Surfing the Solent

This photo was taken on one of the last sunny but very windy days of last Autumn (September 2017). We had actually gone out with the intention of shooting wildfowl at Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve at Meon Shore, but they just weren't playing ball. I am guessing they were sheltering from the conditions, and those that were visible were just too far away for my lens even on a crop sensor.

So we packed up our gear and walked back to the car which by this time was getting wet due to the waves breaching the sea wall. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't a storm but a high tide combined with a brisk south-easterly wind does have an impact on the waves.... My colleague just happened to look West and saw these shapes in the sky and suggested popping along to see if we could battle the light and the weather to get some workable shots.

We parked in one of the car parks at Hill Head (midway between Meon Shore and Lee on Solent) and walked across the shingle beach with realisitically no hope of finding a sheltered spot. There were several sailboard and kitesurfers enjoying the conditions on this day and performing some pretty cool aerial stunts which saw them spinning and somersaulting several tens of feet up in the air - we managed to get quite a few action shots that we hadnt planned on when we went out.

It was however this shot that I most loved once I had gotten home and uploaded them to my laptop... with the moody looking clouds, the tumbling sea and the green 'kite' perfectly positioned on the top and left third of the frame. The conditions weren't kind so this image did require a little post processing to boost the colours, but it was a struggle to make the scene look natural therefore I elected to give this an HDR painterly treatment - I hope you like it.