France’s Perrine Laffont during the ladies’ freestyle skiing moguls of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. The odd look of this panning shot was caused by a volunteer with a brightly colored jacket (at right) passing between the skier I was following through the air and my camera.

Most people would assume that the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics would mark the official start of competition. They’d be wrong. The opening ceremonies are tomorrow, and competition started today. Most people would also assume that checking three bags for a transatlantic flight would result in all three of said bags arriving at your destination. They’d also be wrong, as my colleague Kevin Jairaj found out the hard way.

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Skiers navigate a course in the mountain cluster at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

With the opening ceremonies for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics still two days away, there isn’t much in the way of actual competitive events happening just yet. Sure, there’s practice sessions to be had, but these obviously don’t count for anything, and the images aren’t as storytelling when there’s nothing on the line.

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Freestyle skiing athlete Heidi Kloser (USA) falls during a training session at the Rosa Kuhtor Extreme Park.

Even at the Winter Olympics, where athletes and photographers alike gather with their “a-game” ready to shine, practice still makes perfect. And so, with today being a day for athletes to take the courses and try things on for size, us photographers took a similar approach. My day was spent scouting the Rosa Kuhtor Extreme Park, figuring out which angles and positions would work best for the events I’ll be shooting there, as well as shooting a practice session of ladies and mens freestyle moguls.

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So, wait. You mean they don’t have travel-sized bottles of laundry detergent? Of course not, why would they? Yes, hunting for the smallest bottle of Tide in the grocery aisle marked my beginning of photographing the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics – with not a single camera in sight.

Like transmissions across an 1800’s telegraph from the wild wild west (or east, in this case), the cryptic Facebook messages from my colleague and Olympics roommate J.D. Mercer, who had just arrived on the ground in Sochi, began to stream across my Facebook chat window. “Apartment is nice, full kitchen