Yearly Archives: 2010

I’ve been going to the U. S. Open for about 13 years. It’s my favorite sporting event, and each year seems to outdo each of the previous ones. Lots of handy tips about how to make attending more enjoyable have come my way: which tickets to buy, which sessions are likely to produce the best tennis, which bags are prohibited, the best seats on the Grandstand…they all leap to mind. But one of my favorite frequent-spectator tips is Gate D of Louis Armstrong court. The stadium is mostly first-come, first-served seating. Instead of standing in Space Mountain-esque lines of fans waiting for a changeover, those in the know climb the stairs just inside Gate D, emerge at the top of the stadium and drop into a free seat during play. On the way up the first staircase, you’ll pass some folding tables. At first, I assumed they were just left there; but year after year, they’ve reappeared in the same spot.   Along with a plotter.  I’ve been wondering about these tables for years.  As evidence of my curiosity, here is a shot I took from the staircase last year (who knows who that dude is):

This year, when we passed the tables, people were there.  Working.  A chance to solve the mystery!  In a few seconds we were talking to Frank.  It turns out that this location, in the bowels of Armstrong stadium, is the U.S. Open scoreboard management center.  Frank, pictured below, described the 12-hour days he puts in, climbing the scoreboard again and again to paste the stenciled names and scores on the board (within 10 minutes of the end of each match!).  It sounds insane, but it obviously gets easier later in the tournament.

Frank was great, even waving hello to us when we saw him the next day (we were kinda yelling his name from the ground at the time).  I was nearly tempted to ask him how I could become a harnessed-scoreboard-stenciler-paster-guy, too.  But I’d probably rather wait in a line snaking through Armstrong stadium.

  • Great story, Dana! One of these years I will see you at the US Open. Hopefully in 2011. :)

As difficult as it feels sometimes, I’m learning that there is a lot of value in being seen, known, and understood…its the whole being open part that I find so challenging.  This image of the wife of a close friend (taken at a recent wedding) is a friendly reminder of that.  When Beatrice pays attention, she seems to look into you…and always with love.  True friends always care about how you’re doing…and somehow manage to never judge.

  • Akintayo Adewole

    That image gave me wonderful chills… beautiful picture and words… thank you, thank you, thank you… can’t wait to show Bea.

  • Thank you, Bridget. I am lucky enough to be surrounded constantly by great people.

  • Mary, thank you so much for the kind words. I’m really glad that you enjoy the images and definitely appreciate your feedback. Good luck settling down after what sounds like a fabulous trip to Asia.

  • Wow. I’ve been scrolling through all of your posts here and I find your pictures absolutely stunning.

    Looking at your pictures makes me want to pick up my camera right now. Thanks for the motivation!

    All the best, Mary

  • This picture makes it so easy to see that your words are true. She pays deep loving attention. Wow! She’s great. It must be really nice to be appreciated by you, too.

Last weekend, during a trip to Boston, we got a chance to drive out to Reading, MA to spend an afternoon with Caren and her family.  Caren is a good friend from business school, and I had never met her husband, Evan, or her children.   They were as fantastic as Caren, and I documented the good times with a few images.  Naturally.

Shauna takes fitness seriously.  Both hers and that of the hundreds of rabid fans of Hip-Hop Cycle, her insanely popular spinning class.  While she finishes up her PhD at Johns Hopkins, she tortures (ahem, teaches) her east coast devotees at Baltimore’s best gym, Merritt Athletic club.  But when she visits home, the West Coast faithful get a chance to take her class at the Equinox Palo Alto location….if they can get there early enough.  This week, Shauna was good enough to commandeer a classroom so that I could experiment with some techniques I’d been wanting to try.  And hopefully get some nice shots.

Another weekend, another flight.  This time to Rocky Mountain National Park.  While I was there, I decided to practice as much landscape photography as I could….and a little HDR technique.  Here are some of my favorites.  You can mouse over the pictures to get some details on how each image was created.  I’ve uploaded them as a lightbox gallery so that I could make them larger than usual.

  • Chris F

    Brilliant