Meet the pictures group that brings the US Open to life

It’s the photographs snapped mid-match that deliver the US Open to life for thousands and thousands around the globe.

“For 49 weeks a year, I am a commercial photographer and just a regular old human,” mentioned Jen Pottheiser.

But for these three weeks, Pottheiser leads the US Open picture group.

“When we started, there were just a couple of us in a back room in the indoor building. There was no roof on Ashe,” she mentioned.

A decade later, her group has as many as 40 photographers, editors and engineers engaged on any given day of the event.

“We’re here from first ball up to last ball down,” Pottheiser mentioned.

Photographers are scattered at their respective matches, snapping images and sending them again in actual time to a room the place editors work to get them out as quickly as potential.

“One photo winds up going to Getty Images, to player social channels, to US Open internally to use on the website,” defined Reid Kelley, a group engineer.

During a typical match, about 2,500 images are taken. Of these, about 75 get pushed out.

“Over the course of the tournament, it will be approaching 3 million photos. It’s a lot of photos,” Kelley mentioned.

“It’s really a pretty cool thing because, for most of us in the industry, we spend our lives working independently,” Pottheiser mentioned. “And for three weeks we’re a team.”

One of her teammates is Darren Carroll, who mentioned he loves working alongside the motion.

“You can’t just get the same shot of somebody hitting a forehand 20 times,” he mentioned. “It has to be from a different angle; it has to be forehands, backhands, serves, overheads, volleys.”

Carroll mentioned his job is not all that completely different from that of the athletes he covers. The similar manner a tennis participant has to place themselves in anticipation of the subsequent shot, Carroll has to do the identical for his subsequent shot.

“Basically how you’re going to move around and strategize within the context of the game and changeovers and things like that, so there’s a whole lot of thought that goes into making sure you get what you need,” he mentioned.

He mentioned it is not luck, however moderately making your personal luck — a talent that allowed him to snap his favourite image in his 15 years working the Open.

“There’s a picture of Coco that’s my absolute favorite of her running down a shot backwards, she hit it over her head and I just happened to be in one of the dugouts at the end of the court and she ran right at me,” mentioned Carroll.

For Pottheiser, it is not the motion she loves.

“I love the storytelling, the quiet moments away from all the madness. I got Novak walking off the court the other night, walking down the player tunnel — who knows if that’s going to be his last moment. Roger for his ring ceremony,” she mentioned.

“There’s something really humbling and exciting about being tasked to do your job when you are around the best people in the world at what they do, and that raises your game and raises the bar,” Pottheiser added.