Late January – Brogborough Sun & Wind

          Finally a weekend comes along with wind and sunshine at the lake at Brogborough, and hardy Windsurfers can make the most of what late January has on offer. The really keen ones were on the water by the time I arrived at just after eleven.

          I set up the heavy Gitzo tripod, with the 7D MkII and the Sigma 150-600mm Lens on the gimbal head to the left of the foreshore, so that I was in a position to make the most of any sun that might appear as forecast. What I had not foreseen was just how waterlogged it was, so I changed my shoes for boots with some tread on them! Later I even moved the tripod because as I followed the action I was making a lot of mud from my constant changes of position, when panning. 

          I was not expecting exciting jumping, but was pleasantly surprised by capturing a couple of the sailors lift off from the water. Sam’s dog provided me with rolling activity presumably to have a good scratch! In order not to delay any more from getting the gallery of images up on the blog I will keep my narrative to a minimum as tomorrow is an important day when I pay a visit to Moorfields at Bedford for my initial visit to sort the cataract in my right eye. 

          There are a lot of gallery pages, hopefully covering everyone who was out on the lake, so for those in a hurry I have put a few headliners to whet the appetite.

Doris Blows in at Brogborough

Waking to warnings of high winds, meant that after a long wait for winds of sufficient strength to encourage Windsurfers to make or find the time to leave work on a Thursday, at last that day was here. I phoned Sam to check whether he had heard from any sailors, and learned three were scheduled — that was promising! I checked when they might arrive and gathered early afternoon, so I let him know I might see him later — that was hardly the full truth, I had made up my mind to definitely make it!

I then assembled the camera and lenses I planned to take along, but put the 70-200mm on the 5D MkIII and the 150-600mm was already on the 7D MkII, taking along a 300mm and a couple of other primes to cover the distances that I might need to cover, but as it turned out my first choice proved to be those I used — the 7D on the Gitzo tripod, and the 5D MkIII slung around my neck, for handheld closer shots.

The wind at home was fairly blustery, and fairly strong, but later on the road to Brogborough Lake it was considerably stronger, I presume to it being less built-up than within Marston Moretaine. When I met up with Sam, he reckoned it was the worst he had ever seen it, and he was not exaggerating! I drove over and on arrival opened the boot to assemble the tripod and gimbal head, and Doris blew the boot lid down on me!

I spotted Sam and he told me three were getting knitted up and one was already on the water, so picked up the gear and headed towards the bank, but since the wind was directly on the shore and the larger breakers were sending the slime inland, I put the tripod down a fair way back! It was not long before there were generally at least two out on the lake, and for a change I operated on the basis of shooting as often as I could because with the best will in the world shooting was very hit and miss, because I had to keep one shoulder against the tripod as the wind threatened to blow it over. Also, I had to keep resetting the levelling head as one or more tripod legs dug into the muddy, water- sodden ground — it certainly was not easy keeping the surfers in shot.

Every now and then a squall would come up, and I had to break off to keep my kit safe, but as one passed, I'd be back out and shooting again, also,if my subjects came in close, I would forego the camera on the tripod and shoot handheld, which as I find it hard to accurately synch the two bodies some of the true chronology is awry. I did get a few jumps and sequences, and was reasonably satisfied with what I did capture, but at least half of what I shot was binned, but I am really glad I made the effort, so I hope they give those who had braved the weather some pleasure.

Easter Saturday, Wind at Last at Brogborough Lake

Weekday winds are not as attractive for windsurfers due to jobs getting in the way, and that has been the situation for a while, but though rain does not deter those participating, it is a little less enticing for me as cameras and lenses are not partial to a drenching! I was therefore hoping that rain might hold off for at least some of the time, and I really cannot complain too much as it held off for much of the time. Even when it came I was thankful that it was light and relative to the direction of most of my shooting, it came from the side.

My arrival timing was fairly reasonable as several windsurfers had put their kit together and were due to join the single person already on the water. It was time for me to put my kit together — put the Lensmaster gimbal head on the Gitzo tripod with the Novoflex levelling head. This was going to be a test of a new set of wave washers in place of the spring washer in the gimbal head that Robert Hardy had kindly supplied just that morning. Recently I had been doing my own experimenting to improve the overall smoothness of what is already a good (British made) gimbal head, and had been in contact with Robert who was its designer; hence why he sent me his latest take on how to effect an improvement. Although only marginal , any slight advance is always welcome and so it proved.

The shooting on the lake this time would be watching the various sailors go through various manoeuvres to improve their skills and do my best to capture the sequences and apparently due to the wind direction the conditions would not favour jumps, so such dramatics were not likely fare. Seemingly though jumping would not be easy, it was not going to stop some of them taking a chance, as I spotted a couple through my lens, and one with my eyes!

Not being a windsurfer myself, it is not easy to read the conditions and sense when a sailor is about to make their move so to capture jumps at all gives me a lot of satisfaction and to do so when it less likely than ever is a delight. I am afraid that there are a lot of images to wade through as they are as much as anything a record the windsurfers themselves can study to seek to hone their skills, and some sequences may well span more than the same page.

Brrr! Brogborough – Bitter Winds Favour the Brave

I made time to head for the lake at Brogborough in the hope that the wind might tempt the hardier sailors to venture there to make the most of what windsurfers need most – a stiff breeze. On my arrival however the lake was entirely free of humans, and knowing my time was likely to be spent experiencing windchill at its extreme for a long period, I stayed within my car keeping my body at a reasonable temperature and simply watched, waited and enjoyed the music from Classic FM. Travelling only from Marston Moretaine, meant the engine was barely reaching its operating temperature so I did not kill the engine till there was warm air within.

There were soon signs of activity, so then I gathered the tripod and cameras and put everything together, choosing the 7D MkII and the Tamron 150-600mm lens and mounted it atop the Lensmaster Gimbal head and the Novoflex levelling head on the heavy Gitzo tripod, having learned that the lighter tripods were buffeted by the wind meaning that they were not reliably stable platforms from which to shoot, in particular my carbon fibre tripod had to be weighted down for fear of being literally blown away!

I then grabbed the 5D MkIII and the 35mm f/1.4 to get some shots of the preparations as at this point there was even the occasional sunshine between scudding clouds, but fortunately no rain forecast as the ground was already treacherously sodden and slippery.

The presence of a camera has a beneficial effect here, as it does mean that those hardy souls who are honing their gybing and turn skills and their jumping tend to be within shooting range of the photographer, however, as I have learned, several are unaware that they can often come too close and it becomes well nigh impossible to capture unless you also have a shorter focal length lens within easy reach. Fortunately most of the time I have the coverage at both ends of the range when using either the 100-400mm on the full frame 5D MkIII or the 150-600mm on the 7D MkII.

I consider I was really lucky on this occasion as for most of the time there was a reasonable amount of light and plenty of on-water action to keep me on my toes, though when I was on the jetty, the water several times came up through the slats soaking my jeans and giving me soggy socks, perhaps I should have considered wellies and thick socks rather than my hardwearing shoes.

By the end of the day I was very satisfied with what I had captured; several sequences, the downside being the amount of time that I would be at the computer before being able to post a gallery on my blog.