Until I moved to Colorado, I had never shot tennis. We had a tennis team when I was in high school, but I never had the desire to cover them, and while in Alaska, all the matches were indoors at an athletic club with crappy lighting, so I never went.

But after moving to Arvada, I am shooting anything and everything I can for MaxPreps. So, just a couple weeks ago I shot my first tennis match between Ralston Valley and Dakota Ridge high schools at Ralston Valley. I had no idea what to expect, but I was given full access to the courts (4 of them side by side). The team mom approached me and I gave her my card. She then emailed me and wanted me to come back, shoot the team again and put together a slide show for their end of season banquet. Cool...that will be money in my pocket. I had told her that it was my first time shooting tennis. I kind of enjoyed it...

So, I went to the high school yesterday evening and the coach walked up to me and said that I took some great shots, and the kids really enjoyed looking at them and that he was sure parents would be ordering soon. I thanked him and as I walked away to set up to shoot, he said, first time shooting tennis my a$$. I turned around and said that it was true, I had never shot tennis before. That was a great compliment to me coming from this coach. He is Tom Russ who was the former Colorado Buffaloes womens tennis coach for 12 years and Big XII Conference Coach of the Year who has worked with 35 current grand slam players through his work with Babolat, Prince and PACIFIC Sports. So, I was pretty humbled that someone with his background in the sport thought they were great.

So, anyway, here are some photos from yesterdays Ralston Valley and Lakewood matches. All shots with the 7D and 120-300 2.8 Editing includes some Topaz adjustments for my website...

1.

Carl,

I have been tasked with a similar situation where the coach asked to shoot
her seniors each year and put together a collage as a gift for them. Our courts
are three singles back to back to back. I never asked or was offered access
to inside the "steel cage" and have shot through the fence. Makes it a lot more
difficult and I don't get the better angles. Three sides of each court are also
covered with net and there's not a whole lot of room in there. Are you at
mid-court while shooting?

Joe T.

I like #8 the best. Tennis is fun to shoot and the parents and kids really appreciate good photos.

Jeff

hey Carl, I can easily see how the coach thought you have been doing this for a while! My only concern is the net in some of the shots, no real way around it shooting head-on unless you could locate a portable 3 foot ladder?

Hey Carl... I like 4,5,6 the best

Nice shots Carl. I wish we had access like that in MA or CT. Figure they only let you shoot inside during warmups... Which isn't always the best. And from outside during the match which isn't fun either.

Thanks for the comments. These games, while official, are all self officiated, which is odd to me, but with out officials there, the coaches on both sides, for both times I went said I could shoot from wherever. I could shoot from the net, sitting on a bench between courts, but that would make it harder to mover from court to court, and the players usually have their water or gatorade and bags on the benches.

Same here, games are self officiated. Interesting how that works.

Carl Auer wrote:
Thanks for the comments. These games, while official, are all self officiated, which is odd to me, but with out officials there, the coaches on both sides, for both times I went said I could shoot from wherever. I could shoot from the net, sitting on a bench between courts, but that would make it harder to mover from court to court, and the players usually have their water or gatorade and bags on the benches.
Same with the one college match I shot last season: no officials and the players were not afraid to dock points from themselves. Access to the sidelines is great and I loved the 135-200mm range from that area. I need a new Krazy Kreek chair though after mine "disappeared" at a sporting event several years ago.

As to these images. Nice work. On my uncalibrated monitor, the first 2 seem a bit overexposed in comparison to the others.

I think these are about as good as you could have done under the circumstances. The backgrounds (see through wire fences) are very tough compared to Pro tennis. Also, you had to work with flat lighting. 3 & 4 are the best shots (for me). They make the players look good and there aren't too many distractions in the foreground or background. I also like #8.

Hey great pictures.. here in my country autumn is on the way and there will not be any chances to play tennis till maybe April. Meanwhile I will probably buy myself some new tennis bag, and some other gear.. to prepare myself to the next season. Once again, great pictures, one question which exposition are you using while taking this photos ?

I assume by exposition you mean exposure..... I shoot full manual. Aperture was set to 2.8 and shutter was 1/1000th. I believe my ISO was either 400 or 800.....

They sure make some funny faces don't they?

Great shots Carl

Hi Carl,
I enjoyed the shots. They really took me back to my college days.
I wonder if you would get more of a sense of the player's power and control if you timed more shots a bit sooner (before contact with the ball). The follow through looks more awkward because the racket is up high and is often at strange angles.

Also, the kids will love the funny faces slipped in through-out the end-of-year slideshow, but the photos that the kids will cherish forever will be:
- the ones that show them in a favorable light (wound-up power, eyes on the ball, about to unleash a smack-down.)
- the ones that show the high-fives and emotion with teammates after the match or on the sidelines,
- and intimate coach or parent moments before or after the action.

Keep up the good work. It's priceless!

fyi, just images 3, 4, and 5 are follow through shots, the rest are before contact with the ball.