Ville Miettunen (FIN) prior to the men’s moguls qualification during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.

Today was a pretty unremarkable day for me at the Winter Olympics, at least photo wise. I covered the men’s moguls qualification and final rounds up at the Extreme Park, and while I thought I did a solid job of covering the event, I didn’t make any artistic photos that I was happy with. I was in good spirits today, however, and enjoyed what would be considered a balmy evening by Chicago standards.

The high temperatures are becoming a big story here at the games. When we got off the shuttle bus at the Extreme Park, I noticed a lot of standing water in the parking lot from snow that had melted. When you’re hosting the Winter Olympics, the last thing you want is the snow to melt!

The last thing you want to see outside your venue at the Winter Olympics are puddles of water from the snow melting!

Some NBC guys I was talking to on the bus from the press center said that there is snow stock-piled at higher elevations, in place as an emergency backup should the stuff here start to melt to the point of being unusable. I’d hate to be the person in charge of the snow! Ulcers, anyone?

Myself and photographer David Burnett, who served as one of my inspirations for learning the 4×5 film format.

The highlight of my day was meeting photographer David Burnett. Mr. Burnett has covered several Olympic games throughout his career using mostly large format film, and served as one of my inspirations for learning the 4×5 film format. As luck would have it, I was out getting some 4×5 shots with my Crown Graphic at the Extreme Park when we met. It’s always a pleasure when someone who’s served as an inspiration is down-to-earth in person and willing to talk about the craft for a few minutes, as Mr. Burnett was.

Photographer David Burnett explains how he plans to modify one of his film cameras to get some interesting images of moving subjects.

Guy’s Russian Word of the Day is, “??????????,” pronounced, “Fotoblounca,” meaning, “Film,” as in, “I have to go load more ?????????? into my holders before I have to be up in four hours!”

A young Russian fan prior to the men’s moguls qualifying.

Well, that’s not supposed to happen! Actually, the skis are designed to pop off in the event of trouble, but the trouble isn’t supposed to happen. Dmitriy Barmashov (KAZ) competes in men’s moguls qualification.

Between rounds, I walked over to the halfpipe to get some photos for another weather-related story on its condition.

Canadian Alex Bilodeau sails towards gold.

Canadian fans out in full force.

Alex Bilodeau (CAN, center) wins gold, Mikael Kingsbury (CAN, left) wins silver, and Alexandr Smyshlyaev (RUS, right) wins bronze in men’s moguls finals during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.