Katharina Hobgarski |
Katharina Hobgarski | Somewhere under way I started this attempt with blurring and adding layers in order to increase energy and intimacy of the pics. So I have to apply that to the images published prior to that…
Today I started my second run-through. The first selection of 322 images made me wish that I’d had taken more photos depicting the whole scenery. But in these years of shooting my ambition mainly was to come close to the players in order to show the intensity of focus, motion, reaction and emotion. So the following photos will show more of those close-ups. My idea is to give tags to each photo and make these categories available on separate pages and via the respective search term. I start with it today and hope to come up with the re-tagging for the initial 322 pics soon. You’ll find them at the bottom of each post.
…So, now I am finished with all the old photos. As you might have realized I skipped many many pics. I left them in the database in order for everybody to be able to find ‘their’ images via the search function. Some of them I will take on later by re-thinking things like frame and other things. Also I probably will be much more radical with the manipulation. I have nothing to lose and for me the arts aspect has clear priority nowadays. But first I will re-think and if necessary re-do all the twothousandsomething previous pics…
…it’s more about photography and allegory here than about individual players. Given that I only have attentive and smart visitors everybody will know that by now. Yet still one cannot explain enough…
First published on: Jun 17, 2025 at 09:24 as ‘n:ew pic #1673’
It happens to be that photos tagged with ITF partially are from German Bundesliga, which is another even smaller category. For me it’s ok here to distinguish between the bigger WTA and the inferior ITF stage, whether it’s all correct or not.
ChatGPT
—–
I found out that one can upload pictures to ChatGPT and ask it to describe them. Obviously one can influence the way of that by the prompt. I chose to keep it quite open just asking it to decribe it ‘lyrically, like a poem, in English and in German’. Some of the words come stunningly near to what my intentions are with this project. Other parts are just so so. Hope it’s as much fun to read for everyone as it is for me. I decided not to change one single syllable of what the AI is coming up with here. Given the restrictions for non-paying users I only can do three images at a time and then have to wait for some ten hours before I can upload the next. At the moment it doesn’t make sense to me to upgrade to the required 20-bucks-per-month Plus-Version. For now I chose to be patient and do what I can with the restrictions.
Since the verbose longer poems started to resemble each other a little bit too much I decided to try the form of Japanese Haiku.
Then I told ChatGPT to make a sonnet, which also is a compact form with strict rules..
—due to the restrictions of the free ChatGPT-plan I use and given the increased effort of putting everything together
I decided to slow down the pace from three to two posts per day, one at noon and one ’round midnight.
—–
In Praise Of Shadows
© Christian Brockmeier | all rights reserved
Poem
The ball appears
for less than a second.
A white blur crossing darkness,
a signal the body reads
before thought can arrive.
Hands open.
Eyes lock.
Everything unnecessary falls away.
The crowd, the clock,
the noise beyond the court—
gone.
There is only this moment
of calculation and instinct,
a conversation between motion
and attention,
played at a speed
language cannot keep.
Haiku
White ball in the dark
Reflex moves before thinking
Time narrows to now
Sonnet
The ball emerges from a field of shade,
A fleeting mark against the waiting night;
Before the mind can name the choice displayed,
The body moves already toward its flight.
The hand extends, the vision holds its line,
While countless hours gather in one act;
No room remains for doubt or grand design,
Only response—immediate, exact.
Around the court the world begins to fade,
Its distant voices sinking out of reach;
The present forms a sharply focused blade,
More eloquent than any words could teach.
And in that instant, brief yet deeply clear,
The athlete finds the only moment here.
Gedicht
Der Ball erscheint
für weniger als eine Sekunde.
Ein weißer Schatten in der Dunkelheit,
ein Signal, das der Körper versteht,
noch bevor ein Gedanke entsteht.
Die Hände öffnen sich.
Der Blick hält fest.
Alles Unnötige verschwindet.
Das Publikum, die Uhr,
das Geräusch außerhalb des Platzes—
fort.
Es gibt nur diesen Augenblick
aus Berechnung und Instinkt,
ein Gespräch zwischen Bewegung
und Aufmerksamkeit,
geführt in einer Geschwindigkeit,
für die Sprache zu langsam ist.
Haiku
Weißer Ball im Schwarz
Der Reflex denkt schneller als
Nur das Jetzt bleibt hier
Sonett
Der Ball erscheint im dunklen Raum der Zeit,
Ein heller Punkt, der durch die Schatten zieht;
Noch ehe Denken seine Antwort leiht,
Folgt schon die Hand dem Weg, den niemand sieht.
Der Blick hält fest, was kaum zu greifen scheint,
Der Körper kennt die Lösung längst allein;
Was jahrelanges Üben tief vereint,
Verdichtet sich zu diesem Augenblick im Sein.
Der Lärm der Welt verliert sich Stück für Stück,
Die Stimmen werden fern und ohne Gewicht;
Der Fokus zieht sich auf den Punkt zurück,
An dem Bewegung mit der Klarheit spricht.
So bleibt ein kurzer, fast verlorner Raum,
Und wird für einen Herzschlag Wirklichkeit und Traum.