4am: Where's the fog?

It's that time again. Literally. It's 4 in the morning on the last weekend in June and I'm standing by the River Thames considering my options for capturing images of 500 swimmers jumping into the river and racing downstream to the town of Henley-on-Thames.The annual Henley Swim event has grown in popularity every year and this year was no exception, with entries up by 100% on last year the organisers had to run four separate waves of swimmers compared to last year's two.Last year, the Henley Swim was one of the most picturesque events I shot, the cold air temperature created some beautiful early morning mist from the unseasonably warm water. This year both the air and water temperatures were around 17 degrees. So no aesthetically pleasing mist this time around. However, everyone was more than ready to get into the river and, photographically, the muted dawn colour palette had me thinking about about black and white and lots of (high iso) grain.At 4:30am the first wave crossed the start line of the Henley Regatta course, and headed down the river. I shot the first and second heat starts and then headed of down the river myself to capture the finish. I only just made it, these guys are quick!The first heat, and mens' event was won by multi-sport athlete Richard Stannard in a time of 26:22 with the rest of the field following in quickly behind. (Full results here)This is a great event and the increasing number and range of people taking part is a good indicator of the growing popularity of open water swimming in the UK. Who knows, maybe someday this'll be part of the main Henley Regatta schedule, at least that would help with the 4am caffeine shakes!
2011-06-26 Henley Swim 2011 - Images by SLIK Images Sports Photography