Albert Sim is overwhelmed by the arsenal of cameras wire photographers have.

In Beijing

WITH the whole world's eyes on Beijing, with every newspaper, website and magazine wanting a picture of Usain Bolt's record breaking 100m run, or Michael Phelps historic eight-gold feat, having more cameras definitely help.

But I only have two camera bodies withe me in Beijing, a mere fraction of what the 50-photographer-team of one wire agency has. The army of wire photojournalists here is scary. Their sheer number allows them to be at multiple venues at the same time. In Singapore speak, they "carpet bomb".

They each carry an average of two bodies. And that's just the basic setup. Then, there are the remote controlled cameras.

Remote controlled cameras in action.
ST Photo: Albert Sim

These are used for shots you see of Phelps from under the water, with the Water Cube's bubble roof as the backdrop, and for sequence shots of athletes in the 100m sprint. They click away, 50 to 300 frames at one go, on 4 GB memeory cards,  all in hope of capturing that money shot.

So it becomes extremely satisfying when we, normal newspaper photographers, get a good shot.

I was lucky enough to get a good position during the 100m finals. I was less than 10 metres from the finishing line and managed to take a shot to show just how ridiculously ahead Bolts was from the rest of the field.

Albert captures Usain Bolt's winning moment.
ST Photo: Albert Sim

But I have no complaints. Being at the Olympic Games is every sports photographer's dream - even if sometimes you feel like you're one against an army.