Don't get me wrong, covering the Olympics is perhaps the greatest assignment you could ever hope for. The emotion, the uniforms, the different sports, the world-wide interest are all great, but the one thing that makes it very difficult to cover is the travel.
It is a huge enterprise staging an Olympics and, by default, the venues and accommodations and offices must be spread out. Each of us are trying to cover 3 or so events a day. Typically this will entail 4 hours of travel time a day. Our media village where we stay is a half-hour bus ride away from the Main Press Centre. The main press centre is the hub for travel to all other venues, which are each a half-hour to 3 1/2 hours away. The buses of course are never ready to go when you are so there is the wait time.
There are always taxis, which are cheap, but this morning I missed an event because I couldn't get a cab for an hour, then he got lost and I ended up walking several kilometres to the venue - not a great option.
Several days ago I went to shoot women's soccer. I left the media village at 9:30 a.m., got to the press centre and on a bus at 10:30 to go to the soccer venue. 3 1/2 hours later we arrive at the soccer venue (only one bus a day), two games take place including the Canadian women vs. China and bus departs at 11:30 p.m., arrives at main press centre at 3 a.m. - wait for bus to media village, arrive media village 4 a.m., 5-minute shuttle or 15-minute walk to my building and finally home.
Shooting the events is the perk of the job, it is getting there that seems like work.
-Richard Lautens
GALLERY: View Richard's photos from the Canada-China women's soccer match
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