Dreams of the Sea

All day Saturday I ran around Vancouver looking for an interesting new way to picture the 2010 Winter Olympics.  I can now confirm I am NOT a crowd person.  The weather was absolutely spectacular.  The crowds were simply enormous.  And mostly colorful and mostly friendly.  But mostly just milling around, looking for someone to participate in the Olympic spirit.  And the transit system has been overloaded with yahoos coming in from the suburbs.  These were perhaps the largest crowds I've ever seen assembled in downtown Vancouver.


However, the biggest problem with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics is that VANOC has utterly failed in their primary responsibility, which is to move people efficiently through the sites and attractions.  Security is a joke.  True, I have been stopped and questioned by police and security personnel no fewer than seven times, but NOT once have they checked my huge camera bag.  Not even when going through a security check point and a bag check!  


Still, the line-ups to get into any venue will deter all but the most obsessed.  I am long past the age or the inclination to stand around with a digit up my orifice for more than an hour.  And most of the people I speak with will admit that the vast majority of the attractions you stand in line for hours to see are a major yawn.  And hideously commercial.  Prices for food and drink are outright usury.  It's price gouging on an epic scale.


Two major exceptions.  Groups with wheelchairs and baby strollers seem to be handled with remarkable and laudable efficiency.  And everyone has been impressed with the number and variety of cultural entertainment.


Visually, I have always thought that the Inukshuk was a terrible logo for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, and that the Olympic Mascots were terrible Japanese anime rip-offs, but hey, I'm not six years old.  On the other hand, I think the actual green and blue Vancouver Winter Olympic graphics that are all over town are sensational.  I think they are wonderful designs and they have been used in interesting and imaginative ways.  And I am a huge fan of the Olympic Cauldron which house the Olympic Flame.  Of course VANOC has mishandled just about every single aspect of the way they have handled crowd control around the Flame, but the Cauldron is beautiful, day or night.  Kudos to the designers.


One of my shooting partners came over on Saturday night and we set up to do some light painting.  But almost exactly like me on my initial attempt,  it took Maciej the better part of three hours and about three dozen long exposures before he started to get the feel for the technique.


Facing 28K in the morning, I kicked Maciej out at eleven and prepared to take another set of shots before my day ran out.   I was mostly totally unimpressed with my earlier shots in the day.  None of them rose above snapshots or any one of the tens of thousands of Olympic shots you;ll see.  Boring!


And the light painting was doing it for me, so I tried a straight composition shot with some images that attracted my eye.  What you se in the end is, Dreams of the Sea.


Starfish and urchin shells.  I wan entranced by how my coffee table reminded me both of a dock and a sandy beach where it was blurred out of focus.  


Taken with my D700 and a Lensbaby Composer.


-Vince Hemingson