Opening Ceremonies: one hot ticket

The Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics is of course the big draw of the games and a photographer's dream.  I was thrilled to be able to go.  By the numbers, there are approximately 1,200 accredited photographers from around the world here and only 500 spots for photographers.  10 photo tickets to the event were given to Canada (so only 10 photographers from all of Canada could go) and I was one of the lucky ones. 

Being a photographer from a Canadian newspaper generally means that for events with restrictions like the Opening, we tend to get bad locations to shoot from.  I thought mine was not too bad until I sat down and realized that directly in front of me was a spotlight and big transformer.  My view was not blocked but the temperature there went from 32 degrees with 99 per cent humidity to about 42 degrees.  Uncomfortable of course but the real problem came when looking through the long lens, it was hard to get things in focus because of the heat waves.

It was a long, hot uncomfortable night with me finally getting to bed at 4:30 am but completely magical none the less.

For a selection of images from the opening check out Saturday's Toronto Star and the 32 picture slide show right here.

-Richard Lautens

Comments

[sd]

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