BOX OF LIGHT

I never expected to shoot The Masters this year, for my third year, after I left the Augusta Chronicle and feel grateful that the paper asked me to come back to Augusta for a week to help my friends on staff cover the tournament. I shot more than 5,000 photos, and whilst editing through image after image of golfer swinging clubs, I’m reminded of the patience of shooting golf.

Okay, I am going to say something that a person who has had the honor of shooting three Masters tournaments in a row should never say, so cover your eyes for a minute if you’re a golf fan: I find golf boring. Oh my God so boring. And golf photography? even more boring than golf. Okay, open your eyes. The trouble is, to me, golf isn’t a team sport. The interactions and gestures and emotions are slim to none– and those are precisely the things that make sports photography interesting. You can rely on the beautiful backdrop only so much to make a boring photo a little bit more interesting. But even that? put an amazing golf action shot next to a so-so one? Both are boring to me.

So, before I make you hate me for complaining about spending a little less than a week on one of the most pristine historical courses in the country, let me tell you, I do enjoy the spectacle of it all.

Augusta transforms. The tournament is such a finely tuned machine — to have that many people on a golf course, half of them drinking at 9am, yet keeping them tame and quiet behind the ropes isn’t a minor feat. Fans ooh and ahh as Tiger walks past and they follow him from hole to hole in whispering hordes. The sandwiches are delicious. The flowers, beautiful. The tension of who may win builds throughout the week… even I, a person who three years ago didn’t know the difference between a Mickelson and a Snedecker, starts to quietly root for certain golfers (generally the ones who might, just might, show a hint of emotion if they won.) Three years ago, I certainly wouldn’t have cared to have seen Gary Player’s last swing ever at Augusta National, following a gracious praying kneel on the green, on the course before retiring.

I wouldn’t have said yes to shooting The Masters this year if I didn’t have some odd pull and some odd fascination with the giant tournament. Yet, the images that stand out to me while editing aren’t those of Tiger Woods in nice light or Angel Cabrera with a club in hand. They’re the somewhat odder, somewhat unexpected images that make editing the whole week a little more bearable.

I’m giving you those.

Besides, if you wanted to look at awesome golf action shots, you wouldn’t be on my blog anyway (although I could be persuaded to post a couple…)

(also, if you don’t mind, please leave a comment casting a vote for one of the two bunker caddy shots above. thanks!)