Hundreds of joggers with lights strapped to their bodies come together to form beautiful trails of light through the Quays of Salford.
On Thursday night I braced the cold weather to see a light show that was happening in Salford Quays. I have only been back in England for a month from living in Australia for a year and I am still struggling to get used to the cold temperatures, though these temperatures are unseasonal even for England.
It took a while to get to Salford and find exactly where the light show was taking place. The website simply said "Salford Quays" but the issue was Salford Quays is quite a large area. Luckily I arrived early and acquired a map showing the route of the joggers from a very nice lady working at the Lowry Centre.
I set up my camera in a good position and waited in the freezing cold for the joggers to arrive. When they eventually did the street lights were dimmed and the joggers started running to a choreographed pattern. I took many exposures with my camera ranging from 4 seconds to 30 seconds.
After roughly 10 minutes the joggers would start to file out towards their next location. I quickly picked up my camera and tripod and ran to the next location on the map. I wanted to get to the next location before all the joggers arrived. This pattern of the joggers starting to file out and me running after the leaders with camera and tripod over my shoulder continued for the next hour.
The final performance happened outside the new BBC building. I was happy with the photos I took but relieved to get out of the cold. I ended up taking about 75 photos. I thought the exposures of between 4 to 6 seconds turned out the best as the paths of light left by the joggers were well saturated, sharp and well defined. Overall a good evening of photography.
Check out the website at http://nvaspeedoflight.org.uk/
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| Outside the Lowry for the first performance. |
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| I found the shorter exposures of 4 - 6 seconds left sharper trails of light. |
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| A long exposure. |
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| The colours kept changing. |
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| I managed to get a prime spot on the bridge before the joggers arrived. |
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| The joggers arriving. |
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| The joggers running by. |
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| Probably my favourite photo of the night. |
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| Outside the BBC building, you can see the joggers arriving in the distance. |
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| The joggers running past |
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| The final performance |
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| Running into the crowd to end the show. |
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| Some of the joggers |
