The color purple

The weather was beautiful and so was the new purple tennis court.

Nice purple hats were given out at the gate.

Serena flies

Even though Henin dominated the match & had two match points, Serena hung in there to win.

For the first time in 23 years & four tournament name changes, there was a different trophy. Boy am I glad I'm not down there in the pack of photographers! I decided to shoot the whole match from upstairs. It was really nice & relaxing.

Double trouble

The Bryan brothers win in 3.

A day of beauty...

The shaggy pup goes for a ride. She thinks she's going home, but she's really going to the groomer.

Notice her tail is tucked & she's putting the brakes on as she's led into the back.

Tally was still hooked up when I got there to pick her up. She was half of the size she was when I dropped her off ... and practically naked!

A big smile. She's happy to be going home.

Tally shows off her pretty bow.

Back to business as usual ... nap time.

Relics from my attic

I cleaned out my attic & found some hidden treasures that went straight into the garbage. The Apple IIC was Apple's computer before the mac. I got everything out there as the garbage truck was heading down the street.

Tennis & Dinner

Federer fan

Check out Serena's earring

Sony Pavillion at "Mary Time" (Mary's favorite time to take pictures).

Centerpiece

Mary looks pretty happy about the food in her future.

These were the most delicious asparagus I've had in my whole life. The sign said they were Grilled Asparagus with Lemon & Pistachio. They were very smokey.

Hospitality Village

Sony Ericsson Open

The weather was beautiful so I figured I'd head down to Key Biscayne to shoot the Sony Ericsson Open (formerly the Nasdaq-100 Open, The Ericsson Open & The Lipton). I am one of three photographers that have shot all 23 years, so I thought I'd keep my streak alive.

I walked from the Media parking lot so I could shoot some pix of the new entrance.

I shot some Sharapova & Venus then the sky turned black & it poured. It rained for a long time so I didn't stick around to shoot Serena.


While I was chatting with Anita (Bud Collins' wife), Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario asked me if she could interview me for Spanish television. I agreed after a little coaxing. I can't believe I didn't ask Anita to take a blog photo for me. I asked how Bud was & she said he was laying on the couch in the back of the media center. I've seen those pants before, but never those socks.

The tennis spectators wear some interesting clothes. I call this outfit, "Pippi Longstocking & the Cat in the Hat meet a Polar Bear." Keep in mind it was in the 80's today. I don't "get" the furry jacket.

Well look who's coming ... it's Art & Mr Pierce (Mary's father, who used to be banned from tournaments & his new wife). I can almost smell a photo op. First they stealthfully scout a location. Then they find a picture perfect spot ... the busy valet lane.

Good Times, Bad Times, you know I had my share ...

First the good ...
I had some fun at the parking garage & ticket counter at the airport tonight. At the garage, I got out of my car & flung a large Nike duffle bag at the shuttle driver. She looked really concerned then started cracking up. The bag had nothing in it other than bubble wrap, so it was as light as a feather. Since I got such a good response, I decided to try the same at the ticket counter. I threw it right at the woman at the counter & the startled look turned into the biggest smile I've ever seen. I have never heard such laughter. The two agents were throwing it back & forth pretending it was really heavy & they were really strong. Then she decided to put a "LIGHT" tag on it so the baggage handler wouldn't get hurt thinking it was heavy. I told her in all my years of travelling, I've NEVER had a "LIGHT" tag ... plenty of "HEAVYs" but NEVER a "LIGHT"! When it was time for me to go to the gate, they thanked me for making their night.

Now the bad ...
I went thru x-ray & TSA decided they wanted to swab my Think Tank Airport Security bag. I said no problem (because it usually isn't). Well this TSA agent had his own interpretation of what constituted a swab. I've been swabbed plenty of times before, but never like this. First I had to wait 20 minutes since they were short staffed. Then the TSA guy removed EVERYTHING from the case. The first lens he took out was a 70-200 & he layed it on it's side instead of standing it on end. As I saw it rolling to the edge of the table I gasped to get his attention & asked him to stand it up. Whew, disaster overted. Then he took every lens cap & rear cap off and took everything out of it's individual case (like extenders, hard drives, etc). I was getting a little ticked off but didn't show it except that I looked at my watch a bunch. He did about 15 individual swabs. It was a little absurd ... overkill, since I have press credentials & hardly fit the terrorist profile. Then he tried, unsuccessfully, to put the stuff back in the case. I told him that I wanted to do it. He said I had to step away from the table until he moved it to a table where I could touch it. Needless to say I wasn't happy since besides being an @$$, this guy was a klutz. What a jerk! I almost missed my flight.

Roundshot ... Take 2

Who needs a remote when you've got the Clapper!

Chris & Peter practice their synchronized swimming routine.

Peter & his Roundshot.


The Roundshot 90 5-inch is the ultimate large format 360° panorama camera. It comes with 5-inch film spools and contains a 90mm Rodenstock Grandagon f/6.8 lens. The 360° panoramas produced by this camera are 4.33" high and 22.32" long ... amazing!

Roundshot ... Take 1

Today I had lunch with John, Chris, Stan & Peter Lorber in the temporary "Clubhouse" aka double-wide trailer. After lunch we scouted locations. Peter specializes in panoramas & uses a Roundshot 90 5-inch camera. He has one of five in the world. It's pretty crazy. If he shoots a 360° image, the negative is 5 inches by 23 inches!

Not to be outdone, Chris takes some blog pix.

Not wanting to be left out of the blog, Stan comes after me with a branch.

mmm ... jelly!

I went to the beach after work. There were a ton of huge jellyfish washed up on the shore. They were pretty big ... about the size of a volleyball. GROSS!

a tucked tail :o(

Tally was not happy I was packing. This weekend I worked mostly on my photo archives. The file drawers alone filled 40 boxes. There is still a LOT more film to pack. UGH!

We went out in the backyard for a little fresh air. Tally was so upset that she wouldn't eat at all today. She turned down filet mignon & chicken! I can't say I've ever seen her do that before. I felt so bad for her.

Thursday at work

Today I got some presents from Janet. She is TOO funny ... "Boss Lady Hand Cream ... Soften'em UP ... Rein'em IN!"

Chris & I were working on a headshot nightmare all day. We took a break for a Chinese lunch. Here are our fortunes. Is someone trying to tell us something?!?

In search of the Giant Golf Ball ...

I found a hidden treasure camouflaged amongst the trees.

Stan does his best Indiana Jones impression.

It sure is big ...

... and heavy!

The bird in the middle takes off with a fish while an anhinga squawks from the water & a pelican swoops in for the steal.

They sure are building a nice sandbox!

While we were in search of the rare Giant Golf Ball, a scuba diver was collecting standard sized ones from the water surrounding 17.

This can only mean that one woman hit her ball in the water on 17 compared to hundreds of men.

GROSS! The diver told me they clean up real good.

I call this photo "STEVE."

Monday at work & play

Today we scouted locations for a shoot we have to do tomorrow.
The clubhouse is lookin' good!

After a brief wrestling match, Ward & Stan become posers.

Cindy, Stan & Ward in the bird's nest.

After work, Chris, Beth & Shelby met me at Ace Hardware to pick up my new Weber grill. The directions said it would take a professional 15 minutes to assemble & 30 minutes for a consumer. I'm not sure how long it took us, but it was pretty easy. Shelby helped even though she doesn't have opposable thumbs. Chris & Beth were entertained by my sideview mirror pecking cardinal.

Once a conedog ... always a conedog!

This weekend I went to Chris & Beth's house to dogsit for Shelby. I had wondered if she would be sporting her cone. I guess she didn't want to disappoint me. This morning Shelby came to the door to greet me with a squeaky sheep in her mouth. She was pretty happy to see me. Last night I had a huge adrenaline rush after letting Shelby out in the yard. We were coming back into the house from the patio but we had to open the door extra wide to allow for cone clearance. Bailey, one of their three cats got out onto the patio. I figured it was no big deal & I'd just catch him. Bailey knows exactly where there's a big tear in the screen & headed for freedom into the VERY dark backyard. Luckily I caught him, but it was a close call. I figured he'd be hopping the fence.


I had to shoot thru the screen door to get these herons in my backyard.

Birthday Girl!

Today we had my office birthday lunch at Aqua Grill. It was delicious. Even though I don't believe a dessert can be considered a dessert without chocolate as it's main ingredient, the key lime pie was really good (and I don't even like key lime pie). From the picture it looks like I ate the whole thing, but I only had two bites. I'm not so sure I would have shared if there was chocolate involved! ;o)




Chris missed lunch since he was off today. He had to take the day off to catch up on his blogging. He hadn't posted anything since mid December & I told him there's no excuse for being a blog slacker. Was he subliminally trying to tell me that I make him work too hard? I don't buy it. I wonder if it would be against TOUR policy to make blogging one of his performance objectives? Anyway, his blog looks great. To celebrate the momentous occasion of his blog update & my birthday, Chris, Beth & I went to Chizu for a sushi dinner. We didn't take any pictures. I think Chris doesn't want my blog to be better than his! ;o)

Tools of the Trade

This morning I had new carpet installed in the master bedroom.

Turtle Convention

I finally saw some turtles in the lake behind my house. There were 5 of them sunning themselves next door. As soon as I walked into my Florida room, they jumped in the water, really fast. I don't know how they saw me ... I was inside. Then I saw there were ten of them two houses down from me. I grabbed my 500 f/4 & 1.4x & shot them out the door.

At the end of the day, some Mallards went diving for dinner, then sailed off into the (black & white) sunset.

I shot the Prez ... with my camera, of course!

President Clinton joined Vijay Singh for a round of golf on THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass this morning. The weather was miserable. The Secret Service yelled at Chris for cutting in front of their cart on the way to the first tee. We had no idea who was in front of us since we could only see their backs. We just knew we needed to get to the front of the procession to get to our shooting position. Everything turned out fine. Chris is out on bail. Just kidding! ;o)

Hooked up

Today I had tanks installed for the gas fireplace. The previous homeowners never connected the fireplace. I'm afraid of what my electric bill will be when I run the heat, so I figured the fireplace would help me stay warm.