Brogborough Last Minute Visit

It was extremely fortuitous that I finished the last gallery and found myself free to venture out on a day with both wind and sun, so Brogborough Lake beckoned, and upon my arrival I learned that there was at least one sailor who would be taking advantage of those characteristics and be jumping!

In a trice once I learned of this snippet, I was at the boot of the car and extracting my tripod and placing the EOS R camera body camera and Sigma Sports 60-600mm lens together with the newly acquired 2x Converter. Not too long after, I was making my way with the assembled kit to the jetty. I soon  had it locked into the gaps between the aluminium planks, and was searching for the young lad with the red sail who was apparently the kid to watch out for who was a known jumper  –  I did not have long to wait. I missed the first jump he made in my presence, but I now had my marker, and more jumps followed.

There was a snag in my choice of platform as the waves breaking beneath me tended to make my position less than totally stable, so after a few shots, I removed myself to the solid ground alongside the jetty where my tripod was on firmer ground. I did still have another issue, it was difficult to move around the tripod legs when covering  close on 180 degrees of water ahead of me.

Thus I did miss some of the action when having to step over the legs whilst still keeping hold of the camera, I did alter the legs slightly to surmount this issue, and thus I was able to capture much of the action. By the time I had finished shooting, I had still amassed a large number of images that I would have to find myself in front of a computer screen preparing them for display on the blog. However, overall, I was fairly satisfied with the images I had captured, so it was time well-spent.

Brogborough in the Sun, and Later, Wind!

At the beginning of Sunday there was little wind and the slight chill was soon swiftly dealt with by the sun from a cloudless sky. I had trimmed the side and front lawns the day before, so I strimmed the edges first, hoping that the small back lawn would be dry enough to be cut once that was done, I also trimmed the bush at the side to give it a chance keep that tidy.

I saw the occasional gust of wind spin the whirl line, and ruffle the buddliea, so began to wonder whether the lake at Brogborough would be windy enough to excite a few sailors to take to the water and more in hope than certainty, gathered my camera gear to go over there to see whether there was a chance of some action. Earlier I had put out one batch of washing, and bumping into my aide-memoire of the laundry bag, realised the second batch was sitting in the drum, having long-finished its cycle and should also have been outside in the drying sun!

Out in the garden again, I noticed that there was now a distinct breeze, so it began to look a tad more promising for some windsurfing activity. I returned to the task of putting lenses, tripod, and gimbal head together and laid out some snacks, which happened to be exactly as I had left them, when I returned several hours later, from my time at the lakeside! All down to an excess of Anno Domini!

With the car loaded, l set off, and on my arrival at the car park found there were several cars, vans and trailers, and enthusiastic people rigging; even some keen types already out on the lake, and there was definitely more wind here than back at Marston Moretaine, but it did not seem strong enough, to bring out the jumpers. It did however promise good strong lighting.

I did not immediately start setting up, but wandered to the slipway to see who was out there, and noted that several were simply going up and back, which was a direct result of the relative calm. There were also some on stand up paddles. I returned to the car and got out the gear checking to see whether I could manage with just a ball head, but it was not as easy as using the gimbal, so reverted to that. As the day progressed, the wind, though always fitful did get stronger, and a certain Colin Hunt did start jumping, which was a bonus I had not expected! I was caught out twice, only managing to get the end of the action and not centred!

I also returned to the car when there was a lull, to put some suntan lotion on my exposed arms.

There was so much activity on the lake that afternoon that getting the pictures up on the blog is somewhat later than I had anticipated…

It will take quite a lot of wading through, but not nearly as long as it took me in the preparation, but I hope the the sailing participants feel the wait was worth it.