The US Open started today, and I was there for about four and a half hours. I shot zero frames. Why? The light was too antsy for me to get any decent work done. If I was shooting digital, I would have stayed longer, but I'm shooting film, at least for the first week of the tournament.
By mid-afternoon rain seemed imminent and the light seemed settled in at flat, so I decided to beat traffic home. Alas, here I am, back in Connecticut, on the first night of the US Open.
This might be my last night off for two weeks, so I'll enjoy it while I can.
Today I'm in New Haven, Connecticut, photographing the WTA Tour's Pilot
Pen Tennis tournament. I've been looking forward to it, as it's my first opportunity
to shoot a tennis match in about six months.
Speaking of things that have nothing to do with campaign finance reform... A woman
walks into a bar and sees the bartender sitting at a table playing chess with a
dog. The bartender moves his bishop, then the dog picks up a pawn with his
mouth and moves it. The bartender moves his knight, then the dog picks up his
rook with his mouth, and so on.
The woman, amazed, says, "Wow, I've never in my life seen such a smart dog."
The bartender keeps staring at the chess board, moves a piece and says, "Eh,
he's not so smart. I already beat him three out of five times."
North Carolina's Outer Banks is a great region for family vacations, for kite-flying, for leisurely coastal drives and, of course, for photography (see my travel-photography report on Bodie Island).
On another note, I'll be spending much of the next two weeks photographing tennis' US Open in New York City. The US Open is held at the USTA National Tennis Center in Queens, which is fortunately only an hour's drive from my home, allowing me to come and go as I need. So I will still be online, posting updates along the way.
Also, I have a collection of about 20 new fine art prints to post to this website in the coming weeks, so be on the lookout. If you'd like to receive notice of when the new photographs are made public, simply sign up for my newsletter on this site's home page.
Several of my tennis photos have been published in a supplement to the September issue of Tennis magazine. For the next few weeks I'll be as busy as I get during the year, as I'll be working the photo pits at the Pilot Pen Championships in New Haven, Conn., and the US Open in Queens, New York.
The book (which I have yet to read) follows Connors' tennis-playing career, Joel's tennis-writing writing career and the points at which the two careers often intertwined.
I've heard the book is a great read. I'll check in again when I can vouch for that. :-)
Believe it or not, I'm still unpacking in my new condo. People who have moved before will believe it.
Only half of my clothing has made its way into drawers and closets. My furniture remains outnumbered by stacks of still-sealed boxes. And my computer is still not plugged in. I still have no Internet access from my home office, mainly because a key component of my computer system is still stowed in some wayward box.
(If you're wondering why I can post updates to this page, it's because of the magic of the web being worldwide. When I started this blog, I built a web-based interface that allows me to update it remotely.)
I'm hoping this weekend to finally be able to dig out the missing component and finish off some work that needs much finishing. Such as responding to a perfume manufacturer who wanted to use one of my photos for advertising a new fragrance, and whose email address is locked up on my dormant hard drive. Also, I need to upload some 20 new photos for this website, including some from Australia and many of lighthouses and other sea scenes from the west coast of the United States.
On a final note, much of the U.S. is keeping its eye on two storms off the coast of Florida. One, Hurricane Charley, has slammed its category-4, 145-m.p.h. winds into Sanibel Island just in the time it's taken me to write this. Sanibel Island is home to the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, one of my favorite spots to photograph wildlife in Florida.
The storm is also expected to launch itself into Sarasota, where I'm scheduled to photograph a wedding in October. I'm keeping all this in mind, along with the people who live in the area, while seeing images of the hurricane on television and on the web.
The summer Perseid meteor shower will peak tonight, providing photographers and skygazers the best celestial show of the year.
The shower results from meteoroids in the centuries-old wake of Comet Swift-Tuttle that annually cross paths with Earth. The shower, best seen from the northern hemisphere, has actually been falling since mid-July, but is more visible now because of the new moon.
(Astronomy Tip of the Day: "Meteoroid" is a rock in space; "meteor" is a meteoroid that has entered a planet’s atmosphere; "meteorite" is a meteor that has survived its plunge through the atmosphere and hit the surface of the planet. "My nearly useless knowledge" is from years of reading Discover magazine.)
One last note: Happy birthday to my sister Ann, who turned 24 yesterday. She's a big fan of books, turtles and the Dave Matthews Band, and is one of the sweetest people you could meet.
"Legendary French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, who traveled the world for more than a half century capturing human drama with his camera, has died at age 95. Cartier-Bresson shot for Life, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines, and his work inspired generations of photographers."
Many people refer to Cartier-Bresson has the most famous photographer of the 20th century. You can view some of his work at the Washington Post photo gallery.
I bought a condo in southern Connecticut, in a nice neighborhood with nice houses with nice green grass surrounding a nice little park and ball field. I'm in walking distance from the beach, the train station and a major supermarket. Unfortunately it might rain later, so I won't be walking to any of those places.
I have very achy muscles from moving this past week (I now hate all my furniture), and a majority of the Home Depot employees have memorized my credit card number.
The reason I mention all this is that I have been unable to respond to most emails since last Thursday. Everything is locked up on my computer, which is still in its box. However, my cable Internet access has been hooked up, and I hope to have my computer set up this evening. If you’ve been trying to reach me, you’ll hear from me soon.
