This summer’s Olympic Games seem to have something for everyone — there’s Simone Biles and Snoop Dogg, a pommel horse king and a rugby queen — and even Olympic veterans say this year feels different.

“I’m so happy to have the fans back,” says Maddie Meyer, chief sports photographer for Getty Images, who is in Paris for her fifth Olympics Hollywood ReporterMeyer was at the Tokyo games, where fans and families stayed home during pandemic restrictions. This summer is a world away from those memories. “There’s such a great atmosphere, all these fans in the city, all over the city,” he says.

Plus, for a photographer, Paris has always been a treat for the eye. “The sense of place is something we always think about in photography,” Meyer says, pointing to images of beach volleyball players under the Eiffel Tower. “Paris is such an iconic city, with beautiful architecture and landscapes.”

For the games, on-site photographers are tasked with capturing all the action. For first-timers like Arturo Holmes, the work can feel a bit overwhelming at first. Holmes is a Getty red carpet photographer whose skills have taken him to the Super Bowl, the Met Gala, the Oscars and beyond — but he says these games are “on a whole different level.”

“You have to be inside yourself, navigating all the tourists, jumping around[from different venues]to find the motivation and drive to constantly find a significant moment,” Holmes says of the initial overwhelm. But she got back on her feet pretty quickly after a photo of Snoop Dogg went viral.

“It recharged the batteries,” she says. In a major victory, French President Emmanuel Macron shared the photo on social media, and Holmes felt validated: “I see that I didn’t make the wrong decision to choose my profession, to leave school, I was made for this. I was ready.”

Holmes is on a mission to capture celebrities in the stands in Paris. “You’re here for the reactions,” she says. The moment with Snoop was “a fraction of a second,” a barely-missed glimpse that, when you think about it, delivers a similar exhilaration to the sport itself.

Meyer finds similar reward in sports photography. “There’s a lot of intensity, a lot of emotion,” he says.

Meyer is covering water sports this summer, shooting swimming, swim, diving and water polo. “Water is kind of another subject or character in all of these images,” he says. “Including water, showing the environment that they’re in and the movement of the water around the athletes is really nice (and) can also be a really powerful tool to portray the athleticism of these athletes.”

Meyer captures athletes underwater with robotic cameras that he controls remotely from the pool deck. Before the competition, he researches his role to know the sport’s key players and the races to watch, as well as any safety concerns.

“From there, I like to leave a little bit to my imagination,” he says. “I think part of the magic of truly special and creative photography comes from seeing something new.”

Then, using Ethernet cables placed on either side of the pool, Meyer sends photos from his camera to an editing team in London, where the photos are retouched and then uploaded to the Getty Images database of subscribing news organizations. THIRD — can use the footage in their own news stories.

“It’s high profile, high pressure,” he says. “Your deadline was always five minutes earlier.”

Getty’s photographers are salaried employees, so they don’t get paid per photo. “This is a stock agency, volume is important,” Meyer says, “but no one is counting over my shoulder… photographers are heavily relied upon.” If anything, the press can leak out from the surrounding area.

“If you’re in a media room with 100 photographers, the energy can get a little crazy,” he says. “But the good news is that once the event starts, it’s so loud and chaotic that it’s almost silent. Once you get used to it, it’s just white noise.”

But what do you focus on when you’re surrounded by other cameras? Meyer says she thinks of her mother. “She’s not a great athlete, but she loves me and cares about what I do,” she says. “So I read into it like, ‘OK, what’s so special about this for someone who’s not here and might not care that much?’”

Holmes watches for details on the red carpet and in the stands. “I’m an emotional shooter,” she says. “I look for emotion, I look for smiles, I look for intense looks, I look for hugs.”

That finely tuned attention is what sets Meyer and Holmes, who are surrounded by oceans of smartphones at these events, apart. “Everyone is a photographer in some sense,” Meyer says. “And I love that. It’s great to see what everyone else is shooting.” The challenge, and the fun, comes from being different. “It’s easy to be a good photographer, but it’s hard to be a great photographer,” he says. “That’s the really cool, exciting challenge of it when everyone has a camera. How do I make something that stands out?”

Both photographers say part of their ability to overcome this challenge comes from their colleagues.

“I definitely try to build a relationship with the photographers behind me, to my right and to my left,” Holmes says. “When you have a good relationship, it can be a lot easier.”

“I’m really inspired by the people I work with,” Meyer says—both photographers and subjects. “My motivation isn’t ‘I’m here,’ it’s ‘They’re here.’ These athletes are here, and I take that responsibility seriously. Let me show you what they’re working for.”

According to Meyer, it’s why he keeps coming back to the Olympics. “I’m going to photograph the divers tomorrow. Most people don’t know their names, but I’m sure they’ve worked their whole lives to get to this moment,” he says. “I have some photos of the swimmers smiling underwater because they’re so happy to be here. Some of them make it to more than one Olympics, but for most of them, it’s a one-time deal.”

The pun in that last line may or may not be intentional. Either way, it will be there, ready for the camera to capture.