Shaun White and Snowboard Cross Finals – 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Photos By Robert Beck, Courtesy CNN.com

I followed a link today from the Nikon Rumors Forum that led to a collection of photos from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics by Sports Illustrated photographer Robert Beck on CNN.com. As a fellow artist and sports fan, I am fully aware of the “one man capturing as much as you can from one location” issue when it comes to shooting such events. I’m even more aware of the fact that Robert Beck has had the honor of having his photos displayed on the cover of Sports Illustrated more than 50 times and they’ve even been included in Time Magazine’s Pictures of the Decade.

So when I read the comments that followed the story I became outraged. Outraged not by the fact that what I read there was something new. More outraged that this is what I see everywhere in cyberspace:

voidzone wrote:
Another overpaid guy with a camera. I could do better. Where’s my ticket to the Olympics?

Niceking wrote:
I agree voidzone. I’ve seen better pics at a grade school fair.

hed3d wrote:
amazing ? these photo’s are pedestrian at best

These comments immediately followed the story on CNN.com, not on the Nikon Rumors Forum.

I would never stand here and say these are the same types of photos that make a cover or earn some prestigious award. I’m pretty positive Robert Beck wouldn’t say that either. Any photographer can tell you that you can take hundreds of photos in a day like this and be lucky to have a small collection of keepers. Robert works for the press. He has an obligation. The obligation to show part of the story, at any cost. To illustrate the triumphs and disappointments that took place during a day of competition.

Anyone would love a ticket to the Olympics to take photos, but it’s easy to say that when you’re only real experience with a camera is that of a tourist or hobbyist. This guy is out there trudging up hills carrying a lot of gear. He’s sitting out in the cold waiting for hundreds of athletes to compete. He’s being judged by the ones who truly matter – his employers. It’s truly not all it’s cracked-up to be. He’s working when he’s up on the hill. I can’t for the life of me imagine that being a staff photographer for SI means you can just be lazy and turn in just any crap.

So when I read comments from what is undoubtedly just feeble internet trolls, I couldn’t help but get a little irked. You see, I read this crap all the time online, and it’s always from someone who could do better. Someone who says another person sucks and doesn’t deserve the opportunities they have because “I could do his job with my sister’s point-and-shoot.”

The thing is, these people remain nothing but trolls. They will always be nothing but because they are quick to talk smack about someone else doing their job, but never in their life would they EVER leave a link to their own photos so the rest of the world could judge them. It’s so easy to talk about someone else when you don’t even have the balls to put your real name behind the words you carelessly throw around.

I want links to voidzone’s amazing sports photography. I’d like to critique Niceking’s stunning use of a depth of field and composition. I feel a bit robbed that we don’t have the option, if we so wished, to happily use colorful ways to describe what most undoubtedly is a jealous person’s not quite good enough to be a staff photographer for a major magazine’s images.

I guarantee hed3d absolutely sucks at everything and is pedestrian at best at merely existing.

It sure is easy, isn’t it?.

Now I can rest easy,
Tyler