No trip to Pebble Beach is complete without a venture along 17 Mile Drive.  My favorite part is driving right through the middle of Cypress Point.  I wish I could say I took this photo while playing there, but it was a still a treat just to be able to pull the car off to the side of the road and take a few shots (with a camera). 

Just down the road is the Monterey Peninsula Country Club's Shore Course, the late Mike Strantz' redesigned masterpiece, which will make its AT&T National Pro-Am debut this year.  The Shore Course is taking the place of Poppy Hills, which is quite an upgrade.  I plan to photograph at this year's U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, but I had really wanted to go to this week's tournament to photograph MPCC in action.  Instead, I'll have to hope that it gets a little bit of airtime on TV, which is probably a longshot.

As the PGA Tour continues up the coast to Pebble Beach, I'll be taking a look back at my photo shoot from the 2006 AT&T National Pro-Am.  I'll start things off with one of my favorite shots from Pebble, a unique perspective of the eighteenth green.

It should be no secret that landscapes are better shot in the early morning or late afternoon, but this image will always stand out as an extreme example of that rule.  Having traveled from Atlanta to Carmel, I never quite adjusted to the west coast time.  So I found myself awake at around 6:30 a.m., that's east coast time, which of course was 3:30 a.m. in California.  So I just sat in the hotel room for a while, watching TV, reading a book, whatever I could do to pass the time.  I drove to the course, and arrived, in complete darkness, eventually waiting in the parking lot until someone could allow me on the grounds.  To say I was the first person out on the course is an understatement.

I ventured down to the eighteenth green, and decided to walk up into one of the luxury boxes along the right side of the fairway...and wait.  What I found was a perfect angle that allowed me to capture a very unique image of one of the most famous (and photographed) holes in the world.  You could only take this shot from atop this temporary perch during tournament week, unless you had access to a cherry picker, which is not very likely at Pebble Beach.  There's a lot I like about this image, but I love the fact that it stands out from all previous images I have seen of this hole.  That's not an easy task, but it's a fun challenge.

I also like the challenge of shooting landscapes during tournaments, as a successful image shot in tournament "conditions" would sort of contradict its current state.  It's difficult to do when the course is so often full of people, bleechers, TV towers, signage and various equipment, and at times I will go ahead and embrace some of those elements to set the scene.  Along the right side of this image, you can see a few ropes that were tying down a TV tower or scoreboard behind the green, providing a tiny clue that there is more going on here than the viewfinder (or the photographer) will allow you to see.

click image to enlarge | ©2010 Ari Flaisher

This was taken in March 2006 at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland.  The entire setting, scenery and course is so dramatic and breathtakingly beautiful; it was difficult to focus on just the golf.  I had dragged my pregnant wife up to play there in advance of my cousin's wedding which was back down in the Republic several hours to the south and west.  In typical UK fashion the weather was chilly with an easy early morning breeze and intermittent fits of misty rain which up on the mountaintops fell as snow.  

I am embarrassed to say that I haven't a clue as to which green I am looking backwards at here.  I know that when I play golf over there my eyes are always feasting on my surroundings.  I think I have just teed off and as I was about to pick up my bag and walk down the fairway, I looked backwards and this view just sort of framed itself in my mind's eye enough to want to snap it.  As you can see the very well worn bench has seen better days but it obviously fits in perfectly with its rugged home and it looks like it has served as the perfect spot to stop and take it all in.

-Ari Flaisher


This week's guest photographer is Ari Flaisher from Rockville, MD.  Ari now makes his home in Ardmore, PA, where he is a stay-at-home Dad and a substitute teacher.  He plays to a handicap of 4 out of Jeffersonville Golf Club, a 1931 Donald Ross muni in suburban Philadelphia.

Ari sent me a few wonderful photos from his travels to Bandon Dunes and Ireland, and this image from Royal County Down really stood out for me.  Until I read Ari's description of the photo, I just assumed this shot was taken from the tee box of a par three, rather than looking backwards towards another hole.  We often get so caught up in the playing of the game that we forget to take a look around.  Looking back almost always offers a unique and valuable perspective, and this photo demonstrates that, perhaps even serving as a metaphor for embracing the game's rich history.

There are a lot of elements I like about this image.  The composition is good, the bench and the red post frame the flagstick nicely and offer intrigue, and the sliver of water, the town and the mountains in the distance provide both depth and curiosity.  What I like most about this photo is that it is "real".  It takes me there in a way that an over-photoshopped magazine ad never could. The main thing I think when looking at this photo is that "I want to be standing there, right now."  Lucky for me, I will be going to Ireland to play and photograph for the first time this summer.  Thanks to Ari, I'm even more fired up.

Please email me if you would like to be considered as a future Guest Photographer, which will be featured each Sunday.  Photographers of all levels are encouraged to submit their images.

Angel Cabrera

I close out Riviera week with this playful Angel Cabrera series.  The thing that keeps photography fresh and fun for me, especially in the digital age, is the seemingly infinite number of possibilities.  Taking the picture is only the beginning, then (like golf) it becomes about making choices, with cropping, toning and presentation having particular importance.

This image is inspired by my newest iPhone app Photo Booth Classic+, which should be self explanatory as far as it's function.  My absolute favorite iPhone app is ShakeItPhoto, which will turn your iPhone into a vintage polaroid camera that produces incredibly artistic images.  I do get a lot of odd looks from strangers because yes, you must actually shake your phone.  View my ShakeIt twitter feed at yfrog.

Other good photography apps for the iPhone are CameraBag, Hipstamatic and Photoshop Mobile.  It's exciting to see just how easy it has become to take good photos with a mobile phone.  It will never replace my real camera gear, but it's a lot of fun and good practice to shoot in such a fleeting manner. 

While we are on the subject, please email me if you would like your golf photography to be considered for the weekly Guest Photographer feature, which will be appear each Sunday.  Geoff Shackelford was the first guest photographer, and I look forward to sharing more images from photographers of all levels.

view more photos from the 2004 Nissan Open at Riviera

Scott McCarron  |  Riviera CC  |  Pacific Palisades, CA  |  Nissan Open  |  2004

I wonder if at some point over the off-season Scott McCarron thought to himself: "What do I need to do to make an impact in 2010?"

view more photos from the 2004 Nissan Open at Riviera

The Sixth  |  Riviera CC  |  Pacific Palisades, CA  |  Nissan Open  |  2004

I do believe this is my first golf landscape photograph.  Looking back now, this one is important to me because it serves as a precursor of things to come, as I would soon become very interested in shooting landscapes.  I always wanted my photographs to be artful, but I was not necessarily on a quest for actual art at Riviera.  I took this picture only to document the "unexpected" characteristic of this hole, which features a bunker in the middle of the green.  What I like about this image is the sense of scale, with the figures in various positions offering a nice perspective from the tee box of this par three.  On the right is Fred Couples and crossing in front of the bunker is Vijay Singh.  I'm going to take a guess and say that Jerry Kelly is the player approaching the left side of the green.

There are so many great holes at Riviera, but I would say that the sixth, tenth and eighteenth are standouts as far as unique and strategic design.  I would think that if a modern course featured a bunker in the middle of a green, the architect could very well face criticism amid claims of goofy design work.  But when you see it as a feature of George Thomas' epic and brilliant design at Riviera, it seems fitting. Golf should offer a variety of demands and conditions, and that is on full display at Riviera, and especially at the sixth.  This hole is also fun, which is why we play the game.

view more photos from the 2004 Nissan Open at Riviera

This photograph is not about Justin Rose, it's about youth.  In my early days of golf photography, the then current crop of "young guns" brought a dynamic sense of style and energy to golf.  There was a  real enthusiasm among the group that included Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Adam Scott, Luke Donald and Aaron Baddeley.  You might even add Sergio Garcia to the list, but he had already pretty much become a superstar.

What I liked most about them at that time was the way they carried themselves in an age and experience appropriate manner, as opposed to the way some rookies hit the Tour now.  Perhaps it might have helped that they were promoted as a group, instead of individually hyped like Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler have been lately.  Of course, Ian Poulter would soon begin to stand out from the group, at least because of his pants.

These original young guns have each earned their share of glory over the last six years, but nothing compares to the glory of a major championship.  I wonder which one will be the first, and will it happen this year?

view more photos from the 2004 Nissan Open at Riviera

Putters  |  Riviera CC  |  Pacific Palisades, CA  |  Nissan Open  |  2004

This photo was inspired by a conversation shortly before my trip to Riviera with my friend and neighbor Gene McClure, a longtime USGA Rules Official and current member of The Executive Committee.  I had asked him about some of the intriguing things he had seen behind the scenes at golf tournaments, an insider's perspective if you will.  He relayed a story about seeing Arnold Palmer sort through a trunk full of brand new clubs at a tournament, and how it was amazing to see all the clubs the pros had at their disposal. 

This was one of the first things I saw upon entering the grounds of Riviera.  It's as if they knew I was coming and had set up this display of putters as a still-life just for me.  The putting green is perched high above the 18th green, so the backdrop creates a dramatic sense of depth.  I was primarily interested in player portraits at that time, so I credit this photo for installing a new curiosity for the peculiar or unexpected image.  I certainly wasn't interested at all in landscapes at that time either, which is why I so badly want to return to Riviera with my camera.  I know there is so much that I failed to see and capture the first time. 

Oh yeah, I'd like to play there too.

view more photos from the 2004 Nissan Open at Riviera

As the PGA Tour rolls into Riviera this week, I'll be taking a look back at my shoot there from the 2004 Nissan Open.  This group of photographs resonates with me probably more than any other, because it was my first tournament shoot.  Before this, I had only taken a camera to one Tuesday morning practice round during the American Express Championship at the Capital City Club in Atlanta in the Fall of 2003.  I only took a few shots of Tiger there, but I can recall picking them up from the camera store a few days later and sitting in amazement as I flipped through the prints in my car.  I could not believe I had taken those photographs, and I became a photographer at that moment. 

The following February I flew from Atlanta to Los Angeles, just to photograph the practice rounds at Riviera.  Of course, I had no credentials at that time, just a desire to try it again.  The following week, I flew from Atlanta to the west coast again on the spur of the moment just to photograph one practice round at the Accenture Match Play at La Costa.  I share this story only to encourage every one to find a way to do what you love, and to keep pushing beyond the logical limit.

I love this photograph because it is doubly iconic, as the iconic Riviera clubhouse hovers just beyond Jesper's iconic flipped-up hat.  (Is there an official name for that hat?)  Jesper was certainly ahead of his time as far aggressive fashion goes on the golf course, yet he pulls it off because of his graceful elegance, as opposed to some of the get-ups we see now that often look more like ridiculous costumes.  Jesper exudes a quiet confidence because he seems to be comfortable in his own skin...and clothes.  And as we know from his comments about Tiger and Elin, he is not afraid to speak his mind either.  Jesper has struggled lately, but he is in the field of this week's Northern Trust Open at Riviera, and I hope he finds some of the old magic soon.

view more photos from the 2004 Nissan Open at Riviera

click image to enlarge | ©2010 Geoff Shackelford

"This is Andres Romero in the final round of the 2009 Northern Trust Open at Riviera. He's driven it too far on the par-4 5th hole. The shot was absolutely impossible and as I recall, he hit an amazing recovery considering the tall kikuyu grass and the potential for real trouble with OB right and no up-and-down chance over the green.  I love the feel of the image for sentimental reasons, as some of my favorite old LA Open images from the late 1920s were taken down at this end of the course. The sycamores have lost their leaves and it's a grey day, which in black and white, provide that classic LA Open look."

-Geoff Shackelford

Today I introduce a new "Guest Photographer" feature.  This website exists to celebrate golf photography as well as the game itself, and I thought it would be fun and interactive to share this forum with others who share the same appreciations.  No matter what level of photographer you may be- from the career professional to the beginner- please email me if you would like your photography to be considered.

The first guest photographer is golf writer and blogger extraordinaire Geoff Shackelford.  With this photo, Geoff shows that he may be just as comfortable behind the camera as he is on a keyboard.  I remember seeing this photo when he posted it a year ago during the Northern Trust Open, and thinking that I would have been proud to have taken it myself.  It's the composition and depth that I like, and I love the feeling here of being in "the arena".  There is a good combination of action and landscape qualities at play here, and the gallery along the left helps to frame the image, and gives a feeling of importance to the moment.  A bit of sky above the treetops is a nice touch, which gives the image a sense of freedom.  I believe Geoff has pretty basic camera equipment, which only proves that a good eye and knowledge of the game are just as important as expensive equipment and the latest technology.  And if you know anything about Geoff, then you know his thoughts about technology's effect on golf.  (He doesn't like it!)

Geoff will be out at Riviera this week covering the Northern Trust Open, so be sure to visit his blog at geoffshackelford.com often throughout the week.  (Read his Golf World feature on the tournament's new executive director Jerry West here.)  Geoff's blog is daily reading for me, and this week I'll look forward to seeing his photos as well. 

Riviera was my first tournament shoot, back in 2004, and in essence, I became a golf photographer on its grounds.  Riviera will always be a special place to me for that reason, and the fact that it's one of my favorite venues on the PGA Tour.  I really wanted to return this year, but my schedule will keep me here in Atlanta instead.  I will be featuring images from that 2004 shoot in The Photo Of The Day this week, so I hope you'll return from time to time and take a look.