Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – f/3.2, ISO 200 – View of Olympic stadium at the end of the day. Cloudy with some blue sky – as most of the day.
Almost three weeks ago, we had our two-day Olympic adventure—kid-free, which meant we could finally soak up the excitement of London’s second Olympic week. Despite the long trek from Fulham to the Olympic Park, the festive mood made it all worthwhile.
On day one, we headed to Club France to catch France’s handball quarter-final. Though most of our time was spent queuing outside, we made it just in time for the thrilling last five minutes—and it was totally worth it! After a quick beer, we joined Guilhem and Céline to watch another quarter-final live: Sweden vs. Denmark. What an experience!
Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – f/2.8, ISO 2000 – Live TV and Radio – but tense croud in the Club France for the last few minutes of men’s quarter final of handball. I was cheering too on final whistle so could not take pictures …
Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – f/2.8, ISO 200 – Arrival at the Olympic park – huge, but also many many people. This is only the start of the journey, the walk to the arena will take us more than 20minutes.
Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – f/3.2, ISO 200 – View of the handball arena …. unfortunately the handball match was playing at the basketball arena, another 10mins walk more. This was a just a picture stop on our journey.
Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – f/3.2, ISO 1600/3200 – During the game, stoppage time for team tactics (left)
Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – f/3.2, ISO 1600/3200 – A true well-spirited supporter (right). He was probably American, wearing a Swiss winter Olympics jersey and supporting Denmark … go figure. The 5D Mk III and our new 70-200 f2.8 performed brilliantly in this dark place, but we were sitting quite far from the action.
Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – f/3.2, ISO 200 – Proud of their country and their team, the supporters are posing in front of the stadium with a flag borrowed from compatriots.
On day two, we hopped on the tube bright and early to catch the morning athletics session. The lineup was packed: women’s high jump qualifiers, men’s 4x400m heats, and decathlon events like pole vault and discus throw. Our seats were fantastic (read: pricey), perfectly positioned near the jumps and close to the track.
It was a brilliant day—clear skies and surprisingly warm. So warm, in fact, that we had to call it quits by 2 PM, heading home with a few sunburns as souvenirs. The atmosphere was electric, with fans cheering for Team GB in a way that French TV broadcasts could never fully capture!
Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 17-40mm f4 – f/4, ISO 200 – Wide angle HDR picture taken form our seats, giving a good sense of proportion of this huge stadium. The picture is probably a bit more colourful than it was in reality – but it’s close
Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – f/2.8, ISO 200 – Women high-jump and pole vault. The front of the two jumping set was for the “weakest group”, so they were around 4m only (still pretty impressive).
Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – f/2.8, ISO 200 – Making good use of British toolkit …