Brief Brogborough Lake Visit

          Wind was forecast, and I set off for Brogborough Lake, buoyed by the promise of some action from the windsurfers, although I learned that it was unlikely I would be seeing any jumping from the sailors, who were likely to be visiting.
          I had also anticipated more visitors than I met on arrival, but I was happy to see some activity already on the water, and overall the wind fairly strong, so I collected the LUMIX and felt little need for a tripod on this occasion, and took to the water’s edge, rather than the bank. I also noted that the clouds were building.
          I noted that Wingsails were becoming more popular, but I sensed those users were somewhat tentative for the gusty nature of the wind. But, it was not long before they were aloft. Also, the clouds were definitely darkening, and the distant falling rain began obscuring the distant shore, and cameras like this LUMIX were not as weather sealed as my Canon gear, so I was soon heading for the shelter of my car. Sadly, this cut short my visit on this occasion.

Lone Windsurfer at Brogborough

The wind was just below gale force in gusts, which I was certain would attract windsurfers to gravitate towards Brogborough Lake to take advantage of the dry conditions; the missing factors were sunshine and warmth! I gathered the serious kit as well as the mirrorless LUMIX, and as I approached the entrance I wondered whether the gate was open, and it was, which is always a good sign.

I pulled into the spot I generally used; and looking around, found I was only the third car into the car park. As yet, it looked as if only one person was considering taking to the lake — Geoff, and he seemed to be in no particular hurry to be putting on his wet suit.

The wind was brisk, and I soon realised that I was not as well-prepared as I had assumed. I had presumed that a coat was in the boot should I need extra protection, but when I opened it, I was soon disabused of that! So, my time was going to be spent exactly as I was dressed presently, as it was far too much trouble to go back for extra clothing.

For the first time for quite some time, I lost several images, and I think it was due to my using the same memory card in two different cameras. From now on having formatted a card for my Canon camera, I will avoid using it in a different manufacturer’s unless not only it is re-formatted, but specifically it was reformatted in the specific manufacturer’s camera. There were several shots of Geoff that I took on a card that had the remnants of a previous visit to Brogborough taken on my Canon EOS R, that became unreachable later when, I came to download them.

I will now designate specific cards to my Canon gear, and try to remember to Always reformat a card in camera after download has been completed, rather than just Occasionally. Also designate a Single, Specific card for the LUMIX. I was aware that many users format every time, but having never before faced this issue, possibly because all my gear was Canon till now, this situation had never occurred. So, my apologies to Geoff for so few shots.

Windy and Sunny at Brogborough Lake

               Sun and wind was forecast for the Saturday afternoon, and for a change I was arriving fairly early, as I expected that combination would attract some interest amongst the windsurfing fraternity and certainly there seemed to be a fair amount of interest, so I set to immediately opening the boot of my car and erecting the heavy Benbo tripod. The camera I chose was the EOS R and I decided to put the 1.5 Converter on the Sigma 60-600mm Sports lens. This combination would allow me to capture a good overall range from the shore to the anticipated distance, judging from those sailors already on the water.

                The first observation I made was that there were at least two sailors who were out on hydrofoils, so this aspect of windsurfing is gaining traction. As I noted that the jetty at the far end was already under water, I decided that working from the shore would seem to be a sensible idea, since with the wind, had I been on the jetty, my camera gear was very likely to be at risk of suffering from waves breaking over the end that was already awash.
I was pleased that the wind direction did give me some opportunities of the sailors heading straight towards me on occasion. I was soon shooting, but after those whom I had seen preparing their boards were out on the lake, I did not see the overall numbers growing, which did surprise me a little, as although what wind there was, was often in short gusts, there was both sun and a reasonable amount of wind for most of the time.

                It was good to see that the numbers of hydrofoilers was rising, and amongst their number they were gaining experience of staying aloft for longer in the turns. It will be interesting to see whether the numbers will rise still further as the year progresses.

                On this visit, I tended to shoot more, due to the quality of the light, and cull far more shots back here when I was putting the gallery together. Also, I only shot from the same spot as I did not fancy a trek through mud to select a different viewpoint.

                I did not stay all that long as I knew that I would not get through my editing in good time if I stayed too long taking many more shots. I hope they give as much pleasure to those whom I captured as they did me in their taking.

Brogborough with Some Wind

I had two possible destinations on the Sunday morning to indulge in some photography, so I put every likely lens into the car for either option, and set off for the nearest, which was the lake at Brogborough; the plan being that if the wind was insufficient or coming from the wrong direction or the visiting windsurfers were not keen on the more energetic activities such as jumping, I could ascertain the situation, and head off instead to the Stockwood Discovery Centre, which I had not visited for some time.

Upon arrival, several keen surfers were rigging sails and a couple were already on the water, and although the wind was fitful rather than constant, it appeared to be enough to bring out those I recognised as experienced, so my plan was being made for me, and I learned that to capture the shots I sought were going to need being taken the other side of the woods. By the time that information came my way, I had already chosen my heavy Benbo tripod, so I was in for a tough trek to reach the position from which to shoot.

I made haste and with the heavy gear over my shoulder set off at a brisk trot so that I was in position as early as possible. The spot was at the shore’s edge, but was considerably lower than the surrounding land, and I knew of old that it was very steep and not easy. On arrival at the top of the bank I took the camera off the tripod, and the pullover off my back, as I was now very warm. Leaving the camera at the top, I used the tripod to assist my descent to the water’s edge as a surrogate walking stick. Then returned to collect the camera and for added safety put the strap around my neck and gingerly made my way down, where I mounted the camera back on, and set it up. I took a few shots from just above the bottom, but after a short while moved the tripod into the water which was a better spot as it cleared some of the reeds, giving me a wider angle of view, and being lower meant I had a better chance of seeing clear air beneath the boards of anyone doing any jumps.

This was one of the reasons I chose this particular tripod, as the bottoms of its legs are sealed, allowing them to be in water to just below the top of the first section; in other words the legs can stand safely in around eighteen inches of water – quite handy in this situation.

In my haste, I did make one error which defined how long I could be shooting, namely I was limited to just short of 32GB of images because I made an error by forgetting to put another card in my pocket, as it transpired that was a slight benefit as it did mean I would have to either make a second trip through the woods with my heavy gear or call it a day to limit the amount of time spent in front of a computer screen, I chose the latter and after a refreshing cup of tea, headed back to sort the images into a gallery.

The gallery is now up before the end of Monday, so I hope that it provides some of the participants memories of a pleasant windsurfing afternoon.

A Brief Brogborough Lake Look in

I may not be able to visit the Lake on Sunday, so decided to nip along to deliver a print to Sam Barnes for one of the windsurfers, but took along the camera – just in case…

It began to spit with rain as I got out of the car, so I handed the package to Sam and walked to the lake edge to see what activity there was, the wind was even more sporadic than the last time I came, with some quite strong gusts, then it would die completely and the rain looked settled but light, so I just chatted, and during that time, the rain stopped and the wind began to pick up so I went to the car and got out the camera, when I returned to the foreshore a couple were just about to set off in a canoe.

The sun even broke through the clouds occasionally so I stayed and took a few shots every so often and had a few brief chats with a few of the windsurfers, but when the activity thinned, I went inside, had a cup of tea, showed a few prints that I had with me, and showed a few some of the afternoon's shots on the back of the camera and gave out a business card with the blog details for one who had asked, and chatted to Sam for a while before leaving; by the time I got outside everyone had disappeared!