Manchester Pride Dinner: Photography Highlights (@manchesterpride)

This week's Friday blogging conveniently follows last night's photography at the Manchester Pride Dinner!

The evening started in the VIP bar (one of the suites at the Palace Hotel), beautifully laid out (if a little behind schedule!)



Here's Angie, one of the other photographers who did Pride with me, posing obviously with Graham Norton! Graham hosted the evening and I thought he was fantastic, not everything went smoothly and he came across as a very clever, warm and talented man. (I didn't get a photo with me I'm afraid!)



When everyone left the bars to go to the Grand Hall me and Angie were waiting by two photo walls to give everyone a chance to have a photo taken. It was a mad half hour made better by photographs of...

people I know



people who have big smiles :)



And beautiful people



The hall looked amazing. 450 people!



All the faces of Pride were there



I love the smoke in this one of Sir Ian, I had to turn it black and white!





On the right of this picture is the lovely James who gave me wine, thanks!



The big act of the night was Pam Ann, I had to google her before the event ;) but actually she was very funny I thought (although I don't hear everything when photographing, one of the down sides!)



Pam targeted Pride festival director, Jackie, for a bit and I have a lovely sequence of reactions







I hope I get extra brownie points for these next two of Graham Norton clearly showing the Pride logo! Great for press right?





That second one is Graham drawing the raffle, then there was a big auction, and then a band, and dancing!





All in all a great night I thought, thanks for asking me along, are there really no more Pride events until next year...?

Still Moving: A Series of Polyperspective Portraits. Project Complete

In just over an hour I am going to present and hand in my Still Moving project for my MA Creative Technology course at Salford University. And as I have been documenting the whole journey on here is seems appropriate to do a conclusion posting.

To see all the historical postings just follow the New Media Artist label.

If you would like to read my full 4000 word report of my project you can download the PDF here.

Here are the videos of my completed portraits

Tom



May



Jo



It's been a long journey getting here but I am extremely happy with the finished result, particularly because of how professional they look. Thank you to everyone who took my questionnaire, 94% of you thought the finished product suited display in the home and the rest only saw the work online so I think I could convince you ;)

All my opinions and the questionnaire results are in the PDF linked above so I'd just like to use this blog posting to throw in some thank you's.

A big thank you to my subjects, Nadine and May, Jo and particularly Tom for being the first and going through that learning curve with me.
A massive thank you to Chris for the support and understanding and technical help right up to the last second, and through adverse conditions.
Thanks to Darren and the team at In The Frame in Sale, they are so beautiful!
Thank you to Cath who helped me set up my exhibition on the last day she wanted to see me!
Thanks to Sarah H for taking as long over her project as mine so that I've never felt on my own, see you at the presentation!
Thank you everyone who has commented on my blog and Facebook and who took the questionnaire.
And thank you to the people who came to my exhibition and said such lovely things!

This isn't an award, that's enough :)

Feel free to add comments, I love to hear what people think even the negative stuff!

My Exhibition and Portraits Questionnaire: Still Moving: A Series of Polyperspective Portraits

This weekend is the exhibition of my final project for my MA Creative Technology course at Salford Uni.

The exhibition is at Bistro West 156, Burton Road, West Didsbury.

I have created a series of portraits that combine a still and moving image, regular readers of my blog will know all about it!

There's an opening tomorrow (Sat 18th) between 4 and 6 pm and a drop in between 11am and 3pm on Sunday.

I'd love everyone to be able to see my work in the real world but if you can't, you can see it in the virtual one as part of a short questionnaire I would love you complete to find out if my new portrait concept is a successful one. (In order to meet my deadline I will be taking the results of the survey on Monday evening, so it will be gone after that!)

Please have a look- click here!

Thank you!

Sarah

Sarah's Favourite Photo Friday- Rat Pack Revival at Bangla City

I have some big news regarding my masters to reveal this evening but for the moment I'm going to go back to the old tradition of Favourite Photo Friday because I did some 'normal' photographing last Saturday that I can share with you.

I joined my friend Chris Jackson (Director of Maverick Casting and DJ ) at his residency at Bangla City in Hyde on an evening where his live entertainment was my friends who perform as Rat Pack Revival to see what it's like and to get some pictures for Chris' business.



Here's a beautifully silhouetted Liam next to the outdoor sign showing Rat Pack as top listing (well they're first ;) ) and the rest of Chris' upcoming gigs.

Bangla City is just a random curry house however the curry was really good actually (thanks Chris!). Here's a picture of one of the huge fish tanks!



Chris performed in the middle of the Rat's set, and I was really there to photograph that. I think this is my favourite of him.



However I think this picture of Vicky is my favourite from the whole night.



Not sure why, something about the yellow lighting with the blue and the sax and a serene expression! And to finish, the post performance group shot!



So, important stuff to follow later this evening...

Jenny and Mike, St Mary's Pulford and Llyndir Hall Hotel, Wedding Photostory

About a month ago I photographed the wedding on Jenny and Mike. This is my photostory of their day.

I started the day with Jenny and she was at home with her sister who was bridesmaid and make up artist!



I've been trying to work on my details shots and I was hoping to find a nice textured surface to photograph the shoes on but instead I discovered a duvet cover that was the perfect complimentary colour!





Yellow was the colour of the day as reflected in the flowers. Then it was off to the church to meet with the men. St Mary's is definitely a good looking building.



This next picture shows the groom and best man preparing the ring baring teddies for the ring barer boys! I like it because of the reflection.



And here are the boys...





So cute!

Jenny arrived by horse and carriage.





You have to look out for those boys!

Unfortunately this was another one of those weddings where I wasn't allowed to take any photographs until the signing so on the way back out the church Jenny and Mike posed for a kiss shot at the spot where it had originally happened.





This is my favourite from outside of the church.



A huge focus of this wedding was the horses because Jenny loves them!



So the carriage took the newly weds from the church to the Llyndir Hall that was just down the road but also crossed the Cheshire boarder into Wales. Then Jenny took the reins and took the carriage around the hotel grounds!









Llyndir Hall is quite an eccentric place with features like these animals around the grounds!

Next I can't help but include my bride with a pint shot!



The group shots all took place next to the very old tree on lawn. We had to wait for it to stop raining, but it did! This photograph contains poses relevant to the hen do apparently!



Then I took the bride and groom off for some portraits. This chair is another eccentric feature of the hotel!











Before the food and before the rain really started, Mike got want he wanted from the day, a cricket game!



Jenny and Mike kindly invited me to join their 'afternoon tea' style meal. Does this make you hungry?...



The speeches followed and were full of love and humour.













And to finish this mammoth posting Jenny and Mike ended their day with a very amazing first dance containing influences from hip hop and line dancing to name but a few! It was very impressive!



Thanks for a fantastic day! The album is nearly finished so watch this space for those designs.