MichaelBagleyPhoto's Blog

We spent yesterday bouncing around the Bay, chasing the Lightnings at the Lightning Atlantic Coast Championship, hosted by the Toms River Yacht Club. The wind was stiff, hovering around 15 knots out of the south.  While certainly it was refreshing on a hot humid day, it stirred up the water out on Barnegat Bay, giving the sailors (and us!) some, well, interesting conditions to work with.  We were impressed with the skills and abilities of all of the crews as they screamed around the buoys reaching speeds of five and six knots into the weather, and taking bona fide sleigh rides once they flew their spinnakers.  It seemed as though there were one hundred boats in the fleet, and with that many boats sailing in those conditions it was a testament to the talent on the water that there were no major incidents.  Even the best sailors, though, can get caught out by a rogue puff of breeze here and there, and we consider witnessing several sailboats capsize as the events that will be remembered as the most exciting of the day (especially when we can caught them with our cameras!).

Lightnings are small, 19-foot centerboard sloops, and were once considered a high tech racing sailboat.  Designed in 1938 by Sparkman and Stephens, they are hard chined hulls with large sail areas for their size.  Though other more modern designs gain popularity in certain locales, Lightnings have never lost their appeal, and there are racing fleets, both junior and adult, all over the United States.   Barnegat Bay has a 50-year tradition of Lightning races, and there currently exist about a dozen clubs in the area. We have no doubts that there were some locals among the excellent competition out on the water, and we hope their familiarity with Barnegat Bay gave them an edge.

Our post about Top 5 Photography Tips (see below) addressed the challenge of shooting a moving object from a moving object.  The key to success on a day with choppy seas and three or four foot waves is timing.  I was reminded how frustrating it can be to try to juggle the movement of your boat and the movement of your subject and get the shot you want. Last week I worked on getting a good feel for how our sturdy Viewfinder moves when floating idly or running slowly in the water. Being mindful of the movement of our boat through the waves, and training my brain to predict when we would be cresting or coming down from a swell, helped me this weekend when the conditions were less predictable.  We were happy to come away with more than 400 usable images from our afternoon shoot.  This zen-like focus, however, did not save Mike nor myself from the occasional dousing of both human and camera.  It is fair to say that the cameras dealt with it better than the humans.

Our photos are available for purchase at michaelbagleyphoto.shutterbugstorefront.com.  We hope you will take a look to see the action from Saturday.

~Danise