Getty photographer Jamie Squire on shooting gymnastics at the Olympics

Getty photographer Jamie Squire talked with FanSided about the challenges, highs, lows and most iconic sports photos from this year’s Olympic gymnastics events.

The Olympics always create a slew of iconic sports photos and this year, Getty Images helped us round up the best. We’re also talking with specific Getty photographers about the challenges of the sports they covered and some of their favorite moments and photos. Here, Jamie Squire talked about shooting Olympic gymnastics.

What makes photographing gymnastics different, challenging or exciting at the Olympics?

Gymnastics is a marquis sport at the Summer Olympics. People are always interested in the outcome and come to care about these incredible competitors from around the world, but with that said, gymnastics seems to be one of those sports that really gains attention once every four years. When photographing regular gymnastics events, it’s generally pretty easy — there’s not much fanfare and we photographers can generally go where we want around the podiums. However, at the Olympics, access to various positions around the floor is much more limited and restricted. There are classic angles that some of the certain apparatus photographs best, but at the Olympics, you can’t always get to the position for that classic angle. As photographers, we have to be much more creative and figure out how to photograph routines in a more untraditional way. This is the biggest challenge, but it’s an exciting sport to cover and highlight such powerful, yet graceful moments.

What’s the story behind this particular image?

This year, Simone Biles was the big story for the sport of gymnastics. She was definitely the highest-profile U.S. athlete heading into the Games. I knew the sport would be busy because everyone would be trying to cover her. When Biles pulled out of the competition, I was left scrambling trying to then tell the story of her not competing. Team USA still put on some really showstopping routines and I was able to capture action-packed moments, but also the camaraderie and support of each other. In the end, Biles did compete during the Women’s Balance Beam Final and earned a bronze medal. While she was a huge story for the sport and for the overall Games, there were so many other moments I really enjoyed covering during the gymnastics competition this year.

How do you know when you’ve captured an amazing moment?

While covering Olympics gymnastics, it’s guaranteed that there will be some pretty amazing moments. I always go into events with knowledge of the athletes and an idea of what stories I want to tell through my pictures, but sometimes you capture an amazing moment that you didn’t expect. Things just happen to fall into place and all you can do is be there to record it. And sometimes you don’t even realize how amazing the moment was until after the fact. As photographers, we are making split-second decisions most of the time, like where to be positioned in relation to the athlete, which lens to use or where the best lighting will be. It all comes down to knowledge of the sport, your photo position and even a little bit of luck to document something incredible.