Dundas Square after a gold medal win.

So, Canada won the mens hockey gold medal. Hell yes. In which helped us earn the most gold medals in the 2010 olympics. Hell yes, again.

This year I was following the olympics more than I ever had! I'm really happy I followed it as close as I did based on the fact that it was so huge for us - both because it was on Canadian soil and that we had to show the world how good we are at the whole winter thing.

Of coarse with following it with the rest of the country I was equally excited for the Mens US vs Canada hockey game. Knowing that the Womans team already won it and that well, It WAS the US we were beating I was totally stoked. So stoked.

I think one of the biggest influences on me was the level of excitement in Canada overall. All the buzz on the street and anticipation of for the big game had the whole country in in a state of jitteriness.

With my recent purchase of a Canon 5d Mark II I was looking for a good opportunity to really test it out and see what it could do. I decided that heading to Dundas Square downtown would work quite well. I also took it as a good time to practice some journalism photography as it is quite different from what I've been used to shooting in a controlled environment at the studio.

If you didn't know - Dundas square was one of the clips they would flash during intermissions showing everyone watching.

I first went during the first period to check out the vibe and although it was awesome - it wasn't really what I expected. Here are a few of the photos during the first period.



The first goal...



After enjoying the first period I decided to head over to a friends house and watch the game with some good people and a few beer. The game was awesome and the suspense in the room was through the roof. Thank you Crosby.

After the game I saw a quick clip of Dundas Square and the party chaos that was going on and was quickly reminded of my mission with my new camera.

Although I'd normally be celebrating with everyone - I decided to take the photography route venture down with photos in mind.

As soon as I arrived my heart began to pound. This is what I saw.















Some of the next photos are my favourite. During the night people were climbing on top of the stop light poles to express their excitement (and possibly the amount of drinks they've had) to the crowd below.





And of coarse the police didn't like that too much...





hahahah imagine telling that story to your kids!

I'm pretty sure the police did make some arrests but overall I found they were really well controlled. They even posed for a few photos!









Look at the horses! Notice the people taking pictures of their friends infront of them.

After I was there for a bit I realized how easy it was to get people I didn't know to pose for me. Sometimes I would just have to point at my camera and I'd get an outburst of "YEAHH!!! WOOO!!! GO CANADA!!!". Here's various shots of people having a lot of fun.



















This guy had something like 500 signatures on him...



And some more photos I liked from the night...











hahah get it? Beer. Olympics. Gold medal winner?

I didn't end up staying all night because I had to work the next day but I was definitely there long enough to experience something I'm sure I won't experience for a long time. The whole downtown core was in pure happiness! I've never seen so many high fives, smiles, and canadian pride in one night. The noise was wild! From the "Crosby! Crosby! Crosby!" chants to the national anthem sung over and over again. It was all amazing.

Oh, and I'm definitely happy with the results of the camera. For all the photo people out there I shot all the photos with the 5DmkII's kit lens - 25-105 F4 all at ISO 6400. Both were amazing and I definitely do not regret my decision on buying the camera.

Thank you so much for reading and checking out my photos! I'd love to hear your feedback!

- Dylan

All photos are Copyright Dylan Leeder. And can not be used without my permission. If interested in using any of the images please e-mail me at contact@dylanleeder.com.

© Dylan Leeder. 2010.