Australian Open moments
The following slideshow is a selection of images from the past two weeks in Melbourne, covering the Australian Open with epa. It’s a quick and dirty edit, but I think it reflects what it was like to cover an event like this for a news wire. Shooting tennis – and most sports – comes down [...]
Australian Open, Day 12
One hour twenty-seven minutes. That’s all it took for Roger Federer to humiliate Jo-Wilfried Tsonga tonight. Short rallies, no emotion, just a quick, brutal thrashing. Of course, this translates into really, really really weak pictures. Looking for something a little different, I focused on the spectators as Fed threw his sweaty headband into the crowd [...]
Australian Open, Day 11
Meh. Hitting the wall. Not really feeling it today, finding it hard to stay motivated… Take seat. Set white balance, shutter speed. Press shutter. Drink water. Shoot horizontal. Shoot vertical. Check images. Mark keepers. Delete losers. Look enviously over at Nikon shooters. Repeat. Murray Mania is in full swing, so I’m told, in old Blighty. [...]
Australian Open, Day 10 (or “Julian and the wristband of destiny”)
1:46am, wrapping up editing Djokovich vs Tsonga. Tired. Will post more tomorrow. However, I want to give a quick shout out to Julian Smith, my colleague at AAP. Julian was shooting the end of the Federer-Davydenko match, and after Federer won, he takes off his wrsitbands and throws them into the crowd. One of them [...]
Australian Open, Day 9
A few big games now, as we enter the quarterfinals, but no question the marquee matchup of the day was Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal. Murray took the first two sets, the second a tie-breaker, before Rafa had to retire with what looked like a thigh muscle injury. A real shame, he’s such a great [...]
Australian Open, Day 8
Today I loaded up on Larabars and headed up to the catwalk for 10 hours. The catwalk is a great position if the sun is out, and today it was. Even at midday you can make some interesting images in the harsh sunlight. By three o’clock the shadows start to get longer and you can [...]
Australian Open, Day 7
2:04 AM. Just wrapped up editing the last match of the day, Andy Roddick vs. Fernando Gonzalez. We haven’t had a late night yet, so the murmurs around the hallways were, “it smells like a five setter, mate.” And it was. As is his habit, Gonzo played some sublime tennis, mixed with bouts of really, [...]
Australian Open, Day 6
Finished early tonight, courtesy of Mr. Marcos Baghdatis, who had to retire early from his match with Lleyton Hewitt with a shoulder injury. Two years ago their match finished at 4:30am, so it was a relief not to have to endure another marathon match. Wishing him a speedy recovery. Good variety of pictures today. Was [...]
Australian Open, Day 5
A couple of gadget notes today. First, I shot with the Canon 1D Mark IV all day. For the most part it was overcast, so the light was fairly flat. And it performed pretty much flawlessly. Autofocus was fast and dead on for most frames. The percentage of keepers was much, much, MUCH higher than [...]
Australian Open, Day 4
Day four. Back courts again. Stayed with the Canon 1DmkIII, just to give it one more chance. I felt bad ditching it so quickly for the mkIV. Not anymore. It was brutal today in high contrast conditions. Focusing accuracy was something like 1 in 7 frames. Maybe. I tried everything, changing the Servo focusing from [...]
Australian Open, Day 3
A day in the life shooting the tennis (all shot with the nifty little Canon s90)….. G’n’R for the ride over….. On the tram – free with tennis pass!! Roland Garos, zat way… Hands off our water. Where the magic happens, our little portable in the bowels of Rod Laver Arena. Energy sauce. Self-portrait, courtside. [...]
Australian Open, Day 2
Day 2 brought lots of sunshine, and some pretty huge crowds. That’s more like it. I was assigned to the backcourts, which I actually kinda like. It’s a looser, more intimate atmosphere, and there’s more room for photographers to move around and work angles. The flipside is that there’s no vertical mobility -you’re stuck on [...]
Australian Open, Day 1 (first day with the Canon 1DmkIV)
Rain, wind, cold. Not a great first day in Melbourne for the tennis. Lots of matches delayed and then eventually postponed until tomorrow. This meant mostly indoor shooting, and as per usual for most sporting events, the lighting was dim (it’s fine for TV, but very dark for stills). Luckily Canon came to the rescue [...]
Australian Open, Day -1
Roger Federer organized a charity exhibition doubles match with seven other top ranked players today, raising cash for victims off the earthquake in Haiti. I think they raised 150,000AUS just in ticket sales alone, with more money coming in from individual donations. It rained, so they closed the roof at Rod Laver arena, which meant [...]
Australian Open, Day -2
I arrived yesterday in Melbourne for the Australian Open, which starts in two days. I covered the tournament two years ago (missed last year due to wintry baby-making in Canada), and it’s great to be back. I love tennis. I know it’s not terribly cool, but I’ve been a big tennis fan since I was [...]