Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
Federer at his sublime best in Paris
By Greg Rusedski
The Paris Masters was going to determine who was going to be the last players to qualify for the ATP world finals in London. The last few places were up for grabs and all the players that were in pole position ended up qualifying. The top eight for the field ended up being Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Roger Federer, David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Mardy Fish.
The other story of the week concerned Djokovic and whether he would play after shoulder problems in Basel. If he didn’t play he would have missed his commitments for the master series events and it would have cost him over 1 million pounds in bonus pool money. He did play!
Could Murray continue his unbeaten run since the U.S. Open and win his fourth event in a row?
Also worth noting that Nadal pulled out the week before the event to concentrate on the ATP world finals and the Davis Cup final. With all the other big names playing it wasn’t a big loss. This was a smart thing for Nadal to do because he needs the rest.
Shooting the Rugby World Cup
In the latest installment, South Africa-based photographer Mike Hutchings describes the gear he can’t live without and what makes shooting rugby different from his usual assignments.
Reuters RWC Photographers #4 from Tim Wimborne on Vimeo.
In the xxx third installment, Sydney-based photographer Tim Wimborne describes what is necessary to keep the file fresh throughout the tournament and to satisfy different client needs.
from Photographers Blog:
Climbing Eden Park
By Bogdan Cristel
After 40 hours of flying Bucharest - Amsterdam - Beijing - Auckland, I arrived in New Zealand; my first time in the Southern Hemisphere.
The first nice surprise here was that both my check-in pieces of luggage arrived on the same flight (I expected it to take a week and to be on the safe side packed a toothbrush in my hand luggage).
from Photographers Blog:
Swimming in a sea of pictures
Several weeks back I was told I would be having a serious case of the blues for a fortnight - processing pictures of the swimmers, divers and water polo players competing in the FINA World Championships in Shanghai. Pictures from the event would be edited by China chief photographer Petar Kujundzic and sent to me and my colleagues Karishma Singh and Allison Ching in Singapore to process and transmit to clients.
For two weeks, I would be looking at a sea of images where the main color was blue. So it made me nervous whenever I saw my least favorite color - green - appear on skin tones. It took constant communication with the on-site photographers and editor as well as the Picture Desk team here in Singapore, not to mention close scrutiny of the histogram in Photoshop, to ensure the athletes didn't look jaundiced or ill. In fact, correcting the color on pictures taken in the swimming pool in Shanghai was as challenging as it was in Beijing three years ago when I processed aquatics images at the Olympics.
from Photographers Blog:
Tour de France 2011 – A long way to Paris
This year's riders of the Tour de France covered 3430.5 km (2131.6 miles), divided into 21 stages, according to the Tour's official website.
What you may not know is that the Reuters pictures team covering 2011's most-watched sporting event managed to tally up some 10,000 km (6213 miles).
Tales from tennis’ fifth major
Greg Rusedski writes exclusively for Reuters thanks to Thomson Reuters’ sponsorship of the Lawn Tennis Association.
The Sony Ericsson Open tournament is considered the fifth major by most of the tennis fraternity. It became a week with many story lines:
from Photographers Blog:
Shooting the perfect dunk
Kids playing streetball or millionaires performing in a highly choreographed show? Sport or showbiz? Welcome to the NBA All-Star weekend slam dunk contest.
One of the most satisfying moves to watch in basketball, and one of the easiest to photograph is the dunk, as the player soars above the rim and jams the ball through the net.
from Photographers Blog:
My first Australian Open
When I was first told that I would be covering the Australian Open tennis tournament, I was very excited as it is a major global sporting event and I would get to fly out from Japan where it was cold, to a hot and sunny down under.
At the same time, frankly speaking, I had a feeling of fear and worry, since I had heard scary tales about shooting the event from a photographer who had covered it multiple times. Dreadful stories of heat, the scorching sun, cameras getting too hot to function and sometimes so hot that I wouldn’t even be able to touch it. I was told that one photographer’s computer had broken because of the extreme heat, and that sometimes the photographers’ chairs at the courtside got so hot that it was unbearable.
from India Insight:
IPL Kochi on its way out?
It's intriguing arithmetic. After adding two new franchises to its stable, the Indian Premier League now runs the serious risk of going into its fourth edition with seven cricket teams, one less than the original eight.
In that March 21 news conference in Chennai, Lalit Modi, still one month away from a dramatic dumping, was doing what he does best -- reeling off mindboggling numbers.
from India Insight:
Commonwealth Games 2010 – LIVE Blog
News, views and updates from the Oct 3 - 14 Games in New Delhi. Share your views.
Full coverage of the 2010 Commonwealth Games here
