I wanted to talk about a specific photo that I can across. Even though tennis isn't one of my favorite sports, I've actually been turned to it more lately. This is a photograph taken by Simon Bruty that I really enjoyed. To me, this photo really symbolizes the essence of singles tennis. The use of lighting in the later afternoon gives a sense of loneliness, with the shadow stretched, diagonally across the frame, accompanied by only the referee and his opponent. I really feel like the lighting absolutely made this image. Getting the right exposure could have been a little challenging, maybe trial and error, but the overall gives a good feel of balance in the image. There are two color temperatures within the photo, most of the turf is blanketed by the bright afternoon light, but the majority of the figure hides in the shade, except for the orange highlights through the hair. The lines and geometry were really strong throughout the frame, I always like adding a sense of perspective and some interest with the bright white lines jumping out from the shadowed, green turf. The bright colors give a high contrast between the figure and the background, allowing the viewer to concentrate on the athlete, rather than getting lost in the background.
Its a little too soon to think about tennis season here at VCU, but I'm already getting ideas for shooting how I could shoot the sport. I really like the ideas used by Bruty, I've always liked to include a sense of location and geometry. Using perspective could be an effective way to bringing out interesting aspects of the game. This could also be applied to other sports, obviously. At VCU (Cary St. field), its typically a little more difficult to use the lines of the game in the photo, because the field is so cluttered with everything else. I plan to use more perspective when shooting at Sports Backers in the future, I'm just not sure I'll have the equipment to do so during the UNC game, the game starts at 7PM, which holds problems because of the low light. I'm praying the lights on that field are sufficient for photographing during the late afternoon to evening, I didn't have so much luck at Cary St. field, but theres no way of telling until you go out and do it. I'm pretty anxious to go out and shoot another game. Been kind of antsy about it, just haven't had the resources to go to game other than VCU sports at the moment. Want to make it out to some Richmond Braves games, maybe even Univ. of Richmond sports, just dont have the transportation at the moment. Maybe I could come out for field hockey practices during the daytime? Maybe shooting intramural sports, or pickup soccer games. All these are good points to bring up during my next meeting (tomorrow). I'm going to leave off at that.
