USA vs. SWEDEN Womens Hockey - Another big win

Yesterday was the women's semi final hockey game and the USA team won big again, beating the Swedish team by a score of 9 to 1. With this win, the women head to the Gold Medal game against Canada on Thursday. This should be an awesome game with yet another cross border rivalry. It will also be the last event that I photograph before I fly home on Friday. (Yes, I am leaving early because I made a commitment more than a year ago...).

Here are lots of shots of the women scoring and celebrating...

Molly Engstrom's (defenseman for the team) family was sitting behind me for the game and showed their support for her.

Monique Lamoureaux scores one of her three goals of the game. I love this shot of her on the ice looking back at the puck.

This goal was really special because it was scored by defenseman, Kerry Weiland (#23). Why is that special? Well...when I was photographing the team party on the 19th, as I walked by Kerry she said "I need to high five you..." and we started talking. She is very outgoing and a little crazy like me. I made sure to get photos of her and her family and promised that I would key in on her to get some shots of her on the ice. So, when she scored this goal I was glad to capture this shot of the celebration. I also saw her jam over to grab the puck, but I missed that shot, damn!

Another puck going into the net.

This is another shot of the puck going in top shelf. But you will notice that this time I was able to get off of the glass and move around to get a different perspective. Even though I like shooting from the ice position, I was getting tired of the same perspective for every shot, so I moved for two reasons. The first reason was for a different look to the images, and the other was for my sanity. :)

This was a great score for the Swedes. This shot was tipped mid-air for their only score of the game. I was happy for them not to get shut out but happier to get multiple shots of the tip.

You guess it...another score...

Monique Lamoureaux (twin sister of teammate, Jocelyne) scores her hat trick goal.

A HUGE thank you!!!

Now that I am well past the mid point of my Olympic adventure, I need to send a shout out to those who have made this all possible.

There are numerous companies who have helped me with my equipment needs for this adventure. THANKS a million to:

* Canon for loaning me the 1D Mark IV and endless lenses. Your equipment rocks!

* Lowepro for the camera bags. Mainly the x200 roller which has been a godsend for this trip. My back would not be the same without this bag!!!

* Western Digital for the stacks of hard drives. I am burning through hard drive space like never before and would be stuck without the extra storage.

* Wacom for the graphics tablets. Yep, I am hooked on these things and can not edit without them. Call me a Wacom addict.

* Lexar for the opportunity to be here and for the gobs of memory cards needed for this type of shooting. I never thought that I would rely daily on 32GB cards. These 600x cards are awesome!

* USA Hockey for getting me the Olympic credentials and trusting that I would deliver images.

* Nick at VANOC for helping me navigate my way through all of this organized chaos.

* Most importantly, my family, for being supportive of this adventure!!! I could not be here doing all of this without the support of my wife and kids. You are the best!!!

My editing area, here at the Vancouver condo

USA vs. CANADA HOCKEY - The big game!

After a week of people anticipating the big hockey game, the 21st came around and the game commenced. USA was the underdog for this game, but they played well and had very solid goal tending from Ryan Miller, landing them the win in a 5 to 3 win over the team in red. As anticipated, the crowd was loud and the rivalry between the USA and Canada could be heard in the crowd (but always in a nice way - after all, this is the Olympics).

USA attacked early and got a goal in the first minute of the game.

Canada came back with a score of their own and it stayed that way throughout the game with each team one-upping the next.

This was the goal that ultimately decided the game. This score made it 4 to 3 for the USA and put Canada on their heals for the rest of the game.

Zach Parise celebrates in a big way, knowing the importance of this goal!

Then with a minute left in the game, Canada pulled their goalie trying to get an advantage on Team USA. But Ryan Kesler (from the Vancouver Canucks) scored an amazing empty net goal, diving for the puck and swatting it into the net, at the end of the game to seal the deal.

Russia vs. Czech hockey - More superstars on the ice

Since I had to be in photo position for the big USA vs. Canada game at 4:40pm yesterday, I figured that I would get to the rink early so that I could get a good spot with clean glass (since the Olympics do not allow shooting holes in the glass like the NHL does). I arrived in time to watch the Russian team take on the Czech team. This also gave me a chance to take pictures of my friend, Evgeni Nabokov, who plays goalie for the Russian team. It was a fun game to watch.

It was pretty amazing to watch Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Ovechkin on the same line. These guys are great players individually, but put them together and wow! What I really liked about the Russians, is that when they scored, they really celebrate. This is apparent in these images.

Nabby in net, and I really like the way that the three sticks all converge on the puck. Something about the lines of the sticks worked for me. :)

This last shot was my favorite from the day. If you have been reading the other blog entries, you will know that I am having fun with the fish eye lens against (thats pronounced "A Gain St" here in Canada) the glass. The tough part of using this lens is that the skater has to be really close to the glass, but not too close. Evgeni Malkin was just in that perfect position when I grabbed this frame.

And then it was a two hour wait for the big game...

OLYMPIC BOB SLEIGH: Fast action on a wall of ice

When I came up to Vancouver to scout out the area a couple of months ago, I had dinner with a good friend of mine who is coordinating all the photographers for VANOC. We talked about all the different sports at the games and he told me, "If you are going to catch any winter Olympic sport, you have to see the bob sleigh". With that in mind, and since there were no USA Hockey games yesterday, I made the trip to Whistler yesterday to check out this unique sport.

The bus ride from the Main Press Center in Vancouver to the Main Media Center in Whistler took just over 2 hours, and the ride was as beautiful as people had promised me. This made the two hour trip go by pretty darned fast.

Since I arrived in Whistler by 12:30, I walked around the area and shot some pictures to give you an idea of the atmosphere here. Like most ski resorts, this area consists mostly of shops and restaurants.
They have live bands playing all over the Vancouver area, although this is the first time that I have had time to walk over and get close enough to grab some photos.

This guy was singing a Will Smith rap song, but I had to photograph him because he looks like "Shaggy" from Scooby Doo. Doesn't he? :)

And then I was off to the Olympic Sliding Venue for the bob sleigh competition. The competition started at 5pm, but I arrived at the venue at 2:30pm so that I could go walk the track and figure out best shooting positions. This came in handy later in the evening, since I really wanted to get shots with the sleighs over the Olympic logos. In my investigations, I found out that only turns 4, 7 and 16 had the logo. I knew that I would focus on these areas from 5pm-8pm.

I started at the top of the course and grabbed some shots of the guys running and jumping into the sleighs.

This shot was taken at the first turn. As you can see from the photo, I basically had my camera in the track. I had my strap wrapped around my wrist and held on for dear life. The last thing I needed was to drop the camera and make International news. That would be my last Olympic shooting experience. I shot this image 1/500th of a second to freeze the sleigh, which works up at turn one, but would not do the trick once they got to full speed.

This Australia sled crashed on turn 5 and I was standing there as it went over. Remember, that means that these guys are sliding down another 11 turns at high speed in this precarious position. These guys are crazy.

This is the shot that I envisioned when I planned on shooting this event. I was very happy to grab this shot with the USA sled just past the Olympic rings. It really helps to have a camera that shoots 10 images per second! I saw tons of people trying to take pictures of the sleighs with their little point and shoot cameras; almost impossible!

Then, once I had the picture of the sleigh and the Olympic rings, I headed down to the final turn (turn 16) to try and grab a motion blur shot of these fast moving sleighs. As you photographers out there know, the key is to slow down the shutter speed of the camera and pan at the EXACT speed of the moving object. This is a really tough shot. Of the 50 that I shot, only 10% were sharp.

This is my favorite shot of the night for numerous reasons. For one, I was able to pan and grab the sleigh in perfect focus while blurring the spectators. Secondly, the sleigh was right over the Vancouver logo. Thirdly, the sleigh was high on the wall (as opposed to the previous image). Lastly, I met a guy from USA Today who was excited to have a similar image. Any time that I can grab a shot like one of these seasoned pros, I am happy.

For the last shot of the night, I thought that it would be good to grab a wide shot of turn 16 to show the size of the turn and the spectators. I framed this shot to get the full logo on the wall of ice.
Then I took the 2 hour bus ride back to Vancouver and made the 14 block walk back to the condo. I grabbed this shot of the crowds downtown to show everyone what this place has become. When I first arrived in Vancouver, I wondered where all the people were. It was dead here until the evening of Opening Ceremonies, and has steadily grown night by night. This was taken by Robson Street which is a popular shopping street in the city.

Tonight! Oh tonight is the big night. USA vs. Canada, the big hockey game of the Olympics! It is all that people are talking about here. Supposedly tickets are selling for as much as $5000 a piece. Even with my photo credentials, I had to get a special media ticket to get in. And then I had to work with the USOC to get a shooting position on the ice. This should be a great game. And if you think the city looked crazy last night, tonight is going to be mayhem!

AN OLYMPIC NIGHT!

Yesterday was a different day of shooting for me up here in Vancouver. I spent the first part of the day trying to get caught up on image editing and blogging (hence the multiple blogs) and then went off to shoot the Team USA Hockey party at a nearby country club. I can't post any of the images from the party since it was a private event and in order to respect the athletes and their families, it is best to keep them for the team use only. But, suffice it to say that it was a really nice event at a very cool country club with every sport you can imagine, including a full sized ice rink. My kind of place!

Since the party was over at 8pm, I decided to come back to the condo, change back into jeans and head out for some night shots. Believe it or not, I made my first trip over to see the Olympic flame last night (even though it is in the building next to the Main Press Center).

So, here I am, at the stupid chain linked fence that surrounds the Olympic Caldron and I see thousands of people taking the same night picture. It looks good, but it sure as heck isn't original. See the image below.

And since I am surrounded by amazing photographers here at the Olympics who always seem to think of different angles, perspectives...I thought that I would try something different. So, I set up my tripod to shoot through the fence and then rolled the zoom during the exposure. This gave me a pretty cool effect that is different from most everyone else's shot.

You will have to let me know what you think, but either way, it is different!

After shooting the flame images, I hopped in a cab with a couple of friends and we went over to Stanley Park to shoot some images back towards the city. You may recall that I shot from this same vantage point a couple of months ago, but the weather was terrible. Last night we had very clear skies and mild temperatures.

Finally, in the spirit of trying to capture images that are different (since we saw many other people out at the point with their cameras and tripods), I used the same zoom effect from this vantage point. I really like the way that the Olympic Rings, which are on a platform in the middle of the water, have a "Superman" kind of look. For those of us who remember the opening to the Superman movie. :)

Now I am going to head out and make my way up to Whistler for the first time to try and grab some images of Bob Sleigh in action. This could be a tough one for me, since I have never photographed anything like this and have no idea what I am doing when it comes to Olympic sliding events. Wish me luck!

A typical day photographing the Olympics

Someone just sent me an email asking what it is like to photograph the Olympics, so I thought that I would share this with everyone here on the blog. Yesterday was a really good example of a typical day, so here is a recap of my long day:

8:00 Wake up and get ready for the day

8:30 Pack all necessary camera gear and laptop (chargers, memory cards...)

8:45 Head over to Canada Hockey Place (I walked since it was a nice morning)

9:15 Go through security at the media entrance

9:20 Find the venue photo manager (Richard) and try and find out which direction USA will be shooting twice (since I want to focus on the offense).

9:30 Head down to the designated photo positions and grab a seat with the best view. I generally leave me jacket and my business card to mark my spot.

9:45 Work with the venue photo crew to polish the glass in front of my position (both sides)

10:00 Get a day locker from the photo staff to store my unused equipment while I am shooting.

10:15 Set up my laptop and start editing the images for the blog

11:45 After repeatedly checking my photo position to make sure nobody tried to steal it, I head down with my camera gear to shoot the first period and fans.

12:00 Game starts

12:45 End of first period so I run up to start downloading the first 600x card

1:00 2nd period starts

1:45 End of second period so I run up to start downloading the second 600x card

2:00 3rd period starts

2:45 Game ends and I run to the "mixed zone" which is where the players come off the ice to meet with the press. I grab a couple of shots of the key players and then run back upstairs.

3:00 Call the Pacific Coliseum to see if photo positions are still open. They confirm that there are but that I had to hurry over.

3:05 Pack all my gear, return my locker key and jam out of the rink.

3:10 Find a cab and hope that traffic is not terrible (It wasn't bad. I got lucky)

3:30 Run into the coliseum and exchange my green shooting sleeve for a blue one (designated for this venue)

3:40 Grab a really bad tuna sandwich and a diet coke for a late lunch.

3:45 Start sorting through the hockey game images.

4:10 Run for the only bathroom break of the night. :)

4:15 Escorted down to the ice level

4:20 Pull out the laptop and start editing the hockey images while waiting for the competition

5:00 Stop the editing process to start shooting

9:30 Competition is over

9:40 Pack up all my stuff, exchange my blue sleeve for my permanent green one.

10:00 Grab the press bus which takes me back to the Main Press Center (no cabs available)

10:30 Arrive at the press center. I check in with the folks there and then hop on another bus to get me back to the condo

11:00 Finally get something to eat for dinner. I am tired, hungry and exhausted at this point.

11:30 Back at the condo and now it is time to post the hockey images to the ftp site for Team USA and to sort through the thousands of images of figure skating.

1:30 Finish sorting through the images and ranking the best ones

1:40 Charge all batteries and clean lenses

1:45 Back up the images to an external drive and get ready for bed

2:00 Crash

8:00 Do it all again!

Mens Figure Skating: USA Wins Gold

As I mentioned in my last post, I made a mad dash from the hockey venue to the figure skating venue in order to get one of the last photo positions on the ice. It was a tough choice between the figure skating and staying for the Canadian hockey game, but I figured that I have shot enough hockey in my life and never photographed figure skating, so off I went. I knew that the press buses would take too long, so I hopped in a cab and went directly from Canada Hockey Place to the Pacific Coliseum. This saved me about 30 minutes and ultimately let me get that last shooting position. That was $15 well spent!

So I got to the coliseum, got my blue sleeve (with the shooting position number on it - which tells me where to stand during the performances) and waited to be escorted to the ice level. The wait gave me just enough time to grab a really bad tuna sandwich and go to the bathroom. As like so many other venues, when you are in your shooting location, you ain't moving for the rest of the night. We were in position by 4pm and did not get out until 9:30pm. And...of course...the best skaters are the last 6.

So, not having ever shot figure skating, I practiced shooting on some of the lesser known athletes in order to become a little more proficient when the "big guys" were on the ice.

I still had the fish eye lens on my 5D Mark II and saw the opportunity to shoot this image. Before the competition started, these cute kids came out and lined up. They are the kids that you saw going out onto the ice to grab the flowers and stuffed animals that people throw out after the performances.

I was actually editing images against a wall, not shooting some of the skaters, when I saw this guy come out on the ice. I saw his hair and thought, "that should make for some interesting pictures when he spins" and sure enough, it did. This one cracks me up!

As I captured the images, I was very cognizant of the background since there were a lot of distractions. What I was really aiming for were nice shots of the athletes in front of the Olympic logos.

Here is Evan Lysacek during his gold medal performance.

You can see the look on his face, he knew that he nailed this performance.

You could see the concentration on the face of Evgeny Plushenko as he prepared for his routine.

It was good, but not good enough to beat out Evan's performance.

I put this last shot in here because it shows what many of the images looked like when I got home. As these guys perform their jumps and spins, they have some very funny expressions on their faces. It is a little freaky to look at, but part of the story nonetheless.