... was Wednesday. I am saying that to remind myself that today is Thursday. I was so tired it was as if I had run full tilt into a wall made up of two parts fatigue to one part stupidity, cemented together by bad food and even worse coffee. Nevertheless I ploughed through the day, working with Rob to prepare over a hundred photos for the site. The day went well in that respect. When we got back to the house at about 10pm last night I carried right on with preparing more photos. It felt like a bit of a twisted recursive loop, hence my losing track of what day it is. I nearly had to sing Happy Birthday this morning, just to remember my own name.
Anyway, I digress. Things start to get a little easier from today. Fewer matches that are of interest to the web site. That is not to say all matches aren't valid potential content, it's just that less emphasis seems to be placed on the lower end of the draw, the doubles, Juniors etc. The two Ladies' Singles semi-finals will dominate the coverage today, and no doubt most of the photographers will be covering them, so the early part of the afternoon will be a frenetic flurry of selecting, resizing, balancing and saving. There is a party tonight for the media teams here, held in the Café Pergola, something that we have been invited to every year. And every year we have failed to make it, usually thanks to the fact that we are still working when the party is in full swing. I have no doubt it will be the same this year. Besides, I haven't got suitably smart attire with me. Hohum.
Gav's post, "Did you know...", was an interesting one. I didn't know at least half of the facts on it. Here are a couple more tidbits of information on the one element without which the game of tennis would be like taking it in turns to swat an imaginary fly with a large swatter. Not to mention pointless. Literally.
The earliest tennis balls were made of leather that was wrapped around a core of wool or fur, solid lumps that were hand-stitched, so no two bounced in the same way. The modern balls have evolved into hollow ones because it increases the playability and improves the consistency of bounce. Their quality is rigorously controlled, and the pressurised air that fills them contributes greatly to the bounce factor - they have to be able to reach a rebound height of between 53 and 58 inches when dropped from 100 inches on to concrete. Thanks to this modern technology the game is much faster than it used to be, and according to the official Championships web site there has been talk (by the ITF) of introducing larger balls to slow the game down and make it more interesting, as many players can win games on their serve alone.
Balls are swapped out for new ones every seven games, then every nine, and this is because all that hitting makes them fluff up and lose pressure, changing the bounce and hence the game. Since 1937 they have been kept in a courtside refrigerator at a constant temperature until they are required. Alledgedly, if you were of a mind to, you could fit 290 million balls inside Centre Court when the roof is shut (Is that with the seats in or out?). I reckon you could probably squeeze at least one extra one in there. What a useless statistic eh. And if you do have a desire to test that out then if I were you I'd seek help, immediately. You should also bear in mind that if you did it with used balls then it would cost you around £483 million pounds, and take roughly 5,800 tournaments to amass enough balls (if you were able to buy them all as a job lot). That's a lot of queueing, and patently ridiculous!
I am starting to ramble, so I will stop, and instead post some more photos from around the grounds...
I have more images to upload, and I will try to do that later today. I can't promise it though.
Anyway, I digress. Things start to get a little easier from today. Fewer matches that are of interest to the web site. That is not to say all matches aren't valid potential content, it's just that less emphasis seems to be placed on the lower end of the draw, the doubles, Juniors etc. The two Ladies' Singles semi-finals will dominate the coverage today, and no doubt most of the photographers will be covering them, so the early part of the afternoon will be a frenetic flurry of selecting, resizing, balancing and saving. There is a party tonight for the media teams here, held in the Café Pergola, something that we have been invited to every year. And every year we have failed to make it, usually thanks to the fact that we are still working when the party is in full swing. I have no doubt it will be the same this year. Besides, I haven't got suitably smart attire with me. Hohum.
Gav's post, "Did you know...", was an interesting one. I didn't know at least half of the facts on it. Here are a couple more tidbits of information on the one element without which the game of tennis would be like taking it in turns to swat an imaginary fly with a large swatter. Not to mention pointless. Literally.
The earliest tennis balls were made of leather that was wrapped around a core of wool or fur, solid lumps that were hand-stitched, so no two bounced in the same way. The modern balls have evolved into hollow ones because it increases the playability and improves the consistency of bounce. Their quality is rigorously controlled, and the pressurised air that fills them contributes greatly to the bounce factor - they have to be able to reach a rebound height of between 53 and 58 inches when dropped from 100 inches on to concrete. Thanks to this modern technology the game is much faster than it used to be, and according to the official Championships web site there has been talk (by the ITF) of introducing larger balls to slow the game down and make it more interesting, as many players can win games on their serve alone.
Balls are swapped out for new ones every seven games, then every nine, and this is because all that hitting makes them fluff up and lose pressure, changing the bounce and hence the game. Since 1937 they have been kept in a courtside refrigerator at a constant temperature until they are required. Alledgedly, if you were of a mind to, you could fit 290 million balls inside Centre Court when the roof is shut (Is that with the seats in or out?). I reckon you could probably squeeze at least one extra one in there. What a useless statistic eh. And if you do have a desire to test that out then if I were you I'd seek help, immediately. You should also bear in mind that if you did it with used balls then it would cost you around £483 million pounds, and take roughly 5,800 tournaments to amass enough balls (if you were able to buy them all as a job lot). That's a lot of queueing, and patently ridiculous!
I am starting to ramble, so I will stop, and instead post some more photos from around the grounds...
I have more images to upload, and I will try to do that later today. I can't promise it though.
Does the poor chap in Pic 31 really have only one leg?
ReplyDeleteI think it was a woman's leg :S And she did have two as far as I can recall...
ReplyDeleteOf course, if I had been paying attention to your comment I would have answered about the photo that you were actually talking about (I thought you were referring to the photo with just a leg in it)! So, Reimora (er, that's you Dad), I take it back, it is a man, and he has two legs! :)
ReplyDelete...and there I was, thinking it was a photo taken in the mid-1970s, when almost all the top-flight players had stubble.
ReplyDelete