There’s a great article at The New York Times about the hard working photographers taking those incredible underwater shots during this year’s Olympics. Brooklyn native and award-winning photographer for Getty Images, Al Bello is one of them. It’s said that he’ll spend more time inside the Olympic pool than Michael Phelps or Ryan Lochte.
The 44-year-old is a certified scuba diver because that allows for him to spend more time underwater “to perfect the art of capturing the world’s best swimmers from below.” This is Bello’s ninth Olympics, and you can see from these incredible fish-eye shots he’s always one to push the creative limit.
These amazing images don’t come easy. In fact, those split second captures are the result of skill, patience and even some luck. As The New York Times report: “On Sunday night, Bello prepared for his day’s turn with the shutter’s trigger by spending a half-hour in the pool setting up a shot of Phelps. Bello knew Phelps would swim his morning preliminary in Lane 4, so he pulled the camera to the surface, swapped an 8-millimeter fisheye lens into its housing, replaced the dome and returned it to the bottom. Then he floated above it, so Rose [his colleague] could check the focus on a poolside laptop, and crossed his fingers.”
(Above: Nick D’Arcy of Australia, Michael Phelps of the United States and Dinko Jukic of Austria compete in Heat 5 of the men’s 200-meter butterfly on Day 3 of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
(L-R) Yannick Agnel of France, Sun Yang (C) of China and Tae-Hwan Park of Korea compete in the Final of the Men’s 200m Freestyle on Day 3 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre on July 30, 2012 in London, England.
Velimir Stjepanovic of Serbia, Dinko Jukic of Austria and Michael Phelps of the United States competes in the second semifinal heat of the Men’s 200m Butterfly on Day 3 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre on July 30, 2012 in London, England.
(L-R) Marina Garcia Urzainqui of Spain, Ariana Kukors (C) of the United States and Erica Morningstar of Canada compete in heat 3 of the Women’s 200m Individual Medley on Day 3 of the London 2012 Olympic Games..
(L-R) Federica Pellegrini of Italy, Missy Franklin (C) of the United States and Veronika Popova of Russia compete in heat 3 of the Women’s 200m Freestyle on Day 3 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre on July 30, 2012 in London, England.
You can see these and more at Baltimore Sun’s underwater shots at the Olympics.
Photos via [Baltimore Sun, LA Times, National Post]