WTA open, limoges

[Chataignier]

An afternoon at the WTA125 (Womens Tennis Association) Open tennis championship in Limoges, quarter finals day.
The Limoges Open is indoor, so the light is uniform, but not very bright. For an exposure of 1/500s at f4 it needed ISO3200. Then there is the speed of the ball. Women serve at around 140km/hr, men at more like 200km/hr : at 200km/hr a ball moves 60m in one second so catching the ball in an action shot is fiendishly difficult. Even with burst firing at say 15/sec the ball has moved 4m between frames. I dont use burst firing, I study the player's movement and try to time it manually. I get around 25% shots with the ball in view.

Makes for an interesting afternoon !

[billtils]

The grit and determination of the players is well captured. My personal favourite is the second from the top where there is nice degree of motion blur on the ball and the expression on the player's face is worth the entry fee .