Day 1 at the Olympics in Vancouver

Well day 1 is in the books. I didn’t get in until late, so I didn’t have much of a chance to shoot, but I’ll share a few shots. Keep in mind that these shots are not processed using my normal workflow, so they are pretty much out of the camera with a little Lightroom 2.6 love, but no noise reduction (and most are ISO 6400 or higher – no flashes allowed). All are taken with  Canon 1D Mark IV and today only with a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens on loan from LensRentals.com. Canon USA has been kind enough to clean my gear for me for free, but didn’t provide replacement loaners as my accommodations weren’t on their list, so I’m without a good chunk of my gear until tomorrow morning!

Media Press Centre

This is the building that houses the Photographers Press Center, and the rings above are in the hall to where I'm stationed. The “sails” that you see in the background on the NBC coverage is of the building I’m in, and at night they are lit up with some cool images on them.

Photographers Press Centre

This is where I am working during my Olympic visit for 6 hours each day. I have lots more to show, but little time to get it to you right now. This guy was definitely different from the perception that some people have of pro photographers today as he had both Canon gear and a Dell computer!

The shot above is the cool TV display area that you see when you enter the area where I am located. I hope to get some better shots of that soon.

International Broadcasters Centre

This is where the TV broadcasters work, and it is one seriously cool building! More on it later, but I thought I’d share a ISO 1600 shot I got of it that is pretty raw right now.

Press Conference with Maelle Ricker and Guy Napert-Frenette

Definitely the highlight of my day was going to my first press conference with the first Canadian woman to win a Gold medal on home soil. There actually were not many photographers there, so she kept looking at my camera’s 70-200mm lens! I felt bad and put my camera down a few times so she’d focus on the live video broadcasts! Silent mode on the 1D Mark IV was very useful here!

Canon Presence

As you are aware, I am a Canon shooter so I made my way to the Canon booth to get my gear serviced for free, and I've been keeping an eye on the number of Canon shooters. So far I'm seeing more Canon shooters than I expected, but also a hell of a lot of D3 and D3s shooters too. It's still too early to call, but so far its looking like a dead heat.

Here's a picture of a photographer during the Ricker press conference, who just so happened to be a Canon shooter (shooting 1D Mark III's from what I could tell). There's actually been more 1D Mark III's and IV's from the people I've been up close and personal with, which was a big surprise to me. Perhaps Canon's limited availability hasn't impacted just normal consumers, but pros too!

More to come, but that’s it for now. Looking forward to a more exciting day tomorrow!