Daily Photos no. 55: the Olympics!

Instead of going to my dear friend's wedding like I should, I was working at the Olympics, on the Fencing event. I'd originally signed up for general work but got plucked out of the queue and spent quite a few months going up and down to Canary Wharf to be patronised in second-hand management-speak by lanyarded blonde posh kids like a perpetual episode of Twenty Twelve (which got everything absolutely spot on except it never mentioned the rats infesting all those corporate skyscrapers).

The actual Olympics was odd - I mostly remember being exhausted from 20 hour days - at one point I was seeing double. Flashes of memory include seeing medallists being sick in the call room as they awaited their fights; paying no attention as people like Vladimir Putin strutted past; realising I was sitting in the middle of the Venezuelan team while their compatriot won a gold medal; catching a medal one of my team dropped; wincing as one of the British referees made yet another howling error; the hush and then groan as the crowd sees the VAR before the referee does; the smell of a sports hall after 5 days of non-stop tension; being absolutely sick of wearing polyester.

I think I got some decent photos. The venue was beautifully designed and looked fantastic. I had full access to everything, though I didn't take many backstage pictures. In the right spot, my 50mm lens gave me great results - my longer lenses aren't nearly as good so didn't quite live up to what I wanted. The sheer emotion raging meant that there were lots of opportunities to capture rage, despair and joy though. The sabre, not my favourite weapon, was the most intense. Every fight at all weapons was sudden death, but the sheer speed of sabre meant that some fencers' entire Olympics, that they'd spent 4 years preparing for, was over in 2 minutes. My favourite bit? The Italian women's foil team: the ultimate in athleticism and skill - and it was the last chance to see Valentina Vezzalli at an Olympics after decades at the top.

The final 700 pictures I kept are here: those below are a mere taste.