Hi Gang: On Monday night I headed back to New York to shoot the US Open Men’s Tennis Finals, and I put together a post over at Exposure.co with all the photos, including lots of behind-the-scenes shots and stories of triumph and tragedy (which includes me dropping my 16-35mm on the concrete floor, not once but twice).
Anyway, if you’ve got a sec, here’s the link: https://scottkelby.exposure.co/shooting-the-mens-finals
I tried to share more of the experience of shooting an event like this, so there’s lots of info and shots about that stuff, and of course all the camera, lens, and shooting info.
TWO MORE THINGS:
(1) Photokina (the world’s biggest photography expo, held every two year in Cologne, Germany), kicks off this coming week, and if there are any earth-shattering product releases, I’ll have that here for you on Monday morning around 8-ish.
(2) Tonight, don’t miss the world premiere of KelbyOne’s first movie (it features the amazing Moose Peterson) and it’s called “Aviation Photography: War Birds and the men who flew them.” This premiere is FREE and open to the public this one time only, then it goes inside KelbyOne for subscribers only, so come and watch it live with us tonight during this free premiere.
Moose himself will be live with me in our studios taking your questions. It will definitely be a night to remember. Here’s the link to join us tonight.
That’s it for now folks. Thanks for taking a look at my images, have a great weekend, and I hope to see you tonight.
Best,
-Scott
The link to the War birds film takes me to your tennis shots
Thanks Simon — I just fixed it. :)
Great stuff Scott! I bet you ran into a lot of my buddies there. I know a few of my buddies from MA. were there shooting. Hockey season is right around the corner!
Scott – the 2nd link you provided for the KelbyOne film goes to your Exposure site the Open. Just wanted to make you aware. I’ll be watching tonight!
Thanks for the heads up, Jonathon — I just fixed it. :)
Terrific shots, Scott. Have Kalebra do some grammar check for you though! ;-) There’s a couple of flubs in the wording of some paragraphs. Hey, I know you do this late at night! I hope you get to shoot some more tennis in the future. Are you shooting the Tampa/Atlanta Thursday Night Football game next week in Atlanta?
The link to the movie tonight is http://www.kelbyone.com/warbirds for anyone that got lost on Scott’s post. It’s on Wednesday’s Guest Post by Moose! :-)
–John
Hey John — thanks for the heads up (on all counts). Fixed the link, and I went back and fixed a bunch of those typos (I wrote this between 1am and 3:20 am. I’m surprised there weren’t more! LOL!!). Hey, if you see any typos I missed, let me know. (Will have Kalebra take a look when she gets a chance). Cheers and thanks again. :)
Well, I only found one more, Scott! when writing about your lens mishap, you wrote “Luckily, CPS had tech staff on had to check it out, so I used a loaner for a while.” I think you missed an “n”.
I’m here for you…. ;-)
Fixed. Thanks John :)
John, you’re squashing his dreams of becoming an author someday :)
The exposure.co posts are my absolute favorite thing you do. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Scott you got some phenomenal shots and that media room, holy crap. Sounds like the holy grail for me someday, love Tennis and Golf and really want to get out and start shooting some. Looks like Mr. Black gave you some great tips there.
Hey Cody — he is an absolutely wealth of information, and he’s so willing to share it with anyone. I super-dig him! :)
Great post, Scott, and great photos, as always. I had my first tennis experience last year shooting the NEC and ITF Wheelchair Tennis Masters singles and doubles in Mission Viejo, CA. Not exactly Flushing Meadows, but what an experience it was. This was big time in wheelchair tennis, with incredibly talented athletes from around the world. And a real eye-opener for me. What struck me most in your post, however, are the facilities for the media. Just amazing. For me, I had a three-legged stool right at the net; my gear was stowed under a table. But I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. I have such respect for these gifted and fearless athletes. My shots were used by the ITF, USA Tennis, and other tennis and paralympic organizations around the world.
Hey Steve — I loved your story — thanks so much for sharing that. Those Wheelchair athletes are amazing (they held a competition, I believe the following day, at Flushing Meadows). :)
If you have ten minutes to spare, take a look at my goals and the lessons I learned while covering this tremendous event, here: http://stevewyliephotography.com/blog/2013/11/my-first-exposure-to-wheelchair-tennis
Loved the post on the US Open finals. Felt like I was there. I wish!!! I attend the Indian Wells tournament every year and end up taking 100s of photos each year. Scott, if you ever get another opportunity to photograph a tennis tournament, you have to zero in on Nadal, assuming he’s playing.. It’s almost impossible to take a bad photo of him. His swing is extremely violent and his facial expressions go right along with his swing. In addition, his muscles bulge with every swing. It feels strange giving you advice.
Thanks again for the post.
Nice post. Like the L->R movement of the Japanese guy going over the corner, and the final win fopped out shot :)
I’ve always appreciated Exposure.co and its ability to create stories like these. There seems to be a new kid in town trying to do the same thing. I just found Medium.com with a similar style. It seems to have more of a social-media audience than a photographer audience. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not.