Goodwood Revival Meeting 2019

The Duke of Richmond and Gordon seemingly has the Weather Gods in his favour, for in the more than ten years I have been lucky enough to be visiting his grounds to attend the Revival Meetings and the Festivals of Speed, I have only encountered inclement weather on two occasions, and only one of those was really a problem, but every last one has proved thoroughly enjoyable.

My early contact with Goodwood was through Peter Morley a neighbour of mine in Bromley, Kent. He was a Rally Driver and a Director of Tesco, who at the time was the Assistant Chief Pit Marshall at Brands Hatch, a role I later inherited jointly with a colleague Peter Melville, when Peter Morley became the Chief. The first occasion he invited me to Goodwood, it was a regular and fully functional race track, and a year or two before the fateful crash that brought Stirling Moss’ racing career to an end. On that occasion as we drove through some of the villages, people waved to us as we passed, and Peter told me that when he had come to a standstill for a longish time on some occasions, villagers had offered him cups of tea!

I cannot speak for all UK motorsport venues, but for an atmosphere of joyous camaraderie, Goodwood for me has been in a class of its own, followed closely by Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Lydden, and Castle Coombe. Short of some major disaster befalling you, Goodwood never fails to deliver.

I always bring a camera, and on this occasion, I had decided to forego my superb Sigma 60-600mm and had brought my much earlier and far lighter Tamron 150-600mm on the mirrorless Canon EOS R body. I had one further ‘tweak’ — the 2x Converter — which meant I was actually using a 300-1200mm full-frame camera! Knowing There would also be opportunities for closer work, I also had the 24-70mm — which I used to get shots within the ‘Motor Show’ feature.

I will make an admission that despite my careful preparations there was one failure on my part; the one item which could have made my life far easier was still carefully nestling in the boot of my car — a monopod! However, that only surfaced once I was trackside, since to make the trek to the car would lose me too much time, I was going to have to rely on whatever support I could find, such as the top of fence posts, and my daughter’s willingness to provide her shoulder on one occasion! The sacrifices one’s family sometimes endure for their forgetful parents!

Goodwood as I mentioned is a friendly place and an example is a charming mother of two young children who was just in front of me at the banking, who opened a conversation wondering whether she was in my way whilst shooting, I assured her she had no need for concern. Later, she had insisted the boy and girl stayed together which was good advice, and later still when both were at the front fence, in return I suggested that they don’t watch from beneath the wire fencing as they were at that time, because they were unprotected. Somehow, interactions between strangers here at Goodwood is the norm.

I watched an old business colleague, Simon Diffey, do well in his race, and listened over the speakers to his delighted response to his good fortune whilst being interviewed. Later I briefly met up with him, still in high good humour. Another familiar face I spotted was photographer, Jeff Bloxham, but I failed to catch his eye as he was trackside at the Kids’ Pedal Car race and we were in the enclosure. Over the years visiting Goodwood rarely has there been a time when I have not come across old friends, but perhaps the clue is within the adjective ‘old’!

Also, most of my visits, I have bumped into Charles March during the course of the day, as in what I term my ‘former life’ he had been a client of the retouchers, The Colour Company with whom I had worked for many years — in fact it was through them that I had been twice invited to stay at the house to give him some Photoshop help. This day, I did listen to him over the Tannoy, give a moving tribute to his absent friend, Stirling Moss, and later watched him take Susie, Sterling’s wife around in one of the many cars he had driven to success over the last many years. I have tried since to find a recording of his piece, but thus far, in vain. It undoubtedly came from his heart and in his own words as a friend. Sadly, Sir Stirling was not up to travelling to be present.

The last pictures from our day were all taken on my handy 24-70mm, and this turned out to be one of the very few times when I never used its handy macro feature, but this lens if I ever am limited to just camera and one lens and weight, proves invaluable. Another, wonderful, warm, and welcoming day nears its end, just the journey home and the parting with my daughter Lizzy as she heads back to her husband and young family.

Pre-Goodwood EOS R Test of Lighter Long Lens

The Goodwood Revival comes around again, and although I wanted to capture some of its spirit with a long lens on the EOS R body, I knew that all-day with my heavy Benbo and the Sigma 60-600mm was simply out of the question, so my plan to choose the Tamron 150-600mm with the 2x Sigma Converter was worth considering, but I needed a test to make up my mind. There was a reasonable breeze blowing, so to test both the lens and lightweight Carbon Fibre tripod was worth the short trip to the lake at Brogborough. I was fortunate that despite it being a weekday, there was a single windsurfer on the water to provide me with a moving target.

I learned that my presumptions of the suitability of this combo were accurate, but I also learned that with this Converter and the closeness to the shore favoured by my unsuspecting model, meant that the lens was being mainly used at the middle of the focal length range, so it would be sensible to take the lower strength 1.5 Converter along as well, since I would be missing the 60mm end of the Sigma.

I am glad that I had run the test, because also another feature of the Revival Meeting was the aerial display of aircraft, and my lighter lens made this far less of a strain, and this short trip has given me the confidence to opt for this lens alongside my general purpose 24-70mm. I wonder whether the sobriquet ‘Glorious’ Goodwood will apply to the weather on this occasion?

Marston Lake – Grebe on Tamron 150-600mm–EOS R +1.5x

This week was not going to give me many chances for an early start to visit a lake, so Tuesday was one that allowed me that opportunity and it was fortunately not overly cold. There were two purposes for this visit, the obvious one was do my best to get some more shots of the resident Grebes, the second was get a further idea of how effective the lighter Tamron lens was, now it could be married effectively with the Canon EOS R mirrorless body. I knew it worked very effectively with the Sigma 60-600mm, and I knew there were times when a lighter lens was essential purely due to the distance I might have to travel with a long lens, and the Tamron had proved to be a good sharp lens before I had bought the early equivalent Sigma, what I was less sure was how it might perform overall with the EOS R.

This trip put my mind at rest on at least that score, but  I still have to master how to deal effectively with placing of the cursor on the screen speedily and consistently. Several times I have lost the focus square to the top edge of the screen when I need to place it more strategically to follow my subject, especially off-centre.

I am improving my success with panning, and living with the slightly stuttering movement as I follow a bird especially if in flight as opposed to on the water, The incentive to polish this aspect is because with the larger pixel count of the EOS R compared to my EOS 5D, if I get the shot it is definitely cleaner, lacking noise in comparison under similar circumstances when light is borderline.

I stayed only long enough to give me sufficient time thereafter in processing the images I managed to capture. I was unable to see a successful fishing foray with the Grebe, but did get a shot of a black-headed gull with a small fish it had just caught, and a lone Grebe, searching and calling for its mate, as it swam to every corner of the lake.

Brogborough Lake & Gusty, High Wind

Tamron have just updated their 150-600mm lens that I still own - so on this day I decided I would check it out by shooting with it on my EOS R now that I have it back with me and, I am very impressed!

A bit of back history — I have had this long focal length zoom for some time, and kept it, even after buying the later equivalent from Sigma, because of the weight difference; it is far lighter than the Sigma, and when later still, Sigma brought out the even longer range 60-600mm lens, I still hung onto it when deciding how to finance the Sigma purchase. After doing some testing with a sample kindly lent me by Sigma, it so impressed me, I sold their earlier version for the two reasons that it was largely duplicating the former Sigma and, two heavy similar lenses made no sense. The far lighter Tamron was no slouch in the quality stakes, and the clincher was selling the Sigma gave me the funds to buy its big brother! If the Tamron could benefit from the use of the EOS R and function fully when coupled with a 1.4x Converter, I would have a very handy, far lighter lens when having to carry it any distance.

Having had a dry run at home, the combo seemed just fine, but I needed a proper trial and Brogborough provided just what I needed, and I have not been disappointed, so I shall be passing on my further thanks to Tamron on Monday.

I arrived at the lake with a few sailors already on the lake and after a brief check on who was out there, I assembled the EOS R, the simple conversion ring for my earlier Canon lenses, but added the 1.4 Converter and the Tamron 150-600mm lens, and mounted the combo onto my weighty Benbo, and headed for the jetty, but after only a handful of shots, I decided that in the wind and on there, it was way too risky! Terra firma beckoned! I have already had one accident too many with my camera this year, and should disaster befall me whilst on grass, then the kit will survive.

I was hoping that on this visit despite the wind direction being less than ideal for jumps, some of the fearless amongst the sailors would at least give me a chance encounter. I was not to be disappointed except I missed one completely due to my focus point jumping to the side of the screen thereby meaning I missed the whole action, and what I viewed looked like the best and clear jump of the day. I am glad there were no ladies present, because. I admit I swore loudly! I have since washed my mouth out.

I stayed less long than normal as I knew it was going to be a lengthy time at the Mac’s screen, and I had other chores clamouring for my attention, so I may well have missed some of the later action for which I apologise for not being able to record any of those masterful manoeuvres that were performed in my absence. Another day, perhaps.

For anyone contemplating the use of  the Tamron 150-600mm in combo with or without a 1.4x Converter on an EOS R, or possibly the lesser RF, I can say it worked fine for me.

Brogborough – Sunshine, Rain, and Weekend Wind at Last

I gathered my kit together and taking the car, drove just down the road to the lake at Brogborough, and from the full car park, it was obvious my hopes of a decent wind were mirrored by the throng of windsurfers putting their sails up in expectation.

I decided upon the heavy tripod and the long Tamron 150-600mm zoom, on the EOS 7D MkII, but soon realised it would be handy to have another camera with a shorter lens as the activity was close inshore, so I went back to the car and brought out a camera bag with the 5D MkIII and the 85mm f/1.4, for shots of anything happening close by me.

I had not been shooting that long when one of the windsurfers, Nick, came over and very generously gave me a couple of cans of lager, which was most appreciated, and despite the lack of an even surface, I managed to keep it propped up by one leg of the tripod, without losing a drop to any careless movement of my feet.

Rain threatened from time to time, but fortunately never became a downpour, and it did offer me some useful cloudscapes to add to my library – they are always handy for backgrounds to add drama to shots with bland blue sky, or for producing cards with backgrounds for text messages. I was visited by a Common Tern a few times as it fished for tiddlers along the shoreline and also a pair of swans and a family of Canada Geese; some of these were handy to try to retain various sequences within a specific gallery to help those sailors wishing to analyse their manoeuvres. In this respect I feel I often failed to cover a complete manoeuvre due to either another windsurfer crossing my path or my inability to keep my shutter pressed long enough, or simply because the final action came too fast for me to realise I needed to keep shooting rather than trying to use only short intermittent bursts to try to give myself less to process later!

However I came away feeling that I had covered the afternoon reasonably well.

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.

Another Brief Brogborough Lake Visit

Exercise nowadays is low impact on Fridays when I get in the swimming of as many individual underwater lengths of the Aquavale Competition Pool in Aylesbury and higher impact short cycle rides from Marston Moretaine to the Windsurfing Club at Brogborough Lake, and the most recent of those was on Saturday afternoon. The wind was against me going which is always good from a psychological standpoint so long as the general direction remains the same I can be assured of a following wind on the return journey – I am not one of the world’s fittest!

The journey is short enough to be enjoyable and the warm sunshine makes the ride seem far shorter and I tell myself that I am behaving responsibly from the ecological angle by not using the car for such a short stint, but a fit cyclist would hardly have got in their stride by the time I have arrived! Lycra on me would be ludicrous as I just don’t cut that sort of figure, so no cycle clips, just the trousers tucked into socks and sensible shoes complete my gear.

I brought my full-frame body, the 5D MkIII so as to avoid the extra step before processing of creating DNGs from the 7D MkII, but what this means is I do not have quite the same throw with my 150-600mm Tamron zoom, nor the burst rate, but I needed to check out how I’d get on with this combination. On balance I felt the 7D has the edge, so I will have to put up with the extra step in post processing until I upgrade the version of Lightroom I use. I have held off upgrading my operating system in order to to keep running costs in check whilst paying work is slow, and the time for that upgrade is sadly looming ever closer, but sadly the way Apple is moving connectivity with my existing hard drives means lots of adapters or newer replacement hard drives – an expense I cannot justify.

I settled down initially at the water’s edge where the surfers launch and return, but I later moved to the jetty, but soon after that move which was for better lighting conditions, the wind direction changed and fewer surfers went in that direction, which as it also dropped meant that my session was soon curtailed as my subjects all returned to shore. The shots I managed to capture were fairly colourful, but none were spectacular as the wind speed was not that high, but it was enjoyable while it lasted and the journey back was very swift and effortless. I hope the images I did capture bring some pleasure.

Brogborough – a Therapeutic Visit

My priorities since the house in Caddington was definitely finally selling and I could rest assured that the house for which I had put in an offer was definitely going to become my new home, have been exclusively concentrated upon ensuring that the move was made as efficiently as possible without the distraction of my involvement in photography, I made just one concession, because the event had been planned long before the sale, and that was to relax in the company of fellow photographer Geoff Dann by visiting  Clerkenwell during its week of Design celebrations. Today I had two electricians helping to transform my new third bedroom into an office to house the essential electrical paraphernalia that are now the essential tools of the digital photographer.

I spent the early part of the day seeing that what I planned was capable of being achieved, and answering any questions that arose, and trying to ensure that the mountain range of boxes somehow allowed access to those areas that needed twin and switched sockets where either none existed previously or were single and unswitched, the office needed a minimum of twenty four, and these were to come mounted on a board on a separate circuit.

The weather was fine with a promise of sunshine and hopefully a breeze, so once I knew all was underway, I decided I needed therapy and the conditions seemed to promise a remedy just a short cycle ride away – the lake at Brogborough, and the undoubted windsurfing fraternity eager to be on the water, so I gathered my gear together and strapped it in the basket newly-mounted on my push-bike and set off. On arrival the medicine was there in abundance as were the windsurfers, and I took a long draught  as I set to mounting the EOS7D MkII with the Tamron 150-600mm onto to the gimbal head atop the newly-purchased Giottos carbon fibre tripod. I sat down right by the water’s edge and gave myself just over an hour to capture a few shots to break my self-imposed fast and get my ‘fix’.

The wind favoured those who enjoyed jumping and so I imbibed with relish when the surfer’s desire matched my own, whilst there was a lull in the human activity on the lake, I turned my lens on a young family of ducks who with their mother in attendance braved the turbulent waters close to the shore where I was ensconced. Little did I know at this stage how that family were to become the unwitting stars of a small drama played out upon the shoreline. I turned my lens back upon the main scene and spotted one man who seemed intent upon jumping and managed to capture at least something of the action.

The wind dropped and several surfers returned to shore amongst them the hero whose small jump I had witnessed and I let him know by thanking him for his display. He came over and said that there seemed to be a small amount of air beneath the board. The wind picked up and the sun joined in and he took to the water again, and this time there was no doubt about there being air beneath, for which I was very grateful.

Soon after this we spotted three lone ducklings braving the increasing swell and even finding themselves ignominiously being flung ashore – the drake was nowhere to be seen and several surfers then decided this was a situation that could not be endured and a plastic bin was commandeered to attempt to scoop them from the maelstrom, and return them to the family group, the first two were soon scrabbling away safely in their makeshift lifeboat as their human saviour attempted to scoop their sibling to join them to be returned to their mother. However, that was not to be, he or she, feared these great human warriors were out for sport and he/she was not in the mood for playing their game, and for the next several minutes he/she managed to outwit the machinations of these evil giants which was causing both great mirth and much concern in equal parts in the observers of this tragi-comedy unfolding before us all – we may be giants in stature, but we were no match for this plucky ducky! Sheer weight of numbers finally completed the rescue by which time the mother and the rest of her fold were back on the scene so all three were finally reunited with the family, and we all heaved a sigh of relief and were really happy for the mother.

My allotted time was up, so after a chat with one man, André, who had somehow emailed me concerning some shots I had taken, though I had never received the message, I apologised and hopefully we can meet up again and sort things, as we found we were both close neighbours in the village of Marston Moretaine! I returned to the house in good time thanks to a following wind, and I was glad of the medicine.

Clophill – Old St. Mary’s Church – Fundraising Photographic Day

Morning Session Gallery

Afternoon Session Gallery

Andy Fox, whom I met a few years back whilst out with my camera close by a lake where he was an angler has been heavily involved in voluntary work to conserve the old church and now the fund-raising to add eco lodges to the venue to preserve the work done at the church. The Old St. Mary’s Church lies approximately at the midpoint of the Greensand Ridge Trail and is itself composed of this local sandstone.

Andy it was who asked whether I would like to make my contribution to his pet project by joining a group of hopefully at least six photographers and join a Day photographing a series of raptors that he would be providing as subjects. This was an opportunity not to be missed and I sincerely hoped he would get the required number for the venture to go ahead. I had thoroughly enjoyed a similar day at Old Warden, so it was not a difficult decision; ahead of the day, I was hoping England’s notoriously fickle weather would be kind to us, and although I set off in rain, it had all but stopped by my arrival at Clophill.

I met up with other participants, both at Andy’s house and later at the eco lodges where we assembled ourselves and our assorted camera gear; as one of only two Canon users I was joshed for my choice, but it was all lighthearted banter that I might have meted out were the boot on the other foot – there was certainly no malice, simply a typical way of breaking the ice amongst a small group. After a short talk about the aims of the Trust for the church and the eco lodges site, Andy explained the plans for the day; it was to be static birds in the morning session and hopefully the birds in flight at some time in the afternoon, with a break for refreshments before the afternoon session.

We were introduced to Emily who was looking after and providing our models for the day before setting off for the ruins of the church where, amidst the first signs of Spring; small clumps of snowdrops amongst last season’s autumn leaves, we were to find backdrops for the subjects of our images. I chose to use the 5D MkIII and the Canon 100-400mm for the morning and in the afternoon I used the 7D MkII and Tamron 150-600mm.

Due to earlier commitments I already knew it would be some time before I would be able to do any of the post processing of the files and so it will be nearly a week before these are up in a gallery on my blog. I hope that despite the number of images there is sufficient variety to enjoy the experience of looking at what I shot.

The birds featured are  a tawny owl, a barn owl, an eagle owl and a kestrel.

Tring Reservoirs – 7D MkII 2nd Test

A second outing with the Canon EOS 7D MkII, again with the 150-600mm Tamron Lens, this time on all three of the Tring reservoirs, Startops End, Marsworth and Tringford and once again in bright sunshine; not that it contributed to my warmth, that was provided by far more insulated undergarments.

The subject matter was varied, but unexciting, but I was there primarily to get to understand the features of the new camera body, whilst there was reasonably good sunlight.

The response of the new body was excellent and I was impressed by the burst rate, now if I only my body would react with equal agility, my anticipation and reaction still need to improve if I am to get the peak of actions such as a duck diving, a dragonfly or a kingfisher taking off. Frozen limbs and fingers do not help; had I kept my hand on the camera the entire time, it would likely need thawing with a hair dryer! Memory is another of my failings, I forgot that the gimbal head does not remain in the car boot, so had to use a ball head in its stead.

The last shots of the gulls were taken using either the tripod with only one leg extended to form a monopod or hand held, as they were swooping and diving close to the bank. I also found that when the camera was on the tripod animals were happy to come close but off to one side, leaving me only able to watch helplessly, unable to release the camera quietly and speedily. This time it was a mink which climbed down a branch above me, then across another to disappear beyond the tree trunk and back into its hollow in a dead tree stump at the water’s edge. I suppose I should not be too disappointed as I really did only have a back view!