http://www.australianopenshop.com/prodetail.asp?proid=21993#

i have a tennis ball keyring to give away … so this is what i’ll do: the best comment posted on any of my 2010 posts on this blog, will be rewarded with this souvenir as your prize. feel free to comment before (hmm..) february 5 and the best/smartest/funniest will be the winner. don’t forget to leave an email or link to your blog for example for me to contact you if you win. please note: my decision is final, and as usual all irrelevant comments will not be published as i have moderation here.

so enjoy your read below…

donald young celebrates a point

xavier malisse celebrates a win

ping-pong style serve?

feliciano lopez shows off … again

i win !!!

oh elena, what’s happened to your pretty face?

daniela hantuchova practises hard

janko the tattoo man

animated chat

puffing andy roddick

a hot day for tommy robredo

not so great for sebastien grosjean

i’ve requested google not to index my tennis photos anymore. from now on, apart from older pics which i expect not to go away for ages, they should not be showing my new pics in their image search. if anyone wants to see them, they will have to search for them here on my site.

it’s not an easy decision to make… not long ago google image search had brought me a lot of traffic… but the last 18 months or so i have seen my site hits fall to a fraction of what they used to be. i guess i have to try something to stem the downward trend.

i have to admit that i had neglected the site somewhat, but what i had seriously neglected was the changing habits of photo searchers. not only do they use image search exclusively and just jump to individual pages if they must, some also use leeching services or tools to download the photos without even seeing the source web page.

as google allows this to happen, i’d rather have fewer people seeing my pics, than to have done the equivalent of uploading them all to a ubiquitous photo server without any claim to the photos. apart from the watermark and the copyright notice on the pics of course.. (haha you can’t get away from them, can you???) though i’ve come across some so-called webmasters who don’t seem to care!

i don’t object to people seeing my pics, saving them, sharing them around privately, and so on. but i do like them to come to my website, be presented with the photos the way i prefer, read the copyright, and ask for permission if they want to use them publicly. if they want to donate by clicking on some ads, or even buying some cards, that’s cool. it’s simple and for most it’s free. if even that is too much work and someone wants to harvest and digest images without any respect to those who take them, then i’m out of this game.

so now you know, if you don’t see me around on google images any more.

yup the bejing tennis photos are slowly being added to the new gallery: beijing 2009

also while you’re browsing around the photos, don’t forget to take a look at the calendar cards and the calendar poster. Clearing 2009 stock now, at not to be repeated prices! i have no plan to make any 2010 calendars this year, so they may truly be ‘never repeated’…

so far, things are all looking good at the end of this year. hopefully all the year’s pics will be up before 2010, when as usual we’ll be busy with the january tennis season. i will be in sydney, as usual, and also plan to attend melbourne *before* the main draw starts. my other photog friends hope to be around the main game, and together we hope to be making the most out of the open

thanks for your lovely patronage this year (and before) and come back soon for more news!

ps. i do take requests for players photo prior to a tournament… usually do that at men’s tennis forums – frenchie forum but if you like, leave me a message here too. i’ll see what i can do…

change….

stretch….

bend….

fierce opposition….

pull….

celebrate….

pack….

wave…. hasta la vista baby!

this must be the first pic posted here that is not taken at a tournament… a familiar face in a taipei street scene

more images coming soon to this blog and at Via’s Tennis Photos

yes and you can go and view all the lovely tennis action pics here

as usual, the more popular a player, the more of his/her pics i’ll add to the gallery.

daniela is the most popular right now within the brisbane gallery… someone must have found them and told others

on another note… wondering where the melbourne pics are? well me too. hopefully i’ll get hold of them in a few days.

but first… sydney’s will be next. stay tuned…