular. And like Lesley, I’m cheaper than the Lahti guys as well.
I’m also looking forward to seeing more of Ken’s work. You can’t just give a college student a digital SLR and expect great results. T&F photographers need to know the sport, and there were plenty of us in Lahti who do.
Both Tom Phillips and Lesley Richardson provided the sort of professional photography that one hopes WMA LOC would provide. However in Lahti – the locals provided not much of anything – and that was obvious when looking at their table in the TIC. To see anything online months later is pretty much short of a miracle.
What is it about WMA LOC folks that they do not understand that the athletes want good photos and are willing to pay for photos onsite and online. The last WMA meet that I attended that had decent photos available on site was in San Sebastian. The indoor meet in Linz has some photos and some video but not much and the crowd around the display and computers was heavy – making it very difficult to see anything. In Clermont- Ferrand some were available at tto look on the few computers available and we were told that they would be available later online – where? When? oh never mind- who knows if they ever were put online.
Riccione – ha ha ho ho – photos – got some from friends – official photos – they had 3 venues at some distance from each other -which would be a challenge to cover – did they cover anything? I have no clue- and I was there for the entire meet.
In the “old days” before digital photography was widely available – I managed to get some nice photos in Durban and Brisbane. That it is – as far as official photographers are concerned at WMA meets. Since then I look at Tom and Lesley’s photos – and Doug Smith as well.
There is always the desire I suppose to give business to the home town folks – but really – they should be professionals, they should have enough staff to be present at the events (and they might try showing up for the first events of the day for a change – rather than sleeping in and missing half of what is going on). and they should have an online site that makes ordering easy to find and possible to do.
They could learn from looking at Tom and Lesley’s websites for starters.
I am curious to see what happens in Kamloops and Sacramento.
And should one think I have nothing but complaints – the USATF National Masters Indoor meets have done well the last couple of years in having Prettysporty take photos – very professional sports photograaphy, easily found online and easy to order. I hope that Cheryl will be at Reggie Lewis for the National Masters in March, 2010.
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