Yes, I know… I am fully aware that I am late publishing this report, but like a giant python, I had to digest (and process) over 500 images that I caught last Sunday. This labored digestion required a lot of time and effort and I hope that you will forgive me for being tardy.
But good things come to those who wait…
Last Sunday, 16 women and 25 men came to Marin to compete against each other and to show who were the top dogs (or the top bitches, if you will excuse this pun). A lot of egos were on the line in this tournament and everybody fought hard.
The weather, with sunshine to spare, was good. But the sun, filtering through leafy trees can be photographers’ enemy; it camouflages the faces and clothing of all the players and makes it very difficult to photograph anything correctly.
You might notice that the pictures taken in the morning are not as good as those taken in the afternoon when the sun had shifted. I tried to photograph as many players as possible, but I preferred to shoot in areas devoid of pesky shade patches.
Since I am (not yet) ubiquitous, I could only cover a few bouts, and I ultimately concentrated on the women’s and men’s finals.
In the women’s finals, Holly Sammons and Carmen Ellis faced each other; both very good players, but with different styles. Holly is a super pointer who can position any boule very close to the cochonnet. Carmen, on the other hand (who is also basically a pointer), had no choice but shoot, and she missed quite a few shots. Altogether, it was a very good game that Holly finally won by a score of 13/12.
The men’s finals pitched Tom Lee against Peter Mathis. It promised to be a hard-fought game but to everybody’s surprise, Tom Lee defeated Peter by an astonishing score of 13/2. Peter was off his game, or maybe tired, and missed crucial shots. We all have one of these days… Tom Lee who played an excellent game deserved to win. No matter what, I think that Peter is a great player with great form (one of the best) and I like to photograph him.
It was good to see everybody, especially those living far away from our field. By the way, you are never too old to learn anything. Last Sunday, thanks to AnhHuy Phan from San Jose, I learned something that could improve the quality of my pictures. She works for SanDisk, the memory cards manufacturer, and besides being a charming individual, she gave me some very good tips that I will follow. Thank you.
But enough chit-chat…
Women’s Concours
1st place: Holly Sammons $130.00 + medal
2nd place: Carmen Ellis $87.00 + medal
3rd place: MaryAnne Curley $65.00 + medal
4th place: Ann Krilanovich $22.00
Women’s Consolante
1st place: Ashlee Dencklau $65.00
2nd place: Sandra Shirkey $44.00
3rd place: Tamara Efron $22.00
Colette VD Meulen
Men’s Concours
1st place: Tom Lee $217.00 + medal
2nd place: Peter Mathis $145.00 + medal
3rd place: Chan Xiong $109.00 + medal
4th place: Paul Moua $73.00
Men’s Consolante
1st place: Tinh Dinh $84.00
2nd place: Andrew Loi $56.00
3rd place: B. Passemar $35.00
Alain
Plenty of pictures under “My Photos“. Watch on “full screen” for better results. Avoid watching on smartphones.