Olympic Spirit

It only happens once in 4 years and is very very exciting to watch and I bet it million times more exciting to participate in! I remember the 1980 Olympics in Moscow when I was a little girl! Yes, I do have excellent memory, but the Olympics have a certain appeal to everyone, even the least sporty of all geeks.They leave a lasting impression and long anticipation for the next set of events and personal and World records that will be broken.

What I love about the Olympics being held in Canada is the fact that we really get to feel patriotic and for a good reason, this is perhaps the best country in the World to live in. It is beautiful, it is massive, yet it is small enough for us to be connected with only a couple of degrees of separation from one another. I keep hearing from my friends about so and so being their cousin, childhood friend, distant relative competing in Vancouver this week. I have met several of the athletes myself! I feel like I’m living in a small town all over again!

I am very lucky in the sense that I get three times the pleasure out of the Olympics by feeling patriotic for three countries participating. Canada of course, Slovakia naturally(18-0 maybe wasn’t the proudest moment for Slovakia, I know) and the Czech Republic. But the thing I admire the most about the whole idea of the games are the people taking part in them. The athletes. The determination and self discipline, strength and emotional control. The bodies performing at the highest peak of human strength and ability and the mental and emotional power behind it.

That’s was a part of what I was looking for when I was photographing Billy Bridges and Alexandra Orlando for the Adelaide Club in support of the Canadian Athletes Fund few months ago. The job is still up in the PATH  underground in Toronto and I hope there was lots of money collected for the CAN Fund. The idea was simple, two athletes on a white seamless background with text around them.

I got extra wide background to give them space and a good thing I did!

We photographed them together in various different poses to get the best constellation and found that the ribbon can be a challenge even in the hands of a very experienced gymnast.

Billy was a trooper and lasted for about 4 hours, most of it standing up. He must have been hurting after!

Alexandra was beautiful and so graceful with the ribbon!We shot her on her own as well as Billy in case we needed to combine any shots later. And in the end we ended up using a straight shot not a composite. The only thing I added later was Billy’s medal.

I learned a lot about sledge hockey that day and also that gravity applies to a ribbon just the same way as to everything else on this planet.

After everything was done, I quickly changed the lighting set up with the help of my fantastic assistant Paulo. I planed it in advance to save everyone’s time. We tested the light for the ad as well as for portraits I wanted to shoot of Billy and Alexandra for myself and for them as well.

And here they are!

Billy Bridges

Alexandra Orlando

They were amazing, positive and happy, willing to do anything to help the CAN Fund. I owe them a huge Thank you!

And I want to hear from you! How do you like them?

Tags: Advertising, Athletes, Blog, Canada, Creativity, henrieta haniskova, Inspiration, Olympics, Photography, portrait, toronto