Paralympics Workflow: Capturing the Action Through the Lens with the Official Australian Team Photographer

Are you curious to know what it takes to photograph world-renowned athletes? Greg Smith is here to provide some answers as the Official Australian Team Photographer for the Paralympics. He hopes his expertise can shed some light on this process.

Just before heading off to Tokyo for the Games, we caught up with Greg to learn more about his workflow, COVID-19 restrictions, equipment he plans on bringing and team strategy for photographing all 179 Australian athletes competing across 18 Paralympic events across 12 days of competition – no small task!

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length, featuring cover art by Greg Smith/iKapture.

How did you begin photography and become the official photographer for Australia? I would also love to know more about that journey!
My love for photography began as soon as I could hold a camera myself. My Grandmother would travel all around the world collecting images to bring home and share at “slide nights”, when we would all come together as a family to learn more about these exotic locales. As a child, I was always eager to see what she had uncovered from all over the globe and listen to her stories. Later as a teenager, I would read magazines with images I found captivating – trying to learn how photographers took them. Later in my career, I switched gears completely, from automotive racing to photography. Together with my wife I established our own events photography business specializing in sports events; providing all printed images before competitors had left venues.

Along the way, I met many incredible people and had some really rewarding jobs to do. One such person was Jeff Crow from Sport The Library who had contracted still imagery for Paralympics Australia. We joked about me going with him to London for 2012 Paralympics where we offered me a position – now 10 years later and we are headed off together to Tokyo!

Share with us how your workflow during the Games works – who is sharing their images and where?
Accessing Images From Camera: As is widely acknowledged, social media has reduced lead times for professional photographers shooting games, meaning you no longer have the flexibility of pulling cards off and uploading them onto your laptop for later consumption.

Canon recently unveiled their “Mobile File Transfer” app which works seamlessly with the internal WiFi capabilities of their pro-level Canon cameras. As an extra precautionary measure, I plan to have a CamRanger2 handy as a back up plan should either my camera system or WiFi fail unexpectedly.

Images will then be provided to Paralympics Australia’s Media team for use across various locations – internal such as social media and athlete documentation, and external such as news outlets or team sponsors.

What Equipment Will You Bring to the Races? My gear includes two Canon R5 camera bodies plus an additional 1DX for backup purposes. Lenses such as 200-400 F4L, 70-200 F2.8L and 24-70 F2.8L along with various smaller lenses will be brought along, along with other odds and ends that usually add up over time. Also coming along will be my laptop (16″ MacBook Pro), supported by my iPad Mini, backup SSD drives and possibly an AD200 flash unit just in case a sponsor wants their portrait taken of their athlete!

One other important note: Canon CPS provides us with valuable support during these events, offering service on our gear as well as loans of 24hr cycles of equipment for 24hr cycles – this support is particularly appreciated when using their 800mm for track and field events!

What are the COVID restrictions for the Paralympic Games, and how are they impacting your photos?
Unfortunately, given many ParaAthletes’ lower immune systems we must be even more stringent with how we approach these games than with Olympic photography.

So we will be staying within the Olympic Village to ensure we do not mingle with team athletes at all. Paralympics Australia has put in place an elaborate Covid plan which has us performing a 14-day “Home Lockdown”, before heading off on flights to Japan and finally entering a 3-day hotel lockdown when on ground in Japan before covering events. On our way over we are tested multiple times before landing and every day once here; once back home again we must stay quarantine for 14 days, locked into hotel rooms for this time period!

All things considered, event photos won’t be significantly changed; crowd-free shots may help increase vibrance and add color. Plus, family hugs after winning medals always adds a special touch.

Do you have any amazing stories from previous Paralympic Games that would you’d be willing to share?
Yes, this will be my third Paralympics (London/Rio/Tokyo) since my focus is exclusively on Summer games due to Australia having so few Winter athletes.

Paralympic Games are contagious events that create a strong feeling of joy among team members and athletes, which makes every time I work with any of them all the more fulfilling and fulfilling. I can never choose one particular highlight moment from any games; one such instance occurred the first time I watched high jump in London; I watched in amazement as competitors “dropped their legs” prior to leaping onto their starting spots before “hopping over” to clear over 2 meters!