Bank Holiday Sunday, Brogborough

Sunshine and some wind. This brings out a fair crowd on the water, and when I arrived the wind direction meant for a while the windsurfers were heading for the Club’s near shore at an angle with the sun at a reasonable angle; the wind direction did not favour jumpers, but certainly helped for speed.

I set up the camera and took advantage of the sun, moving right up to the foreshore after a while to keep my viewpoint as low as possible, later moving out onto the jetty. It was here that in a lull I spotted a girl taking shots of her boyfriend with a fairly short focal length lens, so I called out what make of camera Canon or Nikon? The reply meant I could offer to remove my camera body and let her take some shots using my lens, she accepted and so I put her body on and helped set it up so she could take a few shots. I hope it inspired her to consider a longer lens in the future. I hope also that I managed to get shots of him that he felt captured the spirit of his day on the water.

Cloud cover increased as the afternoon progressed and water does not sparkle in flat lighting and with no dramatic activity likely to occur my shooting came to the end, but not before being asked by one gentleman, whether I had managed shots of his son, so I made sure there were some. I also got chatting to a windsurfer who worked in Television, and I am fairly sure I had taken shots of him so my blog’s audience figures might also improve!

I returned home to face some time at the computer screen culling and post processing to create a gallery record of the afternoon’s activity, and also to try a second time to repair a puncture to my bike’s front tyre, so that I can cycle to the lake on occasion rather than bring the car, which will keep me active and breathing fresh air as with so much building going on in Marston Moretaine, the house is covered in fine dust which cannot be as healthy as the air around the lake.

Brogborough Bank Holiday Sunday

My elder daughter whom I see less often sadly, as she is very busy and whose twin daughters are studying hard at Sixth Form College came over to see me, and I wanted to help her understand a bit more about photography and let her see a local venue at which I spend some of my time. For myriad reasons we were very late in arriving at the Windsurfing Lake, and I set up my earlier Tamron telephoto lens with my 5D MkII, so she could take a few shots herself. I set up my Sigma lens with the 7D MkII on a heavier tripod for myself.

The reasoning behind this was she would be capturing similar shots to me and she might even capture something that I missed! A little later in the year I know she would be happier with subjects such as bugs and flowers, and also this day was not the best of lighting nor conditions for the windsurfing sailors either, but we were both out together and we both had cameras.

At one stage a familiar voice spoke to me from behind and it was a windsurfer who had been instrumental in sorting out my pensions; he was promoting a show in Northampton and had been trying to get his posters in numerous and different locations, and had one affixed to his sail, so he wanted some shots of the poster in situ with a bit of activity, so here was a specific image I was to capture. Even an A3 poster is tiny when on a sail and in the distance, so much so, I thought it was a mere A4! 

Even though we were only there a short while, I still took a fair number of shots as several out there were practicing gybing and keeping control with little or no wind, so I was capturing sequences rather than individual moments, however they will be less exciting for others, but the participants themselves will likely find some value in them. The ultimate irony considering how little wind there was, was that the very first three shots are a jump, and I grabbed them without realising I had the compensation set for a two stop increase in exposure from when I had been taking shots of Starlings against the light! Lightroom came to my rescue! The third one heads this piece under the filename of Brogborough Marty McFly!!