kites are fun

kites are fun
It's amazing what the power of the lens can do.
It dragged me out of the stupor I usually find myself in when the school term has finally ended. This morning my body felt like I'd just crawled on my elbows ( boot camp-style...in the mud) through WWIII- and if you teach you'll understand when I say that a Concert Term in the middle of winter is the equivalent of trench warfare. You can't see where you're going, you never see sunlight and the only things keeping you going are the hip flask and postcards from home.

Anywayyyy, I had to go and buy some electricity so I decided to kill two birds and take the Sigma for a walk on the beach. There is a special little hell reserved for all those privileged enough to find themselves living in the coastal town of the Strand.... The Wind. It blows there. A lot.
So I wasn't too surprised to find it really pumping (as the windsurfers lovingly refer to a gale). I sat in my car in disgust and then realised that I couldn't keep Sigma wrapped up in cotton wool for ever. If she were to be my walkabout  lens she'd have to just get out there and be exposed to the elements. So I drove down to the surfers' end and to my delight found the sky festooned with brightly coloured kites. And surfers hanging on down below for dear life.
Telephoto time.

The wind was freezing and I got earache in my left ear, but it was also wonderfully exhilarating.
I won't bore you with the technical details. It always takes me forever to work out the right settings (I'm stubbornly staying in manual mode) and it's a kind of hit and miss thing still. These are the hits. Hopefully.

 

While the kite surfers were creating intrinsically beautiful and colourful whoops and sweeps across the shoreline a bit further down the beach, others were trying to look cool but only managing the bloody-hell-it's-freezing look.

 

They were shooting an ad for something or other. A small patch of sand was littered with skinny models wrapped up to their noses in beach towels. And some guy with a loudhailer kept shouting 'OK people, I know it's cold but we need you to....' etc etc....

This extra had the right idea...

You gotta get off your butt.

 

And shoot the breeze.

 Go fly a kite.

More kites and things at my Flickr site.

PS- Check out the Youtube vid link under the title. Love this song and the video is quirky, cute and just perfect.