Serving winning tennis shots

• A digital SLR
• A telephoto zoom lens (70-200mm is a good range)

Sit as close to courtside as you can without interfering play. Start by photographing the serve. The two most interesting parts of the serve are the toss, which show the athlete poised to strike, and the smash, where the server makes contact with the ball. Observe the server a few times to get the timing, so when you shoot, you will get what you want. The smash happens fast!

Overhead smash: While it’s better to have courtside seats, sometimes the pure graphical form of a tennis court is worth emphasizing, as Mark Kolbe did from a most unusual, hard-to--get-to perch.