Team Syracuse at the Lake Placid 2023 Winter World University Games
Photo taken by Porter Binks
About Capturing Gold
Capturing Gold is a project that I worked on to complete my Master’s Degree at Syracuse University. For the project, I directed the student photography team while developing the workflow for the Lake Placid 2023 FISU Winter World University Games. The project had twelve photographers and five public relations writers cover over 85 medaled events across 12 sports in 11 days, featuring over 2,500 athletes from 50 countries and 600 universities. It was through a first-ever partnership between the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and the Lake Placid 2023 FISU Winter World University Games.
Venues for the games spanned across Upstate New York, from Canton and Potsdam down to Gore Mountain.
The project was from a dream. It originates from an athlete's desire to win a gold medal and a photographer’s desire to capture the gold-medal-winning moment. For me, Capturing Gold allowed me to lead the student photography team. It allowed me to create a project demonstrating my capabilities and to aid in launching my professional career.
During my time in graduate school, I learned the importance of preparing and photographing a critical moment, knowing how to capture those moments with intentionality, and develop a love for the light.
The project was a culmination of my experiences that I gained during my undergraduate career at Bowling Green State University along with the newfound knowledge I gained at Syracuse.
I worked with the leadership team to identify important components needed to create a successful expedition and project. Our team leadership, Professor Jon Glass, Professor Gitner, and I, worked to coordinate the various parts of the trip. Parts of the trip we coordinated in advance included creating student schedules, arranging meetings, recruiting photographers to join the team, developing the workflow system, and more.
The Workflow
A critical part of the project was the workflow and how to ensure delivery of quality images in a timely manner. We started by developing a workflow by combining the knowledge students had gained from their courses and introducing new software. The software addressed the assignment-specific challenges such as providing in-depth metadata. We adopted a workflow strategy similar to one I used at my internship at Clarkson Creative/NCAA Photos. It combined Camera Bits Photo Mechanic for ingesting images and Adobe Lightroom for image processing. The images were delivered to FISU’s Dropbox account and published to Pixieset for media to access.
To develop the workflow, we looked to use existing resources students were familiar with while introducing new software to help expedite the editing and finalizing process,
I used multiple resources to develop the Capturing Gold Photo Processing Guide, including a Quick Guide to Getty Images’ Caption and IPTC Fields with the original LP2023 Photo Imagery Guidelines sheet provided to the team leadership. The ultimate goal of the workflow is to create an accurate and efficient system allowing us to deliver images quickly.
The Capturing Gold Photo Processing Guide and Sports Photography Workshop
The full workflow guide is available here: PDF
In teaching the workflow, Professor Gitner and I created an essential guide for students to use as a resource to help throughout the Games. The workflow had to be simple to learn and not burdensome. Leading up to the games, our goal was to teach the workflow through a Sports Photography Workshop inspiring students to create strong imagery while meeting the client's needs.
After arriving at Lake Placid, we taught the workflow to the students in our Sports Photography Workshop and then kicked off the games. We provided students with a list of “Best of” galleries from photographers and wire services with experience covering the Winter Olympics. Some included the works of Al Bello, Andy Scott, Eric Seals, Patrick Smith, Alexander Hassenstein, Dustin Satloff, and more. The inspirations document is available here: Inspirations
Photo taken by Seth Gitner
As a result of teaching the workshop, most students turned out images throughout the games that followed the workflow specifications. The team leadership provided daily oversight for the students by giving them tips and advice to elevate their work. We reviewed the tagging images in the camera, setting white balance before and after an event, and cleaning up imagery.
Throughout the games, I worked with student and freelance photographers to ensure that assignments were covered and provide essential updates to help ease pressure while improving event coverage.
Setting up remotes for the gold medal game!
Photo taken by Nancie Battaglia
In the final days, I secured locker room access with the Canadian and United States delegations for the Men’s Gold Medal Ice Hockey game, while working with Photo Cluster Managers to secure clearance to mount remote cameras.
Overall, the workflow along with execution saw rewards on both fronts. The images pleased both the FISU international staff along and gave rewarding imagery for the students portfolios.
Lake Placid 2023 Organizing Committee’s Feedback
“We were very pleased with the quality of work that you guys produced […] I turned over thousands of photographs for the FISU archival record, and they’ll be using these images for years to come” - Jon Lundin, Head of Media and Communications
“When you plan something you think about best case scenario, and this exceeded how it would work. […] The guide for photos and the system for tagging, huge kudos to your work. […] You guys had professionals wanting to use the system you made.” - Cecil Bleiker, Media and Broadcast Operations Specialist
Student Feedback on Workflow
“Learning Photo Mechanic was one of the most useful tools, it drastically improved my workflow and I will be taking what I learned with me throughout my career” - Maddie Crooke, undergraduate
“It really changed the way I saw sports photography with the way the whole set up was done […] We knew exactly how we would type things out and make it uniform between all of us and made it a lot easier” - Bond Photos, undergraduate
“Amazing workflow system […] I think it was very easy to go through and udnerstand […] The guide was definitely extremely useful” - Kayla Green, graduate student
The full review, including a SWOT analysis, is available on the website.
Team Statistics During The Games
Delivered 5,191 images for FISU Archives
Photographed and reported on 88 events
Dedicated 952+ hours of coverage
Students published in 50 locations worldwide
Personal Efforts
Photographed 19 events in 11 days
Organized coverage and positioned photographers for opening and closing ceremonies
Developed and taught workflow system
Adapted workflow system to event challenges
Fostered a positive team culture
Created 20 galleries featuring student works from multiple sports
Curated print gallery for public viewing in Newhouse
Portfolio
To learn more about Capturing Gold and the full Lake Placid 2023 FISU Winter World University Games experience, the school-created website can be seen on CapturingGold.com
The project wouldn’t be possible without our sponsors at Sony, ThinkTank, and Syracuse University.
The Master’s Project was successfully defended at the S.I. School of Public Communications at Syracuse University on April 30, 2024.