Brogborough Blessed with Sunday Wind

After a somewhat dull and almost windless Day on the Saturday, Sunday brought cheer to Brogborough Lake and anticipatory smiles to numerous windsurfers. This being November did however mean that the hardy sailors were well covered meaning that when I was lucky to have them heading towards me I was greeted by a balaclava clad face making facial recognition tough.

I set myself up beyond the boundary of the Windsurfers’ club area and trudged my heavy Benbo tripod a fair distance along the foreshore and was atop a steep bank. Had it been dry for a while, I might have been tested to climb down to have low viewpoint, but it had been wet for a few days, so I was not about to risk myself or the Benbo with Canon EOS 7D MkII camera and valuable Sigma 150-600mm long lens, so I was exposed to the wind, and obviously very conspicuous to my subject sailors, and that soon became obvious as several headed straight for me, the long lens and heavy tripod obviously a magnet!.

Today was a day when I arrived fairly early as I was not going to be staying around too long as I was due to be over to my daughter’s house to pick her up to go to the Aylesbury Mayor’s Concert in celebration of the Centenary of the Cessation of Hostilities in the First World War. This also the reason this gallery is much delayed as I decided that event and its images was a higher priority.

I hope the wait is worthwhile; certainly I enjoyed the favourable bright sun and wind and considering how short my stay was, there is a good number of shots in the gallery that I am finally putting up on the blog. I have spent a considerable amount of time stuck in front of the computer, and have a stiff neck for my troubles. To be completely honest though there is also another reason for the delay, and that is that I stayed up late one evening to watch the recording of the penultimate Grand Prix of the 2018 season to watch Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton settle the team Prize for the Year.

Motor Racing being a sport of major interest for me having been an Assistant Chief Pit Marshal for some thirty years for the BRSCC. A further reminder of that career for me was when I learned of the recent death of the Racing Driver, David Morgan. It was quite some time ago, when Crystal Palace was a regular venue for Motor racing and the two Assistant Chief Pit Marshals, Peter Melville and myself on the very last lap of a Formula 3 Trophy Final, had to jump over the barriers to part the two drivers, David Morgan and James Hunt from a fight that had ensued whilst the other cars were still racing past! The crash itself was not covered by the BBC, but the scene was carried in print, and in the next week’s BRSCC News magazine!

Excuse the digression, but I still maintain my interest as I am fortunate that when I was Sales Manager of a London Colour lab we used to do retouching for Charles Settrington, now Lord Richmond and due to him asking our Retouchers regarding Colour Management, they recommended he contact me, and it was fortunate only the day before he had been in the audience when I had been speaking at TUC Congress Hall, so he got in touch, and subsequently I went down to Goodwood House to help and stayed the night, so he could have my help from the following morning! As a result of this friendship and work connection I have been lucky enough to be invited to the circuit ever since.

Back to the matter in hand, do enjoy the gallery of Sunday’s pictures, sorry for the delay.

Sunshine on the First of September

Initially, I checked on whether there was any wind on the Lake at Brogborough – there wasn’t, so on I travelled towards Newton Blossomville, and the nearby river, in case there was a spot conducive to finding the likely environs for kingfishers; upon investigation, that seemed unlikely, but where I had parked my car, I had noticed a digger at work, and after taking a few landscape shots of the river, I was sufficiently intrigued as to what might be happening, so I took just my 24-70mm on the 5D MkIII and walked to where the man and his digger were pulling away the bushes at the top edge of the field.

I surmised he might be trying to increase the area to be cultivated, but I was wrong. I had noticed wire fencing to keep rabbits out, and I learned that the work was to cut down on their habitat, as they were causing havoc, and this work was to clear the overgrown hedgerows to a degree to protect the farmers’ crops. As I approached the digger, the driver stopped work, and I learned he remembered me from an earlier trip to this area when they had been working in the fields with a large Claas Combine Harvester. We chatted awhile, and not having a card I wrote the blog address down for him, so that he could see those shots he remembered me taking.

On returning to my car I realised I actually had a print there so, rather than walk back, I drove closer to where he was working and showed him the shot I had taken, and he said he had seen it as when I left to go the car, he had looked on his phone and found them! He was more impressed when he saw the A4 print of the headline picture!

He was not able to give me any hints as to where I might find some kingfishers, but mentioned he had been fishing one time when on landed on his rod to keep his eye on any likely meals. I returned to the car and continued to Harrold-Odell Park where I did manage to get some shots of a couple of herons, one in-flight as he reacted to my presence.

I walked all around the lake after meeting a family lakeside, and the father began chatting, as he owned a Canon 5D, and he suggested I walk along the river as he felt it was far more appealing. On this occasion I found there was very little activity on the river compared to admittedly a larger though fairly mundane bird population on the lakes. That said I did see the two herons, and a grebe amongst the numerous swans.

The walk certainly exercised me, as I now do ache somewhat as I was not using my lightest tripod, and the Sigma 150-600mm Sports lens can never be described as lightweight, and I still also had the 5D MkIII with the 24-70mm slung around my neck!

Bamville Cricket Club, Harpenden visited by Ivanhoe CC

A week back I had hoped I would be able to get down to visit Bamville Cricket Club for the first time this season, but it did not happen, so despite being somewhat tied up with tech-editing the first few chapters of Martin Evening’s next in the series of ‘Photoshop for Photographers’ books, I cleared what I could and headed down the M1 to Harpenden. I met more traffic than anticipated, obviously due to the attraction of bright weather, so the match had started without me! Hardly a surprise!

I gathered my kit, in this instance the 150-600mm Tamron on the 7D MkII and popped the Lensmaster Gimbal head on the Silk Road Giottos carbon fibre tripod, crossed the road and sat down just outside the closest boundary. I chose a low viewpoint and splayed the tripod legs so that when seated the camera eyepiece was at my level, and started shooting.

I soon found that was not good for my back and headed past the white screens and for a short while possibly a couple of overs I kept the low viewpoint, but eventually common sense prevailed and I accepted the higher level, an Ivanhoe player came by and I was able to learn that the Visitors  side were batting.  A short while later a Bamville gentleman came over to ask me whether I took sugar in tea, which was exceedingly generous; a sweetened cuppa followed a few moments later.

I soon had an instance of stumps akimbo and bails in the air, and was able to feel Peter Carr would be pleased rather than dismayed by this.

In the end I had captured two such instances which is always rewarding; I missed another because the batsman concerned was stood precisely in front of the stumps hiding the denouement entirely!

I came into the pavilion when the team had their break and had to let Peter know, I would also be leaving before the end of the match, but I was still reward by something to eat as well as the earlier tea, so I thanked him for his hospitality, I hope the team are happy with what I did manage to capture.

November Windsurfers at Brogborough

Sometimes I get time to play, so here is another jump, in black and white:

Saturday morning brought rain and wind, but I had learned that it was due to dry up later, but I welcomed the wind as it held the promise of there being windsurfers on the lake at Brogborough, and I was hoping I might be free enough to go down there, but this time by car, not bike!

The rain took a while to stop and the wind remained unabated, but the sky brightened so I gathered camera and lenses and loaded them aboard my car, and was soon on my way more in hope than certainty; it was quite a relief to see a fairly full car park at Brogborough Lake. I did not delay, but immediately brought out the tripod and set the 7D MkII and 100-400mm onto the Acrotech head and made my way to the lakeside. I was surprised by just how waterlogged the grass was; much more so than the I had experienced just two miles distant – there were even large puddles of water in the grass.

Initially I set up right by the water’s edge, but after shooting from there I soon found my feet slithering in the mud as I swivelled to follow the windsurfers, and retreated to more level ground a bit further back, I little realised that I would be moving many more times as each spot became a morass of slippery mud due to my frequently moving my feet.

Shortly for a while the sun broke through the cloud cover, but at first this was short-lived as it began to spit with rain. Fortunately it did not last too long and the sun returned  giving some good lighting for a spell. I was blessed with a few taking advantage of the gusty wind to jump, but I did not manage to capture every instance as there were too many people to cover and in every direction, but despite my lack of knowledge as to when any one person might choose to leap, I did capture  a few sequences.

It was such a wonderful opportunity as for several weeks there has been very little signs of wind except when it was tipping it down and was very dull, there had bee n sunshine but on days when there was not a breath of wind. I hope that what I have captured meets with approval from those who did do some jumping.

Winter Sun at Wilstone

http://www.fntn.co.uk/rodwp/WilstoneWinterBirdlife

Getting up very early on Sunday was never going to be an option as the evening before had been spent over near Aylesbury to allow my daughter and her husband to celebrate the anniversary of their first meeting, and with their two Duracell-powered children, they rarely get peaceful time together alone, hence my going over to provide cover such that they could relax in a more peaceful atmosphere at a local restaurant. They need never have worried as there was only one very minor whimper from my granddaughter, but presumably it was in her sleep, because it faded before I had even reached the bottom of the stairs, and never recurred.

I decided that with such bright sunlight beckoning, I would visit the reservoir at Wilstone once again. The journey over was measured at a constant 1˚C as it had been for most of the preceding week, so no surprise there, but on arrival, the temperature must have risen as I clomped through thick, glutinous mud to reach the banks of the lake. It is at times like this that I do begin to wish for the more solid underfoot experience of the recent frosts.

I had come with a monopod on this occasion to keep the weight down and due to the risks of slipping and falling did not attach the camera and lens till I had arrived at the water’s edge – the water level was much higher than my last visit which was bad news for wading birds, but good for the reed beds. At the nearest corner there was still ice at the edge of the reeds. It was here that I took advantage of the metal covers over presumably sluices, to get the camera onto the monopod and balance the lens using the slider on the quick-release plate. I waited awhile here to see whether anything stirred amongst the reeds, but soon started gingerly along the narrow stone edging to keep out of the mud as much as possible. I took up a position just after the first bush in case the wagtails were around, but they kept their distance.

I came alongside an angler where a few Grebe were, and soon found myself in conversation and learned he generally found he had better luck close to where the Grebe frequented. Occasionally I greeted other photographers as they came past and some were happy to chat as I waited to spot the grey wagtail that had appeared. After awhile I moved further along the edge and soon was lucky enough to spot a lone Teal with its partner, this was my first chance to see Teal close-to.

I spent quite a deal of time trying to capture the diving of a particularly busy Pochard and I had an almost 99% failure rate because it moved so fast and I was unable to spot any precursor movement; it was even harder to capture the Grebe diving, as it slid under rather than leapt as the Pochard was wont to do, so I have numerous shots to simply bin when it comes to the processing!

Altogether though I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours once again taking photos with the 150-600mm and the EOS 7D MkII, but in future I will try to manhandle a tripod rather than the monopod in the future.