Round the Island Race Panoramic

[brian1208]

An early morning start saw us sitting on Hurst Point waiting for the boats to approach the Needles Lighthouse.

The wind was light, just a gentle onshore breeze generated by the sun warming the land and the sky a rather hazy blue with promise of great heat to come later

At the point I took this series of shots (there are around 8 in this section) to create the panoramic image the line of boats must have been in excess of 14 miles, running from the start at Cowes, around the Needles and well past the mainland on the south side of the Island.

I added a bit of sky detail using Perfect Photo Suite 8 from LR5.5

Shot using the EM-1 + 50-200mk1 (which performed excellently for me )

(this is only a section of the full panoramic I created but I realised that I go a bit carried away, so trimmed it back to the area of main interest)

What do you think?

[Wee man]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

Looks well, some number of boats in your shot.

[PeterBirder]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

That's a great image Brian.

Looks a bit like the marine equivalent of the M25.

Thanks for sharing.

[brian1208]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

Thanks Ed and Peter

Looks a bit like the marine equivalent of the M25

exactly how I saw it, on a sunny bank holiday

Some of the boats took over 14 hours to complete the journey (almost as long as it seems to take coming from our son's house in Essex back home to Christchurch on a bad journey )

[brian1208]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

I've just run off a 5ft print of this and it looks a bit tasty, could be another candidate for our exhibition in September

[IainMacD]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

Great shot Brian, which one is leading?

[brian1208]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

Thanks Iain, the one in front is usually in the lead (but they are hiding round the back of the IOW by this time )

[Phill D]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

It looks great to me. Just how did you manage to get a pano like that of such a dynamic subject? I could only spot one possible duplicate yacht.

[brian1208]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

thanks Phil,

Just how did you manage to get a pano like that of such a dynamic subject

the trick here is that it was anything but dynamic, the fastest motion was the sideways drift from the current, I reckon about 4 knots, the forward speed of most of the fleet was probably 2-3 knots max, so what I was essentially shooting was a mass of boats static in relationship to each other, drifting slowly sideways

One duplicate, where - tell me now!

(I very carefully checked during the blending process and did have to do a bit of manual correction to the overlaps in PS but looking at the larger print what I thought was a possible duplicate (or two) was in that class of boat with the grey / blue sail, but having checked sail numbers etc I couldn't find any (doesn't of course mean there aren't any )

[Zuiko]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

I've just run off a 5ft print of this and it looks a bit tasty, could be another candidate for our exhibition in September

Absolutely - make sure you enter it in the exhibition gallery!

My first thought when I saw this was that it gives a new meaning to "The Needles," with masts and sails of the distant yachts forming a pattern like dozens of sharp teeth.

[brian1208]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

Thanks John, I see what you mean, that hadn't struck me

make sure you enter it in the exhibition gallery

Is there one somewhere on the site then John? (still finding my way around after all this time )

[Phill D]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

9 and 13 sails to the right of the lighthouse? Or maybe they are different?

[PeterBirder]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

Thanks John, I see what you mean, that hadn't struck me



Is there one somewhere on the site then John? (still finding my way around
after all this time )

Try this one Brian.

http://e-group.uk.net/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/1800

Regards.

[brian1208]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

It does look as if they may be duplicates doesn't it Phil but I've gone back to the full sized images and they are different sail numbers in the same class, the one in the "9" position ends with 427 and the one in "13" is 431 ending.

Also, the position of the cross tack yachts is different, in the 9 position the yacht is going to pass astern of 427 whereas 431 has a yacht of the same class as that crossing behind 9 crossing in front of its bow.

Its always a problem when you have "class" starts in a big race like this, it used to be a real problem when I was stuck ashore as "officer of the day" trying to keep track of boats in the days before transponders (all done by mk1 eyeball, binoculars and pencil and paper in those days ) I much preferred to be out in the boat racing

[brian1208]

Re: Round the Island Race Panoramic

Thanks Peter, found it and uploaded the image