Bolts of Luck and Somethings out of Nothings from Rod Mar

Seattle Times staff photographer Rod Mar's selects from Jamaica's Usain "Lightning" Bolt's amazing 200 meter run show the work of an extremely talented sports photographer who has what it takes to capture the moment and aftermath of a world-record event.

Of course, you could say it's just the matter of being in the right place, with the right timing, and the right attitude of the athlete having a lot to do with it as well, upon reading Mar's most recent blog post for Best Seat in the House on the Seattle Times site.

Nailing strong shots when the big moments occur is simply par for the course for premiere-level sports shooters. Check out previous posts on Mar's blog and you'll see he does this day in and day out--while sharing the moment with his audience in a truly engaging and entertaining way with his narratives.

But one of his recent posts shows a much rarer talent--the ability to make something out of "nothing" and make it visually engaging and verbally entertaining at the same time.

His recent post: Seeing more than medals shows his great ability to recognize and make a photo essay of little moments, small details, and visual poems that show a completely realistic, utterly true, but totally different angle of these Olympics games.

Chimp and you'll miss these opportunities.

And don't forget to take time to smell the roses.

Seeing these photos put together in such a way reminds me of Jim Brandenburg's fantastic study, Chased by the Light.  And I wonder if Mar's visual poetry of tiny moments in Beijing isn't in some way inspired by this classic study in the woods of Minnesota.

Comments

[kudzu fire]

chasing the light. good title good idea.

[Embassy Pro Books]

Those are great photos! I think it takes a combination of things to get that right hsot. being there is one for sure but being ready is another.