Day 5 of the Volvo Car Open had a number of major upsets…as well as some huge triumphs. Not the least of which was Charleston’s own Shelby Rogers, who defeated the Number 1 seed, Madison Keys, in 3 sets!!! And who can forget Laura Seigemund’s battle over Venus Williams?!?
Day 3 of the Volvo Car Open started with me hanging out with Jennifer Brady at Charleston Day School. The kids LOVED her!
Then it was on to the MUSC Children’s Hospital where Darija Jurak and Misaki Doi took time out of their busy practice schedules to go and play with some kids that really needed some cheering up!
I then zipped over to the Daniel Island Club to photograph the All Access Media Hour, where 8 of the top seeds gather to be interviewed by various media outlets. Madison Keys, Johanna Konta Venus Williams, Samantha Stosur, Elena Vesnina, KiKi Bertens, and Daria Gavrilova were among the stars I got to photograph. Even last year’s Champion, Sloan Stephens, made in appearance, in spite of not being able to play this year due to injury.
Finally, I headed to the Family Circle Tennis Center to photograph several matches, including former Champions Andrea Petkovic and Jelena Jankovic, plus local home-town hero Shelby Rogers, before the rain drove us all indoors.
It’s all in a day’s work when you’re the official photographer at this world-class professional women’s tennis tournament!!!
Day two of the Volvo Car Open had me photographing what’s known as the Iconic Photo Shoot. This is where we photograph two of the top players at an iconic Charleston location. Previous locations have included the beach on Isle of Palms, and the flight deck of The USS Yorktown!
This year the selected location was The Cistern on the College of Charleston campus. The team from WTA even set up a net across The Cistern so the players could play a few points during the photo shoot. Before the players arrived, the C of C tennis team arrived for a couple cool photos!
Eventually, Elena Vesnina and Daria Gavrilova arrived for the shoot. We all had a BLAST and came away with some really cool images with which to promote this year’s Volvo Car Open!!! 🙂
A big sight of relief! After another year of anticipation and preparation, day 1 of the 2017 Volvo Car Open is under the belt.
The first Saturday is always full of fun. It’s not only the first day of qualifying for the un-seeded players, but it’s also Family Day. There are tons of activities for the kids, tennis clinics, autograph sessions, and of course world-class tennis matches!
To add to the excitement, this year the PowerShares series was moved from the second Saturday to the first Saturday of the tournament. Featuring legends of the game like John MacEnroe, Andy Roddick, James Blake, and Mark Philippousis, the evening was not only a showcase of the men’s talent, but also entertaining with the humerous banter between them!
Stay tuned for tons more action to come as I cover this annual WTA tournament, my 16th as their official photographer!!!
Graham and Clint are two of the TOP body builders in the entire state! Next weekend they’ll be competing in the IFBB NBC South Carolina Grand Prix. That means they are now in peak form. So I jumped at the chance to photograph them!!!
Even though they’ve been in Charleston a long time, one of their “summer bucket list” items was to finally visit the historic and picturesque Morris Island Inlet on Folly Beach. Since that’s one of my favorite areas to shoot in, we decided to meet there for their photo shoot. The late evening light was gorgeous, we got some KILLER images, and Graham and Clint were able to check one of their bucket-list items off the list!!!
To be the best of the best, Graham & Clint have to push their bodies to extreme limits. I thought, what better way to put the new Nikon D500 to the test, than to use it for this shoot? The snappy 10 fps allowed me to capture micro bursts of peak action. The beautiful 21MP sensor delivered excellent dynamic range. And the lighter weight body made it a lot less tiring to hand-hold.
But what most impressed me was the AF sensor’s ability to focus in extreme back-light situations. For the photos where the sunset is behind Graham and Clint, the subject is completely black and you have to squint really hard into the sun just to see their shadowy outline. Previous to this camera, I would have to take a couple steps to the side and acquire focus with the sun out of the frame…then step back into position to re-compose and shoot. With the D500, it effortlessly locked focused on the shadow-side of their faces without any trouble!
All images were photographed hand-held with the Nikon D500 and Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VRII. Natural light was augmented with 3 Nikon SB-800 flashes on my home-made triple-threat mount, attached to a Manfrotto 3333 light-stand off-camera. The setup was triggered via a Nikon SB-800 master flash on-camera, using a RadioPopper Px transmitter to communicate to the others.
I owe a HUGE Thank You to Graham & Clint for suffering through the humidity and bugs on a muggy Charleston evening! But we had a BLAST, and they were AMAZING to work with!!! You can follow their crazy life at #clintstagraham, where you’re sure to be inspired to better fitness. 🙂
With Sloane’s big breakthrough this week at the Volvo Car Open, a NEW Champion is crowned!!!
After winning one match in five previous Charleston tries, Sloane Stephens, the 23-year-old American, found her fire this year. She made her first-ever final here, saving a match in the quarterfinals and playing standout tennis before Angelique Kerber was forced to retire. In the championship bout, she stopped a red-hot Elena Vesnina, earning her fourth WTA singles title, third in 2016 and first-ever on clay.
To top it all off, besides winning the trophy, plus a $128,100 check, she gets a NEW CAR!!! With Volvo Car USA as the new title sponsor, it had one more surprise up its sleeve by presenting Stephens with a brand-new limited edition Volvo. “Oh my goodness!” a shocked Sloane said on court. “You guys, I Just won a car.”
As the official photographers, after our champion had a chance to freshen up and catch her breath, Alice, Arielle, and I whisked her away for a private photo shoot with her new hardware. We had fun using our cameras as “stand-in” trophies to test the light. It was a chilly, overcast afternoon. But Sloan was a real trooper. And her hardware was waaay prettier than ours. We all had a BLAST!
CONGRATULATIONS to our new champion, Sloan Stephens!!!
Well, it was an eventful week! After eight 12-hour days in a row, of constant hustling, shooting, editing, and transmitting images for the tournament, we finally have a NEW Volvo Car Open Champion!!!
Congratulations to the French duo of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic for taking home the doubles trophy.
And congratulations to American Sloan Stephens for weathering several years of early-round losses before finally going the distance and taking home the 2016 crown…AND a brand new limited-edition Volvo Car!!! 🙂
During the Volvo Car Open, there was a brief pause in women’s tennis as 4 super stars of men’s tennis descended on Charleston for an evening of entertaining action!
Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, James Blake, and Mardy Fish played the second round of the 2016 PowerShares Series on center court in front of a packed house! It was great to meet and photograph some of my idols from back in my collegiate tennis days. Andy Roddick defeated Andre Agassi in the final match to take this round.
Here are a few images…
The fun continues at the Volvo Car Open on Day 6 with lots of action, plus special guest appearances by Martha Stewart and Governor Nikki Haley!
My apologies for getting so far behind. After 4 strait 12-hour days, I just HAD to cut some things from my daily to-do list…and blogging was one of them. 🙂
But I WILL finish posting the rest of the week’s images, albeit a few days late. So here are some fav’s from Day 5 of the Volvo Car Open…
Day 4 at the Volvo Car Open saw the field slimmed down with even more upsets!!!
Day 3 at the Volvo Car Open saw some incredible upsets, paired with spirited play from rising stars, as well as plenty of off-court appearances by players and stars alike!
