Rogers Cup 2018 - Aviva Centre, Toronto, Canada
I can still picture the evening, it was August 11 2018. The sun was going down and the stadium lights illuminated the tennis court at the Aviva Centre in Toronto. The fans took their seats and patiently awaited the first serve of the night. It was Rafael Nadal of Spain vs Karen Khachanov of Russia in the Rogers Cup Semi Final! Once I was seated the first thing to cross my mind was simply that everything was perfect. The view, the breeze, and of course the excitement of watching tennis champion Rafa Nadal perform right in front of you. It was the best night to be outside watching a tennis match.
The game was as heated as you would expect, both Nadal and Khachanov clearly wanted to play in the Rogers Cup Championship. But most importantly, they wanted the title! You could see the sky cam glide overhead as it captured every point and fault of the match. It also moved in to show the energy of the players serve. That same energy made its way into the crowd and you felt it from the sidelines all the way to the back of the stadium. I know I felt it, but it was somewhere in that moment when I also felt the first drop of water land on my face.
“It was the best night to be outside watching a tennis match.”
The drops of rain quickly turned into a complete downfall and the announcement was made to the crowd. The game was officially going into a rain delay... great I thought. Almost the entire crowd cleared out of the Aviva Centre in minutes and into the cover of the building. I however had other plans. I figured this was the exact opportunity I wanted and it presented itself very clearly to me. With the camera already in my hand I snapped on my 16-35mm wide angle lens and went straight to work.
As the rain continued the sky opened up and you could see the most beautiful natural blue wash through the dark clouds. It was incredible to see and I knew I had to capture it while getting my first view of the stadium.
I wanted to see it from courtside as well and I would soon enough but first I noticed a couple umbrellas made an appearance.
I used black and white in this photo (and the others to follow) to highlight the incredibly soft glow coming from the lights. It was also to show contrast between the highlights of the raindrops and orbs of bokeh against the darkness of the night sky.
My back was getting soaked and so was my camera and Blue Jays hat. But that wasn’t going to stop me from getting my shot at courtside. From the lower levels you are right in the spotlight. A perfect view of the entire court and the stadium in front of you. The blue from above turned into an even richer colour of blue, as it continued to spread across the sky. Speaking of the sky, is it just me or do you feel bad for the sky cam left hanging above? I wonder how much it costs?
Looking back to the first shot of this feature I wanted to highlight the editing work I did. I really love this image and I wanted to do it justice by cleaning up some of the distractions in the frame (ex: logos, flags, and banners). If you move the slider to the right you will see the final clean edit and when moved to the left you will see the original. I tweaked the overall exposure by raising the brightness levels and using masking to pull back on the highlights. It provided both clarity and dynamic range to the stadium lighting. I wanted to be able to see the distinction between each light in the grouping while also retaining them as the brightest point of the image. Now you can see the radiance of the light without clipping any details. Lastly I used a graduated filter to give more range to the shadows in the sky. The left side already had some range but I wanted more out of the right side. I actually painted in part of the rightside to make both sides equal and you can see it as you pass the slider over the image. Adding the graduated filter to the background highlighted the glow in the sky and gave the image an overall cleaner appearance that i’m proud of.
Above I noticed this man’s umbrella on the left with sheet music printed on it and I liked how unusual it was. I wanted to take a photo of him holding it but it was just a matter what else I wanted to capture. I stood behind the two of them for a minute as the people around me were wondering what it was doing. That was when I heard a plane passing just over head. I quickly recomposed the shot to get the plane in frame and right then the man stuck his arm out to catch the rain. It was perfect timing! Thank you good sir!
“The blue from above turned into and even richer colour of blue, as it continued to spread across the sky.”
After standing up from taking my last shot I decided to wait again. My instinct was right because the man decided to put his hand above his eyes and his friend on the right decided to point up into the sky at the plane from before. This time I shot horizontally to get the endless rows of empty seats in the stadium and the larger glow coming off the lights. It felt like these two had the entire venue to themselves and that’s why I really love this still photo. It’s a little musical and a little magical all in one.
By the end of my run I was fully embracing the rain even more and letting my lens get soaked on purpose. Judging from the expression on some people’s faces they were very confused and internally I found it quite amusing. If only I could have shown them shots like the one above to help them understand.
As i’ve come to learn, sometimes life will continuously rain down on you and you might not be able to change the flow of what’s happening. I suppose it’s not much different to a tennis player playing in an important tennis match, some things just won’t go the way you plan. So instead of looking down at the ground and covering your head in fear of whatever is falling maybe you should look right up into the sky and tell life exactly what you are thinking. In a way that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t care that it was raining, I wanted to see the match but I wasn’t going to let it stop me from enjoying my experience. I’m stubborn like that and if I like anything enough I won't give up on it. No matter how bad it might be going. In this case I turned and hour and a half wait into a series of photographs that I will have forever.
These last images are what happened moments later. The rain finally held up! A few drops here and there but the worst was over. This poor lad had to use rollers to squeeze out the water from the court. I had never seen that in person before. I liked the circular motions around the word Toronto and the straight lines that followed to the right so I used them in my framing. In the last image you can clearly see the lines from the roller on the ground and I like how the clean up crew is walking in the same direction as Nadal. Their tasks couldn’t have been further apart.
Below you can see the Guinness Book of World Records breaking event for the most fans on a tennis court at any one time. I’m not sure if that’s actually a record but if it was I think Toronto might have won it that night.
Photographs belong to M.Harston Photography
The match did continue following an incredible turnaround by the staff and everyone got to see Nadal win his Semi Final match. What a great experience it was to be here and I went away with some great stills and a better understanding of how to approach problems out of your control. The next day Rafael Nadal went on to win the entire competition and take home the Rogers Cup trophy. Maybe one day I’ll get another chance to capture more photographs at a tennis match, and if it does rain, ill be ready! - MH