Being a top photographer at the Olympics takes meticulous planning, razor-sharp instincts, visual virtuosity and the ability to recognize drama – attributes that Chang Lee, a staff photographer for The New York Times, has in abundance. This week, he is in Rio de Janeiro covering his eighth Olympic Games. Despite that experience, he says he has found it more difficult to shoot each successive trip.

“You think you know what you’re doing, but there are always new moments and new human drama,” he said. “You can plan for many things like remote cameras, close-ups and clean, beautiful pictures with shadows and color. But there’s always a moment that you can never plan for that you don’t want to miss.”

It is always a challenge to find clever, new photographs but the images that show human dignity are the most important to him. It’s usually a single moment, he said, that defines an athlete and reveals his or her lifelong struggle to reach the Olympics.

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Mr. Lee’s own road to the Olympics was one that he could not have imagined growing up in Pusan, South Korea. He said he had no interest in sports before moving to the United States after high school, but that the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul had piqued his interest. While working delivering pizza in Leonia, N.J., to support his English studies he said he had no time to watch the Games on television. But he said he knew something big was happening.

“I heard people screaming from their home and I really hoped I could watch,” he said. “But I was just delivering the pizza.”

He learned how to deliver the photographic goods after he enrolled at New York University, studied photography and, in 1994, became a photo intern at The Times. His first assignment was covering the celebration at Madison Square Garden after the New York Rangers had won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 54 years. He had no idea what ice hockey was, but one of his photographs made the front page of The Times’ Metro section. He was hired as a staff photographer a few months later.

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As the newest photographer, he worked the night shift, which meant covering sports several times a week. He soon learned the ins and outs of baseball, football, basketball and even hockey (which he discovered uses a flat puck — not a ball). His strong graphic sense and excellent hand-eye coordination made him quite adept at photographing sports, and his early adoption of digital photography allowed him to effortlessly transmit images on deadline.

He was soon assigned to almost all the major sporting events, including the World Series and other championship games. At the same time, he covered many international stories and was part of two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams that covered the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan.

In Brazil, he is part of a New York Times photo team that includes photographers Doug Mills, Mauricio Lima and James Hill, and led by photo editors Becky Lebowitz and Jeffrey Furticella.

Before the games begin, Mr. Lee, 48, is meeting venue managers, checking locations for remote cameras and making sure that the internet connections will work. He is also looking for shooting positions that might lead to a photo different from any that he has made before.

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“Working for the Times, I have great freedom in deciding how I want to shoot,” he said. “The editors discuss what is important in the story but they rarely tell us how to shoot. It’s all up to us. We can take a risk to make a better picture.”

In a way, photographing the Olympics is quite like an Olympic sport itself. There will be hundreds of credentialed photographers competing with Mr. Lee for the best photos in Rio this month. Among the attributes that will separate them will be concentration, instantaneous physical response and years of training and experience.

But what truly makes for a gold medal Olympic image is more than a winning combination of eye, mind and body.

“If you see the picture with your own eyes it’s too late,” Mr. Lee said. “But if you see the picture before it happens, then it can be yours.”

Follow @nytchangster, @jamesestrin and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. James Estrin and Chang W. Lee are also on Instagram. Chang W. Lee is also on Facebook. You can also find Lens on Facebook and Instagram.