Temple Island
Temple Island on the River Thames is a frequently photographed subject. Most photos are taken from the eastern river bank a few hundred metres away from the island. I wanted to create a different image and take advantage of the compression that a long lens allows you to create.
The Henley Reach is famous for Henley Regatta, an elite rowing event started in 1839. It utilises one of the longest straight sections on the upper Thames and has a course length of 1 mile 550 yards (2.11 km). If I could find a spot where you can look directly down the course for the full length I thought I could get a better picture.
I stood at point A, just on the road next to the river on its west bank.
Temple Island is a bit over 2km away at point B. The regatta course starts at the northern end of the island on its east side.
The hill above Greenlands at point C gives the back drop, that’s a further kilometre or so behind the island
I made a short video on my iPhone showing my set up for the photo. You can see how far away Temple Island was!
I was using my Sony A1 with 400 GM glass.
Settings were 400mm, f4.0, 1/50, ISO 100.
The final image
Bonus…
After taking the photograph above I wondered how a reversal of the image might look. You can see from the map that the river is very straight at Henley-on-Thames and indeed the regatta course is set out over the straight section that you can see.
Looking at the map, I thought that I might be able to get a decent image from just to the west of point C on the map. This is very much private land with an active security force so I wrote to the landowner who gave me permission to take a photo. This was good planning because within a couple of minutes of setting up my tripod a pickup with security detail had approached me!
I thought I would wait for the Henley Regatta qualifying races to try to take this photo as there would be some real interest on the course. I also wanted to capture St Mary’s Church in the centre of Henley. The church was just behind me and to my left when I took the first image.
I used my 400GM and found the best image with the 2.0x multiplier, so the picture is taken at 800mm. I am about 1km behind the lowest point you can see in the photo and the church is about 3.5km away. My guess is the far trees are several km further back. My settings were ISO 100, f7.1, 1/500 sec.
The event that you can see is qualifying for the Wargrave Challenge Cup, and event for senior women’s eights.
I chose monochrom as I liked the way that it looked and it also helped to avoid a slight washing out I was getting from reflections on the river. I may return to this in the middle of the regatta if the weather remains good. During the main regatta the banks will be packed with spectators and the river will be full of pleasure boats outside of the course. This will create incredible colours. I don’t have filters for the 400GM but need to use that lens to get to 800mm. I may be able to use my 100-400GM with a 1.4x and adapt my 82mm filters to see if that creates a workable result.
