Following the finals, a quick shower, and a change of outfits, we took Angelique Kerber to the beach for a fun photo shoot with her new hardware! She was super sweet and we had an awesome time photographing this delightful young lady.
Since this will be my last post from the Family Circle Cup, I thought I’d share a little from behind-the-scenes. Many thanks to Daniel Ward for the photo of me on court, and Justin Aranda for the group shot of our team.
As one of the Official Photographers, the scope of my coverage is extremely broad. One minute I’ll be photographing a fierce match on stadium court, the next I’m running to cover a qualifyer that’s about to upset a seeded player on an outer court. One minute I’m shooting a family enjoying their icecream coans in front of the stadium, the next I’m running to cover the Easter Bunny walking around the grounds on Family Day. One minute I’m doing a private photo shoot of one of the players on a C17 at the Joint Charleston Air Force Base, the next I’m covering a VIP event for sponsors and dignitaries downtown. One minute I’m creating dramatic portraits of each of the top seeds, the next I’m shooting a player appearance to sign autographs for the fans.
In between all of this, I’m rushing back and forth to the Media Tent to injest, cull, and transmit images to our team for use on the website & social media platforms, for distribution to the WTA and other media requesting images, for print and any other marketing material. Thousands of images pass through our hands on any given day, which are whittled down to the best of the best.
With so little time, I have to be able to carry everything I need. That usually means 3 camera bodies (2 Nikon D4s and a Nikon D800), and a wide range of lenses. Usually I’ll carry a super wide (either the Nikkor 14-24 f2.8 or 16-35 f4), a standard like the 24-70 f2.8, a telephoto like the 70-200 f2.8, and a super telephoto like the 200-400 f4. I use the ThinkTank Speedbelt system, along with SpiderHolsters to keep from damaging my back and shoulders. This system also affords me extra pouches to carry things like flashes, filters, remote triggers, etc.
It’s a lot of work, extremely hectic, and with long hours (usually 12-hours a day). The best I know how to describe it is like shooting and editing 8 weddings in a row! But the adrenaline rush, the access to such amazing athletes, and above all else, THE CHALLENGE, makes it one of my favorite assignent of the year!!!
