Lent Bumps

This week is Bumps week in Cambridge.  Four days of frenetic rowing on the river which is too narrow for conventional racing, so the college crews race in the idiosyncratic way which (I think) us only used in Oxford & Cambridge.  Those who achieve a bump by catching the boat in front of them pull over to the side of the river and the victors gather leafy branches from the hedgerow with which to bedeck themselves for the journey back to their boathouses.  I decided this year to try for more shots of individual rowers or subsections of crews; out of 22 pictures below, only 2 show the whole boat.  On the whole I find that shots of a complete rowing eight are not satisfactory unless one can get two side by side or one bumping another for real drama.  Sadly there were no bumps in sight whilst I was patrolling this afternoon.  Here are a selection of what I did get:

Striving for the finish

Watching the following crew making up ground

It's tough at the end

To the victors, the spoils

Going down to the start

Going hard for the line

Shooting the railway bridge

Triumph!

First Division ladies going to the start

A red hippo coxing!

London Velodrome

I visited the London Velodrome in the Olympic Park for the first time on Monday.  It has long been one of the place that I wanted to take photographs and a work colleague invited me to join him there when he was being assessed for a licence to take part in track racing.  Each rider has to go through quite rigorous training and assessment before they are let loose on the boards in anger.  This means that the riders that I shot were not competing, but it enabled me to assess where to get the best shots. I also practiced a spot of pan & blur with long shutter speeds - this seemed to be most effective on the guy with the four-spoke front wheel which gives a very pleasing effect with the long shutter speed whereas the conventional spokes just disappear!  I now need to go back when there is real competition in progress

Horses in training - Newmarket

I spent yesterday around Newmarket with a group guided by Mark Pain and Chris Bourchier, both Sunday Times Sports Photographers.

These shots were taken on Warren Hill, Newmarket Heath, Pegasus Stables and Cadland Cottage stables.

A day out to Wicken Fen Nature reserve with the RPS Nature Group

I went out for the the day to try my hand at Nature Photography.  As I suspected, it is not simple! some 40 RPS members and guests came for the day - the sight of the array of expensive lenses and cameras laid out on the picnic tables was a little arresting. Sadly I did not get close enough to a short-eared owl to get a shot, but I was pleased to have at least got a recognisable shot of a barn owl as well as several geese, ducks and a moorhen