Sochi Image Sequences

Many of the high energy and acrobatic events at the Sochi Winter Olympics happened at huge speed, with twists and turns blending into one movement.  Blink and you’ll miss the fractions of seconds that separate many of the top riders.

This speed, however, has prompted the likes of the BBC and The New York Times to produce stunning composite images of some of the ski and snowboard events (click through any of the images to view larger).

Austrian Alpine Skier Marcel Hirscher clearing a gate

Canadian Snowboarder Mark McMorris landing two triple corks

And this incredible sequence from American Sage Kotsenburg‘s gold medal winning run.

Then you have Henry Stuart‘s impressive 360degree images.  Head over to his page to be able to zoom and navigate amongst them all.  A couple of my favourites are the Mens Moguls and the Ski Jumping.

Some creative and fantastic photography all round.

The Science Of Snow Making

With the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in full flow I stumbled across this rather apt video from the The New York Times.

It never really occurred to me that there might not be enough snow for all the events to take place, I mean, after all, aren’t the host nations for the Winter Olympics picked because they are cold and snowy?

Turns out that more often than you’d think snow is made by machines as an addition to what is already made by nature.  The equivalent of a 2ft depth across 500 football fields to be more exact.  Quite the addition.

Machines make snow the same way nature does, by freezing water droplets. But they do it a few feet above the ground, rather than in the much colder conditions high in the atmosphere.

Via The Kids Should See This.