Worldwide Photowalk, Manchester

The Manchester Wheel (previously MEN now Key 103) (Click for larger)

Last weekend was the fourth annual Worldwide Photo Walk and as this was the first year that someone's taken the initiative and decided to lead one in Manchester, I thought I'd give it a whirl. In fact there wasn't one, but two this year! A bit like buses, or policemen.... Anyway due to commitments on Saturday I joined Lesley Chalmer's group on Sunday. It was quite an eclectic bunch - I think there were around 35-40 of us in total. It was also on the same day as the TUC march and the Conservative party conference began. Fortunately Lesley chose a route and times that managed to keep us away from any trouble (30 odd photographers wandering round the streets as a pack with all that going on would definitely have attracted attention from the Old Bill). I have to stay that I didn't really shoot that much as I went more for the social aspect, and the light was pretty dull.

I did take a few minutes to play with my Singh Ray Vari-ND to get the image of the wheel at the top. Hand held at 1/4 sec and the logo is tack sharp - the yoga has been paying off.... ;-) And the bottom image is a hand held 5 frame HDR. I would have taken my tripod but the 10 pack of ball bungees that I use for strapping my tripod to my rucksack appears to have cannibalised itself - I have one left!

Beetham Tower / Hilton Hotel, Manchester (Click for larger)

All in all it was a pleasant afternoon out and fun nattering with other photographers, professional and otherwise.