Credit One Charleston Open – Day 2

Every spring, it’s an absolute honor to be invited back as the official photographer of the Credit One Charleston Open!

Since 1973, the Charleston Open has been a pioneer in women’s professional sports, creating milestones that have directly influenced the popularity of women’s professional tennis. It was the first women’s tennis event to offer $100,000 in prize money. The tournament was the first women’s event to be broadcast on network television. More recently, the Credit One Charleston Open was named WTA 500 Tournament of the Year. Kicking off the clay season, it’s grown to be the largest women’s professional tennis tournament in North America.

Day 2 of the tournament found me covering tons of action! The first two days are known as Qualifying Rounds. These are players who aren’t high enough in the rankings to make the Main Draw of the tournament, and have to “play their way in”. The winners from the “Qualies” move into the Main Draw on Day 3. Plus it was Family Weekend, which means I got to photograph lots of player appearances like Caroline Wozniaki at Talking Tennis on the grand lawn, Sloan Stephens signing autographs and posing for photos with her fans, Jessie Pegula promoting her new line of cosmetics and interacting with her fans, etc.

Credit One Charleston Open – Iconic Photo Shoot

Every spring, it’s an absolute honor to be invited back as the official photographer of the Credit One Charleston Open!

Since 1973, the Charleston Open has been a pioneer in women’s professional sports, creating milestones that have directly influenced the popularity of women’s professional tennis. It was the first women’s tennis event to offer $100,000 in prize money. The tournament was the first women’s event to be broadcast on network television. More recently, the Credit One Charleston Open was named WTA 500 Tournament of the Year. Kicking off the clay season, it’s grown to be the largest women’s professional tennis tournament in North America.

Early on Day 2 of the tournament I got to capture the tournament’s Iconic Photo Shoot. This is a tradition every year where two top players are chosen to join me and the video team at an iconic location, indicative of our beautiful city and the lowcountry area, for a private photo session. This year the players selected were 2023 Guadalajara Open Champion, Maria Sakkari (Greece) and 2021 Monterrey Open Champion, Leylah Fernandez (Canada). The location for this year’s shoot was Shem Creek Pier. Both Maria and Leylah were fun, friendly, and wonderful to work with!

Credit One Charleston Open – Day 1

Every spring, it’s an absolute honor to be invited back as the official photographer of the Credit One Charleston Open!

Since 1973, the Charleston Open has been a pioneer in women’s professional sports, creating milestones that have directly influenced the popularity of women’s professional tennis. It was the first women’s tennis event to offer $100,000 in prize money. The tournament was the first women’s event to be broadcast on network television. More recently, the Credit One Charleston Open was named WTA 500 Tournament of the Year. Kicking off the clay season, it’s grown to be the largest women’s professional tennis tournament in North America.

Day 1 of the tournament had lots of tennis action, tons of activities on the Grand Lawn, live Tennis Talks with players, and even a Padel exhibition match. Padel, sometimes called Padel Tennis, is a racket sport of Mexican origin, typically played in doubles on a glass-enclosed court that is slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court. Although Padel shares the same scoring system as tennis, the rules, strokes, and technique are different.

Credit One Charleston Open – Charity ProAm

Every spring, it’s an absolute honor to be invited back as the official photographer of the Credit One Charleston Open!

Since 1973, the Charleston Open has been a pioneer in women’s professional sports, creating milestones that have directly influenced the popularity of women’s professional tennis. It was the first women’s tennis event to offer $100,000 in prize money. The tournament was the first women’s event to be broadcast on network television. More recently, the Credit One Charleston Open was named WTA 500 Tournament of the Year. Kicking off the clay season, it’s grown to be the largest women’s professional tennis tournament in North America.

Arriving early on the first day of Qualifying Rounds, I got to photograph the Celebrity Pro-Am benefitting Madison Keys’ non-profit, Kindness Wins. Some of the celebrity players included Tracy Austin, Jessica Pegula, Shelby Rogers, Jennifer Brady, Emma Navarro, Taylor Townsend, and so many more.

Credit One Charleston Open – Pre Tournament

Every spring, it’s an absolute honor to be invited back as the official photographer of the Credit One Charleston Open!

Since 1973, the Charleston Open has been a pioneer in women’s professional sports, creating milestones that have directly influenced the popularity of women’s professional tennis. It was the first women’s tennis event to offer $100,000 in prize money. The tournament was the first women’s event to be broadcast on network television. More recently, the Credit One Charleston Open was named WTA 500 Tournament of the Year. Kicking off the clay season, it’s grown to be the largest women’s professional tennis tournament in North America.

The week before the tournament began, I had the pleasure of photographing some pre-event photos! Working with the new DJI Mavic 3 Pro, I got some cool drone shots of the grounds. Then I brought out the Z9 for details of the trophy. And I even caught a few practice shots of last year’s champion, Ons Jabeur!!!

Porch Portraits with the Caloudas Family

We’ve been good friends with Meghann & Greg since we were neighbors several years ago! From photographing their fur-baby, Sasha, to capturing their engagement photos on their boat in Charleston Harbor, to preserving all the beautiful moments of their their wedding…it’s always been a pleasure being a part of their lives. Ever since they moved to Daniel Island, we sure have missed their company!

After the COVID-19 pandemic began, many photographers started offering Porch Portraits (or “Porchaits”) around the country: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2020/04/01/coronavirus-front-porch-photo-projects-show-how-families-cope/2928577001/. We haven’t been able to offer any. But when Meghann & Greg invited us to come over for a visit, and to shoot a few porch portraits while we were there, we loved the idea! While keeping our social-distancing by staying on the sidewalk and yard, we used telephoto lenses to photograph their beautiful growing family.  Hudson is absolutely the happiest and most adorable little boy I’ve ever met!  🙂

Afterwards we hung out and had a blast catching up. Hudson fell asleep. The moon climbed into the sky. And I got to photograph an immature bald eagle nearby.

THANK YOU so much for the lovely evening, Meghann & Greg! We will always cherish your friendship!!!

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Angelique Kerber

Congratulations to 2015 Family Circle Cup Champion, and now 2016 Australian Open Champion, Angelique Kerber!!!

Less than a year after winning in Charleston, Kerber stunned Serena Williams down under in a 6-4 3-6 6-4 thriller. This is her first grand slam title! The big-hitting lefty’s accomplishment deprived the American of a 22nd major title, which would have tied Kerber’s fellow German, Steffi Graf, for the lead in the Open Era.

Kerber sunk to her knees when Williams sent a forehand volley sailing long on match point. Emotions soon manifested themselves in tears as the gravity of what the 7th seed had accomplished finally sunk in. Later, the legendary Steffi Graf, one of my personal favorites of all time, called Kerber to congratulate her.

Hopefully we’ll see Angelique Kerber back this year at the newly renamed Volvo Car Open!!! 🙂

Anchor Commercial

My “Double Your Pleasure” post about the team photos I did for ESPN got such a big response!  So I thought I’d share this group photo I did last weak using the same technique.  Anchor Commercial has been a client of ours for many years.  One of the things they have me photograph for them each November is a group shot they put in a Christmas Card to send all their clients.  Rather than setting up on the South East side of their building where they’d be squinting in to the morning sun, we decided to set up on the North West side.  This provided a nice rim/back light.  However, their faces were in extreme shadow.  So I set up my double-flash technique with two SB-800s on each of two light stand, firing them through my favorite Westcott 43” Collapsible Umbrellas, and triggering them with my trusty RadioPoppers.  Here’s the scene before everyone arrived, and the final image they selected for their card.