Family Circle Cup is now Volvo Car Open

The Family Circle Cup has a new title sponsor and is now the Volvo Car Open!

Don’t worry, the longest running and largest women’s professional tennis tournament is still the same amazing event it always has been…just with a new name. 🙂

Here are some images from the days before the official start of the tournament. My coverage began with the annual Iconic Photo Shoot, featuring the two previous champions, Angie Kerber and Andrea Petkovic. It continued with all kinds of player appearances and activities during the Family Day at qualifying rounds. And it culminated in the always amazing Player Party, which officially welcomes all the players to town and kicks of the tournament with a bang!

Stay tuned…seven more days of awesome tennis to come!!!

Charleston Rugged Maniac Challenge

Yesterday was the annual Charleston Rugged Maniac Challenge at Boone Hall.

I drew the short straw again…er…I mean I had the privilege of photographing it again this year! 🙂  Fortunately, no cute and cuddly little cameras were harmed in the making of these photos…which is more than I can say for some of the participants.  Some of the expressions this year were PRICELESS!!!

Many thanks to Game Face Media!!!  If you’re a participant and would like to find and download your official photo, visit www.gamefacemedia.com.

Charleston Rugged Maniac

“Best run ever! Perfectly organized, no jam ups at obstacles, plenty of mud and muck! Not one bad thing I could say. Loved it!”
-Jessica K.

Do you like to run? Climb towers of shipping containers? Rocket down a massive water slide? Crawl through underground tunnels? Leap over fire? Than the 5th Annual Charleston Rugged Maniac Challenge would have been perfect for you!!!

This weekend I got to photograph this awesome sporting event again. I had the privilege of covering The Gauntlet this time, which was AMAZING! It was so hectic, bobbing and weaving to keep from getting run over, encouraging everyone as they struggled through the obstacle, and cranking through over 8,000 images at 11-fps in 5 hours. There was never a dull moment. I LOVE MY JOB!!!

Light Bending 411 Encore

I’ve been getting such WONDERFUL feedback from the Wireless Lighting Workshops I’ve been teaching.  THANK YOU to everyone that has participated and made it such a success.  I’ll be teaching my “Light Bending 411” course again on November 6th!  I’ve been asked by The Aroostook F-Stops, an extremely active photography club in northern Maine, to come do a full-day program for them.  The club’s fearless leader, Tom, has been so organized and fun to work with.  His wife is a fellow alumni from The American School of Kinshasa (TASOK)…so we’ll have lots of catching up to do!  Since Cami spent several summers in Maine and has many fond memories from this beautiful part of the country, we’ll be going up early and taking some much anticipated R&R.  We’ll fly into Portland and wind our way up to Aroostook, hiking and sightseeing in places like Acadia National Park, and staying in quaint B&B’s along the way.  I’m truly excited and look forward to sharing my enthusiasm with these wonderfully talented photographers in Maine!!!

Best Tennis Town in America

“As announced live at the US Open in New York, Charleston has WON the 2010 Best Tennis Town in America contest, ahead of second-place finisher Atlanta, GA and third-place finisher Richmond, VA.   Along with the incredible the honor (and bragging rights), the lowcountry area will receive a $100,000 award to be used for tennis programming and facility enhancements.”

As an active player in the Charleston tennis community, and the official photographer of the Family Circle Cup professional WTA Tour tennis tournament, I’m excited to share this video with everyone.  Look for me in the blue shirt (hint: I’m the one with all the camera gear!) at the 2:46 minute mark while photographing a player appearance during the Family Circle Cup several years ago!!!  🙂

Family Circle Cup Photo in Charleston Magazine

 

Most of you know I’m one of the Official Photographers of the Family Circle Cup.  Last year I had the honor of meeting a fabulous sports writer by the name of Bobby Chintapalli!  She was terrific to work with and a pleasure to be around.  She just emailed me a link to this article she wrote for Charleston Magazine because she realized the photo they used was one of mine.   Thanks Bobby!

Featured on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Website

Mike Saia, my “Boss” for the week at the Family Circle Cup when I photograph the professional tennis tournament there every spring, just sent me this note:  “Check out the WTA home page: www.sonyericssonwtatour.com.  Wait for the Flash to move to More News!”  Turns out the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is using my image of Samantha Stosur, last year’s champion, on their main page.  I love it!!!

Family Circle Cup Wrap-Up

It’s been over a week since the Family Circle Cup, and I’m FINALLY feeling fully recuperated.  J  This year’s tournament was a AWESOME. 

Sam Stosur literally CRUSHED Vera Zvonareva to win her second (and biggest) WTA Tour Championship.  She had an amazing 36 winners in the 6-0, 6-3 final that was the fastest in the history of the tournament!  Liezel Huber and Nadia Petrova were able to hold on to capture the Family Circle Cup doubles title, beating Vania King and Michaella Krajicek in straight sets.  King & Krajicek were playing together for just their second tournament.  Huber, the #1 doubles player in the world, normally plays with Cara Black.  This was her first time playing with Petrova! 

Aside from the great tournament action, there were tons of off-site player appearances and VIP parties to photograph.  But most would agree that the Game, Set, Rock event with legends John McEnroe, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, and Anna Kournikova was the big hit of the week! 

Mike Saia, Communications Director of the FCC, did a great job keeping all the media organized.  My former colleague, Doug Cunningham, retired last year.  But it was nice to see him come back to assist on some of the VIP events.  The super talented Alice Keeney took his place.  She really stepped up to the plate, did a great job filling some big shoes, and was wonderful to work with.  I’m already excited to see what NEXT YEAR has in store!!! 

Portrait of a Champion

After the final ball was struck, the trophy was raised, the last interview was made, and Samantha Stosur was able to relax for a few minutes…a small group of five photographers was granted an exclusive photo shoot with the Champion on the roof of the Market Pavilion Hotel in downtown Charleston.  We had a beautiful view of the city skyline.  Since the sun was at her back, I used it as her hair light and set up an off-camera SB-800 to my left as the main light and another SB-800 behind her as a kicker or rim light.  Both were fired by an on-camera SB-900 in Commander Mode using RadioPoppers to translate the signal.  I used a Nikon D3 with 70-200 f2.8 for the shot.  Sam was a pleasure to work with.  I wish her all the best and hope she goes on to win many more titles! 

Family Circle Cup Finals

Well, the Family Circle Cup is over!  But what an AMAZING display of power and domination in the 52-minute final.  Samantha Stosur completely dominated Vera Zvonareva and took the championship match into the record books as the fastest final in the history of the tournament!  I think Vera’s an excellent player.  But Sam was just “in the zone”. 

“To be able to play that well in a final is a great feeling. You always hope you’ll do that, but to actually go and perform that way is very, very pleasing,” said Stosur, who has now beaten Zvonareva five straight times. 

Another fact for the record books is that Sam is now the first Australian to ever win the title!  Up until recently she’s been known as more of a doubles specialist.  But she’s decided to concentrate more on singles and is doing quite well.  This is her second singles title. 

“The first title I won is always going to be very special. It took me a while to get that,” Stosur said. “This is bigger than Osaka though. To do it on clay and playing well all week is just a great feeling. You can’t really compare the two, but this is definitely a bigger event and I’m very pleased I was able to play so well.” 

CONGRATULATIONS Samantha!