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.

Goodwood Festival of Speed – Saturday Sunshine and Showers

I am farther up the M1 now than hitherto, so the journey to Chichester for the Good Festival of Speed this year means a very early start if I am to arrive early enough to take a wander amongst some of the Super Cars before climbing the hill to reach the Forest Section and to watch the cars navigate the Rally circuit, so I had set the alarm for four-thirty before heading for bed on Friday night. I had also showered and shaved beforehand so that I could allow just half-an-hour to be ready from bed to car fully-packed. Unlike many of these trips I knew I faced inclement weather, so packing was more comprehensive with a complete change of clothing and a towel in case I was so soaked as to need a complete change before getting back in the car for the journey back.

I had company for my day this year, my son-in-law Tim who lives near Aylesbury, so my trip to him was familiar but from Westcott to the M25 was not. I made good time to reach him, but Lizzy and Tim had not had the best of nights with their two children and they had been up since five, so he had had a short night and was still in the shower upon my arrival, so I settled down with my second cup of tea of the day to wait patiently. It was not long before we were on our way and having company means the journey never seems so long. We made good time till we reached Midhurst, but as we neared Goodwood the journey slowed to a crawl, which we eventually learned was due to an accident, which also meant we had to be diverted through one car park to reach our designated one, so the day’s programme was well under way by the time we arrived near the House where we met further congestion due to Guests trying to get Courtesy vehicles along some of the pedestrian routes.

Our plans changed from a visit to the Super Car Paddock to heading straight to the Forest section, as we wanted to get up the hill as soon as possible, it proved to be a good move as we got to see some rally action before the rain slowed that up, and it also meant the trees saved us from at least some of the rain! Our journey down had been without rain, but our day would be a mixture of sunshine and showers, and the climb up the hill was sticky due to the heat and humidity. The track has changed over time and so we found we needed the programme’s map, but the print was very fine so we explored rather than navigated!

Most of the visitors to this area now seem to be those with cameras, so first choice was always a compromise as we waited for the earlier arrivals to get their fill of actions before we could use the best standpoints, then we would move on, and so the routine would continue as each group moved on to the next area. Naturally, the moving slowed when one arrived at the jump, however the rain did limit the level of action, because it became difficult to navigate some of the corners at all due to the treacherous conditions once the rain set in.

I had made a conscious decision to attempt the photography almost exclusively with primes rather than zooms, so had researched past metadata in Lightroom from previous visits to Goodwood. I took note of what distance I had focussed upon when using my 70-200mm on my 7D MkII and whether or not I had cropped the images. I concluded that I could operate very satisfactorily using my 5D MkIII with my 85mm f/1.4 when shooting in the Forest Rally section. I knew from past experience I would need a very wide lens for the installation at the front of Goodwood House, but had not reckoned on just how wide and high this year’s feature would turn out to be! Even my 12-24 was too long!

However my 85mm and 100mm Macro proved to be absolutely correct for the areas where I had expected to use them, so being able to access the metadata from my use of zooms in the past was excellent to decide which primes would be ideal, and now I can further hone this knowledge when I look at what cropping was necessary when my choice was too short. Certainly the margin of quality meant on this occasion I didn’t really suffer due to my choice of specific primes. It also meant Tim had a choice too, so I hope he got shots he was pleased with the lenses I brought along. Neither of my two long lenses ever came out of the car – as the Red Arrows flew over and then presumably went on to their next venue as our cloud cover was both almost complete and had a very low ceiling!

Tim and I really enjoyed the day, and I really enjoyed having company on the journey down and back, it makes such a difference. Our journey back was uneventful and remarkably clear, traffic-wise.

Festival of Speed Saturday

Serendipity has always played a part in my life, that is not to say there is no planning involved; I am fairly careful to adhere to plans laid down, so avoiding disrupting those of others, but I was only scheduled to visit Goodwood on the Friday originally but I met a group in the Sponsors’ enclosure who due to the misfortune of their engine not being ready had been unable to complete in the Rally area, Martin had two spare tickets for the Saturday, and very kindly offered them to me on learning I would not be visiting on the remaining days.

At the end of the afternoon, Claire, his wife gave me her number so we could meet back at their campervan, so Peter was destined to remain in his vehicle charging his battery whilst I rendezvoused with my benefactors to collect the tickets, the deal struck was that I photograph their car in the Rally section at next year’s event, which I will be thrilled to honour!

My journey home on Friday was doubly enjoyable as Peter invited me into his cousins’ house where he and Diana had been staying and I had a very relaxing chat and something to eat in their Hindhead home with their excitable Labradors, before setting off and getting in touch with Lizzy and Tim to decide how best to use the gift of tickets, and much as Lizzy would love to have come, Tim was thrilled to join me. We set off slightly later than planned, but we miraculously managed to sail through the traffic, but just parked slightly further away than Peter and I had managed the day before.

Duly doused with a liberal coating of sun-block cream, we gathered our camera kit and headed in as we came to the installation in front of the house, this day it was bathed in sunshine, rather than a backdrop of clouds as it had been on the previous day. The early part of the day was spent in the enclosure where we had an excellent view of the exit of the first corner, which meant we soon found ourselves amongst other like-minded souls, and I was able to help a couple of them as to how to set up their cameras to get the best out of the opportunities to pan their cameras. They were excited and keen ‘students’ and it was rewarding to see their pleasure from their improved results. Although both had very different cameras, there was considerable rivalry, and they planned a competition and envisaged a return journey of considerable argument as to who had the best shots of the day!

It was good to see the Vulcan again, but clashing with the Supercars certainly made it harder to get the best of both photographed, but the challenge was good!

Tim and I visited the commercial area where I showed him the surfing display on the Peugeot stand, and he captured interesting angles and details of cars we found on display whilst using my EOS 5D and the 72-200mm lens – he had lent his own camera to his mother prior to the weekend! There was one slight hiatus in my day when after visiting the Lotus stand I began getting the precursor blindspots to migraine, and so had to lie down in welcome shade whilst Tim went off for water so I could down two Paracetamols; fortunately I caught it in time, so was soon back on my feet and we headed for Molecomb to watch the reinstated Soapbox event.

We had bypassed the Supercars earlier in the day, so we spent some time watching the bikes setting off from the start, before visiting the cars in that area and seeing Steve Ryder talking to camera about a portrait of James Hunt; although the likeness was excellent I was less impressed than with the excellent Peter Hearsey artwork to be found within the Stables Yard.

My two days at a Festival of Speed were exhausting in the heat, but wonderfully enjoyable amidst an impressively friendly atmosphere, also due to Tim’s excellent observation of a way of avoiding the crush to exit our car park by the way we entered, we left by a different gate, and made excellent time on the return journey and one last memory: an ambulance came up behind us blue lights blazing, and we managed to immediately find a small gap on the left to pull in and let it by without losing our place in the queue, and then ahead to watch two others do precisely the same, such that we provided no hindrance to its passage with minimal fuss, sadly after passing through a village slowly we saw she had made less progress with others beyond us three.

Now the task of culling, editing and making sense of all the photos taken over the two days…

Heritage Open Day Saturday at Luton Hoo

I drove to the Walled Garden to see what I could cover at the event, taking only one camera, my trusty 5D MkII and 24-105mm lens. I was surprised that there seemed to be far fewer visitors than I would have expected since entry to the event was free. But after only ten or fifteen minutes many more arrived. I must have arrived at around many people’s lunchtime!

I had been here only last Wednesday afternoon so I was not expecting to see too much of a change, I was soon disabused of that, as many more blooms were present than earlier, and weeding had continued unabated, and there were still even some volunteers working away as visitors wandered around. Deborah who designed and manages the Apothecary planting was constantly surrounded by enquiring visitors. The visitors were a mixture of individuals of both sexes, couples young and old and several family groups. I also spotted a few in guided tours learning of the history of the gardens and the plans for its restoration and regeneration.

The encouraging sign as had been the case on the Wednesday, was how many honeybees were to be found on the flowers; a welcome profusion. I was saddened by seeing that one of the greenhouses had suffered a serious collapse, I just hope some form of support can be arranged before the onset of winter.

I spotted a daytime moth which had made one particular flowerhead its territory, and was fascinated by its complex wing structure. I cannot find a name for it, it has a mark that is similar to the Silver Y moth, but it did not have the distinctive Y structure.