On The Bench

Between sets us photographers have to entertain ourselves. Here’s a fun one of me with Leslie Billman, shooting for Wire Image, and Alice Keeney, shooting for the Associated Press. Leslie is a pretty good player herself. She and I paired up to win the annual Family Circle Cup Media Tournament two years ago, a friendly competition between all the writers, photographers, TV crews, and other media personnel. Alice must have been having a bad hair day…trying to hide behind that hood and her cell phone. 😉

Family Circle Cup Day 5

Elena Dementieva is looking un-stoppable this year.
Virginie Razzano played well but couldn’t handle the power of Caroline Wozniacki.

Caroline Wozniacki in front of the scoreboard…I love how the background compliments her outfit.

Sabine Lisicki..now how can you not root for someone with such an adorable smile?

For about ten minutes this AMAZING two-inch wide shaft of light from the setting sun streamed through a crevice in the stadium bleachers and gave Marion Bartolli this beautiful golden glow.

Family Circle Cup Day 4

Sabine Lisicki jumps for joy after one of the biggest wins of her young career.
Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish enjoys the action on Stadium Court.

Venus lunges for a volley but the effort wasn’t enough to defeat the 19 year old Sabine Lisicki.

Marion Bartoli watching the Sabine Lasicki upset Venus Williams.

Dominika Cibulkova hustles during her 3-set win over Anastasia Rodionova.

Family Circle Cup Day 3

See more of my images on the cover of the WTA Tour website and in their Photo Gallery.
Alona Bondarenko in a rare play for the net.
Anastasia Rodionova reflected in her coach’s sunglasses during a change over. On-court coaching was only recently introduced to the tour.

Patty Schnyder goes airborn during her powerful serves as she’s outlined by the long shadows of her late afternoon and tough three-set match.

Pure luck gets me a glimpse of Patty’s eye through the throat of her racket.

Elena Vesnina sprints for a drop-shot.

Fans relax on the Grand Lawn of the Family Circle Cup campus.

Family Circle Cup Media Center

Here’s me goofing off in the Media tent. Grace from the Post & Courier was playing with my Nikons (they use Canon at the paper) and snuck this shot off. This is where I frantically ingest CF cards and edit images for the FCC and WTA. That’s my friend Douglas on the other side of me, Mike Saia (Communications Manager of the FCC) standing behind us, and Mic Smith (of the Associated Press) in the white hat.

Family Circle Cup Day 1

Day 1 at the Family Circle Cup had TONS of off-court and VIP events. So I’ll save the action shots for later in the week. I think you’ll enjoy some of these behind the scenes images! 🙂

Nadia Petrova poses for me in front of her 40×47 foot banner hanging from th stadium that I photographed the year she won it. Nadia told reporters that having her image up there was a highlight of her trip her.

Patti Schnyder is always a crowd favorite here in Charleston and is always ready with a friendly smile.

Venus Williams had some fun at this press conference.

Dominika Cibulkova during the Lacoste Fashion Show at The Riviera Theater.
Sisters Alona & Kataryna Bondarenko with Olga Savchuk and Elena Vesnina at the Player Party held at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Serena Williams with her mother, Oracene at the Player Party.

Bethanie Matteck-Sands at the Riverdogs

There was a lot of great action during today’s final Qualifying rounds for the Family Circle Cup. But the highlight of my day was being the exclusive photographer covering Bethanie Matteck-Sands as she warmed up with the Charleston Riverdogs and threw out the first pitch for tonight’s game. Bethanie was married in November…I’m bummed she didn’t call me to be her photographer…HA! She’s the third highest ranked American in the tournament, behind Serena & Venus Williams. So come on out and cheer her on!

My two favorite shots are the “Captain America” pose on the pitcher’s mound and the “Reflections” shot of her in the sunglasses worn my the Channel 4’s news reporter.