By Simon Rice

Our Olympic heroes were today given the tribute they deserved - albeit a couple of months late.

The whole thing looked very jolly - there was lots of waving, children who should probably be at school and the staple of any British show of pride - miniature Union Jacks.

Picture by David Ashdown

David Ashdown's view:

'My picture of the Olympics from a photographic perspective is Nicole Cook winning gold in the road race - for all sorts of reasons. The condition were appalling: pouring rain and howling winds make for a very bad combination. Water gets everywhere, plus the fact that I didn't have any waterproof clothing with me or covers for the cameras and lens which had all been left in the hotel. The sun was shining when I left! How long have I been doing this job, long enough to know better. I had to wrap myself and equipment up in nasty rain ponchos - a pink one for me and a blue one for the equipment - lovely! I must have looked like part of a camera club outing!

Picture by David Ashdown

David Ashdown's view:

'Diving is a very very fast moving event. It's not the speed that they are dropping, it's the twisting and turning, which require a very fast shutter speed to stop the movement. I tried 1/1000 but there was a lot of movement on their heads as they spun - the Chinese diver Liang Huo had longish hair that was still quite wet before he dived off, so as he spun (and if the shutter speed was high enough - at least 1/2000 second) the water would form a circle away from him. What is also needed is a dark background to highlight the spray. I was almost at pool level looking up at the 10m board because what's behind him is the top of the seating and also the darkest place in the pool. It looks like I'm level with him as that's the effect that a very long lens can give, a loss of perspective of height. What is also needed if a few old darkroom skills, using photoshop to raise the contrast and darken the background to enhance the water, to bring out the best elements of the picture. And hopefully make people thing how did he take that picture, well that's how!'

Photographic details:

Camera: Nikon D3, 500mm lens, aperture F4.0,  1/2000th of a second

For more David Ashdown pictures, click here, if you want to buy prints of David's pictures, click here

Picture by David Ashdown

David Ashdown's view:

'This was the first time I had been to a BMX race and sometimes that can be an advantage because I didn't go with any preconceived ideas of how to photograph it. But being the Olympics there are only a few palaces we are allowed to go. If this was in the UK I could have gone anywhere I wanted, but such is the Olympics that what is in essence a minority sport is given the status of something it is not. So I ended up on the media tribune using my vast knowledge of BMX! The idea was to see as much of the track a possible as they do fall off, and this is what happened to our girl Shanaze Reade. Down she went in the first semi-final (as it turned out, a rehearsal for the final in which she fell at the last bend). It all happens very quickly and it's very easy to miss the moment. That's the challenge of sports photography - try to get the best position, and channel your nervous energy into concentrating on the action. It worked this time, I hope it does next time, but that's the fun of it, well most of the time anyway!'

Photographic details:

Camera: Nikon D3, 500mm lens, aperture F9.0,  1/1000th of a second

For more David Ashdown pictures, click here, if you want to buy prints of David's pictures, click here

Picture by David Ashdown

David Ashdown's view:

'There is nothing better than water, sunshine and sport to make good pictures - unfortunately the reverse is true when it comes to the Olympic finals of beach volleyball, which should be played in bright sunshine with soft sand and lots of sunglasses. But as you can see from the picture it looked more like the final was being played in winter...in London, but every cloud has a silver lining. Well it does if you have to take pictures in pouring rain; it only lasted two sets instead of a possible three. On a more positive note because of the rain there is lots to look at in the crowd, all the different coloured rain ponchos that are handed out add to the scene, and it does make a nice atmospheric picture. It seems that here in Beijing you get wet one way or the other - it's either boiling hot, so you sweat like mad and get wet inside out, or it rains and it's cool, then you get wet outside in!'

Photographic details:

Camera: Nikon D3, 14mm lens, aperture F4.0,  1/640th of a second

For more David Ashdown pictures, click here, if you want to buy prints of David's pictures, click here

Picture by David Ashdown

David Ashdown's view:

'This picture of the Chinese synchronized swimming pair was in the main pool that Michael Phelps got his eight medals. It's a hard sport to get a pleasing picture from. I think it's important to try to get a feeling of symmetry in the picture but one of the problems is you're never certain where they will pop up, or what routine they will be doing, and it only lasts for about four minutes. With the amount of time they're under water or out of position to me - the opportunity for a picture is almost nil. But then you only need one chance hopefully.'

Photographic details:

Camera: Nikon D3, 500mm lens and a 1.7 tele-converter, aperture F6.7,  1/500th of a second

For more David Ashdown pictures, click here, if you want to buy prints of David's pictures, click here

By Simon Usborne

The Brits are back - our stunning rise to third in the medals table has dominated the news and there has been much fist-pumping and back-slapping about our knocking Australia, the "home of sport", off their perch (they're now lying in fifth spot behind Russia and, at the time of writing, Britain has 16 golds to Australia's 11, and 36 in total to Australia's 35).