Simon Bruty's shots
"Unlike event or competition photography, I have complete control when I set up a shoot. I was standing on a chair in the pool so I could photograph Michael Phelps at water level. I made him repeat the butterfly stroke a number of times, so much so that he said this was worse than his training sessions."
"For our Olympic preview issue we wanted something different on Michael Phelps, so I came up with the 'big fish in the water tank' idea. Baltimore has a cool aquarium, and Phelps is from Baltimore, so easily done. After four separate visits and tests plus months of organizing on the phone, we got everybody on board, except the fish. The fish would not swim around Phelps. But after plenty of food and a little encouragement from the divers, we got the photograph."
And of course, this one:
