Manchester Histories Festival 2012 Celebration Day

I would like to thank everybody who took the time to stop by my stand at the Manchester Histories Festival at the Town Hall yesterday. It was a great event with lots of interesting people and stands. Thanks also to all the people who tried their very best to sit still long enough to have a plate taken of them.

We made most of my spot in one the big bay windows which just allowed us to shoot some head and shoulder portraits and along with the ever changing Manchester weather we shot a total of 19 plates in seven hours. What with the shooting, chatting and explaining the process by the end of the day my throat was a just a little ragged.

The wooden suitcase I adapted for this event worked perfectly. Lighting was a little problematic as we were using window light from over the subjects shoulder bounced back in with a reflector up real close. Even with this, exposures were ranging from 20 to 50 seconds later in the day. Well done to everyone for having a crack at sitting so still for such long times….I promise its not always that long…..honest.

So first the test plate, of my long suffering assistant for the day, Steph (Thanks again for all her hard work), this gave us a guide time of 20 seconds and I still had to push the development time to get the image hence it being a little grainy.

These two gents were from the Greater Manchester Fire Service Museum and were sporting some historical head gear…

Then followed some of Greater Manchester Police Museum staff and volunteers…

These two plates were shot 15 minutes apart and the lighting couldn’t have been more different, one under and one over exposed, a shame as the young lady had piercing blue eyes.

And thanks also to all the members of the public who took such an interest in what I was getting up to.

This plate baffled me at the time as I thought I had grossly over exposed the plate, it wasn’t till later in the day I realised the sun had come out during the exposure and applied flare to the lens. (I’ve tweeked it slightly in PS).

This young lad was the last plate I shot on the day, he had a great attempt at 50 seconds.

Also thanks to Claire Turner and all the other staff involved in putting on such a great week of events.

This plate was a quick shot through the window of where I was working, there was a Unison demo on at the time, not that you can tell.

Roll on Spring and then the Summer for lots of glorious UV light… fingers crossed.