Yesterday, I traveled downtown twice to see the Olympic Flame for Vancouver 2010. I expect that I won’t see the flame again for another Canadian Olympics for another decade or two.
The first trip was around noon hour, when the Flame entered Ottawa from Gatineau over the Alexandra Bridge. As I was walking towards the bridge, I saw that there were organizers on the path up to Nepean Point, so I walked up there instead.
There were a number of other photographers there, some ameteurs like myself and some pro. I overheard one photog talking with another and the voice sounded so familiar. I turned to him and asked “Are you Steve Simon?”
“Why, yes, I am,” he said.
I had recognized his voice from the This Week In Photography (TWIP) podcast that I listen to every week. We talked briefly. He asked me what I was interested in, and I told him about my background and how I would like to start assisting local photographers.
He asked for a business card, but I don’t have one. I guess I should get a set of business card for just these sorts of occasions.
Once the flame arrived, I moved around to get some shots, but the pros had the best seats. My photos were not too bad, but I could have tried a few different things (flash) if I had more time.
In the evening, I went down to Parliament Hill for the official flame ceremonies. This was even harder to get a good shot, as I only had about 10 seconds as the running went by, and it was pitch black. I dialed up the ISO and set the highest aperture (f/2.8), but that was not enough so I also used flash. I had to use the flash, but the light hit all the high-reflectivity clothing on the police and the runner himself.