I want one...

... but I cannot justify the £450 or so a year that I would need to pay for a contract. I am talking about the iPhone, the interface of which is a thing of beauty, with its gesture control and plethora of applications that you can download for tuppence ha'penny, or even free. Zip. Nada.

I have always been a bit of a luddite when it comes to mobile phones. I have one, it is several years old, and it can handle texts, and phone calls. I don't use it for surfing the web, or sending MMS messages (it has no camera either). I haven't needed more functionality than that, and until the iPhone came along I couldn't imagine I would ever need more than it has. Of course, having seen the iPhone and its cool take on telephony, I now want one. Oh, how I do, I so do.

Every year at Wimbledon we try to implement something new, innovative, and exciting that helps extend the reach of the Championships. This year an application for the iPhone was an obvious choice. I talked to David Balcom, a Business Development Executive for Application Innovation at IBM, and he gave me a quick run down on the key points. The application was built using the standard development kit by a coder and an interface designer in Atlanta. It has a native iPhone look and feel which helps with the ease of use, trading on the familiarity that an iPhone user has with the way the phone presents things.

The cool features from the Wimbledon site available in the application are:
- Live scores available from all courts
- News
- Schedule of Play
- Draws
- On-demand video.

As of yesterday, July 1st 2009, the application had been downloaded over 625,000 times, which is pretty incredible. A little bit of code, and repurposing of content from the site makes for a compelling app it seems. Top work Atlanta! Here are some screenshots of various application features.













Now, question is, can you lend me £450? Anyone?

Apologies...

It has been a frenetic couple of days. Photos for the site come in thick and fast, despite them being pre-sifted before hitting our screens. I am helped by Rob, one of my best mates - we go way back to college days, and whilst here he keeps me going with wit and editing skills that make me very glad to know him. He is an artist, and designer, and the best computer games player I have ever met.

So, I haven't had as much time as I would like to post to this blog, and feel a little bad about that. Only a little though - it is not my primary 'job' while I am here. Still, I'd like to make a good job of it, and I will try to post a little more frequently over the next few days.

Today I am extremely glad the room is air-conditioned - outside the heat beats down on courts, players, and spectators, sapping everything of strength, colour, and the will to do anything but lie in a cool dark room. There is a lull at the moment - Rob and I have got well on top of the photo list, and so there is a little time spare to add a few images from previous days, and write some words to go with them. The photos below are from various matches, taken as I wander swiftly around the grounds. I have many more that I will post later.








- An umpire on Court 14, the curve of the No.1 Court roof behind her.
- Ferrer whips a serve towards his adversary on Court 18.
- Radek Stepanek plays an overhead shot... hit and hope...
- ... the hoping paid off, the shot was in, the rally continued.






- Tatjana Malek returns to Stosur on Court 18. I was shooting from the opposite end with my 300mm lens.
- Same court, and lens, different player. Bartoli powers a return back to Schiavone. Both players were very hyped up, playing imaginary shots between the rallies, trying to psyche each other out.
- Bartoli put up a valiant but ultimately futile fight, stretching for every shot.








- Bartoli, airborne in this shot, eventually lost the match as the sun fell behind the blocks of flats that overlook Court 18.
- Another player on 18, again shot with the 300mm. She is pulling a most scarily determined face, and I think the grunt that accompanied the serve could probably be heard right into the middle of next week.
- Petrova was wearing quite a fashionable outfit according to the pundits here. I wouldn't have known that of course, given that I am more sartorially challenged than the poet in residence who sits in the next room.
- Stosur leaps to smash another point home.






- Schiavone dabs a dainty forehand over the net. Shot close with the 300mm, fast becoming a favourite of mine. You are forced to crop in camera at this distance, which is tricky with a fast moving player, and so many of the photos I take like that are only good for the rubbish bin. I let this one slip through. Much like her opponent.
- Ivanovic turns to celebrate her win with a triumphantly raised fist.
- Squinting into the sun this player throws an energetic shape as he sends a backhand flying down the court. I can't remember his name. No doubt it will come to me just as soon as I hit 'Publish'.

More, in a little while...

Oh it is hot...

... so very hot. Earlier today I sat outside with a cup of tea and a book and literally sweated the words from the pages as I tried to read it. I was tired, missing my girlfriend Ali, and her two boys, and trying to relax on the one day off that we get during the event.

I missed the breakfast that we have at the club too. Not because I wasn't there - what I mean is I missed it. Out in the sun though I didn't feel very hungry. I sat, Flacido Domingo, vaguely aware of the pressing need to get on with sorting out my photos from the last couple of days. The heat was beating the resolve out of me, melting my determination, rendering the fat of good intention into a liquid fail over which a heat haze of annoyance threatened to shiver and quiver, mocking my idleness. I moved inside, revelling in the relative cool of the large airy living room, booted up the laptop and started reveiwing the images.

I thought about the twelve tournaments that I have worked at. I have seen a lot of very good photography, and now and again some exceptionally beautiful images. You start to recognize the styles of individual photographers. You know with fair certainty which matches will produce a glut of backhand images, and those that will present you with gems, rare moments where position, light, timing, and a bit of luck all align to produce a near perfect photograph. So, despite having to look at a fair number of images in the course of a day, it is never a mundane task. Indeed, I am looking forward to seeing what comes in over the next few days. And there is keen anticipation of what I might be able to capture myself.

I got the photos done, and they will be posted in a few hours or so. After sleep. And breakfast.

Speed of Serve

I know I'll start sounding like a brain-washed evangelist for Big Blue at this rate - and I really don't mean to keep banging on about all the cool stuff they're doing at Wimbledon this year, but as I sit here, monitoring all-things tennis on TV and via the SlamTracker (see yesterday's post), I can't help but be impressed by IBM's Speed of Serve; by the time the opponent hits the ball back from receiving a serve, the speed is already displaying on the board.

That really is proper nifty-quick.

If you see the shot...

... then you have missed it. I am not sure who said that first, but they are right. For example, if you are looking to get a shot of a player with the ball on the racquet strings, and you actually see that moment in your viewfinder then it is too late to press the button to capture it. Ergo, timing is of the essence, as it is with many things. Your camera may well be capable of ten frames a second, but, it can still seem laughably easy to miss capturing the ball completely. Chances are improved if you listen to the player at the opposite end hit the ball and then start your shots before a ball even enters the frame. At least that is how a relative sports photography novice such as me might approach the problem. I believe it may be called the 'spray and pray' approach, jamming your finger down on the shutter release and keeping it there for a second or two to be fairly confident of success. A lazy approach? Could be seen that way too.

The match I shot was Querrey vs Cilic, the last one of the day on Centre. The photos are mostly self-explanatory, and I should point out that Cilic is the one not wearing a cap. Of course, that means Querrey is the one wearing the cap, which would have been a better way of putting it.








I have taken photos on Centre Court once before, last year, but then there was no full house, and hence no press or freelance photographers, and far less pressure it seemed. Maybe pressure is the wrong word, but, I was very aware that the pros around me were taking one or two frames to my five or six, their familiarity with the game affording them efficient use of time and maximising the number of different shots on the memory card, not to mention reducing the amount of chimping to find the ones to send down the wire. I was also keen not to waste the opportunity to get some photos that I would be pleased with, and not to 'let down' the people (Bob, and Rusty, thank you both) who gave me the chance to do it.






For me this was very obvious with the first few frames I took whilst on Centre Court yesterday. However, I quickly shook off my nerves, and got into the flow of the game, and I think I got a few passable shots. Really though, you should be the judge of that.






I couldn't shake the feeling that they lacked a little something, and then I realised that perhaps it is the fact that it isn't a full house, there are quite a few empty seats, and so the players don't stand out as well as when the court is at capacity. I was sat on the same side as the umpire's chair, which effectively meant that I could only shoot the one end, which left the images looking (to me) a little samey.








Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, and would do it again at the drop of a volunteer steward's hat.






I should explain that the line judge that is holding a ball to his ear does so each time new balls are called for, shaking each one to check it. The last photo taken using a sweet wide angle lens.






I have other photos from yesterday (now actually two days ago), and today (now yesterday) which I will endeavour to post tomorrow (today). I have heard that it may well rain. Today.

SlamTracker

As Jay mentions in the IBM at Wimbledon video, the data-entry folk from the IBM team really are doing a great job; as I sit at my desk, feverishly working away, I have both the TV coverage running in the background as well as the IBM SlamTracker running on my Thinkpad. And, just as Jay says, the data is updated in real-time and appears on my screen faster than the umpires can announce the point change to the crowd sat around him.
It's nearly as good as being at SW19 in person.
No...wait...hang on... up-to-date scores on my screen, (reasonably-priced) strawberries and cream in the fridge, a bottle of Pimms in the cupboard (for after work, Boss, honest) and a cooling breeze blowing through the window... this is better than being there in person :)

Wow...

I have just come off Centre Court having spent an hour or so shooting the Cilic vs Querry match. Great experience to sit where the pros sit and try to get some reasonable shots. It is a lot more difficult than you might think. Sure, I can get ten frames a second, but, if you don't time those frames right then it is as easy to miss the action as it is to capture it. I now have oh, perhaps six gigabytes of photos to chimp and weed. It's going to be a long night. I will post any decent ones tomorrow.

Day Threeeee...

It's the third day here at the Championships, and the sun is beating down on the grass, heating up the fans, making the strawberries sweat as they wait for a cream bath and a dusting of sugar. We rolled in early, and set off for breakfast with a spring in our step, and hope in our hearts.

Hope for eggs that look like eggs, sausages that don't wear their skins like a fake tan lie, toast that gives up a rasping sigh of delight as butter is worked into its crispy skin... oh, how our hopes are regularly dashed on the canteen rocks.

It might seem as if I moan a fair bit (too much?) about the state of the food, but when you are doing as many hours as we are, food is a pretty important part of the equation. So the dismay may well be palpably obvious, but justified. And, once you have selected your breakfast you then have to run the gauntlet of the Random Pricing Structure that seems to be in operation this year. This morning I had some scrambled eggs (whatever it was was indeed scrambled, but I am not convinced it was egg) on two bits of toast, a solitary sad-looking sausage, and a cup of coffee. It cost two pounds more than yesterday. Indeed it cost two pounds more than the chap in front of me was charged - for the same selection. I raised this with the woman on the till who replied with a very sweet but vacuous smile. No words. Just a smile. I waved my hands in front of her eyes, and there was no reaction. I left her smiling, and ate.

Back to the IBM Internet room, and straight into seeking out photos of players on court today so we can prepare some home page shots in advance. That done we skim the rest of the images in the inbox, looking for ambient photos that we can use to accompany the more general news round-ups that are written for the site. Sitting at my desk I can feel my legs warming up, and my top half cooling down as the machines under the enclosed desk space fight with the air conditioning that blows its frosty breath along the top of the room until it hits the windows and falls on us like an unthermal blanket. I am sure it can't be doing us much good.

I got out to take a few photos yesterday, some of which are below.






- An abandoned sticker lies on the trampled grass that runs along the top of Court 18.
- A player, whose name escapes me at the moment, chases down a very speedy ball.
- The same player successfully returns a backhand shot.






- Kuznetsova, lacking her trademark cornrow hairstyle, slams a forehand towards her opponent as the light starts to fade.
- Morigami serves, her shadow stretching out before her on the neatly mown grass.
- The crowd at one end of Court 18 wait whilst the players have a brief break and change ends.








- The large screen at the foot of Henmurray Hillmound reflected in a shiny pair of glasses.
- Security guards (volunteers from the Services) silhouetted in an entrance to Court No.1.
- A glass of something refreshing.
- Nicolas Devilder serves on Court 19.






- Fans on the hill applaud as Murray eventually triumphs.
- I think this chap wanted to get in the papers. Or on TV. He probably succeeded.
- A blue sky heralds another successful day in SW19.