Party in the Streets

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 28 - 105
f/3.5 at 1/6
ISO 200

This is another shot I got one night during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. The city was in the middle of a nonstop party that lasted the full length of the games.

After shooting at Robson Square I made my way to Granville Street where these guys were entertaining passersby. I put my SB600 on my camera and set it to TTL.

My camera was in manual mode set to a slow shutter speed. My goal was to capture the movement of the crowd and the musicians. The flash froze the subject but the slow shutter speed allowed some blur.

Olympic Evening at Robson Square

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Tamron 10 - 24
f/4.5 at 0.4 seconds
ISO 100

Every night at 9:30 during the 2010 Winter Games there has been a small fireworks and laser light show. I thought I better try to shoot it at least once before the end of the games.

It was pretty crowded that night. I am glad I got there early to claim a location to shoot from. I shot in manual mode. The pictures with fireworks were not the best of the bunch. I do like this shot snapped just after a few bursts of fire. I like the coloured lights but wish I had just a little more light on the spectators in the foreground.

Flames and Flare

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 28 - 105
f/5.6 at 1/8
ISO 100

I wanted to get a shot of the Olympic Cauldron so I headed downtown today on my bike dragging all of my camera gear. I get there and the place is packed with people all trying to get the same picture.

Until late this week you couldn't even get a picture because the flame was behind a fence and the fence was covered so you couldn't see through it. After a lot of complaints VANOC removed the cover from the fence and cut a six slit along a section about 30 feet long.

The slit was quite high and I had to put my tripod at full extension including the goose neck. At that height I had to be on my tiptoes to even see through the viewfinder. People were bumping into me and in turn my tripod constantly. I remained at the fence hogging a spot for at least a half hour.

As I was shooting I noticed I was getting lens flare. I used Photoshop to lessen the effect but it can still be seen. I am not sure what I could have done to eliminate the flare. I had no option to change my point of view. I did find through bracketing that the flare was most obvious when the lens was wide open and less severe when I closed it down. Anybody have any advice on how I could have controlled it better?

Wait For the Right Moment

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 28 - 105
f/6.3 at 1/200
ISO 200

This bobsled was put downtown near the Art Gallery for people to pose in and take pictures during the Olympic games. Most people were doing the typical look at the camera and smile thing.

I took a few shots but no one had done anything interesting. I watched and patiently waited. Then after doing the usual pose for their parents and just before these young boys exited the sled, they did this pose for a second or two. Luckily I was looking through the lens and was able to snap a shot.

Once again I used a flash mounted on a bracket with a 1/2 CTO gel to warm the light slightly. Without the fill-flash the faces of the kids would not have been as well lit. The flash is subtle to the point where many people will not notice it.

Chinese New Year Celebration

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 28 - 105
f/13 at 1/80
ISO 200

I went out last Sunday to take pictures of things related to the Olympic games that are going on right now. It also happened to be the day when there was a celebration for the Chinese New Year (year of the tiger). I was a little late and the parade had already ended but there was still lots of people hanging around and music being played.

I had my camera on a strap around my neck. I had my flash connected to it via an SC17 cable and mounted on a bracket with a Lumiquest ProMax mini softbox. The nice thing about a set up like this that although it is bulky, most people look at you and assume you are a professional photographer and don't mind you taking their picture. This is just one of many photos of people I got that day.

Harry Winston Jerome

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 28 - 105
f/8 at 0.3
ISO 2oo

I went down to Stanley Park to try to get pictures of the Olympic Ring lights located on a barge in the harbor. I have passed by this statue of Harry Jerome many times but have never taken any pictures. He was a celebrated Olympian which made it fitting for me to get a picture given the theme of the day.

I put my camera on a tripod and set the self timer to ten seconds. I used my SB 600 speedlight off-camera. I would trip the shutter to start the timer then position myself with the flash to camera right. The built-in flash on my D200 controlled the SB 600 telling it when to fire. I am very pleased with the results.

Happening Behind

Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 18 - 70
f/13 at 1/2500
ISO 200

The sky was not really this color. In fact, it was pale almost white. However, I wanted it to appear like there was a sunset happening behind these trees. To do this I simply adjusted the white balance to 9000 kelvin and set the tint to +148 on the slider in Camera Raw. I'm not sure if it is convincing or not. What do you think?