Short Track Speed Skating

The only ticketed event that I made it to was the short track speed skating at the Pacific Coliseum. Despite being passed up by several full buses, we made it in time to the venue. After standing in the rain and then passing through the security checkpoint, we made it just in time to catch the only Australian skater, Tatiana Borodulina. She won her heat in the 1000 m event. Unfortunately, since I am still bereft of a telephoto lens, I couldn't get a good shot of her, but the following events, the men's 500 m heats and the women's 3000 m relay final, yielded some OK photos.

The funniest thing from the whole night was that the fries had to be called "savoury spuds", presumably not to interfere with a certain Olympic sponsor "family restaurant".




A false start by the Belorusian skater during the men's 500 m heat.




The chaos of the changeover during the women's 3000 m relay final.




The Canadian team celebrates with the crowd what they thought was a bronze.




The South Koreans despair after being disqualified after finishing in first place, while the Americans were jubilant after being promoted to bronze - despite finishing almost a whole lap behind the South Koreans.

Vancouver 2010

The Olympic circus is here - this is a selection of the festivities through my lens. Enjoy!




The Olympic flame - safely kept away from the marauding crowds behind a lovely chain link fence.




Large sections of Granville St and Robson St are closed to vehicle traffic, returning the streets to the people - and the people are making their claim. I personally think that most of Granville and Robson should be permanently closed to car traffic, the footpaths widened and just allow buses to run up the middle.




And the climax of Stephen Colbert's second day of filming by False Creek - giving in to the crowd's chant of "Ride the Moose! Ride the Moose! Ride the Moose!". He took it one step forward by waving the Canadian flag around too. Classic. Can't wait to see the show next week!

Winter in the Pacific Northwest

A bit of a change from the previous post - here are some images from the rainy and foggy state that is Washington.




Nooksack River valley (north fork)




Nooksack Falls and the river fading into the mist




The pipe is part of the hydro power installation at Nooksack Falls.

Summer in Australia

Well, for two weeks anyway. A very welcome break from the grey of Vancouver. Here are a few selections:




Seaford beach looks incredibly beautiful - and it can't all be due to the polarising filter.




A day at the cricket (1st Test vs Pakistan) - one of the most boring days of Test cricket I've ever watched! At least the clouds let me make an interesting HDR image.




The Surf Life Saving lookout building on the beach at Lakes Entrance is very brightly coloured.




It must have been a good day for gummy shark fishing at Cape Conran, because there were filleted carcasses all over the beach.