2024 Penticton Regional: Photos

Send Me Some!

Ah, I remember the good old days (surprisingly, not so long ago) in Penticton when I would have a dozen or more pairs and teams flocking to the Bulletin office after the evening session, and lining up to get their photos taken for the next day's Daily Bulletin. Sometimes I would actually have to put them all on hold and walk to the other end of the building to get the daily files of results, and by the time I returned there were still three or four waiting to be immortalized in monochrome in the following day's Bulletin. Those were the days when I would grab a few hours of sleep in the afternoon and early evening before spending a night in the Bulletin office, hoping I could manage to get everything finished and sent to the print-shop before I had to....well, let's not get into that part of it.

Times change, and while being able to hold a paper booklet in your hand is something many of us fondly remember, almost all of us are now able to view the Bulletin online on our various devices, and I don't get to sleep in the afternoon or evening anymore unless somehow nobody in the room calls the Director! But the good news is that most tournaments have dedicated volunteers taking photos of winners, the photos themselves appear on this page, and occasionally on the results pages as well, and in full, living colour!

Let's remember: Regionals, especially Penticton's, have a lot of different events, and occasionally we get a photo of a pair or a team who thinks they have won an event when a late scoring change knocks them down to second overall, or even lower. Or someone thinks that their 55.7% section top in the afternoon session of Section L of a six-section open pairs, while not making the overalls, is an event win. I do try to include all of the photos I am sent, but I also check the final results to ensure that what you thought when you took the photo is actually what happened. And on busy days, this can take some time and be held over to tomorrow.

But if you have won and you cannot find a tournament volunteer to take your photo, another option is to take a photo of event winners yourself (or, if you're the winner, convince a friend to do so!) and send it directly to me. Here's some advice on that:

Here's How To Send Photos:

• Above the Strike Zone: Try not to include in the frame any part of the body below where the letters would be on a baseball uniform. People want to see faces, not waistlines. If you have people of different heights, you might have to include the tall one's strike zone(s), but make faces your focus.
• Fill the Frame: Don't stand so far back that only 10%-20% of the frame is faces. Move up close and look at your screen as a guide. I will always crop out legs and shoes, and if this leaves an image that is small, the quality will suffer.
• Send the biggest version you can: It's important. ooga@shaw.ca is the address to send photo files to. Don't send the one that takes up the least bandwidth, it will look blurred on a screen if the resolution is lowered beyond a reasonable level.
• Identify!: I need to know who the people are and what they did. If they won an event, tell me which one and first names from left to right in the photo will suffice (I can get the rest from the data I am sent). I'd also like to credit the photo taker, so tell me who you are as well.
• Watch the lighting and background: At night, photos taken in the dark may not look too well and require touchup. The playing area is usually best for light. I have taken a lot of photos that seem to have trees coming out of the tops of people's heads, so avoid that if you can, although now that all photos will appear online in colour (as opposed to monochrome on paper), this is not as big an issue as it used to be. Leavenworth has some great outdoor scenes that would make great photos: if your team goes out for dinner, take a photo of the team somewhere and send it along if you win! Simple is usually best, against a wall inside the playing area, or even in a space in the middle with people milling around a distance away can sometimes work.
• Patience: There's a lot to do at scary hours during a Daily Bulletin week, especially when I have daily Director duties that require a reasonable amount of rest, and it may take a day or two before I can get around to posting photos. Or responding to those who have sent them.

Penticton 2024 Photos!

We'll post details on how to get your photo into the Bulletin here as they are confirmed by the organizers. Dave Johnson has been taking photos of winners; more will come if you visit him (listen for announcements for the exact location). Adding them to this page is a slower process, and I have finally finished on Tuesday evening after a long travel/work day on Monday. It does appear that many of you are getting your photos and prizes but not helping us out in identifying who is who from left to right....
We'll start with Penticton photos I have grabbed from the Internet and add winners above this line as they appear....
The Penticton Trade and Convention Centre, site of the tournament. Since my first visit to Penticton the area around the site has been built up considerably, with a community centre just off the left of the photo beside the Trade and Convention Centre, a new hockey arena to the north and a casino to the northwest of the site. Probably a majority of Penticton's hotels and motels are within a few blocks, mostly along Lakeshore Drive on Penticton's north end, and during the tournament there are waves of players walking to and from the playing site.
	A view of Penticton from the north, over Okanagan Lake. The word Penticton is derived from a native word referring to the permanent flow of the water from Okanagan Lake in the north through the river channel to Skaha Lake in the south.
You can walk two blocks from the playing site and get to this spot, the beach on Okanagan Lake along Lakeshore Drive.
	This is the city from the southwest, featuring the red sands of the beach on Skaha Lake at the south end of Penticton.
Penticton's main shopping centre is Cherry Lane Mall, about two miles south of the playing site on Main St, with several other big box stores nearby.
	The Penticton 'Peach on the Beach' is a feature of the Okanagan Lake beach, located a few blocks to the east of the beach photo above. Other internet photos indicate that it is often decorated for various cultural events taking place in the city.
Floating down the river is a popular recreation when things get hot here in the summer months. In one of my former jobs I recall seeing a scene like this while travelling through Penticton in a hot crowded van....
	The SS Sicamous provided transport between Penticton and Kelowna between 1914 and 1936, including taking volunteers from the area to serve in the Great War. The vessel is restored and is used for events and museum displays and is easily seen as you enter Penticton from the north.
The South Okanagan events centre, just west of the playing site, was opened in 2008 and is the home of the Penticton Vees, a founding member of the 18-team British Columbia Hockey League
	The Penticton Vees was also the name of a team in the Okanagan Senior League (senior meaning no age limits as in junior hockey) from 1951-1961. In 1955, after their 1954 Allen Cup win in Canada's amateur hockey championship, they were selected to represent Canada in the World Championships, which had been won the year before by a Soviet team for the first time. The Vees won all eight games, including a 5-0 shutout of the USSR in the tournament finale, to take the title. The tribute to the Vees championship is at the main entrance to their still-standing original arena, which like many Canadian hockey arenas built in the post-war period is called the Memorial Arena, and is a short walk from the tournament site. Nearby you will find information on the individual players who played for Canada's 1955 world champions.
Another photo from the southwest, taken at night, with the city lights illuminating the sky.