Brogborough Lake – Boxing Day 2015

Many moons ago in what sometimes seem like another life, Boxing day was Day when Brands Hatch used to celebrate a very relaxed afternoon of motorsport, with often various humorous added attractions and all of us Marshal's used to be delivered of a Tot of Rum. Well, with a fairly stiff breeze and in the morning a fair amount of sunshine, I wondered whether the spirit of those days might prevail at Brogborough lake, with many turning up to work off the excesses of Christmas Day. I cannot be sure that was the motivation, but certainly there were several enthusiasts determined to take advantage of the conditions.

I was pleased me guess was basically correct, the atmosphere was relaxed, and despite there being no refreshments available, and sadly for the participants no showers, there was energy in abundance and I set to putting up my heavier tripod. After taking a few shots from this angle one of the sailors suggested I might like to take advantage of the wind direction to venture into the thicket and take shots of those jumping head-on, despite the direction of the sun – although the sun would not oblige by moving swiftly behind my right shoulder, it did take cover behind the clouds so that the lighting was far more favourable than directly into the lens.

This I did and I found the clearest spot I could, but it was far too slippery to consider making my way down to the foreshore – that is going to be a luxury of far drier weather, before I can take advantage of a low angle. For now, some shots were going to have the horizon bisecting the top of the sails in may shots. One lingering disappointment when shooting from this viewpoint is I see no faces, so the shots seem anonymous which is a shame.

Christmas is still the season of jumpers – fortunately! I did not expect to be shooting windsurfers in December, let alone on Boxing Day. It was also far warmer than any Boxing day at Brands Hatch, and that covered thirty-odd years.

Aylesbury Dignitaries Grace St. Mary's Carol Concert

The Aylesbury Concert Band played before the Mayor and other Council Member's at the Annual Carol Concert at St.Mary's Church in the centre of Aylesbury Town. My daughter who plays a Baritone Saxophone in the Band needed transporting there, so I arrived as the rest of the Band were setting up, and on this occasion I was playing a very low profile with regards the taking of photographs by only taking a handful of shots during the preparations and main performance and in the more relaxed and informal period at the end whilst the assembled dignitaries handed out mince pies and mulled wine. The lighting was in the region I tend to describe as 'Unavailable Light Photography' – to be truthful with modern technology it might more truthfully be described as 'Barely Available' and I found myself shooting at 12,800 ISO at often full aperture. In my defence, I have not applied any noise reduction to these shots and would definitely need to do so were any needed for print reproduction at more meaningful sizes than in the gallery, and some might not pass muster even then.

The music and the singing was thoroughly enjoyable and the church was packed to capacity actually requiring more seating to be found, and I could still see a few standing. By not using flash and using a long lens I felt I was being very restrained and this allowed me to retain the atmosphere even though this resulted in several either blurred or unsharp images that never made it into the final gallery.

This was my second Carol Service of the weekend the first having been at Fairford Leys where I was also treated to hearing an intimate Saxophone Quartet playing giving my tapping feet an airing!

Brogborough - Seriously High December Wind!

I only had a couple of hours at the most to get my fix of Windsurfing activity at the lake at Brogborough as in the afternoon I was due in Fairford Leys to enjoy hearing and watching my daughter playing Sax with the Aylesbury Community Band at a Carol Concert. On this occasion I would not be carrying a camera to the event, so needed this fix!

I wrapped up warm and setup my heavy tripod to give me some sort of stability, to have considered the carbon fibre one would have been lunacy, if I had a quick release mechanism for it I would have been best served by bringing along my Gitzo! In the future I think I will give it serous consideration in such blustery conditions; I must look into the possibility.

I found myself holding as tightly onto the camera to keep the tripod firm as contemplating  simply keeping light pressure on the shutter release whilst shooting. A tripod is supposed to be stable, well not this particular day! I was rewarded by some seriously skilled people braving the conditions to enjoy their sport and giving me some shots of which I was proud; there were several sequences where I came close to anticipating the start of the manoeuvres, but aligning the shots I would definitely be relying in sorting after the event in post processing as I might just as well have been in a bobbing dinghy as being on sloping dry land in that wind!

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and stayed only long enough to survive a very stiff neck and my painful and weak back which went just a few days before. I left the shots in chronological order and so some sequences will span some galleries I am afraid, but I had no more time.