The official line

A second visit to the Wimbledon qualifying event confirmed my growing realisation that sports photography is really hard. Action shots are so challenging to get and catching that little fuzzy yellow thing in the frame is damn near impossible. My lack of confidence in taking people pictures probably doesn't help either. These are all just excuses though and I must try harder in future because beneath all the frustration I do rather enjoy it.

This shot is similar to one of my extras from yesterday but I'd thought it through a little more overnight. In a tennis event like this the players are only a tiny minority of the people involved on court - love 'em or loathe 'em there are far more umpires and line judges around (not to mention ball boys and girls but nobody loathes them). In hindsight I should have taken a bit more time in framing the shot, particularly the focal point, but hey there's always next year!

Today's extra action shot features Eri Hozumi of Japan. I've included her if for no other reason than she seemed to play with a bit of a smile on her face which made her something of a rarity. Sadly she lost in straight sets to Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan.

Today's extra inaction shot was taken literally moments before I was about to post my tennis pictures. It's typical really, you spend hours trying to take photos and still more hours hunched over the computer trying to select and edit a blip when all you really need to do is stay at home and look out of the window in the evening! I don't know whether this means foxy romance is in the air - in a way I hope not because I recall the truly awful noise they make when they get down to the deed!