Michael Berger came up with a cool project to attach some LED lights to the sail of Andy Lachauer and shoot some crazy night shots. The project took six months to plan and here is Michael’s story:

Words and Pics: Michael Berger

Why should you get up at 4 a.m., pack your windsurf foil and hit the water? Sounds completely absurd at first. However, if you want to light up the night with LEDs and a windsurfer, there is a good reason not least to create a breathtaking photo. The planning for one of my largest projects began months earlier. A pre-test in the garden and location scouting followed. With Andy Lachauer I was able to find the perfect rider who knows every corner of the Kochelsee like the back of his hand.

The challenge could begin and we took on the components of wind, time and technology. We were able to learn our lessons from the first pre-shooting, both in terms of attaching the LEDs and the timing of the shooting. On the final day of the shooting we got up an hour earlier than the first time and as life goes, everything turned out differently than planned.

The Walchensee was our planned location but the wind was very light at 4 a.m. and so we moved to the Kochelsee for another quick setup.When we changed from Walchensee to the Kochelsee, it became a race against time. When I arrived at the Trimini, I set everything up again. We for around 30 minutes until the wind completely died.

A few hours later, storm “Kirsten” conjured up a smile on every windsurfer and myself with whitecaps on Lake Starnberg.

What a day for the books!