Failures in Olympic Photography

Twelve years ago now, my dad and I attended the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was a fantastic experience. Amazing. And even though I’m having a hard time getting into the Olympics this year – I think it’s because so many things are tape delayed – I could not be happier we made the drive that year. Why? Because of the memories. One of the best ones is all of my epic failures in Olympic photography.

Okay, cut me a little slack here. I had a crappy film camera that didn’t always want to take the picture when I pushed the button. The disposable panoramic cameras I bought weren’t any better, either. And so I was left with my slow-taking camera and all of these beautiful photos…

Can’t even frame a photo from the front seat of the U.S. men v. Finland hockey game

Couldn’t I shoot around the flag?

Hard to get a ski jumper landing when you stand up front on the rail

Luge ain’t easy to photograph…

Really. They go by so fast…

…it’s even hard to get a shot with a panoramic camera.

This is a failure all it’s own, but not because of my father’s poor photography abilities. It’s more like decision making on my part. Honestly. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I decided to represent Puerto Rico in an ice hockey skills competition. And yeah. You guessed it. I lost. Bad.

Hockey fail!

Although it wasn’t nearly as bad as the bus ride to see downhill skiing. The windshield kept icing over, so a woman had to scrape it clean with her credit card so the driver could keep us on the road. Needless to say, we were late and missed half of the competition, including all of the medalists. Oh well. It’s a memory that dad and I still laugh about to this day.

Olympic transportation fail