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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2006-08-22
The experience of a lifetime
SportsShooter.com member Mark J. Terrill photographed the biggest sporting event on Earth - the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
By Mark J. Terrill, Associated Press
Mark J. Terrill of the Associated Press on assignment at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
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A rush of excitement and trepidation passed through me as I boarded a plane bound for Frankfurt for what would be the longest out of town assignment of my 24-year career. After all, I was going to be in Germany for five weeks, not knowing the language, the people that I would be working with or all that much about the sport that I would be covering. I was headed to the biggest sporting event on Earth...the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
A million things went through my mind during the 14-hour flight half way across the world. Would my luggage and equipment make it there okay? What will the weather be like? Would there be terrorism? How was I going to be able to stand covering the same thing day in and day out for five weeks? What would the accommodations be like? And most importantly, did they serve anything besides Wiener Schnitzel in Germany? I knew only one thing...this was going to be an experience of a lifetime.
While I wasn't sure what lay before me, I knew I was in good hands. If there is one thing that the Associated Press knows how to do, it's how to plan a big event and this was no exception. About a month before my departure, German photo editor Herbert Knosowski sent us all a "World Cup 2006 Manual." Just about every question that I had was answered. It included everyone's assignment from start to finish, where we would be staying, where to pick up and drop off rental cars, high speed train information, credential information and even weather information. This was truly a work of art. I can't imagine the amount of thought that went into this considering that planning needed to be done for about 60 editors and photographers, about 50 word-side editors and writers and about 20 technicians to cover matches in 12 locations around the country.
So after landing, collecting my luggage and exchanging a hundred dollars for Euros, I grabbed a cab and tried to phonetically pronounce my destination to the driver. I'm not sure what the German word of "huh?" is, but judging by the look on his face, I'm pretty sure he said it. Fortunately I had it written down and was able to point to where I wanted to go. My first stop was the Frankfurt bureau to pick up a cell phone, have my computer configured and most importantly, collect my per diem. Then it was a quick cab ride to pick up credentials and an ugly green vest, that we had to wear at matches and practices, followed by walk around the city and lunch with a lovely AP writer from England. My first meal in Germany was (surprise, surprise) Wiener Schnitzel and beer. By the time I made it to my hotel, I had been up for 29 hours and was ready to crash in a big way.
Photo by Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press
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The next day I picked up my Volvo station wagon rental, somehow found my way to the entrance for the highway and headed to, what would be my home for a month, Gelsenkirchen. It was during the two-hour drive that the culture shock really hit me. As I passed by the dense growth intermingled with farms and quaint homes, I thought about how much it reminded me of upstate New York. The only difference was the German road signs like "Ausfahrt," which made me chuckle every time that I saw it, and that was a lot. You see it means "Exit." The other shock was the cars passing me at 150 mph. That's right; I was on the famous Autobahn. There I was driving 120 mph and people were passing me like I was standing still. There were several times that I found myself passing a police car at a 100 plus and got that sick feeling in my stomach like I was about to get busted before I realized that he couldn't care less. What a rush. Oddly enough, I never saw an accident the whole time I was there. The second shock was the gas prices. 1.35 Euro per liter, which translates to about $5.12 per gallon.
Somehow I found my way to the hotel Schloss Berge in Gelsenkirchen (Note to self. Get GPS next time) where one of my worries was quickly put to rest. The hotel was a dream come true. Schloss Berge is a 13th century mansion converted into a hotel. It featured a four-star restaurant, Wi-Fi, a moat, a lake, walking gardens and a nearby biergarten by the lake that featured beer and typical German fare. As I looked around, I thought, "There must be some mistake. I can't really be staying here for a month." The food there was top notch. The breakfast, which was free, consisted of, well, anything you wanted. Just ask and they would get it for you. My only complaint was that the television had 400 channels and only two of those were in English. So my choice was England's Sky News or CNN International. After a month, I think I knew just about everyone in England's parliament. I also found that they're having big problems finding places to park their Lorrys.
Photo by Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press
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After a nice meal and a good sleep, it was off to work. I met up with Italian editors Domenico Stinellis and Fabio Polimeni, part of the team that I would be working with for a month. We headed out with our technicians for some features and a look at the stadiums that we would be working in. The rest of our team, German photographer Michael Sohn, Pulitzer winner Murad Sezer out of Istanbul and German stringer Martin Meissner were working on practices and features. We were known as the Gelsenkirchen/Dortmund team. Other AP teams were Berlin/Leipzig, Hamburg/Hanover, Frankfurt/Cologne, Nuremberg/Kaiserslautern and Munich/Stuttgart. We also had team photographers that followed their team from venue to venue. My team's responsibility was to cover matches and practices that occurred in Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund and a few in Cologne. Oh, did I mention that the Gelsenkirchen stadium was only a few blocks from the hotel? Sweet! The other stadiums were less than an hour away.
Following about five days of features and trying to recover from jet lag due to the nine-hour time difference, it was time to get down to business. Our first match would be Ecuador-Poland at Gelsenkirchen stadium, but we first had to cover team practices the day before. This typically consisted of a 15-minute photo opportunity with each team while they did a light practice and stretching. Sometimes the teams would simply come out to the field and look around and take their own pictures for ten minutes or so. We almost always tried to maximize our time by using two or three photographers at each practice.
The practices were often an exercise in making chicken salad out of chicken...well, you know what I mean. There was often two hours or so of down time in between practices, which allowed us time at the media center to research the teams we would be covering. One of the toughest parts of this assignment was trying to figure out who was who at the practices since they almost never wore numbers. FIFA had a handy web site that allowed us to see pictures of each team member, which helped us figure out who we should be shooting before we went out there.
I must say FIFA provided pretty good facilities. The media centers at each venue featured plenty of worktables, lockers, computers, help desks and food vendors. Canon was also on hand to do loans and repairs. I also saw Nikon Professional Services working side-by-side with Canon at some venues.
Photo by Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press
Photographers covering the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
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On game day I got a bit of a shock as I walked into the media center. I was surprised to see that not only was the place packed with people, but also there were long lines of photographers waiting for tickets to the match. Photographers had to stand in line three hours prior to the match and were broken into three groups based on priority. The first group would take their pick from about 150 available spots on the pitch and then 30 minutes later the next group would line up to choose and so on. Our routine prior to every match was to have a meeting with our editors to hand out tickets and discuss strategy. Then it was off to the field two hours before the match to set up remotes and shoot fan features. Those of us who were using Pocket Wizards for our remotes had to have the units checked out by frequency managers to make sure that we didn't interfere with anyone else. Each wizard got a sticker clearing it for each venue.
Our shooting positions on the pitch were the same at every venue. We had four on the pitch and two in overhead positions in the stands. The positions on the field consisted of two behind the goal on the bench sides and two on the touchline of the pitch on the 16-meter line. Every photographer's seat was numbered which corresponded with the tickets that each of us had. I'm sure this prevented a lot of arguments over positions. Each of us had our computers on the field that we connected to Ethernet lines, which were dropped at our positions. This allowed us to ingest our disks into the computers, which in turn sent our pictures to our editors in the tribune.
The first few matches were a learning process for everyone. The matches were very hot and humid and one of the bigger frustrations was that officials wouldn't allow us to bring any beverages out to the pitch and they weren't providing any water for us out there either. After some discussion, they finally started bringing water out to us. Many of us were also unsure about how close we could place our remotes behind the net. That one was pretty easy to figure out. If a ball hit it during warm ups, it was too close.
Mark J. Terrill of the Associated Press sets up a remote behind the goal at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
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We quickly got into a routine. There were matches about every other day and in between were practices. The day of the USA-Czech Republic match, however, turned out to be a little unusual. As I walked through the media center, I noticed a lone photographer in a baseball cap and sitting in front of a Powerbook that looked sort of familiar. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was actor Drew Carey, who was shooting for International Sports Images. As I watched him for a minute, I was sort of struck by how well he blended in with everyone, not to mention that none of the hundreds of people in there were paying any attention to him. I sat down next to him and introduced myself and asked him how his experience had been. He said it was a dream come true for him. He went on to complain about the same things that we all complain about, i.e. not having anything good from a particular match, trouble with positions, etc. I sat a few photographers down from him at another match and had a chance to watch him work. I must say that I had some reservations about having him out there, but after watching him work for a while, I found that he was as professional, serious and worked as hard as anyone out there. It was also clear that the last thing that he wanted out there was attention.
After about 12 matches and traveling by car between Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund, Cologne and one (non work related) trip to Amsterdam (a story for another time), I was sent via high-speed train to Munich for a semifinal match between Portugal and France. Having never traveled by train, I had no idea what to expect. FIFA had set things up so that accredited journalists could board any train and sit in first class for free. This was really a nice perk, however getting six pieces of luggage on and off the train in the few minutes that you have and finding someplace to store it was quite a trick as they're not really set up for anything but small pieces of luggage. I must say that the six-hour trip was really pleasant and comfortable. It seemed like a great way to travel while on vacation in Europe.
After Munich, my next stop was Stuttgart, where I was to cover the third place match between Germany and Portugal. It would also be my last assignment in Germany before going home. You know how you always want to end things on a high note? Well it didn't exactly happen that way. After unloading my luggage from the train and hauling it out to the street, I hailed a cab to take me to my hotel. The cabbie and I spent about five minutes trying to fit all my luggage into his Mercedes and then he gave me the "Where to?" line. I said "Stuttgart Intercity Hotel." The guy looked at me like I was crazy and pointed back toward the train station. Somehow I had missed the fact that the hotel was in the train station. I felt like a total idiot as we unloaded all my gear from his car. In case you're wondering, I gave him five Euros for his trouble.
Photo by Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press
This picture at the 2006 World Cup in Germany was made with a remote camera.
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The downward spiral continued as I got to my room. Besides the fact that it was in a train station, my view was the top of a roof, it was unbelievably hot for some reason and it smelled like feet, the hotel was across the street from where the German team was staying. By 10p the night before the match there were about 10,000 fans in the street with horns and every time a team member would come to the window, they would all scream in unison. It was like the Beatles were staying there. This went on until about 3a. Many of my colleagues who knew that I had been staying in the lap of luxury in Gelsenkirchen said that I would get what was coming to me in Stuttgart and they were right. After shooting my last World Cup match, which Germany had won, I headed back to the hotel at about 1a only to find about 25,000 screaming fans in the street between my hotel and the German team's. It was literally a sea of people. I've never seen anything like it. The fans were still screaming and blowing their horns when I got up at 5a to head home.
And so ended my adventure. In the end, my luggage made it there okay, the weather was nice for the most part, the food and people were great, the accommodations were mostly great and there was no terrorism. It truly was the experience of a lifetime.
Mark J. Terrill is a Los Angeles based Associated Press staff photographer. He is a sports specialist, having won the AP sports editors' best sports portfolio competition two years in a row.
Related Links:
Terrill's member page
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