Posts Tagged ‘Whistler’

Next Stop – Winnipeg to talk about my experience at the Games

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Here it is late on Friday the 28th and I am still working on my presentation for the photography instructors in Winnipeg. Only about 50 hours till I am on the plane and not really keen on making changes that late!

Its going together very well and I have been getting image contributions from photographers from all over including this one from Australian Christopher Dobie which clearly shows my professionalism during the games. In fact he emailed the image to my photo supervisor at Creekside saying the following:

“I must lodge one complaint though. There was an obvious amateur photographer getting in everyone’s way. I have attached a photo of him. If you recognize him, can you make sure he is banned from all future events.”

Working at Creekside
Photo Manager at Creekside ( me “the amateur”) caught working behind the scenes at the Paralypmic Alpine. Photo by Christopher Dobie

I am already feeling the repercussions of this, even though I was clearly shooting the photographers at work in front of me. It is hard to defend against photographic evidence 😉

Next assignment Siberia or is that Sochi?

The Games End…A Blog Begins

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

The Torch reaches Whistler Village to a welcome of thousands of cheering fans

It has been an experience that I will remember forever. For those that didn’t know of my contract with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, I have spent the last eighteen months as Supervisor of Photo Services for the Mountains in Press Operations. I started in October 2008  and worked inside the Games until late March. In that time I worked closely with my two colleagues, Nick Didlick – Photo Manager and Alain-Pierre Hovasse – my city equivalent (more about them later) with a photo team that eventually reached over thirty managers and supervisors and over two hundred volunteers. That was just our photo operations team, the whole press team reached over five hundred people and the Games more than twenty thousand.

In 2009 I was the Photo Manager at eight World Cups in the Whistler area and helped with the planning for all of the photo positions, infrastructure and technology that would be required for the 740 photographers accredited to the Games. During the Olympics, I oversaw the photography operations for The Whistler Media Centre and Whistler Medals Plaza as Venue Photo Manager. My work expanded for the Paralympics as I was also the Venue Photo Manager for alpine racing at Whistler Creekside.

I was often working in the best, most exciting places at the Games. You can only imagine what it was like to be standing at the lip of the Large Hill Ski jump at Whistler Olympic park as the competitors launched into space at 100kph or at the Whistler Sliding Centre with a Luge blasting by at over 150hph. Blink and they were gone, but the sound and memories will never fade.

My plans were to start this blog before the Games began and share some of my experiences and photos as it happened. The best laid plans often take a left turn as there simply weren’t enough hours in the day, and since there were maybe only 3 days off from Mid January until  the end of the Paralympics I had to shift my priorities.

Photographers at whistler Creekside

Waiting in a snowstorm for the Medals ceremonies at Whistler Creekside / 2010 Paralympics

I am now gathering my thoughts and images to share, hoping that I can give you a small insider’s taste of what it was like to be involved in the largest event in the world in a role that played on all of my experience as a photographer, producer, manager, planner, film-maker and scheduler….

More to come.