A Lost Ball’s Journey

Bonaventure Golf Club, Weston Florida.

When I created "Playing Catch" (The spherical panorama of a baseball park), I was inspired to create a similar piece, but this time based on Golf. 

I learned that to make this kind of image truly meaningful, I needed to find a ball that was genuinely connected to the location. In other words, this ball has to be like it was meant to be.

I made a conscious effort to find this particular ball by jogging around a golf course near my home in the mornings and wandering around another golf course near my wife's workplace in the afternoons. But unfortunately, several weeks passed, and I wasn't lucky enough to find this meaningful ball despite my efforts.

As time passed, I thought this magical moment might never happen. I was frustrated and disappointed but simultaneously hesitant to buy a new ball in any store and give up on my original idea. So I put the project on hold.

A day after I placed the idea on hold, something rolled in front of my car while driving near the golf course. It was a nearly intact golf ball! And even though I initially visualized the ideal ball as an old scratched, dimpled sphere with a vintage look, the ball that rolled towards my way seemed almost new! It was perfect, not by its appearance, but by how it crossed into my path.

Excited by my discovery, I quickly photographed the ball against a blue screen and isolated it to digitally cut it out and overlay it on a new image. I then returned to the golf club with my drone and captured the spherical panorama during the golden hour when the sun was setting.

To many, the final composition may symbolize the golfer's mindset after they send the ball soaring into the sky, and everyone's eyes are focused on it, waiting for its return to the green; to me, it symbolizes how, just when we are about to give up on our dreams, destiny give us a little push, a clue, or, like in this case, a golf ball; to continue pursuing and completing our goals.