By now the streets of Vancouver are returning back to normal with only boarded up windows hinting at what happened last Wednesday. Like thousands of other Vancouverites I had headed downtown to watch game 7 of the Stanley Cup final on one of the large screens. The mood of the crowed was great going into the game, however it gradually shifted as the Boston Bruins scored 3 unanswered goals. By the 3^rd period people began leaving and the faces of the remaining crowds turned to sadness and despair. As the game came to a close and defeat was inevitable, crowds began to head home. However, in the closing seconds of the 3^rd period it quickly turned dangerous as pop cans and bottles began flying from the crowd toward the screen right behind me. Suddenly I was being sprayed with beer and other liquids with nowhere to move. Thankfully this quickly ended as the crowd’s attention turned to the smoke rising from in front of the Canada Post building just up the street. The evening as it turned out was just getting started.

Before long there were two vehicles burning and riot police were attempting to control the massive crowd. There were a dozen or so seasoned press photographers and camera crews in the area and all evening I kept an eye on them, relying on their experience with the unfolding situation to judge the changing situation. If any of them happen to be reading this, Simon from Maclean’s, the two guys with the Globe and Mail and the gentleman who was filing on the Macbook, thank you.  You guys gave me the courage to cover the event as well as made me feel that bit safer.

The rest of the evening then just became a matter of observing the flow of the crowd and police, staying out of the fights and yet positioning myself to capture the best images.

I ended up leaving around 9:30pm as I had been pushed by the police past the CBC building, the crowds were dissipating and with my only battery on it’s last charge, there wasn’t much more I could shoot. I had packed light with one lens and a flash as I knew navigating the crowds with a bag of any sort was going to be impossible, but I sure regret not carrying that extra battery. As it turns out the riots were still ongoing on Granville St. as well as outside The Bay and while it would have made great images, I didn’t want to push my luck and thought it important to edit and file my images quickly.

One riot under my belt, hopefully the only.

(Clicking on the images links to them on Flickr.)

Fall colours from downtown Vancouver and Granville Island during late October 2010. As always, click on the images to open and view large on Flickr!