WTA Ladies open tennis tournament in Limoges

[Chataignier]

I watched the tail end of a doubles match and then two quarter finals at the WTA Ladies Open in Limoges last week, here are few shots.

The first 1/4 final was between Christina Bucsa and Lois Boisson, Bucsa (first photo) was elegant, calm and controlled, a delight to watch. She went on to win the tournament.

[Geoff F]

Fast action sport is always difficult but you have managed to get some professional quality shots.

[escape]

The stance in the sixth photo is fantastic.

[The amateur]

It's curious how, in these photographs, we can see that people playing tennis, be they amateurs or professionals, have completely incorrect positions for this sport.
They are completely off balance in truly acrobatic stances.

However, regarding the aspect of photography, I believe it might be advisable to use a slightly higher shutter speed to allow for freezing the actions, unless, of course, the goal is to showcase the dynamism of the sport.

It's an interesting collection of photographs that the players involved will certainly appreciate.

Cheers !

[Chataignier]

Yes, tennis is particularly challenging - a 150km/hr serve translates to the ball travelling at 40m/s. To capture that, burst speeds are no help at all, at 10 frames per second, the ball has moved 4m between frames. It can only be done by studying the movement of the player and anticipating the moment (...and accepting lots of rejects !). ...and 150km/hr is a ladies serve, the men serve at 200-250km/hr.

As for shutter speeds, it's a compromise. The ambient light required ISO2500 at f5.6 and 1/250s. With hindsight, I think I landed between the ideal speeds. 1/500s would have frozen the movement better, and 1/125s or even 1/60s would have shown the movement better. No problem to have used ISO6400 which would have given more latitude.

Regarding the postures, I was surprised to see that most of the action shots showed rather inelegant postures, something the the naked eye does not see.





Let's see what I can do next year with the benefit of this experience.

[The amateur]

David, I know it is no easy work !
Cheers !

[Manfred M]

Very strong images, David. Getting these action shots to work out well require a lot of skill and experience.

It is unfortunate that the event sponsors have their logos and corporate messaging everywhere as these add a lot of distracting elements to the shots. The photographer has no good options here, unfortunately.