For the last week or so, I had planned to spend Tuesday the 18th down at the Coastal Venue. My primary reason was so I could at least have a walk-about in the Olympic Park. I have been here 2 weeks and really haven’t seen it. I don’t want you to get a Hogan’s Heroes view of things, but the Media are typically on one side of the fence (the Clean Zone) and the spectators are on the other size of the fence. You know, sort of like the Minnesota Zoo, with the animals in the clean zone. Wait, perhaps that is based on how grumpy and grubby we are after two weeks of shooting. But I will stay positive.
The good news about being there in the rain is that the venues are inside. After some delay due to phone issues and transportation issues, I arrived at Short-Track Speed Skating. Unlike the text I sent a friend yesterday, it wasn’t Speer Skating, although that does bring an interesting visual to mind. It was the Men’s 3,000 meter relay. Lots of laps, lots of guys on the ice, sort of like Roller Derby.
From there to Adler Arena for Long Track – the Men’s 10,000 meter. 24 laps of the oval, 2 guys at a time, 7 pair, lots and lots and lots of laps. Since I could only shoot from my position, I could get the same shot over and over and over and over and over and, well you get the idea. The good news is that it gave lots of time to practice different kinds of shots, such as panning, which I personally suck at.
In the small world category, I sat down next to a guy and after a while said, where are you from? He said, Minnesota. Really, where? Minneapolis, Really? – Carlos Gonzalez from the StarTribune – I knew he looked familiar.
It was a Dutch sweep and there was a lot of Orange in the house, but that seemed like it was the natural order of things, even though I know that Hans Christian Andersen was from Denmark, it still seemed right.
One of my better panning attempts.
Classy but crazy Dutch fans – her dress looks sort of like a tin of cookies I once received.
The Belgium’s (remember the gold bobsleigh?) have very classy race kits,
Finally, here is what an Olympic Record looks like.
I am off to the Alpine Center.
More soon.
Paul
Competitive Image 