Paraballet


Annecy, Haute Savoie, France.

Annecy is famous for its beautiful lake and the mountains that surround it and during the summer months it is a mecca for cyclists and those that indulge in loftier pastimes and one of these is paragliding. I headed up the mountain to watch them lift off and looked skywards to see dozens of these colourful billowing crescent sails wheeling around in fairly tight circles to catch the thermals that would lift them ever higher. I took a few shots before having my own personal epiphany. A single ball shaped puff of cotton wool cloud a little off centre was up in the sky doubtless a few hundred metres above the paragliders. It occurred to me that that I could force the wheel of gliders to circle that cloud by the sheer expedient of running a couple of hundred metres or so sideways. By the time I got there the cloud had started to split so with heart pounding and the ISO raised to 1600 I grabbed the shot and examined the result incredibly all but one paraglider was separate from all the others others. I realised I could make the image into a square crop with the cloud completely central in the target frame. Eureka!

1 Like

This is great. It is a special moment in time for capturing some crazy paragliders risking collisions. It was well worth risking a cardiac event to get in position. :grinning:

Cover shot: Paraglider Monthly
TY

That solo cloud anchors the whole image. Well done!