Don't Get Me Wrong

I am headed to Turin, Italy next month. It will be my second Winter Olympic Games.
When I was a young lad I always watched the Winter Olympics on TV. I'm sure that my mom would have rathered I be playing outside getting some fresh air or something. But during Olympic time I wanted to watch the drama that was and is the Games. Hockey was my passion. Both me and my younger brother Dan played it. But is wasn't the hockey that was the attraction, it was the other strange winter sports that kept me glued to the TV for those 15 days every 4 years. It was watching bobsledding during the Innsbruk Games (1976) I had decided that being a TV Photographer is what I wanted to be as an adult. The Olympics especially the Winter Games held a special place in young Murman's world and being in Television as a Photographer well that would be my ticket.
I had always thought that TV would get me to a games early in my career. I had been on a short list for crew for Lillihammer in 1994. But as luck would have it, that crew assignment was not to be. No matter.
I was fortunate enough to be in Salt Lake City for the 2002 Games, not as part of a camera crew, but as a spectator. My brother Dan made it happen. He had arranged for us to see 5 hockey games at the "E" Center including 2 mens quarter final games, both mens semi final games and the womens gold medal game. In all we saw Team Canada win against Finland and Belirus and the Canadian women win Gold. Not too bad for my first Olympic appearance. It's hard to put to words the kind of emotion and excietment when your country has just won Olympic Gold in a sport that you have so much passion for, seeing the flag rise, hearing your anthem. Yet while all of this was going on, I noticed a TV Cameraman working the shot and I could not help thinking that I was glad I wasn't in his position. Don't get me wrong, its a privilege to crew these kinds of events, but it was WORK. Watching a game on a 2 inch black and white eyepiece and listening to a director bark in your headset is WORK. Yet here I was watching, cheering in the stands, with a beer, a hotdog and best of all with my brother Dan. I can't think of a better way to have experienced my first Olympics.
Turin will be different, it will be WORK. Don't get me wrong, it is a privilege and I am very excieted. I will be part of a "Non Rights Holder" crew doing what I love to do most, tell visual stories.
God willing, we'll be able to snag a ticket or two and perhaps see Canada win gold on the ice.
I'll blog from the games.