Sunny BrogLake

          The Lake at Brogborough again sees some action, as Sunshine and Wind favours the Sailors. The overall activity this year seems to have resulted in a level of calm, possibly allowing Time to savour the opportunity to enjoy the moments for longer.
          I had made the decision to use my Lumix camera on this occasion, which also offered the opportunity to work without the camera being mounted on a tripod. I am trying to weigh up the freedom from the fixed viewpoint against the response speed between the two very different cameras (my Canon which with its far weightier body and lenses, always mounted on a sturdy tripod, versus the featherweight Lumix with its zoom lens permanently attached to the body.) The major difference, beyond the obvious weight variance, is the burst rate – my Canon is faster! But, when the light is bright as on this occasion, the freedom from the tripod is welcome.
          I did not have long to wait before Sam, with his Kite Sail had taken advantage of the wind, to take to the air! But this was ‘a blink, and you missed it’ moment, rather than sustained flight! Later a pair of Geese flew over, and were able to display their ability to easily maintain grace when in flight, though their effort expended at Takeoff was more energetic! Almost immediately after spotting the pair of Geese, the sky celebrated by displaying a rainbow against the darkening sky. Turning my gaze away from the Lake at that point allowed me to catch a group chatting, before I brought my eye back to what was happening on the Lake.
          A few more were now making their way back onto the water, and once again in the lulls between obvious activity, I was again taking opportunities to capture Clouds; one of my endless fascination at their various forms, as anyone visiting my blog will probably already have noted!
          As numbers on the Lake dwindled, I realised that the time had come for me to head back, I am sorry that it has taken so long for these shots to appear on the blog, but as I have occasionally said before; Life has supervened!

BrogLake and Aerial Foilers

          A decent wind comes to the lake at Brogborough, and one of my wishes comes true— a couple of the sailors take to the air! I have been longing for the opportunities to capture this action using a mirrorless camera. However, this has some severe limitations, as any sequence the user captures, results in a delay, during which the processing of the captured images removes the view of the scene within the viewfinder. This delay is disorienting when trying to capture live action, especially when the subject is moving, such as is the case of sports and wildlife, and when the scene or subject is dynamic and not especially predictable. Undoubtably, I have had to adjust my methodology to accommodate these limitations and weigh these against the advantages that accrue — I can use my LUMIX FZ10002 handheld all day without a heavy tripod and therefore move around with ease! The zoom range for a camera of this size and weight is impressive. Where the SLR scores, is in having an uninterrupted view of the scene at all times, and this forces a different evaluation of the subjects one is capturing when deciding the camera I chose. Presently, I am using the LUMIX to establish a full understanding of the essential controls I need to master, and here I am sadly impaired by my failing memory, but I am persevering, and I worry that my muscle memory of using the Canon EOS R controls may fade in the interim. 
          This day’s shooting started in sunshine, but clouded over; the wind was good, and to my joy, this allowed some of the kite surfers to rise aloft, and although I did manage to capture some of such action sequences satisfactorily, undoubtedly my Sigma 60-600mm lens on the EOS R6 would have improved my success rate, especially as I would have been on a sturdy tripod with gimbal head! The gusty nature of the wind did hamper my handholding, but overall the higher shutter speed came to my rescue, though I did suffer from some failed shots. I still need to get to grips with the controls of this LUMIX, hence my persistence!
          I do hope I have managed to capture the essence of the afternoon’s activity on the lake, and apologies for the delay, but my hard drive is wilfully putting my files elsewhere than where I designate, but I am hoping that help from my son-in-law has put an end to the hardware's desire to thwart me!

Brogborough Lake - Sun and Some Wind

            I noted that the lake had several cars parked, with a couple of their owners preparing for their waterborne adventure, donning their wetsuits. There was no urgency, and considerable, convivial chatting. Above, there were fair weather clouds, and as the day drew on, these forms took their majestic shapes, and as ever, I was drawn to capturing their forms against the clear blue sky beyond. I also enjoy photographing rushing water, and waving weed filaments at the mercy of the eddies as they rush upon the shore, disturbed by the forms of brick and concrete detritus from the lake’s past.
            Not all the clouds were benign, some were a glowering slate colour, which occasionally formed a few passing droplets of water, but on this occasion, it seems we missed the showers; they were destined to fall elsewhere. It is on days like this that I am drawn to record the varied stages as they progress from benign, through threatening, and then disappearing leaving clear blue, or paler shades, and distant ghosts of their former shapes with lesser power, and now no longer threatening. I am not blessed with the skills to capture these shapes and colours with brushes and paints, but in case I need reminding of those fleeting moments, I record them with my cameras, and constantly envy those who are able to use painterly skills to produce them from memory or imagination.
            I may not possess the skills to create scenes of beauty and drama with paints and brushes, but I am fortunate that I am able to recognise and appreciate the splendour that occurs in nature, and value my blessing, and recognise how devastating it is for those who are sightless. Some of what I photograph may seem benign or banal, but I am grateful to have been able to witness it, and value it, and perhaps some can enjoy what I share — in this case a happy afternoon.

At Last - Busy Brogborough Lake!

        As the numbers of fully vaccinated adults has risen, there is a relaxation on gatherings; couple this with a reasonable strength wind, and the numbers attracted to the lake for windsurfing activity rose. I therefore gathered my camera and lenses and, loading the car with both a tripod and my monopod, I headed out of the village to Brogborough. I had little doubt, I would not be the earliest to arrive. I was not disappointed, but I noted that as the wind was forecast for the full day, there was no rush to the water. There was the buzz that the day would not disappoint, so haste was unnecessary, and so everyone chatted and took their time to prepare at leisure. 
        There was therefore no pressing need for me set up in haste, I also decided that with a reasonable wind, and light, I could work with my long Sigma Zoom mounted on the monopod. Once I had seen that a few sailors had completed preparations and were heading for the lake, I readied the EOS R6 with the Sigma 60-600mm lens mounted on the monopod, and strolled to the water’s edge, I took a few shots of some of the early sailors, but also the family of Canada Geese and a lone, small butterfly, after a while shooting from th jetty, I headed for the path in the woods which on occasion doubles as a cycle track, and got down to the lake shore for a different viewpoint.

        I also headed even further round the lake, but that proved worthless, beyond witnessing one lady who was having difficulty getting out of the small cove facing the wind making it difficult to return to the jetty. So I made my way back through the woods towards the sailors assembly area and jetty. I was returning fast to alert others of her predicament, but fortunately passed her husband who was heading to reach her. This trek of mine served little purpose overall beyond giving me exercise in fast walking! Most of the meaningful shots were from the area where the geese have attempted reclaiming, by putting down a deposit, as their way of saying our geese families like the area you vacated whilst under lockdown!

Life and Windsurfers Return to BrogLake

        Finally, the lake opens to admit visitors and sailors. By the time I arrived, there was plenty of activity, on shore and on the water. I headed for the jetty and set up the tripod, camera and my long zoom, the Sigma 60-600mm, which allows me to capture from the shore to the distant banks to my left and right. The first observation, was that Sam was no longer the lone Kite Surfer, nor was this an exclusively male activity.
        The light was good, and on occasions the clouds provided me with a few more images to my stock of sky scenes, as they make good backgrounds when creating cards to celebrate birthdays and other memorable dates. The wind and the recent introduction of inflatable wing sails was adding variety to the actions I was able to capture. This afternoon was a day that was a celebration of differing skill and experience levels, a day for enjoyment, and for me a real chance to use my new mirrorless camera body, and gain experience of the differences to getting sequences. I welcomed the fast action that kept me on my toes.
        There is a downside — my file sizes are large, and this gives me more images to sort through, and in some instances whilst keeping my finger on the release in anticipation of say, a jump, I consume so much time later, that I do not cull as many shots, as this delays getting the pictures up whilst there is the interest from those participating. I hope that the very long delay on this occasion does not spoil the enjoyment of recalling the activity of that weekend.
        I thoroughly enjoyed doing my best to capture the activity, and I hope there is more to come now that restrictions are beginning to be relaxed; I really hope that we can get back to some form of normality in what remains of this year. I hope that all those taking part in the action can enjoy reliving some of what I captured.

Brogborough Lake – Finally Busy!

 

            Warm weather and wind brings a return to a busier day on the lake for Windsurfers and Wingsail sailors. I join the throng and set up my trusty Sigma 60-600mm lens on my recently purchased Canon R6 and mount it on the sturdy and steady Benbo (so-called because it uses a Bent Bolt!) This tripod is very different to conventional tripods, and one of its benefits, apart from being very sturdy, it’s lower legs are sealed at the bottom, allowing it to safely stand in shallow water. I did not need this feature on this occasion, but it can be very useful for low viewpoint shooting. 

            On this occasion, it was its stable footing that was my choosing, as I was shooting from close to the water’s edge. There was another reason for choosing the Benbo, was I was trying to capture sequences when Sam was taking to the air using his wingsail. This was as much a challenge for me as for Sam, as using a mirrorless camera is difficult to keep track of moving subjects. 

            I have extracted some sequences as individual galleries, as I feel they may be helpful in studying the sequences. I enjoy the challenges of capturing such sequences from their start, by watching the telltale initial squat to launch from the water.

            Please forgive me for the interminable wait to recap your time on the water, or simply look at what went on that afternoon, but I have some serious issues to sort out regarding my getting stuff up on the Blog currently.

Brogborough – Fitful Wind

The fewer visits of Windsurfers to the lake has allowed the native avian community to reclaim the lawn in front of the Clubhouse as their latrine. To ensure the humans fully understand their claim they have put down a deposit making our navigation a tad more wary!

From the start I put up my heavy tripod, the Benbo, to give me a firm platform and a level horizon to the images I planned to capture. One sailor I had not seen in a while was Richard McKeating. Sam had alerted me to the diversity of craft the Sailors would be using on this day, and I suspect he also navigated the Three Musketeers Group into position for me to capture ‘The Gang’ — which definitely required skill in the unpredictable wind conditions; so I hope he was pleased that I took note! In return, I hope he appreciated my also capturing his square-on wing shot! — complete with level board! It also gives the impression of a winking girl! Perhaps he’ll consider an A4 print for his Man Cave?!

This visit was not the longest of my recent visits to the lake, but at least it has taken less time to reach the participants than my last recording of the lake’s activity. I commend it to the participants.

Brogborough – Most Open Day for Several Activities on the Lake

                Sorry for the overlong delay in getting any photos up on the blog this time around, but the reason is that the sunshine resulted in my making the most of the time I was down at the Lake, and the sheer volume I had then to work through has meant that even now,  I have decided to get the first half of what I recorded up, so that the pressure is relieved somewhat.

What has also not helped is that my several hard drives have filled, and my new 8TB drive has yet to be optimised for speed! So enjoy the first tranche of shots, whilst I try to get get my house tidied a tad, and then offload a separate set of even more recent shots, before going back to part two of the Brog pics.

Meantime, enjoy these. Sam, Although you caught me a bit off guard, I surprised my self by capturing a higher percentage than I had thought — but you’ll have to wait for the results in part two. I feel sure that you’ll not be disappointed! My speed currently is not as fast as I wold hope, but I am running on empty currently and it shows, and my right knee cartilage is causing grief as well; and I am only walking, not cashing the waves! Enjoy these for now, and I’ll get on with the other half, and also note, I did not miss out on the less energetic of the folk on the water. As some not insignificant actor said: “I’ll be back!”… Rod

BrogLake Windsurfers Return!

        After a long wait, Brogborough Lake opens to the activities of the Windsurfing fraternity, and the day is blessed with both wind and sunshine. The atmosphere was as boisterous as the wind, nothing could mask the joy felt by everyone that the lake was open, and the most notable change was the number of wing sails that were out on the water. The exhilaration and relief were evident in equal amounts; there was a buzz; it was a shame, I had not learned that it was opening up, as I was definitely arriving late, as many sailors had come in and I learned that I had missed much of the activity!

However, having a chance later on, I mentioned that I would have loved to come over earlier had I known that their lockdown was over. I did my best to make up for lost time, and as I had already mounted my camera on the monopod, I decided it was best not to waste more time in returning to the car for my tripod. I was lucky that we were blessed with almost constant sunshine, so I lived with the monopod, and subsequently spent  a tad more time levelling horizons in ‘post’! At least I had established that in good light, the monopod was adequate, and in part this is due to the new EOS R6 giving me a better burst rate and excellent image stabilisation due to the avoidance of shutter bounce.

Overall, my experience with the EOS R6 has meant I can now consider rationalising my lens collection and sell off those that I will be using less due the gains in performance offered by this camera body, also, keeping on the conversion ring for my. Older lenses gives me the very handy ring for speedy exposure compensation. I do have to remember when I have applied this and reset it after having taken those shots with compensation. Now I have become accustomed to this body, the stopgap EOS R may well offset some of the cost any new acquisition!

I hope the shots taken at the lake on the Windsurfers Return will be appreciated by those who participated and possibly those who did not manage to be there — as I wrote that last sentence, it struck me perhaps some entrepreneurial type might consider opening a hostelry nearby with that name to refresh those who visit this lake!

More Activity at Brogborough Lake

  School term time is around once more, so the chances of meeting up with my daughters and their families has now dwindled, and my younger daughter was uncertain as to whether she might come over. Edge to edge blue sky and a reasonable amount of wind at least here;  a short distance from the lake at Brogborough, the potential for activity on the lake was therefore high and helped make up my mind to drive over with my camera. I packed both my heavyweight gear and long lens as well as the lightweight alternative, the versatile LUMIX FZ10002.

On arrival at the Windsurfers' Car Park, the gate was open, so I presumed I was likely welcome to enter on this occasion. My surmise that the favourable conditions of sun and wind would be a magnet for members of the club proved entirely correct as for once, after a long lull due to Covid there was a good crowd onshore, and much activity on the water, with yet more preparations under way by others onshore.

I received a call from Lizzy to say they were soon to be on their way over, so that helped decide which camera I would bring out to use, the LUMIX won as it required little preparation, no tripod needed, I would be able to move around at will, and the clincher: the wind direction favoured most of the activity would be close to the near shore.

Within five minutes of my arrival I was shooting from the launch area, and after a while decided to head for the woodland path at the far end of the greensward landing and launch area. I was travelling light so made good headway through the winding path that is often used as a cycle race path, and after a brisk pace in the shade soon arrived into the sunshine and the first spot where I could make my way down the steep bank to be close to the water's edge, and get a reasonably wide angle of view of those on the water.

I stayed here for a while shooting, then climbed back up to head further round with a wider view. I moved to two more vantage points before the call came from Lizzy to say she had arrived, at which point, I stopped shooting, and at a brisk pace, headed back through the shaded woods to my car, to head for home, I did break off for a moment or two to chat to one of the newcomers to foiling, André who  had initially fashioned his own hydrofoil, before succumbing to a professional version. We had a brief conversation, before I drove home and a relaxing time with Lizzy and family. This gallery is therefore more delayed than normal before appearing.

Brogborough Lake and Blackberries

I visited the Lake hoping for some activity and at first there were only three out on the lake, so  I started to capture what was on offer, but there was a lull, so with an itching photo finger, I took to capturing some of the blackberries ripening, until more sailors took to the water.
Sam continues to work up his familiarity with the Wing Sail, in a similar way to my continuing to explore the different way of working with the particular mirrorless camera I have been using most of late, the LUMIX FZ10002. Because of the delay involved in using this camera, it is handy to learn how best to capture ongoing action, and suffer the lack of viewfinder image whilst the camera is writing to the card.
One of the drawbacks of my full-frame Canon EOS R mirrorless is its burst rate, but ironically, due to the smaller image size of the LUMIX it is slightly faster, and despite the smaller size it has commendably good quality, and being less bulky than the EOS R, it is eminently hand holdable; (its downside is it does not go out in dusty environments or rain!) whereas my seriously long Sigma lens and full frame Canon body needs the support of a tripod.
Canon have just announced the imminent launch of two more camera bodies, which have caused my Want Glands to begin to over-secrete, and this means possible inheritance funds being depleted to purchase the lesser of the two bodies to give me access to faster burst rates that it offers!
Autumn is rapidly approaching, which might save funds yet a while, as perhaps fast moving action either on the wildlife or sports fronts may well delay such fund deployment until next season, only time will tell.
It was good to capture the day's action, as it keeps my dwindling 'little grey cells' from atrophy for a while longer as this Covid season continues unabated.

Brogborough New Means of Windsurfing

I phoned Sam to see whether the wind was attracting much visiting windsurfers, and he mentioned that Yes and I might be interested in that there was also a KiteSurfer out on the Lake. That was definitely of interest as the last time I saw something like that was off the coast at Brighton some six or so years back. Fortunately before calling I had already prepared my camera, tripod and lenses, so within ten minutes I was heading towards the Lake.

The sun was out, the wind was reasonably strong, and as I glanced at the lake there was some activity, and as I was putting the tripod up, I caught sight of the kitesurfer, so got the EOS 7D out, added the 2x Converter to my Sigma 60-600mm and got the legs extended on the Benbo tripod and mounted the camera and lens, wrapped a scarf around my neck and locking the car headed for the jetty, but sadly, even though I had not intended being on it, only the support scaffold remained, seemingly recent winds had torn it from supporting structure. Also, in the short time setting up my camera, the KiteSurfer, had come ashore!

I set up from the grassy bank as the wind was throwing spume in the air as the waves hit the shore below me. I was soon shooting away and then caught sight, of our new visitor and his kite sail, and since at least for me this was a new feature for me here, I spent some time trying to capture his efforts in situations that epitomised his sail and stance — I was also able to capture some dramatic moments when the wind scored more beneficially, against him! The sailor was certainly determined as on each occasion that I witnessed he was very soon back up again — spurred on possibly by the temperature of the water!

After a while of my adding to the number of images that I would be having to process, the lake emptied, and I decided that I would curtail that later amount of time in front of a computer screen, and headed off, but not before chatting to a Polish man with a similar length telephoto, to whom after a chat I gave him my card. I also headed toward the Kite surfer who was just beginning to drive off, to whom I showed a few of the shots of him that I had taken and I passed him my card too. I bought a cup of tea from Sam before leaving, to start loading images back at base, and start selecting, cropping and adjusting them and creating a gallery to appear here on the blog.

Brogborough Lake Two Brave Sailors

A bright sun and a brisk wind was enough to entice me to find the time to visit the lake, even though my daughter, her husband and their two children were due to pay me a visit. The failure of my boiler meant that there was little to keep me from venturing out, and a bright sun and brisk wind favoured the odds that there would be some hardy souls grabbing the chance to take advantage of the wind to go windsurfing.

For similar reasons, there was a window of opportunity open to me to drive over and get some photographs, before the arrival of my family, and the generous delivery of an additional electric radiator to bolster the efforts of mine. I was however arriving late due to my needing to tidy the house in preparation for the onslaught of two young grandchildren, and the need to ensure my daughter and her husband could not criticise me for a lack of either tidiness or cleanliness! So, by the time I had arrived, the two sailors had been braving the bitter wind for at least two hours, and I was only witnessing the tail end of the sailors’ energy.

So, I feel I was very lucky to capture the number of shots I did in the short time I spent at the lake, and even more so capture a single jump; whether there had been more prior to my arrival, I did not learn. I certainly was far from disappointed in my brief visit; the only frustration was that I had gone back to using the. Sigma 60-600mm with its 1.4x Converter on the 7D MkII, and I failed to get control of the focussing square to alter where my sensor was positioned — whether this was finger-trouble on my part, or not, this was not the time to go searching for the answer, so that was a slight irritation, that comes about from jumping between different camera models, and the debilitating feature of increasing ‘Anno Domini’ or diminishing mental faculties! I now will explore that later (which does seem to be an oxymoron!)

To have captured one jump in the short time I was at the lake has to be considered a bonus, and because the activity was short lived, gave me more time to tidy the house before my family arrived.

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 Test of Lumix FZ1000 MkII

The weather brightened for a while, and enticed me to consider taking just the Lumix FZ 1000 MkII, the mirrorless body with a fixed zoom equal to 25-400mm, out to the lake at Brogborough. Since there was a reasonable wind blowing I anticipated there would be windsurfers out on the water to take advantage.

  By the time I was ready to leave, much of the promise of sunshine was rapidly dwindling, but the chance to find out how this camera might perform was too great a draw, and my only slight disappointment was just how few sailors had decided to grab the opportunity. Certainly, compared to setting up my Sigma 60-600mm on the heavy Benbo tripod, to ready this camera, was a mere matter of removing the soft cover and switching the power on – a breeze!

  It was not long before I had taken a few shots of the meagre number of windsurfers who were out on the lake, and I broke off to chat to some of those on the lakeside, before seeing just how effective this new ‘toy’ was able to perform; certainly compared to the Sigma, this was way short in terms of the size of image I was accustomed to expect at the long lens end, so I needed to position myself as close to the shore as possible, even at the long end of the range, since the sailors were at a reasonable distance from me. At first this seemed a bit of a disappointment, but once I had ‘chipped and zoomed in on the shots I had managed, I was fairly happy with the results. The cloud cover had increased from the start, but after I had taken some two hundred images, of which I would only use a mere forty-five, I felt I had enough material to look through and assess this camera’s potential for use here in the future. My conclusion after creating the gallery, was that if time was short and this camera were at hand, it would definitely be usable, but it certainly was never going to provide the same coverage I can get with my Sigma Sports lens, more especially as that is absolutely excellent when I also can attach the 2x Converter!

  I now knew if this camera was with me, and there was activity on the lake, I did have an excellent backstop to capture some action. As a technical reference, these were all taken at ISO 2000, so the quality achievable is more than adequate. I now know there is still more potential here once I really understand how to get the best out of it.

A Short and Late Lake Visit

Upon my arrival, I did not realise that though it was still early afternoon, I was already late, since almost everyone had come in the morning and my hope of action was doomed as many of the sailors I would have found adventurous had now come ashore. 

I did set up my camera and was using the 60-600mm with the 2x Converter on the EOS R body, mounted on the Benbo tripod, and the head I had on was the Acrotech Long Lens Head, which was the most suitable to try to maintain the horizon level, yet be able to pan smoothly and allow some movement vertically. However, the best uninterrupted viewing position was on the landing stage which is not the stablest of platforms when there is a good wind blowing, but does offer the widest uninterrupted view.

There was a youngster being helped by his father upon my arrival, and after some help, the young lad was soon aloft, and so these were my opening shots, and it was apparent that he had some prior experience despite some early hesitation.

This particular visit was not my most productive, but it is helpful to me to establish which items of kit work best when I use the EOS R, so that everything becomes second nature. In speaking to Barry Rivett, I learned he had been wondering about using a mirrorless body, so with everything locked on the camera, I went over to where he was chatting with another windsurfer, and suggested that he might like to take a look through the lens, to see what it was like, and as I answered some of his questions, I think it helped to help him make up his mind about whether to consider a similar investment.

The shots I took on this occasion were at least a record, and from a personal perspective were useful, but were definitely not overly exciting, but served a purpose, and I did get an opportunity to strike up a few interesting conversations with others, some unrelated to sports photography, and one interesting exchange on the political situation in relation to Brexit, and possible ramifications.

A Windy Thursday at Brogborough & a Digression

It was initially my intention to use a sturdier tripod to take a shot of an ex-Country House, now exclusive residential flats. They are 2.66 kilometres from where I was standing when I first took a shot of the building a few evenings back.

But since wind is a prerequisite for exciting windsurfing images, I dropped into the Brogborough Windsurfing Car Park first, and found that although there were a couple of sailors out on the water, they seemed to be making the most of the wind to travel the length of the lake and gybe, whereas I had been hoping for the more invigorating and exciting; jumping.

I stayed awhile in case I was wrong, and had a brief chat with Sam, before considering revisiting the location on the outskirts of Stewartby from which I had earlier taken shots of this distant building, which nestles beneath trees that form the boundary of Ampthill Park.

My interest in this building is akin to HMS Belfast, which used to be a longterm Lens Test subject for Amateur Photographer, well-known to ‘Smudgers’ of a certain age (‘Smudgers’ being a term once used to describe early photographers).

         I wanted to check out just how good a distant detail could be when using the Sigma Sports lens with their 2x Converter. Although, I did take some images with greater detail, the wind and much lower light value proved to be the limiting factor! I did manage to get a few shots, but sadly the cloud cover meant there were not the crisp shadows of my earlier shots. But I did my best to limit the camera movement by using a shutter release cable. The long lens and lens hood were almost as efficient as a Windsurfer’s sail, as it seemed to be blowing a gale here!

This is the detail of the front door!

And this is the full uncropped frame from which it was taken:

           That you can recognise individual bricks which were over two and a half kilometres away, is remarkable!  This distance I have since verified from Google Earth!

Having taken these shots, I returned to Brogborough, and now there were a few more Windsurfers on the Lake. I saved myself some time by only removing the camera and lens from the tripod, so that on arrival, I took out a far more robust tripod, and was soon capturing shots with far more action, where a certain amount of blur only adds to the images.

One set of images, which is of Phil Ashton is a sequence from Frame 71 to 77, really impressed me – had I stopped after a couple of frames I would have missed the very successful continuation of the move, because, at first glance it looked unrecoverable, but his skill became apparent from the outcome! That sequence really made my day, In an earlier posting, I had not known his name, but have since put that right, as it definitely deserved a mention.

         This was not one of my lengthier visits, but provided me with some interesting images, and I worked out a far better assembly of tripod and head for the future, so the time was well spent.

Click here to take you to the Gallery of Windsurfing  images

        I stayed just long enough to know that there were to be no more Jumps for me to capture and I headed back to sort through the images and prepare this entry, having had a worthwhile day's shooting.

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 Lake — Slightly Less High Wind

I missed out on the Gale Force winds at the Lake, but on the Sunday, it was less fierce so naturally attracted a range of different levels of windsurfer skills. It was interesting to not that André had come along with a commercial hydrofoil, and was finding it far easier to remain aloft, and with less effort than when using his own self-designed and manufactured model. I managed to discuss this with him, and since has more experience, he will revert to his own one to check out its handling relative to his new found knowledge, to assess how much his earlier difficulties related specifically to his design, or to his inexperience. I look forward to learning his thoughts on that.

When I arrived for this visit I did not immediately set up the camera, as I was keen to see whether there were to be some jumpers amongst those attending, and learned from Sam there was at least one possible contender. That slim possibility encouraged me to set up the Benbo tripod and attach the EOS R complete with the 2x Converter, which was one of the primary motives for my getting further experience of using this combination in a sporting situation. The issue is tracking a fast moving subject whilst retaining autofocus, and panning accurately when I know there is a lag involved in my viewfinder relative to the accurate tracking of the subject, especially when trying to keep that subject close to full-screen. What I have been doing is breaking the sequence into short, but linked exposures whilst panning, so any delay does not affect the overall capture too adversely.

There are two separate issues in relation to panning a moving subject, one is maintaining the subject in frame due to this lag, the second is tracking the autofocus point due to the lag; it is this overall aspect I am trying to understand due to the difference between mirrorless and DSLRs — the panning with the latter is comparatively easy to master, since every frame your eye sees is live and accurate, despite the interruption. With a mirrorless camera, every frame compounds the discrepancy so your eye is misled as this delay increases with the length of the action being covered. The obvious, but expensive option is a co-processor channel for the viewfinder, separated from that which is being recorded; in that way the delay remains constant rather than being compounded over the length of the sequence.

Since I am not in a position of having limitless funds available, such an option is likely to be out of my range, so I need to find a happy medium technique that lessens this effect. Another possibility does spring to my mind, and that is have a setting that feeds say, every third frame to the viewfinder to avoid the user having to keep removing pressure on the shutter release; this would have the effect of limiting the delay extending over an extended period. A point I think I need to discuss with Canon. This option would seem possible within the firmware and a means of selecting this option made available within the menu.

Having thought this through since making the jump to Canon’s full frame body, I have put this to Canon UK, but other than acknowledge that I am not the first to make this suggestion, no further feedback or discussion is possible, so perhaps other readers of this blog might also put this suggestion through to Canon, such that it is given due attention going forward. An implementation within the camera’s operating system, if viable, would certainly help the transition from dSLR to mirrorless which would seem in Canon’s best interest in the future.

End of thoughts on that side of the technology, enjoy the fruits of my labours of capturing those who were enjoying the wind and adding to their sailing skills on the water’s surface, or above it in the case of those venturing into hydrofoiling.

A Photographer and Two Lakes

Many photographers tend to avoid others of a similar persuasion, I have noted this from my own career, that is not to say it is a characteristic of all, but certainly a goodly number. The irony is that several photographers with whom I can call friends, and with whom I can relate predominately avoid the company of those with whom you would consider they had the most in common, and therefore the greater chance of sharing interests. On Friday, one such came out to meet up with me, and in general he would admit that he tends not to seek out the company of other ‘Smudgers’ — a term historically used to describe early photographers, however I am tolerated. Perhaps I am too thick to perceive that he humours me and does not wish to hurt my feelings.

I will not embarrass him by giving his name, but he accepted my invitation to venture into the environs of Marston Moretaine, and I just wanted to take him to some of the venues I attend in pursuit of photography now that Social Media has largely decimated our careers as practising photographers. It meant that when discussing places I frequent in my insatiable desire to preserve in images that capture places, atmosphere, beauty, creatures, sports, curiosities, buildings, people, whatever… there would be at least some idea of where or what these might be.

Having travelled from London, we first had a sociable cup of tea, then drove to Marston Lake, where I wanted to see whether the bird life had returned after the apparent visit from some Mink, but there was a single swan, so the Grebe pair I had earlier captured on a nest in the reeds, had left, as had fortuitously, the Cormorants which must have pleased the Anglers.

This was as much a check on whether the birds had returned, as enlightening my colleague. We then drove on to my more frequently visited lake which was home to the Windsurfers — Brogborough Lake, and I was pleasantly surprised that despite only a mild breeze, did have a few sailors visiting. What was even more encouraging was that Jeff, a seasoned windsurfer had finally been tempted to give hydrofoiling a go, and Sam who runs the place had updated his hydrofoil, and both were due out on the Lake. This meant our trip was about to go up a gear, and I tentatively got my friends acceptance to take a few pictures. Yes, I had brought along my gear, but only on the off chance, so readied my tripod, EOS R and 60-600mm Sigma with its 1.4 x Converter for action. After some shooting, mainly of Jeff and Sam, I felt my time was up, and started to pack it all away, when suddenly it looked as if both hydrofoilers were actually going to be reasonably close together for me to get both in one shot, but that decision to stop had made I missed a fabulous shot of both aloft, and with one sweeping in arc behind the other, but I did get some with both in close formation, so with that I did dismantle everything and we left.

We headed back to my place and then walked to the local church with its separated tower, and its legend of the Devil separating each! We had some more tea and biscuits before my successful photographer friend headed back for London, and I set in motion the task of creating a gallery of images to put up on the blog, which went live in the early hours of Sunday morning after I had completed this narrative of our time together. One thing we did discuss was to rekindle our effort to produce photographic images that graphically display puns or ‘double entendres’. In the past we had created ‘A Glass Half-full’ and ‘Burning the Candle at Both Ends’. Back then I had made a list of ‘Bon Mots’, but since at the time we both had plenty of work these all fell by the wayside. However, I would very much like to rekindle the idea, as photomontage is something I enjoy.