BrogLake Windsurfers Return

          Brogborough Lake has lacked the life of past seasons due to the Corona Virus situation, so to visit in sunshine and wind, was an opportunity not to be missed. As I approached the lake’s Windsurfers Car Park, I did wonder whether it was even open, however, as I turned right in the entrance, I was relieved to find there was a fair number of cars, and numerous people; some already in their wetsuits and, as I parked up by the trees ahead of me, I caught a quick glimpse of one sailor on the Lake!

          I had worried unnecessarily. I felt as relaxed as all those who were chatting in small groups by many of the cars. Instead of hastily getting my camera ready, I locked the car and headed for the water’s edge to see just how much activity was on the water — less than five I surmised, so now I did return and remove the soft cover of the camera, and turned the dial from its high ISO set from l the grassy area, and then went down to the water’s edge to be as low as possible to make the sails look taller in the next shots I envisaged taking.

           Right on cue, one Surfer headed straight towards me and was so close I clipped the very top of his mast. That was so keen for someone to head for me, he just had to make the Headline picture! In my haste to try to make up for my recent issues with getting these images up in good time, I seem eminently capable of making other mistakes as well. I spotted one too late to resolve, please forgive me.

Sunshine and a Fair Wind – Brogborough New Year’s Eve

 

I was hoping from the wind that swirled here at Marston Moretaine that conditions would be good at Brogborough Lake, and certainly there were signs of activity, but the wind was less strong here than I had hoped, but I entertained the idea that some of those present would exercise a few jumps for me.

In the distance someone obliged, but had I blinked I would have missed it, and despite staying beyond last time’s hour and a half, I mainly captured a series of high-speed turns, but unlike the jumpers, the sailors performed in too close for  the shortest end of my telephoto range, so invariably I was left losing half the sail and less of the trailing spume created by the manoeuvre. I was seeing faces however which from my different, front-on position of last time I was getting a good view of the boards’ undersides, but no clue to the anonymous sailor!

It is all grist to the mill, and post-processing sunshine shots is easier, but the sheer volume means I leave everything chronological rather than organise the gallery pages relative to the content, but that may well break the continuity of a sequence. I also have to improve the level and stability of my tripod to limit the amount of time straightening the horizon.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge but need to ensure I always wear a scarf as my neck stiffened with the constant battering from behind as I bent over the camera.

A colleague of mine, Adam Woolfitt sent me an image of a kite surfer he had captured with St. Michael’s Mount as a backdrop and a shoreline of breaking waves, and it does make a difference!

Brogborough Lake – Short Early Saturday Visit

Saturday early, around nine till eleven was forecast to be sunny with occasional gusts of wind, so since this was about the only bright news on the weather front for several days, I decided the night before that I would take a short cycle ride to Brogborough Lake to take a few photographs of any windsurfing activity.

Here in Marston Moretaine, it seemed little more than a light breeze, but as I cycled along the Woburn Road towards the Liddlington turn-off, it was a bit brisker, had taken and worn for the outward trip, my pullover – it would double as a cushion if wrapped in my groundsheet. I have yet to get the ideal means of transporting my tripod, Gimbal Head and Camera and long lens, so I do look somewhat encumbered and certainly a bit top heavy, but with a couple of bungee straps, it is manageable.

On arrival no one was on the lake, but the area was thronged with people getting prepared and groups chatting, so I laid down my bike and started getting myself ready; the first action being to divest myself of the pullover since my short burst of exercise had warmed me sufficiently.

I learned that the first flurry of activity was likely to be youngsters, and that adults were likely an hour or so away, and that proved correct. New to me probably for the very reason of safety for novices and the young a boat was being launched with Barry Rivett and a young helper, so I joined in to help them put it in the water. Soon after I was taking shots of parents taking their child out on the lake with much gentle encouragement. The dinghy looked good in the sunshine, so that also featured in the shots as well. My time was limited as my next door neighbour was due to be moving in, and I had offered my help should it be needed.

Today was never going to be a day to capture exciting and energetic activity on the lake, but at least there were a few more experienced surfers out during my short stay, it was simply a chance to keep my eye in and record some of the activity in reasonable lighting conditions.

Another Lucky Day at Brogborough!

I had observed that despite the weather forecasters’ reports of total gloom, the afternoons of late had often brought sporadic sunshine. So it was, that once again, I took a chance and headed for the lake at Brogborough as the other item in the weather bulletin was wind, and I had already noted that in that, they were correct.

When I arrived, there were already a fair number of people setting their boards up, and there was a steady trickle of new arrivals as I got my tripod and gimbal head set up. Looking heavenward, I could already see the glimmerings of a sun behind thinning clouds. These slowly developed into distinct gaps in overall cloud cover and although I started shooting in meagre light, for the rest of the time, the sun appeared and then was swapped for dark clouds , giving me a fair chance of a bit of sparkle to the surfers’ bow waves.

I set up a position where I had at least a chance of sunlight illuminating my subjects and for the first half of my time lakeside there was a steady stream of surfers taking to the water, but not much jumping taking place, but later the situation improved, but they were often in the distance and mostly I was behind them, but every so often I was treated to frontal shots, but several took place when I was following a different person and caught only the tail end of the action. My lack of knowledge as to when someone might attempt to jump did not help my overall statistics, but I was not bereft of luck.

Definitely using the gimbal head this time and with the 150-600mm Tamron lens on the 5D MkIII was a good move, but using the tripod on a slippery slope did have its drawbacks and the wind was doing its best to ensure I had to reset the level of the tripod fairly often.

I was reasonably satisfied with the outcome, but I did still have to rely on cropping in post processing to get a reasonable size of many of the more interesting pictures as much happened in the far distance, making some of the shots look as if the participants were actually running out of space and heading directly for the far shore, such was the foreshortening effect of the long lens and crop combined!