Another Oscar week has come and gone, and Reuters News Pictures was there on the red carpet covering the biggest night in Hollywood. Staff Photographer Mario Anzuoni talks about how he approaches the mayhem on the busiest red carpet in the world, and shares his coverage plan, with Sam Mircovich, Editor in Charge, Global Entertainment Pictures

Sam Mircovich – Mario, Lets start with your work history, and how you got into shooting entertainment.

Mario Anzuoni – I started as a contract photographer for “Il Mattino”, in Naples Italy, where I covered hard news and features. Part of my daily beat was to cover mob killings, and I remember one time I arrived at a crime scene where the mother showed up before the police. She just pulled up a chair over her son’s body and started praying over her son. It was a touching photo.  Another time I snuck into one of the biggest cemeteries in Naples on a tip that it was poorly maintained, and I found open coffins and exposed remains, because of the neglect. I was purely a news photographer and had never covered entertainment before.

SM – That’s quite a leap, from hard news coverage to entertainment, how did it happen?

MA – Well, I applied to become a staff photographer in Los Angeles for one of the biggest Italian photo agencies, La Presse. I got the job the same day I applied and was on my way to California. When I arrived in Los Angeles, I discovered I was the only person in the bureau, and I had to quickly develop managerial skills and set up their office. I had to learn how to credential and develop contacts, basically start from scratch. It was quite a challenge. I worked for them for three years.

SM – And then you got hired by the Splash Agency, notorious for their paparazzi work. How did that sit with you?

Mario on the red carpet by Steve Granitz

MA – I had never done pap work, and it has never appealed to me. Of course there is a place for that in general entertainment coverage, but by that time I was comfortable with event photography and felt I was doing a good job in that area. They agreed with my desire to remain in that field, and I got hired the same day I applied.

SM – That is rare, they obviously recognized your talent

MA – Well, that is a nice thing to say, I think maybe it was because of the relationships I had built with publicists and their trust in me. The New York Post allowed me to credential myself for events, which added legitimacy. My outtakes were then syndicated by Splash.

SM - And then you arrived at Reuters based on a recommendation by senior staff photographer Robert Galbraith.

MA – Yes, in 2005, when I interviewed with you and Gary Hershorn during Oscar week. I had known Bob at entertainment events he had covered and he put the good word in for me. It was the next logical step for my career.

SM – So let’s talk about your approach for covering the Oscars last weekend. It is a crazy night, and the red carpet is crammed with photographers from competing agencies. What is your mindset when you shoot the carpet?

MA – There are many approaches to the red carpet coverage, but the only one that fits for me is to bring a documentary style to the event and, as you tell everyone before it starts, be aware of the entire scene, not just what happens in front of you. I can honestly say that I never felt I was able to be as creative before I came to Reuters.

SM – Why is that?

MA – Each photographer there knows they need the bread and butter photo, the full length showing the beautiful dresses, and head shots. And the majority of photographers there do that and only that. They are so focused on it they miss many beautiful pictures that happen 10 feet to their left or right. You can’t dismiss that approach, because many are very successful at it and they get a lot of play in the magazines. But I never really felt I need to shoot what the magazines think they want; my goal is to shoot pictures that tell the story and are creative.

SM – The Oscars are the most elaborate and expensive fashion show of the year, though some would not admit it, so there is truth to getting the easy picture.

MA – Right, and my position on the red carpet was the deadline position, the first group of photographers, so of course I know we need the bread and butter picture. But I don’t need 40 images of a star standing in front of me; just a dozen or so. That freedom allows me to look around for other opportunities while everyone else is snapping away.

SM – How do you let your creativity shine through in such a frenzy?

MA – I think the key is to not panic and not to shoot in a panic. Cover your basic picture and observe. The last hour of the Oscars red carpet is very intense; you can feel the electricity in the air. You are at the epicentre of a celebrity earthquake and you can easily get swallowed up in the event if you are not centered and allowing creativity to flow.

SM – I must say that the deadline position this year was very clean.

MA – Yes, the Academy put up a backdrop with their branding on it and it made a huge difference. The red carpet is so crowded; it was nice to not have to worry about people walking into the background, causing distractions. It was a huge improvement, very well staged, very tasteful. The Academy should be commended for recognizing that the first picture is important and the changes reflected it.

SM – Let’s talk about your lens choices. You had two cameras, one with a 24-70 zoom, and one with a 80-200 telephoto zoom.

MA – I actually used four cameras.

SM – That’s interesting because when you sent me two cards at the end of the night the messenger said you had one extra camera. You are so busted! The reader should know that we have 2 cameras in each position wired to a fiber network, so the images zip right out of the camera and into our editing stations. I did not expect any cards from you that evening.

MA – We discussed it, don’t you remember?

SM – No, but it was a busy week for me and I could have forgotten. I am getting old you know. So I am glad you trusted your instincts.

MA – The third camera had an 85mm f1.2 on it and then I had an extra wide angle, 16mm. I used that to show the huge crowd on the carpet and whenever a celebrity came close enough to me.

SM – A lot of photographers make that mistake when using a wide angle, by not placing their subject in the foreground. If you don’t the picture looks too general view and the viewer has to search for the photographer intent.

MA – Well, sometimes that IS the photographer’s intent, but not mine. It goes back to the documentary approach. I had some images of Brad and Angelina being interviewed by a local TV personality. I actually had to lean behind the photographer next to me, Steve Granitz, to get the shot, and he was cool about it.

SM- They weren’t annoyed with you?

MA – I wanted to show the entire scene and make a good picture of them. Brad is an amateur photographer and saw I was shooting without a flash, so I was trying to be the fly on the wall, and they were not bothered. In the end photographers called to them and Angelina turned my way.

SM – The other thing that is striking is the exposure and light. It is dramatic in that the shadows hold little detail and the TV lights are exposed just right. It really makes the photo stand out.

MA – The color temperature setting in the camera is very important and 90% of the time I am setting it manually. But in this case, the automatic color temperature setting was closest to reality. It was a mixed light source, with gloomy skies and hot lights and strobes from other photographers. It really helped that it was overcast, which gave a nice base exposure with even lighting.

SM – I wanted to touch briefly on the telephoto work, and getting a clean image. You had one picture of Josh Brolin blowing a kiss, and numerous clean head shots and moments.

MA – I had already shot the basics on Josh and Diane Lane and was just waiting for something to happen. Anticipating the moment is a basic part of photojournalism, and this is one example. This shot wouldn’t have worked as well as a wide angle, and I made a deliberate effort to shoot a tight photo of him doing something, anything out of the ordinary. If he had not done this, I still would have several nice head shots, but using the right lens and being ready will pay off if you have the patience.

SM – Also you have a nice picture of Sean and Robin Penn holding hands and smiling. I think them holding hands really makes the photo and he seems to be enjoying himself.

MA – It’s funny, because Sean Penn smiles but people don’t often see it. This was shot looking down toward the tent where they enter, and they weren’t really in position yet to make the head to toe photo. Again, watching the entire scene pays off. I am really happy with that photo.

SM – So lets change gears and talk briefly on where event photography is going. There are the agency photographers that shoot the bread and butter, and then a handful of photographers trying to do something different. Clearly, magazines use both but the majority are the full length dresses. Is there room on the red carpet for both types of photographers, or will one have to change to suit the tastes of the clients.

MA – Remember that we are no longer just considering the magazine/newspaper user as the end client. Web sites such as MSNBC run slide shows each week filled with more spontaneous and artistic celebrity images. So yes, there is room for both types of photographer. I don’t curtail my style to any one client, and my job is not done because I fulfilled their expectations. My job is to shoot captivating images and to have as much fun as possible.

Models, tall models, skinny models, Russian models, French models…sounds exotic? Yeah, not so much. Covering fashion week in New York sounds like a pretty glamorous assignment but it could hardly be further from it.

Shooting fashion week has more in common with running a marathon than it does running a sprint. There are 8 days, some 75 shows in the tents, dozens more off site, plus preparation photos. We shoot the models backstage and the designers getting ready, we shoot the front row celebrities arriving and we shoot the show from the pit.

The pit could also be called the pit of despair. Imagine taking 200 photographers with all their requisite gear, cameras, laptops, ladders, monopods, boxes and cases, putting them in a space that realistically 50 photographers could work comfortably in. Throw in 14 hour days, little regard for hygiene and an open bar in the evening and you have a recipe for a sociological experiment gone awry.

I personally shot dozens of shows and filed hundreds of photos. The images after a few days begin to homogenize and making something different becomes a real challenge. As a photographer I am always trying to redefine my visual narrative and create interesting dynamic photos.

Enter my newest toy, the Sony DSC-T77. It is advertised at Sony’s thinnest camera and with a Zeiss lens it makes pretty impressive photos. Add to that the huge screen and the fact that it is totally silent, has an awesome macro mode, live screen for shooting off the hip, shoots in black and white with a wide exposure latitude and you have a powerful documentary tool.

It is a strange thing when a photographer pulls up a big camera with a fast lens, it tends to put people in a defensive mode, they know you are professional and think you might have some ulterior motive for taking the photograph. Pull out a little camera and they think you are just taking pictures, the subjects are much more at ease and working with the little camera is more fun. Kind of like Jim Young using his Holga, you are never quite sure exactly what you are going to get.

Photographers have always looked around them at what is available to them to best do the job. Many photographers like Young bring Holgas with them or a Leica or Contax G2. They use these tools to create a different kind of image, one that is different than their bread and butter cameras, their Canon Mark III or 5d Mark IIs with their L lenses.

I will be experimenting with this camera more and more (I am really enjoying taking pictures on the subway system here in New York as I ride back and forth to Brooklyn and taking photos out of taxi windows).

Ok, back to the marathon.

Click here for a slideshow of images.

Going for an assignment where you’re sure of a good picture can cause more stress than you imagine.

The annual mid-winter Pingsi sky lantern event in Taiwan, one of the most colorful festivals in the world, is an event where most photographers would say, “Yeah, I can shoot that easily and make a nice picture.” The mass release of balloon-like lanterns usually occurs on the 15th day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, celebrated by ethnic Chinese around the world.

You look at similar shots in the Reuters archives and wonder whether your pictures this year can match them.

Arriving at the rainy village of Pingsi (it rains at least 200 days a year, according to the locals) at around noon, I was mildly outraged to find that more than 100 tripods and stepladders had been set up near where the lanterns were to be released. The event was scheduled for 6 pm, (which means the more than 100 amateur photographers who came on their own were way more serious than a wire photographer like me). The only consolation was that I was hours earlier than competing wire services and got a good spot on the media platform.

That day I understood the real meaning of the Singlish word “Gabra”. Pronounced “GA-brah”, it means in a state of confusion or chaos, confused, frightened, shocked; i.e. panic.

First off, it was one of those 200 days of rain as aptly predicted by the locals and I was carrying two Canon MKIIn cameras and a Canon 450D mounted on a tripod for a slow shutter shot. As I waited in the rain trying to cover the cameras with a Columbia windbreaker in vain, crowds were gathering to release the lanterns. The thing happens faster than it looks in pictures.

The big red things were up in the sky within five seconds.

Anyway my plan was simple: find the most distinct silhouette and compose my frames around it.

Exposure generally changes according to the color of the lanterns, but I was on a slow 1/30 shutter, aperture 2.8 and ISO 800 most of the time. After two rounds of lantern releases, I was gabra-fied. I did not have the “money” shot and could not find my competitors. In fact, most of the locals had already gone filing and I was one of the few left on the platform.

“Your event is bursting with scenery and easy to shoot”, I hear a phantom photo editor telling me, “so why are the pictures so horrible?”

I stayed in the rain for one more round of lantern releases before filing the photos. The following round I was lucky enough to get a man who was photographing a lantern as it went up resulting in a distinct silhouette on the bottom left of the frame. I snapped a few frames and decided to file quickly to beat the Asian deadlines.

I guess my anxiousness paid off in a way. I would not have waited for that shot if I had treated it like a routine assignment where I just go and snap some all right frames and file early.

All in a day’s work on a rainy day. Let’s not get started on return traffic after the assignment.

Sports Pictures Editor Greg Bos has chosen an unusual picture from the Biathlon World Championships in Pyeongchang. Over to Greg:

I like the sense of tension, anticipation and fatigue in this picture. South Korean staff photographer Lee Jae-won captured the moment with great expressions on the faces of the two Slovenian athletes participating in a biathlon relay race.

Original caption: Janez Maric of Slovenia (R) tags teammate Klemen Bauer during the mixed relay race at the IBU Biathlon World Championships in Pyeongchang, east of Seoul February 19, 2009. REUTERS/Lee Jae-won (SOUTH KOREA)

For the previous day's picture, click here

Split seconds count in sports photography. Reuters Sports Pictures editor Greg Bos thinks London-based photographer Eddie Keogh captured the moment perfectly when former Arsenal captain William Gallas went head over heels to the ground during an FA Cup match.

CAPTION: Arsenal's William Gallas (top) challenges Cardiff City's Jay Bothroyd during their FA Cup fourth round replay soccer match at the Emirates Stadium in London February 16, 2009. REUTERS/ Eddie Keogh (BRITAIN)

Original caption: Austria's Martin Koch soars through the air during his second round jump at the ski jumping World Championships in Oberstdorf, February 13, 2009. REUTERS/Michael Dalder  

Click here for the previous day's picture 

We're back with another picture of the day, and this time Sports Pictures Editor Greg Bos has chosen a frame from the Copa Libertadores, South American soccer's version of the Champions League. Greg writes:

I like this picture because of its colour and shape - a simple, but eye-catching, illustration of football fans in Argentina sandwiched between two giant colourful flags.

ORIGINAL CAPTION: Fans of San Lorenzo de Almagro display giant flags as they cheer their team during their Copa Libertadores soccer match against San Luis in Buenos Aires, February 11, 2009. Marcos Brindicci/REUTERS/(ARGENTINA)

Click here for the previous day's picture or for a blast of nostalgia check out a few of the pix of the day from the Beijing Olympics.

http://blogs.reuters.com/china/2008/08/15/beijing-games-picture-of-the-day-11/

http://blogs.reuters.com/china/2008/08/10/beijing-games-picture-of-the-day-6/

http://blogs.reuters.com/china/2008/08/21/beijing-games-picture-of-the-day-16/

At the beginning of January, staff at Reuters and I had a discussion about creating a multimedia piece on the Red Bull Crashed Ice race, an event where competitors have to skate down an urban ice course in the middle of Old Quebec. After some discussion, the idea of doing a multimedia piece on the introduction of the woman’s category at the event was suggested, which I thought was a great idea.

On race day, the temperature was slightly below -30 Celsius in Quebec City, which is not unusual for that time of the year. One of my colleagues had the grease in his lens’ zoom barrel freeze during the race, so I had to be careful and keep my cameras, voice recorder and video camera warm.

It was my first time shooting pictures, videos and collecting audio to do a multimedia piece. My plan of attack was to shoot my pictures first and then film the videos. It’s always a good thing to have a plan when you’re out of your comfort zone. When I felt confident I had good pictures for the wire, I decided to switch to my video camera to shoot short video clips. This event was well suited for pictures and videos since there was more than thirty heats of four competitors. As always, if you’re filming video and something important happens, you will not be able to get the still image that the other agencies might have. I think photographers have to be careful not to spend too much time shooting video and concentrate on their primary job — taking pictures. Fortunately for me, nothing happened while I was capturing my video clips.

Collecting the audio was probably the easiest part of my job. I managed to do my interviews the day before the race. I prepared my questions in advance and asked some friends and colleagues to have a look at them to be sure I was not off track. As for the ambient sound, that was even easier. The race was divided into heats and between them people were screaming. While I was waiting for the next one, I just had to push the record button to collect some sound.

Multimedia is the way of the future for our profession, so being versatile will give you an edge over the competition. But not every event allows you to do good multimedia. You have to think of your core clients first. Will be well served if you drop your camera for a couple of minutes to concentrate more on shooting video and audio? In the end, I like the result of the piece that our editors put together, but I think I still have a lot of room for improvement. Perhaps, the next time it will be easier. I’m sure I’ll find new techniques to do more than one thing at once.

To celebrate the launch of the new sports blog we're reviving a feature from View from the Bird's Nest and posting a picture of the day from the Reuters file.

Sports Pictures Editor Greg Bos has chosen the first pic, a shot of David Beckham from Spanish photographer Marcelo del Pozo. Over to Greg...

"The reason I like this picture is because of the mildly comical view of David Beckham, aged 32, leading the other England players with a big leg kick during a training session in Seville. He was no doubt aware of all the photographers present and kicked a little higher to get their attention. Like him or loathe him, Beckham is still a constant presence in English football as he closes in on Bobby Moore's record for most caps for an outfield player."

Reuters photographer Brian Snyder is seen at center in his position at the Super Bowl. (Photo by Jeff Snyder)

When Reuters photographers cover a major event like the Super Bowl, each photographer is assigned a specific position on the field. Reuters places a photographer in each corner of the end zones to cover the action, touchdowns and reaction occurring in front of them. We have one photographer on each sideline, moving with the play and concentrating on the quarterbacks, sacks and their reactions. In Tampa for Super Bowl XLIII there were two photographers way overhead in the upper part of the stands, covering both the action and making wide pictures to show the whole scene. I was assigned a position in the first row of the seats in one of the endzones (center in the photo above) — high enough to provide cleaner backgrounds while avoiding being blocked by the security personnel and NFL film crews on the sidelines, but low enough to see the players’ faces and not just the tops of their helmets.

When you boil it down, you are responsible for making the pictures of the action that happens in the portion of the field that you are assigned to cover. For most of the game, all of the action went away from me; the touchdowns and sacks took place mostly on the other end of the field. When the Cardinals’ Larry Fitzgerald scored the go ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter, I could see none of it. The Reuters photographers on the other end of the field - Gary Hershorn, Shaun Best and Hans Deryk - made great images of that touchdown. Had the Cardinals held on to win, their photographs would have been the ones on the front pages and sports pages of newspapers everywhere.

But the Steelers got the ball back in the last minutes of the game and drove down the field towards me.  What proved to be the winning touchdown, the pass Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw to wide receiver and MVP Santonio Holmes in the corner of the end zone, happened right in front of me. I had switched to my shorter lens since the only pictures that mattered at that point in the game would be of the winning score (or failed attempt).

That focal length proved to be just wide enough to keep Santonio Holmes in the frame from head to toe, which proved significant since extensive video review by the officials was required to make sure he came down with his feet inbounds. Not often is a still photograph as (or more) conclusive than video replay, but the still picture clearly shows Holmes with control of the ball and both feet touching the ground for the game-winning touchdown.

The next morning, after the picture had appeared on newspaper front pages and sports section fronts here and abroad I would hear from friends, as well as people I had never met before, who contacted me to say that until they saw my picture they were unsure of the referees’ call on the play. Despite seeing the play again and again on television, this still picture, seen the next morning, had been the thing that convinced them that the referees had made the right call.

On the field, once the officials had reviewed the video replays and confirmed that it was a touchdown, my runner took my disk to the photographers workspace on the other side of the endzone, and via Reuters remote editing software Paneikon, editors remotely editing from other parts of the country were seeing my images of the play, as well as those of the other Reuters photographers, within minutes. The editor looking at my take, Mike Segar, chose several of the images from the sequence I shot to move on the Reuters wire.

Since I was slightly farther removed from the play, my photographs kept all of Santonio Holmes in the frame, while Reuters photographer Scott Audette’s images from field level in the corner of the endzone nicely complimented mine with a tighter view of the catch. Each of us had fulfilled our role at the game.