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March 11, 2010 - Came across this interesting article about lens testing and lens quality at Lenswork Technology blog (Brook's Jensen's paean to those wanting his thoughts on technology and gear).

March 10, 2010 - I hate spring! It's the most brutal season for me. While others are looking forward to the end of winter and the snow and the darkness, I dread the arrival of the next season because of my allergies. Sometimes, the allergies start later and sometimes sooner. Some years are bad and other years are mild, but I'll still be affected in some way until well into summer. Adding to my misery this year is a cold that masks the hayfever; I'm not sure if I'm sneezing and having a runny nose because of the pollen or because of the cold. Having kids just makes spring that much more worse to bear, because kids get sick and when the kids get sick, I get sick. Humbug to spring!

With that mild rant out of my system (if only the allergies could be so exorcised), I'm intrigued and delighted that Pentax has finally seen fit to produce the long awaited digital 645 camera. It's been an on and off tease from Pentax for too many years, but finally, there is a real camera instead of a mockup and the specs don't seem too bad for the money.

$10,000 USD gets you a 40 MP SLR. Considering how pricey some 35mm format SLRs are, that's a veritable bargain. The downside is that the digital sensor is integral to the camera, so upgrading means buying a whole new camera, just like with the Leica S2 system. However, at $10,000, that's significantly cheaper than the standalone digital backs, so it seems to me that you still come out ahead with the Pentax 645D system. And, Pentax lenses are certainly more reasonably priced than from Hasselblad or Leica and perhaps, even from Mamiya/Phase.

This is very promising and kudos to Pentax (and to the parent company, Hoya) for sticking to the dream, even if a few years late to the party.

The one potential sour note is talk that the 645D is only going to be available in Japan, which would be a shame not to make it more widely available. The price is kickass and if the image quality is there...

As a Nikon guy, I'm hankering for a D3X in a lower cost body a la the D700, but as it stands now with no such camera available, if I had to choose between the D3X and the 645D, the D3X loses and that's considering the extra cost in having to buy Pentax 645 lenses.

Unless something really exceptional comes out of the Nikon/Canon camps, the 645D already looks like the camera of the year.

March 8, 2010 - Moose Peterson always talks about wanting clouds in his landscape photos, because clouds add drama and spice. I'd read his advice and then slot it away in my memory without really thinking about it, but when I took the sunset photo above a few weeks back, I realized how right Moose is.

Compare the one above to the one below, taken about a week after from a slightly different location (but still the same scene). Not a cloud in the sky and while the color is there, there's no drama to let the colors dance in the sky.

Panasonic announced two new M4/3 cameras on the weekend. The G2 is the successor to the first M4/3 camera, the G1, while the second is a more basic version called the G10. I think Panasonic is taking a cue from Olympus, which has the E-P1, the original catering to enthusiasts and the newer E-PL1, which caters to those wanting a more simple camera to use.

I have to admit to some disappointment with the Panasonic offering, as neither seem to be of interest to those of us with a G1 or GH-1. The G2 does offer ISO 6400, but come on, does anyone really expect it to be of any use? The touch screen LCD is not enough either to garner my interest.

Resolution wise, both Panasonic cameras offer the same 12 MP as the G1/GH-1/GF1, which indicates to me that both Panasonic and Olympus recognize that 12 MP is a nice sweet spot for the M4/3 format. Either that or else Kodak has not come out with a higher resolution sensor yet. However, I like that neither brand is chasing MPs like Canon is doing recently.

I was down in Seattle for a couple of days last week. I like Seattle, as it's quite similar to Vancouver, which is no surprise since it's only a three-hour drive away. Meaning that it's overcast and it rains a fair bit during winter, because it's in a temperate rainforest region. Here are a few snaps from walking around the downtown core:

This rather non-descript building has some historic significance for coffee lovers all over the world...

It's the very first Starbucks store, located across the street from the Pike St. Market - note the original logo is rather more revealing than the current one (the boobs, for those that don't know)

Inside the original Starbucks

My usual order from any Starbucks, a Grande Pike - Pike as in Pike St.

Across the street is the Pike St. Market, where the fishmongers are famous for tossing the fish around

Chili peppers and garlic

The view from the waterfront beside the market

I was trying to get some God-beam action happening in this photo, but didn't quite nail it

Qwest Field, home of the Seahawks - I used to go to a game every year, but ever since the Seahawks made it to the SuperBowl back in 2006, it's been difficult to get tickets

Interesting architecture and an interesting and very well stocked bar, where I had lunch

March 3, 2010 - Oh Canada, Our home and native land…

We heard the opening lyric to Canada’s national anthem 14 times during the Vancouver Olympics. 14 times – that’s a record for the most gold medals won by a nation’s athletes for any winter Olympics and redemption for our poor showing the last time we hosted in 1988 with the Calgary games (Canada also did not win a gold medal when we hosted the 1976 Montreal summer games).

As seems to be the norm, every Olympic Games, whether summer or winter, seems to be surrounded with controversy. Typically, the controversy concerns the astronomical costs spent to host a two-and-a-half week extravaganza. New sporting facilities have to be built along with an athlete’s village and infrastructure capable of supporting thousands of athletes, officials and fans pouring into town. There is also the now immense cost of security due the current geopolitical climate – no host city wants a repeat of Munich 1972, or even Atlanta 1996. No final figures are out yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the cost for the Vancouver games hits over $6 billion mark with $1 billion spent on security alone.

In the years leading up to the Games, Vancouverites had to put up with constant construction in the downtown core. There was already a building boom for other projects but adding the Olympics-related projects led to many inconveniences for downtown workers.

Then there is the new light rail commuter train line to connect downtown Vancouver with its suburb of Richmond and the international airport. Definitely, a need for the city, but economically devastating for so many small businesses along the Cambie St. corridor that found customers staying away due to the long-term construction project.

There is also the new convention centre that was home base for the international media during the Games. A gleaming wall-to-wall glass structure that is a beauty, but was fraught with cost overruns.

The original budget for the Vancouver games had to be revised a few years back when the building boom (pre 2008 economic crisis) in Vancouver led to a spike in wages paid to trades workers. However, remarkably, the revised budget did not become a revised-revised-revised budget, as has happened with other Olympic games. The facilities were completed on time or ahead of schedule and on (revised) budget. This allowed athletes an opportunity to train and familiarize themselves with the runs in Whistler and the Oval in Richmond.

The kind of money spent is something that sticks in the craw of social activists, who can only dream of what that kind of largesse might accomplish to reduce or even eliminate poverty, drug abuse and prostitution while being able to provide shelter for the homeless. Protestors tried to make their mark on the games and while they did receive some attention in the lead up to the Games, they were largely ignored once the games began.

On the last Saturday of the Games, as I waited outside of the Canada Pavilion with my napping toddler for my wife and our older kids to finish their tour inside, I observed protestors putting up banners around the pavilion to create a red wall. There was a large police presence on foot and bicycle around the pavilion and, as I assume, on the protesters side, there were orange-shirted “legal observers” watching the interaction between the police and protestors. Nothing happened, as the protesters were allowed to erect their red wall and the police merely observed. I did see one police officer ride around with a camcorder, which I gather is for intelligence purposes to get the faces of the protestors.

In the downtown eastside, where many of Vancouver’s homeless and drug addicts congregate, a tent city sprung up on a vacant lot to protest the lavish spending for the games while the destitute receive nothing. This neighbourhood, Canada’s poorest, has long been an embarrassment for Vancouver and its citizens. Vancouver, being the terminus for the national railway and Trans Canada Highway, attracts many from all over Canada who like the mild winters. Unfortunately, they also bring all their problems and make them our problems.

How can we continue to claim that Vancouver is one of the best and most liveable cities in the world when we have an area of the city that looks like a third world slum? Where drug deals occur in the open around the clock and the back alleys are strewn with used needles and condoms. Surely, reasonable people would not allow such a blight to continue?

Well, Vancouverites are reasonable people and no one would claim not to care, but past experience with spending large amounts of money for various programs have not worked. No one has come up with a solution that can comprehensively deal with all the issues confronting the downtown eastside. If someone could, I think Vancouverites would be quite willing to spend the money, but we won’t accept throwing money at the problem willy-nilly just because the activists demand it.

You can take the homeless off the street and put them in government funded housing, but what ends up happening is within months, the housing units are damaged and filth ridden. You can have safe injection sites so that addicts can shoot up with clean needles. It helps to reduce the spread of HIV and Hepatitis, but does nothing to combat the actual problem, the addiction to drugs. You can try and help until your heart bleeds, but not everyone wants to be helped due to mental illness.

One promising initiative that may revitalize the area is to redevelopment. The epicentre of redevelopment is the old Woodward's department store, a former Vancouver icon. The original front facade made of brick has been kept, but everything else behind it has been rebuilt to accommodate new businesses and residences in the form of two connecting towers. In a few years, the streets around Woodward's could be the new "chic" for yuppies, but what will happen to the poor that used to live in the area? Probably pushed further east if they cannot get into some of the social housing units within the new Woodward's complex.

On the topic of money, Canada spent a fair bit of it on a program called, Own the Podium (OTP). Through most of Olympic history, Canada has had some success, but for the most part, we’ve been a mediocrity, because successive federal governments have never taken sports seriously. I think the turning point for the change in attitude was with Sidney 2000, when our fellow Commonwealth nation (former colonies of the British Empire) of Australia showed off what can happen when a government and nation stand behind its athletes. The Aussies had smashing success with their summer games and if and when Vancouver won the right to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, there was no damn way that we could accept the mediocrity of the past.

The OTP received over $100 million to help our athletes prepare to compete in their home country and the results speak for themselves. Canada won more medals in Vancouver than in any past winter games that Canada has participated in and we won the most gold. We didn’t win the overall medal count, as we came in third, but I think we can walk with some deserved swagger in our step.

The results and incredible pride felt by Canadians all across the country has led many to decry this newfound attitude of ours. How un-Canadian of us to not rollover like doormats in the face of tough competition. How un-Canadian to be so fervently patriotic that Americans of all people, were chiding us for our attitude.

One American journalist tastelessly described the Vancouver Games as if it was Berlin 1936, when the Nazis tried to show off the superiority of the Aryan race and swastikas were everywhere. Imagine, the red maple leaf of the Canadian flag akin to the swastika; it defies imagination that some people can so easily forget how truly repulsive, repugnant and evil the Nazi era is. The journalist is an ignorant boob for making the analogy, but it’s not because it insults Canada, but because it insults the memory of all those that fought and died in the battle against the Nazis, and that includes a great many Canadians and Americans who fought together in both world wars.

Other journalists, especially those from the UK, also battered us during the first few days of the Games. Some even called it the worst games ever before a single day of competition had concluded. To be sure, the death of the Georgian luger is a horrible and tragic way for the Games to have begun and the Vancouver games will forever have that mark against it. However, the UK press seemed hell-bent on dismissing these Games no matter what the slight, including, irony, the weather.

I talked to a co-worker who is originally from the UK and he says that this is normal of the UK press to complain and piss on everyone. No wonder Prince Charles was overheard muttering how much he despised the media to his two sons during a ski trip. One wonders if this is a pre-emptive assault to mitigate any potential shortcomings for the London 2012 Summer Games.

Athletically, Canadians did start slow and it was not until the second week that we found consistent success culminating with the climax of the men’s gold medal hockey game that pitted Canada against the US on the very last day of the Games. A game won in overtime by the Next One, Sidney Crosby. A goal that all Canadians instantly gave an uproarious cheer for yet silently let out a sigh of huge relief that our men’s hockey team did not let the biggest gold medal of the Games slip out of their hands.

I don’t want to take away from the other sports and the excellence that those athletes showed during competition, but in Canada, hockey is the game and if we did not win this gold, despite all the records set by Canada, Vancouver 2010 would be marred. Instead, we won and over 100,000 fans celebrated in downtown Vancouver, joined by thousands more in cities across Canada celebrating the same victory.

Hockey matters as much to us as football does in Texas. It unifies us as a nation. As our prime minister, Stephen Harper, remarked in an interview, hockey is a sport that brings new and old Canadians together. When new immigrants discover hockey and bring their kids to the rink to play they will mix and mingle with other parents who are similarly sharing the delights of early, pre-dawn hockey practices and a cup of Tim Horton’s coffee. It doesn’t matter if you’re French, English, Jewish, Chinese, Punjabi, African, whatever you are and wherever you’re from, playing hockey is a rite of passage for our kids.

My son’s team has a mix, a mosaic of Canadians from varied communities with Italian, German, Croatian, Scottish, Chinese, Korean, East Indian and mixed ancestries. The income levels vary too with private school kids playing on the same team with public school kids, but none of this matter, because hockey is the passion for the kids and their parents.

it matters to us that we win at our game, that we're not afraid to get rough and muck around in the areas that others dare not skate into; that we play with every ounce of our heart worn on our sleeve.

Brian Burke, the general manager of Team USA, is a tough son-of-a-gun. A big bear of an Irishman who loves Canadian style hockey and built his team to reflect toughness and truculence, because he knows the way to beat Team Canada is to play a Canadian style game. As much as I was happy that Team Canada won, I could not help but feel sadness and sympathy for Burke when I saw how dejected he looked sitting on the player's bench. Before the games, he had the task of burying his son, who died in a car accident. To have won gold would not have changed anything, but it would have been a small salve to a wound that no parent should ever bear.

I have a lot of admiration for Burke, because he has significant ties to the Vancouver Canucks as first an assistant GM in the early 1990s and then as GM in the late 1990s. His wife is from Vancouver (his second marriage) and those Canadian ties weighed heavily in his decision to leave the Anaheim Ducks to join the Toronto Maple Leafs as their GM.

Burke is not the only one that had to face tragedy during the games. As mentioned, Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian luger died during a training run the day the Game's opening ceremony was held.

Then there is Joannie Rochette from Quebec, who was fulfilling a lifelong dream to skate for Canada in the Olympics. To have that dream occur in Canada is pure icing, but all of those dreams shattered when Rochette's mother died of a sudden heart attack soon after arriving in Vancouver to watch her little girl skate her dream. Rochette carried on and skated for her mother and won bronze. She carried Canada's flag during the closing ceremony, which is as it should be for showing us courage in the face of tragedy.

For three weeks, downtown Vancouver has been party central. We embraced the Games, we welcomed the world and we were unabashedly proud to show our red and white colors. Canadian flags were everywhere, hanging from office windows and apartment balconies. Canadian Olympic clothing sold as quickly as could be stocked. The official Canadian hockey jersey became the unofficial uniform on the street. Needless to say, Hockey Canada made a fortune on all those $150 jerseys sold.

After the closing ceremonies on Sunday, I wondered what it would be like coming into work on Monday morning. It was surreal to suddenly go from seeing thousands of people on the street to seeing nearly empty streets. It’s relief from one perspective because it means a return to normalcy, but it’s also sad that the good times suddenly came to an end. However, the greater legacy of the Vancouver Games is that it awoke Canadians to realize that we don’t need to be happy with second or third (or fourth or fifth) best anymore and that there’s no shame in wanting to win and clearly stating that goal too for all the world to hear.

Canada has a bit of a fractious history between the majority English and minority French from Quebec. Two referendums have occurred to decide if Quebec should secede from Canada and while somewhat dormant, there is still a strong nationalist movement in the province. However, during the games, every French Canadian athlete unambiguously declared their pride in representing Canada.

For Canada, the hero of the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Games is Gaétan Boucher, a speed skater from Quebec who won two gold and one bronze. After the games, when he returned home to great fanfare, the nationalist movement tried to recruit him for their cause. But, he refused and he declared that he did not compete for French Canada or English Canada, but for all of Canada. I think the Vancouver Games will create similar pride in our French athletes. The incoming chair of the Canadian Olympic Committee, a Quebecor, said of the Vancouver Games, "This was nation building at its best."

Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee!

The Team Leong Bob Sled Team

March 2, 2010 - Excuse the tardiness. Between work, family and, oh yes, a little thing happening in Vancouver the last three weeks called the Winter Olympics, I've been a bit busy.

The Olympics have been a blast for us living in Vancouver and despite a bit of a wobbly start, we've ended with a huge bang and pulled off what I think is the best Winter Olympics ever. Years down the road, when Canadians look back at our nation's history, these Olympics games will be regarded as a defining moment. A moment when all Canadians took immense pride in being Canadian without apology and without stepping aside, as has been our wont (or how we've been regarded by others).

I have a lot more I want to say about how these games affected us, but I need another day or so to gather my thoughts, so bear with me.

February 22, 2010 - Reader's comment:

You know what POs me about DPR? They take the Pop Photo "everything's wonderful" attitude with viewfinders. I read a comment in the D3S review that really blew me:

"The D3S shows approximately 100% frame coverage in both the viewfinder, and the LCD screen in Live View mode. Because of the smaller tolerances necessary in creating 100% viewfinders, they are typically only found in high-end DSLRs, where a price premium is already expected."

So the D700 with a 95% finder @ $3300 (introduction) is just a cheap camera to them? But then I carry a grudge from when they called the D70 finder ($1450) "Excellent". I still suffer when processing several year old files from that camera. I swear the chip was mounted crooked.

Anyway I'm passing on a tidbit from my old friend who has already ordered a 1Ds MKIV. Seems like it will be 32MP and out Tuesday for June delivery. We'll obviously know more next week. 12MP is looking a bit silly these days, need it or not. Remember those DX crop options only yield about 5MP. Fine for one inch magazine spreads.

So that's the news. You may want to have a look at the new Sigmas on DPR right now. A few actually look interesting.

I came across the 32 MP Canon rumour a little while ago and it won't surprise me if it comes to past. Canon took a brief break from the megapixel wars with the G series, but is full steam ahead with the SLRs. I suppose someone's going to do it, so it might as well be Canon since it has traditionally pushed the edge of the art for resolution for 35mm format SLRs. I suppose a 5D Mk III won't be too far off (2010 Xmas season rush) and will offer the same 32 MP resolution.

At 32 MP, that should be about 7,000x4,500 pixels (or thereabouts) and would mean being able to print 20 inches at the long end at 360 dpi or 24 inches at 300 dpi. Sweet, but is Canon going to introduce revised lenses that can keep up with that kind of resolution, e.g. like the new 70-200 f2.8 IS lens?

As for Sigma, I have to say that Sigma has got some nice lenses in its line now and as long as the QA is there, the line is a very real alternative to the main brands. I'll be quite curious to see how its new 70-200 f2.8 OS lens compares to the new Nikon and Canon versions. I also hope that Sigma will introduce OS versions of its super telephoto prime lenses, which will be more price friendly than the main brands.

Sigma is also showing up Nikon with that 85mm f1.4 HSM, because it's long been rumoured that Nikon is going to come out with an AFS version of its highly regarded short telephoto. Nikon had better get on it before it starts losing sales to Sigma.

The new 14 MP Foveon sensor in the SD15 should also be interesting to see how it will compare to 12 MP cameras such as the D300S. Remember, Sigma is adding the three RGB layers to come up with 14 MP, so the single layer resolution is actually a bit less than 5 MP. Is the sensor still a 1.7x crop factor, as that's kind of lame not to be at least be 1.5x sized.

Olympic fever is upon us in Vancouver. Coming into downtown on Friday morning, the day of the opening ceremonies, the excitement was palpable. People were rushing to Seymour Street where the Olympic torch relay was going along in the downtown core. Everyone asked each other if they saw the torch and the symbolic flame. I did from a distance when I walked up Granville Street and noticed the torch coming down parallel along Seymour. The flame was probably a good two feet high above all the spectators’ heads. My kids also saw the flame as it came by only a couple of blocks away from our house when it was coming through Burnaby. We let the kids skip school Thursday morning so that they could watch a piece of history go by.

People kept asking me if I’m going to go to any events for some photography, but what’s a working stiff to do with kids to feed and a mortgage to pay. Ticket prices are sky high. A hockey game between the second tier teams will set you back something like $150 each, but I have to acknowledge that going to an NHL game to watch the Canucks can be just, if not more expensive.

Which is why I haven’t paid to see a Canucks game in many years and have only gone when I’ve been able to get free tickets. The last Canucks game I attended, my brother-in-law gave me two tickets to take my son to see the Tampa Bay Lightning, my son’s favourite team. He knew my son loves the Lightning and gave him the tickets as a Christmas present. Face value, $150 per seat.

In the seats below us during that Canucks game, was a young family of four. One of the kids had a Canucks jersey and they all had meals, drinks and snacks at the game. If the family really paid for those tickets, I wouldn’t be surprised if the game cost $700 or more for them. That staggers me and involves the kind of discretionary spending I can only dream of. It’s not that I don’t spend that kind of money, because I obviously do, but I want something back for that outlay instead of just memories of a regular season hockey game between two average teams.

However, I don’t want to let my fiscal depravation be a downer, because as much as the Olympics are a hassle for Vancouverites (commuting headaches with street closures, security helicopters buzzing overheard non-stop and immense crowds of people), it’s going to be an awesome time. The kind of buzz takes me back to 1986 when Vancouver hosted the World Exposition, which was a coming out party for the city. No surprise that Vancouver has boomed mightily since that summer-long world’s fair. The Winter Olympics will introduce Vancouver to the next generation of the world’s travellers.

After watching the opening ceremonies and seeing Wayne Gretzky light the outdoor cauldron, I’m thinking, yah, I gotta take a photo of that.

I didn’t venture out to the outdoor flame until the following Wednesday after the opening ceremonies to scout out the location. When I arrived at the location (beside the new convention center), I discovered that the cauldron is surrounded by a mesh wire fence and that you cannot get closer than about 50 feet to it.

Vancouver's new convention center - very sleek and elegant compared to the old center with its white sails

The fence is about ten feet high, but at around the five-foot high level, the mesh wire fence has about a five-inch gap to allow unobstructed photographs to be taken. Luckily for me, Wednesday happened to be the day that officials moved the fence in from about 100 feet away to 50 feet and is also when the gap was cut out of the fence. If I had arrived earlier than Wednesday, I would have had to shoot through the fence from quite a distance. All this due to fears that rabble-rousers will protest and do something to the cauldron.

Barricaded behind a wire mesh fence with only a small gap to take unobstructed photos - lame!

The location is quite nice with a view of the harbour, Burrard Inlet and the north shore mountains, some of which are barren of snow, a bit of a sore spot for organizers and the events being held at Cypress Mountain in West Vanvouver; however, that damned fence...

Also starting Wednesday, Olympic officials allowed public access to the roof of a side building to the west of the cauldron so that you can photograph it at a good height without a fence being in the way.

My Wednesday, lunch time visit was a scouting trip to find out where the cauldron is located and see what kind of vantage point is available. While I did take some photos with the Panasonic GH-1, the photos taken at high noon are not the ones I wanted. The photo that I really want to take is a twilight photo when the sky is a deep blue, which will provide a nice contrast to the orange flame.

I returned the following morning, around 6:30 am, with the Canon 5D2 and 70-200 lens to take some photos before coming into work. After taking some photos, I initially considered this outing to be another trial session, because I wanted to take more photos with my tripod.

The flame is far too bright to expose properly and still get the blue twilight in the background. It’s a classic catch-22 of exposing for the highlights or exposing for the shadows. I wanted a tripod to ensure proper registration for a multiple of photos for an attempt at HDR compositing.

Although 6:30 am is quite early, it was not so early for several other photographers wanting to take photos of the flame. A few were smarter than me and brought along their tripods and one fellow even had a 4x5 view camera.

I returned the following morning with my Gitzo tripod and tried again with the Canon 5D2 and 70-200 lens. I even brought along a Canon remote cable so that I can avoid manually releasing the shutter. I shot in manual mode, bracketing the shutter speeds from 1 second to 1/2000 at f8 and at varying ISO settings from 100 to 400. Combined with the Thursday session, I probably took 150 photos, hoping to get the right combination of composition (without the damned fence being seen) and right amount of blue sky with detail in the flame.

After I finished on the Friday morning, I noticed another photographer with a great setup to work around the fence problem. He had a Manfrotto tripod with a horizontal side arm, which allowed him to place his camera and lens past the fence and photograph unobstructed. Sweet setup, but not likely to be the most rigid and stable for the heavy combination of 5D2 and 70-200 lens – this photographer had a compact, lightweight SLR kit.

As with everything with an Olympic theme, the flame is very popular. I even saw police officers posing in front of the flame for photos. However, I heard and read of a few comments about that blasted fence. One visitor quipped that it was like Berlin, as in the famous Cold War symbol of oppression that divided Berlin in half.

Another paraphrased Ronald Reagan’s cry, of, Mr. Gorbachev, take down this wall! Yes, please, Mr. Furlong, take down this wall! Pink Floyd’s the Wall also came to mind when Roger Waters plaintively responded to his mother’s words of “Mama’s going to build baby a wall,” with, “Mother, did it need to be so high?”

Yes, did it need to be so high? Does the fence really need to be ten feet high? Wouldn’t a four foot fence have been enough to keep civic minded visitors from getting too close while still providing a much better photo opportunity? As it turns out, the organizers finally did take down the wire mesh fence, but replaced it with a plexiglass fence. As of this writing, I've not seen it yet to determine how well one can photograph the cauldron now.

Back at home, I tried the HDR process, but alas, those flames are not static and presented too much of a contrast range to work properly. I had to compromise and find an image where the flames are not wholly burnt out, while still being able to tweak the details of the cauldron and a bit of the background blue tone that I wanted.

I finished taking my flame photos as the sun was rising

Speaking of Olympics and photography, as you would imagine, Vancouver has thousands of visitors with most carrying cameras to record their time in the city. I’ve never seen so many SLRs on the streets of Vancouver. Most are of the consumer to enthusiast level with varying degrees of quality for the lenses, but it’s been a wonderful sight to marvel for this photographer and I’ve enjoyed seeing them take photos of all that Vancouver has to offer.

I did manage to attend one event, a hockey game between Switzerland and Norway and found it to be an entertaining game even if these are second tier teams compared to Canada, Russia, the USA and Sweden. And, for the record, I did not buy, as a cousin invited me to the game.

Getting into the arena was like going through airport security. You have to empty your pockets of all the contents and then walk through a metal detector. However, the security made no fuss of the myriad of cameras I saw used by the fans inside, many of which were SLRs, albeit with shorter lenses. The only pro quality lenses I saw were used by the PJs covering the game.

While I think most of the fans had Team Canada jerseys on, there was an even split between the Swiss and Norway fans. These fans are genuine Swiss fans from the country rather than just Canadians of Swiss origins.

The arena was packed to near capacity for the game and it had an NHL game feel to it

Robson and Granville Streets - completely packed with people - it was difficult to weave your way through the crowds, with the most popular corners almost impossible to get through when my cousin and I walked around after watching the Saturday afternoon hockey game

Is this art? Is below art?

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