I think hockey was the only gold medal that Canada truly cared about. When Canada beat Slovakia on Friday night, the town went nuts and that was only the quarter finals game. Today was the gold medal game versus the United States, the only team Canada lost to in the Olympics. To say people were rabid would be understating the mood of the city. When I was a quarter of a mile from BC Place or the nearest bar when Canada scored their first goal. I literally felt the air move when fans exploded in cheers. It was unlike much I’ve experienced before. When the United States scored to tie the game with 24 seconds left in the 3rd period, I thought people would start crying. The mob scene that followed Canada’s overtime win was incredible. After an hour of photographing and fighting through the crowds, I left. All the way back to Seth and Vickie’s place there were fans streaming into downtown to celebrate. It was pretty unreal.
My day didn’t start out covering fans watching the game. It started following a small group of protestors. This was the same group that I’ve covered before, but not the same group that engaged police and caused property damage. The Vancouver Police blocked off several streets to keep the protestors moving in a certain direction but they also cleared the way for the protestors. They even pulled away a couple very pissed off hockey fans that looked like the wanted to start something with the protestors. I have to say that the Vancouver Police have been some of the nicest people I’ve meet here. Everyone has been kind, respectful and helpful. The most I’ve seen them to do engage someone was to pull them aside, talk to them for a couple minutes then let them go about their business. I think just about any city in the United States would react in a much different way.
I watched the closing ceremonies among a small group of people my new favorite Vancouver hangout caffe, La Fontana. I felt this was a much more appropriate way to close out the Olympics than to fight through crowds of drunken people, again.
In the end the United States earned 37 medals, Germany had 30 and Canada made a strong push in the last couple days to earn 27 medals. So America did Defeat the World.
Today was my last day of dedicated unfocused wanderings. I had a few ideas that I’ll be finishing up over the next few days, but nothing came through for today. The few events that I was going to check out turned out to not be very interesting. With my day open, I decided to head back to Richmond to check out the Richmond Oval where the speed skating finals were happening. Afterwards I went to the Vancouver Olympic Centre. I haven’t been by many venues since the first couple days of my trip. I now remember why I haven’t been hanging around the outlying venues. You can’t get close and there’s not a lot of people traffic like there is downtown. Outside the Vancouver Olympic Centre, I tried for one of my wide angle self portraits. I took a couple then checked my screen for framing. I noticed something. I look tired. Then I realized that yes, I am tired. This trip had been a lot of fun and I feel like I’m producing good work, but it has been very tiring. It’s pushed me in ways I didn’t expect and drained me physically and mentally. By the time I leave, I’ll have been home only 1 of the past 21 days. I have 2 more days before I head home and I still have a lot left to shoot. I’m ready to be back with my wife, my cats and sleep in my own bed. Until then, I’m going to keep pushing and shooting right up to the end.
Today started out very slow. It was cold and rained all morning. It also rained most of the evening. I’m starting to come down with a cold so this made being outside pretty unpleasant. I went by the CTV outdoor studio, where people were lined up to get a free CTV olympic pin. I decided to call it a day around 6 and met up with Seth and Margo for dinner and to watch the Canada vs Slovakia hockey game. Canada won 3-2 and advanced to the gold medal game on Sunday. Afterwards the town went crazy. We headed out to Robson Street to check out the craziness. The streets were packed, you had to push through people to get around. From the way people were acting you would have thought that Canada won the gold medal. I’m interested to see what happens after the gold medal game between Canada and the USA on Sunday.
Today was my refocusing day. I took the day off from Olympic coverage and went with Seth, Vickie and Dale to Merritt. Merritt is a small town with a population around 7000. It reminded me of a much smaller version of Clovis with it’s high evaluation, dry climate, gusty winds and tumbleweeds. The town also has a yearly Country Music Festival. Another interesting thing about the town is the hand full of Country Singer Murals around town.
Hope is a little smaller than Merritt, but is very different. It is and on the west side of the mountain and is much more lush. It’s also the site of the movie First Blood.
Today was very relaxing. Getting away from the Olympic buzz, I was able to let the stress I’ve been feeling over the past 2 weeks drain away. When I first got to Vancouver, I had no agenda except to make good photos outside the Olympics. As the days have added up, the pressure has built and I’ve felt it. The beginning of this week I felt at a loss to make good photos. I’ve found that the best way to get out of a rut is to keep shooting. Today was the change of pace I needed to help prepare me for my final few days in Vancouver.
I think I’ve mentioned it in a previous post, but I can’t stress enough that there are lines for everything. If you want to do anything you have to wait in line. I’ve found myself checking out exhibits that I had no interest in and were not very good because there was no line. Every time I’ve passed the Royal Canadian Mint the lines have almost been as long as the ones outside Russian House, which are by far the longest lines I’ve seen here.
This morning I got out to Granville Street early to get an idea when people start showing up. This was by far the least busy I’ve seen it and there was still a 100 yard long line for the Mint. A lot of shops on Granville have added an olympic theme to their display windows. I showed a little of this in a previous post fromm the Adidas store window.
Since it’s been raining again, the scalpers have started to huddle by the exit to the SkyTrain. As soon as you leave the station, you’re bombarded by people trying to sell you tickets or buy your extra tickets.
Today I realized I’m leaving in 6 days. I’ve heard rumors about more protest this weekend and I suspect Sunday will be very busy with the Gold Medal Hockey Game and the Closing Ceremonies. My goal for monday is to see how quickly things go back to normal. I have to leave early Tuesday to head down to Bellingham for my flight. This only leaves me Thursday and Friday to truly set my own schedule. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m heading out of Vancouver for a day trip to take in some of the scenery in British Columbia. I’m not quite sure where we’re going, but it will be a nice change of pace to get out of the city for a day. I feel it will help me focus for my last few days in town.
Shortly after I arrived in Vancouver the sun came out and stayed out until today. The week of sunshine is pretty normal for this time of of the year in Phoenix or anytime for that matter. It’s not normal for Vancouver. Normally it’s cold and drizzling.
Two things that have been an everyday part of life around the Olympics have been ticket scalpers and public transportation. The scalpers are on just about every corner looking to buy or sell tickets. They are incredibly easy to spot. Most are older men in their mid to late 40s. Besides holding out tickets or two fingers advertising they have tickets, they all have this look of being out of place.
The trains seem to be much more packed than the buses. I’m guessing tourists that don’t normally ride public transportation are much more comfortable boarding a subway than a waiting on a city bus. The city has done a pretty good job of adding extra buses and trains to keep the crowds moving. The only times it seems to break down is later at night when everyone is going home. I’ve heard that some places had over a 2 hour wait to board the train during peak times.
This morning I took the SeaBus over to North Vancouver to check out the Russian Tall Ship. Afterward, Dale was nice enough to drive me around North Vancouver and show me some sights. From the north shore, I took several shots and stitched them together for a panoramic view of the Vancouver skyline. Unfortunately, it was a little hazy.
After my tour of the north shore, I went back into the frenzy of downtown. People seem to be obsessed with olympic pins. I passed the Olympic Cauldron, where there were a lot of vendors selling pins.
I’ve been in Vancouver for 10 days now. That’s 10 days of shooting outside the fences. Every venue has these fences around them. Fences and security check points.
The weather since last monday has been outstanding, for Vancouver. It’s been sunny with highs in the upper 40s to lower 50s. This is not normal for the area. Usually it’s a little colder and a lot wetter. I think the weather has played a huge part in the number of people wandering around downtown along with the number of street performers. Several roads are blocked off from cars which helps the large crowds move around and gives the street performers places to perform.
I wanted to check out a different part of the city so I went out to Richmond and Steveston, for the day. Richmond is a suburb of Vancouver with the speed skating arena and the O-zone. Steveston is a small fishing village southwest of Richmond. It turned out to be a very unproductive day of shooting, but it was refreshing to get out from the hustle of downtown Vancouver and check out a different part of town.
Today I set out to do something a little different. After talking with Tim from Luceo Images, I decided to do a fan portrait series. I started out by hanging out outside Canada Hockey Place before the Czech Republic Latvia game. I found a lot of fans leaving the Belarus Sweden game. There was a great diversity of fans to shoot, so my timing was great. I started talking to people and started taking photos then I found the blue wall. Once I found this, I started shooting all my portraits in front of the wall. Here’s a preview of a few portraits. I have several more but will dedicate a post to this sometime later, when I have more photos.
After the game started, the fan traffic died down so I started wandering again. On my way back to the bus, I passed the Russian House where a strange mascot from the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics was getting it’s photo taken.
