July 18, 2008
Washington Kastles Fall To Sacramento Capitals
Enjoy the pretty pictures here, for more on the match up between the Washington Kastles and the Sacramento Capitals visit OffWing Opinion.
As always, if you are a blogger and would like to use our photographs please contact us.
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Posted by Allen Clark at 06:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 16, 2008
Kastles Get Big Win Over NY Sportimes with John McEnroe
We will be publishing through the day photos from last night's victory in overtime by the Washington kasltes over the NY Sportimes. Please come back to the site as we update, you can also visit our complete photographic match coverage on our Flickr site.
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As always, if you are a blogger and would like to use our photographs please contact us.
Posted by Allen Clark at 11:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 15, 2008
An Evening With World Team Tennis
The Washington Kastles are back in town today for a match with the NY Sportimes with John McEnroe as the headliner to be playing for the Sportimes. The match tonight will kick off at 7pm at Kastles Stadium at CityCenterDC.
Just in case you missed it, Eric McErlain our fearless editor as OffWing wrote a story about the Kastles inaugural home match last week at AOL Fanhouse, An Evening With World Team Tennis.
OffWing will once again be courtside with coverage for tonight's match. See you there!
Posted by Allen Clark at 11:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 10, 2008
Serena Williams Kicks Off World TeamTennis In DC
I am both a photographer and a tennis fan so I was excited to be covering the first home match of DC's entry into the World TeamTennis league, the Washington Kastles. Unfortunately the Kastles fell to the visiting Boston Lobsters, ending their unbeaten string of matches for a 2-1 season record.
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 8: Venus Williams of the Washington Kastles hits a forehand during a World TeamTennis match against the Boston Lobsters at Kastle Stadium in Washington, DC on July 8, 2008. (Photo by Allen Clark/www.OffWingPhoto.com)
The match analysis will be left to OffWing Opinion, here at OffWing Photo I wanted to give you some insight on shooting the event.
If the number of photographers is any indication, the Kastles have to be happy with having Serena Williams as their marquis player. The sidelines were crowded with photographers, most sitting knee to knee to cover the inaugural match on home turf. My guess is that there were approximately 20 photographers shooting the event.
The Kastles and Qorvis, their PR group, did a good job by being open to questions and planning in advance for many of the needs of the press for the opening match.
Now to the nitty gritty of shooting the event. The toughest challenge to overcome was the lack of enough light once the sun set behind the buildings of downtown. Of course everyone wanted to photograph Serena Williams but her singles match was held as the last match of the night. This meant shooting at high ISO's and the unfortunate side affect of noise in the shots. It also forced me more time post-processing the images to get them to a suitable quality.
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 8: Justin Gimelstob of the Washington Kastles hits a backhand during a World TeamTennis match against the Boston Lobsters at Kastle Stadium in Washington, DC on July 8, 2008. (Photo by Allen Clark/www.OffWingPhoto.com)
It may just be me but it also seemed that the south side of the court was darker than the north side. The players had more pronounced shadows on their faces when playing on the south end of the court.
Here are a few humble suggestions:
- If possible bring in another set of lights near mid-court. I know the photographers will appreciate it and maybe the players too.
- There should be a ramp at the press entrance, many of us have heavy equipment bags on wheels that we had to carry up and down 10 steps. (simple plywood would do)
- Open up the player entrance so that it is easier to get the shot of the players coming through smoke machines. It was really narrow so the shot was blocked by a single video camera.
I am looking forward to covering the rest of the season and happy that Washington has added another tennis event, now if we can get a women's tennis tournament to return to DC.
For more photos from the event please visit our complete photographic match coverage on our Flickr site.
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As always, if you are a blogger and would like to use our photographs please contact us.
Posted by Allen Clark at 10:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 08, 2008
World TeamTennis Comes To Washington DC
World TeamTennis was co-founded by Billie Jean King, 33 years ago and has now added a team in Washington DC. DC's team is called the Washington Kastles and will play in a stadium built at the location of the former Convention Center.
Tonight will be the home opener for the Kastles as they go up against the Boston Lobsters. Serena Williams will be on hand to play for the Kastles at 7pm tonight. The Kastles are currently undefeated (2-0) in league play.
Yesterday members of the team and city officials kicked off the season with the first practice at the new stadium.
Mashona Washington, Sacha Jones, and Scott Oudsema joined their captain Thomas Blake for their practice. Team members Serena Williams and Justin Gimelstob were not present. Williams will be playing tonight in the Kastles first home match, while Gimelstob will be sitting out the match for a one game suspension.
The league has a 3-week season, stretching from July 3rd to July 23rd, will have 11 teams vying for the King Trophy.
The format of play is unique from what you see at other professional tennis matches:- Two men and two women compete on each team.
- The match format consists of five sets
- One set each of men's and women's singles
- One set each of men's and women's doubles
- One set of mixed doubles
- Every game counts as a point in the overall score
- Typical score is 23 - 19
- A team must win the last game of the last set or the match goes into overtime
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Posted by Allen Clark at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)
May 31, 2008
Getting Those Summer Shots: Tennis
Now that summer is here and things are warming up it is time to get out there and start shooting some summer time sports. I love to play and shoot tennis.
For the past several years OffWing has covered the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, DC. In addition to the Legg Mason, we will be covering Washington's new World Team Tennis Team, the Washington Kastles.
FYI - Clicking on the thumbnails will take you to a larger version of the image.
The Basics:
The great thing about tennis is that players typically hit a lot of shots to win a match, which gives you as the photographer more opportunities to capture some good pictures.
Like most pictures involving people you will want the faces visible and in focus (especially eyes).
You will also typically want to shoot with a higher shutter speed so that you can "stop" the action. Try a shutter speed of 400 to start out. If you have a point-and-shoot camera, put it into "sport mode."
How To Shoot Different Strokes
Image 1
Groundstrokes (Forehand & Backhand): Shoot across the net or at the net post so that you can see more of the body. There is also a better chance of getting the tennis ball in the shot from this angle. The picture to the left is John Isner, in this shot I have actually went up higher in the stands and shot down on him. This angle also removed the stands with people in the background, making it a very clean shot.
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Serve: In the above, are pictures of the serve from different angles. The first image of John Isner (Image 2) is probably the weakest of the three. Image 2 & Image 4 were taken on court, while the second one was taken from the stands. Note how John Inser (Image 2) is somewhat lost in the stands, while Kei Nishikori (Image 3) stands out more. The picture of Kei Nishikori benefits from the angle, but also a nice streak of light that hit him as he hit his serve, while the background is in shadows.
Overcoming Problems
Chain link fence: This is not a concern when shooting pro tennis, but it can be an issue when you are taking shots of your kids on the local court. What typically will happen is that the auto focus may focus in on the fence instead of the on court action. The trick is to place your lens on to the fence and open up the aperture of your lens. You can also try manual focus. NOTE: Do not let the lens touch the fence, use a lens hood to protect your lens.
Image 5
Image 6
Image 7
Distracting backgrounds: Above is a picture of Bob Bryan (Image 5), as he hits a backhand. I like the picture, but the top of his body is lost in the stands. Trying some of the following tips will make your images more powerful.
- Change your location so that the background of the tennis player is also different. If you have a telephoto lens, that may mean moving up and away from the court so that you can shoot down on the action. The picture Gael Monfils (Image 7) is a great example of this technique.
- If you have a Digital SLR shoot with the aperture as wide open as possible, remember this means a lower number. This will have the affect of blurring the background, which will make your player stand out. Here is another shot (Image 6) of John Isner hitting a forehand, but this time I am at ground level, but the people in the stands are out of focus.
Evening/lack of light:
Image 8
Image 9
Image 10
Image 11
As the sun drops down, stopping the action with high shutter speeds becomes more challenging. But that doesn't mean that you must stop taking pictures. You just have to be a bit more creative. Below are some things that you can try:
- First off, increase the ISO of your camera which will increase the sensitivity of the camera to light. Be careful though, increasing the ISO too high can result in increased "noise" in the photo. The pictures of Andy Roddick (Image 11) as he follows through on his forehand demonstrates this. For this picture I had to increase the ISO to 1000. If you click on the image to get a larger version you will see "noise" which looks like little specks in the shadows and stands in the upper right hand corner of the image.
- Open up your aperture as much as possible and look for pictures that don't require high shutter speeds. Things like facial reactions after a point, or close-ups in between points can be great. In image 8, Marat Safin is looking up at the scoreboard as they replay a point.
- Be more artistic by lowering your shutter speed to under 100. Arms, legs, racket and ball will begin to blur as they do in Image 9 of James Blake during his service motion.
- I liked the composition and color in image 10. There was no motion so I could use a slow shutter speed. What I saw was the long shadow of the player on the court, and the bright pink hat that popped out because the background was in the shadows.
Posted by Allen Clark at 07:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack