The day before I travel to Beijing, we're just getting to the end of posting all the galleries of the crews during practice before they left for processing and the Games on July 25. This process is one of the most grueling of the year. It would seem simple enough to go out a few times, take some great photos, and start posting them, but it never plays out that way. You go down to the boathouse at 6:50am to photograph the eights, and they're rowing an alternate lineup, or are going out in fours, or have changed their workout from a full 2k to 6 miles of pauses. So you come back the next morning, and all goes well; that's two practices to get one boat. Repeat that a dozen times, and it takes about a month to get everyone's photo. I'm not really complaining, as you get to see the best crews in the country, and maybe (hopefully) the world in the final stages of training, really at their very best, which just can't be beat. It's just logistically a little trickier than the results would have anyone believe.

Anyway, what is it about doubles that makes them such natural comedians when the camera shows up? Seriously, it's almost impossible to photograph a session with a double when they're not cracking up.

last year's men's double was a really tough nut to crack; I had to come back on a day they were doing a 2k to get a shot where Sam wasn't trying to make Matt crack up for the camera. It was good entertainment anyway, and to his credit Sam rightfully made the point that I strayed from my core mission during the same practice when I turned the camera toward the shore to photograph one of Lake Carnegie's Sunday morning regulars.