Brogborough Yet Again – Stronger Winds Than Were Forecast

I had hoped that Sunday would bring some wind, and I was not disappointed, but whereas I seemed just a fair amount here at Marston Moretaine, when I reached the lake at Brogborough it was blowing heartily and had attracted the energetic sailors, those that would jump at such an opportunity to give their skills a workout. They would be using their store of energy to generate plenty of body heat, such that they would not feel the chill, and to be fair, it was a warmer wind than of late, but keeping oneself concentrating on what I am tracking through the viewfinder, whilst being constantly battered by the wind, the chill effect soon becomes apparent. I am not compensating with much input of energy, just concentration, so really should have worn more, and this I failed to do.

I have been wanting to shoot from a lower viewpoint to emphasise the height of any jump sequences I might capture, so initially I went as close to the water’s edge as I could, but I then met with another problem and that was that my heaviest and therefore most stable tripod was not allowing me to get my eye to the right height for the camera and every third wave soaked me, so I had to move back to higher, level ground and stand rather than sit. During this transition I therefore missed some of the action.

Once re-sited, I then began to spot which characters were going to provide me with action, and I concentrated on following them trying to anticipate when they might take to the air. I learned later that the conditions that prevailed this day did not provide a great deal of height to the jumps. I also tried to back up the action with shots that covered the entry and exit of the water and therefore telling a fuller story.

Foolishly, I decided to break off and grab a cup of tea when the numbers on the water dropped, but I was not able to continue as before, because I had been unable to warm up sufficiently and so soon curtailed my shooting after a very short time, but I was very happy in the main with what I had captured and I knew the more I took the longer would be my time spent in front of a computer screen, so it was not too difficult a decision to pack up and retire to the warmth of my office! I do long for the joy of the sun along with the wind.