In this photograph you can see the Henley regatta course. 

I had often stood on Henley Bridge looking down the regatta course in the opposite direction to this. I noticed a hill that appeared to have the full view of the course at the opposite end. I tried getting close to the spot on various footpaths but couldn’t see down the course properly. In the end I found out who the landowner was and asked permission to go on his land. It was lucky that I did because no more than 5 minutes after I got in to position an off road vehicle turned up with a couple of large gentlemen on board who were keen to enquire as to my business being there!

The regatta course is a couple of kilometres long and I wanted to create a real sense of perspective. I was standing about two kilometres from the bottom edge of the photo. I tried various lenses and settled on using an 800mm focal length. That has the effect of bringing everything in the picture much closer.

I had to take this as a single shot because the boats were moving pretty quickly. The sky was really bright so I ramped up the shutter speed to try to remove some of the glare. It left a really nice painterly feel.

Looking at the picture St Mary’s church tower clearly stands out. You will notice a lot of trees that appear to surround the church which are part of Harpsden woods which is another few kilometres behind the church. Overall this picture has a range of 6-7km.

On initial inspection the photo looks like it could have been taken 100 years ago. I have left some clues as to its real age… take a look at the top just in front of the church and you will notice a couple of modern cars!