During the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Jeff Swinger was shooting his first figure skating event – ice dancing – when he remembered sitting with his mother as a child watching the contenders on Wide World of Sports.
Instead of just second-guessing the judges, as he did as a kid in front of the TV; he realized he had to be in tune with the contestants to capture the athletes so other parents and others around the globe could enjoy the best moments captured with his camera.
“The Olympics is much different from the standard sports I shoot throughout the year,” Jeff noted. “They have goals, touchdowns, baskets, etc.; but the short- and long-program skater only has one chance to execute his/her routine flawlessly.
“My job is to absolutely make the most of every minute, every situation and share that split-second in time with our audience,” he added.
At this event, Jeff and the other USA Today Sports photographers were able to shoot in close proximity to their laptops.
Between the groups of skaters, Jeff uploads his photos and quickly sends them for distribution, so outlets have them available in near real-time. He noted that last year, he moved from his older Mac laptop to a newer refurbished, updated one from MacSales.com.
“I didn’t even know how slow my workflow was until my update,” he noted. “It not only made my working life easier, it saved me a lot of money and it’s practically like new.”
Having a system with USB 3 also made image backups and archives faster to the portable OWC Envoy Pro EX.
Once he gets home, he can quickly, reliably and securely transfer files to his OWC Mercury Pro Qx2 RAID solution.
