Basketball participant Landry Shamet takes his photographs as a photographer working on the US Open

NEW YORK (AP) — Like most basketball gamers, Landry Shamet has been busy taking photographs.

This weekend, they had been with a digital camera. He labored as a photographer at the U.S. Open.

The guard who spent final season with the New York Knicks had a job with the U.S. Tennis Association and was in Arthur Ashe Stadium snapping footage in the course of the ladies’s and males’s closing matches.

An NBA participant since 2018, Shamet stated images began out as a pastime about 4 years in the past. Eventually he beginning assembly professionals, gaining extra expertise and his ardour grew from there.

“And somehow I’m here at the U.S. Open,” he stated Sunday earlier than taking his place within the picture pit earlier than Carlos Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner.

It was Shamet’s second yr with an unpaid place with the USTA. In 2024, he was on the grounds in the course of the first week of the event. This time, he carried out effectively sufficient that he was requested to come back on the ultimate weekend.

USTA photographer Jen Pottheiser watched Shamet place himself for photographs of Aryna Sabalenka in the course of the trophy presentation after the ladies’s closing and figured his 6-foot-4 peak would assist get him one thing others won’t.

“But that aside, his action photos are really tremendous,” Pottheiser stated. “He really is a student of photography here. He’s asking amazing questions. He’s frankly a great teammate. I’m sure any New Yorker knows that.”

Shamet makes use of his personal digital camera gear, which he at first by no means imagined proudly owning. Even although he loved taking pictures, he simply used his cellphone.

“My friend was like, ‘You should get a camera,’” Shamet stated. “I’m like, ‘I’m not going to use a camera. Who has cameras anymore? You just use your phone. Who needs a camera?’”

But as soon as he bought one, he loved taking it on highway journeys or simply utilizing it across the streets at dwelling. Eventually, like fellow athletes corresponding to baseball of Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson, and soccer’s Marshawn Lynch, he bought ok to get near the motion at sporting occasions.

He’s now extra of a tennis fan after being across the gamers and studying their tales. When he first got here to the U.S. Open a number of years in the past as a fan, Shamet solely knew the largest names, corresponding to Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

It was additionally simpler to stroll round again then. Shamet stated he’s been acknowledged and stopped by fairly a number of followers this yr after enjoying on the primary Knicks workforce to achieve the Eastern Conference finals since 2000.

He’s been in New York and figuring out, hoping for a return to the Knicks. But wherever he finally ends up and each time he finishes enjoying, he is aware of images might be there.

“I think since I picked the camera up I don’t really foresee a day where I put it down,” Shamet stated. “Even when we go on the road I always have a camera with me, just to have. So whether it’s just like as a hobby, walking around, shooting stuff that I like to maybe print out and put on the wall in my house or doing things like this, it’ll always be there.”

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