The Image: This is really Roger Federer in the semi final against Tsonga where he absolutely finished him off. He was on fire that night and the match was over in 88 minutes. Helen my wife had organised tickets (through the company she works for which is a major sponsor) to the President's lounge where we had a superb dinner surrounded by celebrities and champions and the best seats in the house for the match.
I get to go to a couple of matches every year, and on semi final night we get the VIP treatment.
I have taken my camera before, and this year, they were checking cameras and focal lengths of lenses. 200mm is the limit, so I took my 70-200mm F2.8 and got through OK. Then, I popped on the 2x converter and I had an effective focal length of 140-400 F5.6 (with the conversion factor...I had more than enough lens!)
I shot this handheld from about 7 rows from the front.
I like the fact the ball is frozen, and the stance of Federer.
The Edit: Mainly some adjustment layer masks for all sorts of things like contrast. usm, sharpness, and then of course the selective colour on the ball...that should divide the voters.
The Prediction: I reckon this won't be popular and I think I will get around 5.7. So, shy should I enter? Because so many of my predictions are so wrong ;)
OOPS! As stevieian (Joanne) pointed out to me, this is NOT Federer...it was actually Gonzales. Now, a couple of the comments make sense to me...Thanks Joanne
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Place: 29 out of 109 Avg (all users): 6.0670 Avg (commenters): 7.1429 Avg (participants): 5.9492 Avg (non-participants): 6.1250 Views since voting: 1094 Views during voting: 308 Votes: 179 Comments: 12 Favorites: 1 (view)
Interesting that they actually had guidelines on the focal length. When I've gotten pestered by ushers at hockey games they say "that's too big" and of course I have to ask them what's the largest I can go. Then they kinda stand there mouthing random numbers like a fish on land... :)
Great shot and I am jealous that you were a) there to begin with b) able to get this shot.
at a guess i'd say maybe Hotpasta's image seeming the AO is on this mth here in melb and that border is so his style let alone it being a brilliant image and the selective color works a treat 9
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