London 2012: Orbit in the sunshine

On my previous three visits to the Olympic Park I was unlucky enough to catch mostly cloudy weather. However, a friend donated a ticket to me for the final Saturday when we were blessed with wonderful weather. Thanks to Jon Alsbury for that ticket. Here are some pictures of Orbit in the sunshine.

London 2012: Aquatics Centre, 6 September (Part 3)

All too much...

I'm not sure which athlete this is - if you know, please leave me a note in the comments below!

London 2012: Aquatics Centre, 6 September (Part 2 - Maddison Elliott)

Maddison Elliott (Australia) competing in the women's 100m freestyle S8

London 2012: Aquatics Centre, 6 September (Part 1)

A few random shots from my seat in the audience at the Aquatics Centre on 6th September...

Watching Josef Craig (GB) receive his gold medal for men's 400m freestyle S7

Gold medallist Yasuhiro Tanaka (Japan) entertains the audience

After the race

Medallists for women's 100m freestyle S8. From left to right: Maddison Elliott (Aus) - bronze, Jessica Long (USA) - gold, Heather Fredriksen (GB) - silver

London 2012: Orbit at night

London 2012 paralympics: Sophie Pascoe - gold medallist for New Zealand

Young New Zealanders watch Gold medallist Sophie Pascoe during the medal ceremony for the women's 100m freestyle S10

Sophie Pascoe acknowledges her young supporters

Russian men's 4 x 100m relay team - bronze medal winners

Staying until the very end of the evening at the Aquatics Centre also meant I was able to nip down to the front row of the public seating area and get this snap of the bronze medal-winning Russian men's 4 x 100m relay team.

Maddison Elliott - silver medal winner at London 2012

I was lucky enough to get this picture of 13 year old Maddison Elliott at the paralympics swimming this evening. There was an Australian contingent at the poolside below the area where I was sitting, and Maddison came over to join them. I noticed that Maddison was generously responding to a few members of the public who were trying to get pictures, and I managed to get into a spot where I could also get some shots.

Maddison achieved silver medal in the women's 50m freestyle S8 competition.

At London 2012: Maya Alessandra - musician

The London 2012 organisers invited a number of local musicians to play at the Olympic Park. On the first day of the Paralympics I stumbled upon this young woman singing beautiful songs to the passing visitors. According to her Facebook page, Maya Alessandra is now recording some of her music, so if you want to keep up to date about that and about her gigs then visit her page and click 'like'!

Photo tribute to the Olympics / Paralympics volunteers

It is hard to imagine how the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics could have been such a success without the many volunteers, whose hard work and cheerfulness has kept the show on the road. The following pictures have all been taken during the first few days of the Paralympics. Some of them were taken whilst the volunteers just went about their business, whilst in a few cases I went up and asked people if I could take their portrait picture.

A few hours before the Paralympics opening ceremony, volunteers at the Stratford Olympic Park gather in the rain.

At the Goalball event, volunteers blindfold the Swedish team (all competitors are blindfolded so that partially-sighted players do not have an advantage over blind competitors)

A volunteer wheels a trolley along Angel Lane in Stratford, with the
Athletes' Village in the background

A volunteer walks along Angel Lane towards the entrance to the Athletes' Village

On the steps to the Westfield Centre, Stratford.

In the Olympic Park

Taking a picture from the steps outside the Westfield Centre

A volunteer inside the Olympic Park

Another volunteer inside the Olympic Park

Two volunteers at the Goalball event. Sorry about the touch of lens flare on the face of the girl on the right (caused by the spotlight in the background - I didn't notice it when I took the picture).

Inside the Olympic Park

Inside the Olympic Park

Inside the Olympic Park

I'm not sure if the fellas in these last three pictures were actually volunteers.  The black jackets suggest they might have been security; but nonetheless they were getting into the spirit of things!

London 2012: the people who made it work

Unfortunately I missed the first week of the Olympics due to a work commitment, and only had limited opportunities for photography in the second week, so I don't have a large number of pictures of this huge occasion. However, I did get to a couple of events and managed to soak up the wonderful atmosphere in Week 2. Like many of my fellow Brits, I was surprised and delighted at how well organised everything was, and much of the credit must go to the volunteers. Although British people tend to view themselves as slightly cynical and grumpy (especially Londoners), the Olympics volunteers seem to have been drawn from all the cheerful, optimistic, and slightly-mad-but-in-a-good-way people in the nation. Here is a thoroughly inadequate tribute to the work they did.

A volunteer ushers people towards the Olympic Park entrance gates, whilst another volunteer pushes a man along in his wheelchair. By the way, the building in the background contains a visual illusion: the horizontal lines between the windows look higgledy-piggledy, but are in fact parallel.

More pointing the way at the Olympics Park

Blue-shirted representatives of Newham provide information about the borough. I'm not sure if these people were volunteers or council employees, but they added to the general atmosphere of friendly helping.

Stratford Centre

These pictures were taken back in April, when these decorations outside Stratford Centre had just been put in place. In these shots the decorations are being lit up by the setting sun.

This view is from the station opposite Stratford Centre

This is the reflection of the Stratford Centre in the windows of the station opposite (taken from the DLR platform)