Anyone on here photographing Wimbledon (Tennis) this year?

As a freelance photographer your chances are less than zero. You need to be covering the entire Aegon series and with an agency to get a look in.
 
GTG said:
After a quick look on google, I would look into this :

International Tennis Photographers Association

and this website:
http://tennisphoto.org/
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Retune said:
https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/aboutwimbledon/championships_media_accreditation.html
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Thank you both but I'd already seen those links before I posted :) Cheers anyway (y)

DemiLion said:
As a freelance photographer your chances are less than zero. You need to be covering the entire Aegon series and with an agency to get a look in.
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What I imagined tbh, Sitting here watching Wimbledon made me wonder (y)
 
DemiLion said:
As a freelance photographer your chances are less than zero. You need to be covering the entire Aegon series and with an agency to get a look in.
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That makes sense. Kinda like you have to work yourself into that position over a long period of time in the trenches first.
 
DemiLion said:
As a freelance photographer your chances are less than zero. You need to be covering the entire Aegon series and with an agency to get a look in.
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GTG said:
That makes sense. Kinda like you have to work yourself into that position over a long period of time in the trenches first.
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I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but even that won't get you a look in at Wimbledon. My agency has covered ATP and WTA events across the globe including the full lot of British tournaments, plus the ATP Tour Finals and the Davis Cup and still Wimbledon won't shift on offering accreditation. The reason this year was that 'they are committed to working with agencies they've have had previous successful relationships with, please try again in future though'.

Roland Garros are much more accommodating if you ever fancy a bit of the French clay. I've been multiple times and can't ever recall being rejected for accreditation.

As a side note you used to be able to take a camera into Wimbledon. I can't remember what the limits were but I think it was anything up to and including a 200mm lens. You won't be able to do a great deal on the big stadiums with it but you could easily shoot the outside courts on the early days and get some nice snaps for your personal gallery. I think more recently though they have gotten a little stricter. They upped security a few years ago and it got to the point where security people were creating issues that didn't exist to justify being there. Unsurprisingly people with bigger cameras were being picked on every time a flash went off despite the fact that the bigger the camera lens, the less likely it would be that person would be using a flash.
 
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I can't think of anything I would less want to do.. gets a bit repetative after a while..hard to find new shots...did liverpool international tournament a couple of times which is just before wimbledon and you get a few of the lower down players and show pros.... there wont be much freedom at wimbledon. as in movement.. all in all unless someone was paying you a lot of money to do it then it would be bottom of my list :)
 
fhoneill said:
I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but even that won't get you a look in at Wimbledon. My agency has covered ATP and WTA events across the globe including the full lot of British tournaments, plus the ATP Tour Finals and the Davis Cup and still Wimbledon won't shift on offering accreditation. The reason this year was that 'they are committed to working with agencies they've have had previous successful relationships with, please try again in future though'.
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Well, yes. I was being somewhat simplistic. In reality it depends on how well you know Bob.
 
Of all the Slams, Wimbledon is actually the least interesting to shoot. There are less court positions than any other slam. For example at the French Open you can shoot off the roof of both show courts and there are also positions down low behind the baseline. I can't really think of anywhere at Wimbledon that offers a unique perspective on the action. The US Open used to have the balcony above the old Grandstand where you could do this but even that's gone now.

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Generally if you are shooting a slam you are probably not going to be wanting to shoot action either because action shots rarely sell. Your selling shots tend to be fist pumps and players winning on match point. So less of your time in the first week is spent courtside shooting the big names and more is spent checking your phone to see which matches might be about to finish and charging across the grounds to get to that court for the shot. By the time the second week rolls around you are really wasting your time because you can't get action shots out anywhere near as quick as Getty or AP. Those guys are now plugged into ethernet cables courtside with guys sitting in the media centre editing and transmitting images out for them within seconds of them being shot on the camera.

The last time I shot a slam I was fortunate enough to be getting paid to shoot a list of names in the Junior events. Not quite as glamorous as some would like but when there aren't any names on the list playing I was able to shoot on the other courts.
 
At least one DSLR and lens (70-300?) in the crowd for the Murray match this afternoon.
 
fhoneill said:
As a side note you used to be able to take a camera into Wimbledon. I can't remember what the limits were but I think it was anything up to and including a 200mm lens. You won't be able to do a great deal on the big stadiums with it but you could easily shoot the outside courts on the early days and get some nice snaps for your personal gallery. I think more recently though they have gotten a little stricter. They upped security a few years ago and it got to the point where security people were creating issues that didn't exist to justify being there. Unsurprisingly people with bigger cameras were being picked on every time a flash went off despite the fact that the bigger the camera lens, the less likely it would be that person would be using a flash.
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Still can, the ruling on my ticket indicated nothing over 300mm [although I had to take my 300mm f4 back to the car a couple of years ago]. Took my D800 and 180mm 2.8 [as it's v compact] last Saturday, but up in the gods on #1 court and it was heaving during our little spell around the peripheral courts so got nothing worth showing this year.
 
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I wonder if you could take a 300mm prime or something like sigma 120-300mm or 100-300mm and sneak in a 1.4x or 2x TC :D
 
nandbytes said:
I wonder if you could take a 300mm prime or something like sigma 120-300mm or 100-300mm and sneak in a 1.4x or 2x TC :D
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See my post above yours, I had to take my 300mm f4 back to the car a few years ago. I suspect it depends on which security person you get, but a 75-300 isn't going to attract attention the way a 300mm f4 will.
 
Deckard said:
See my post above yours, I had to take my 300mm f4 back to the car a few years ago. I suspect it depends on which security person you get, but a 75-300 isn't going to attract attention the way a 300mm f4 will.
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300 PF isn't much bigger than a 24-70

D3S_2455-compared.jpg
 
So not small then! Got nothing to lose by trying, but be prepared to leave it in left luggage if security get sniffy.
 
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