All the Fun of the Steam Fair…..

A Steam Fair was the first event of the season for the Portrait Group.

On Saturday 7th September, Bob Freeman, Richard Bullock and I visited the Museum of Rural Life in Tilford near Farnham – the site of the Village of War, a WW2 reenactment, we visited back in May.

This event was a Steam Fair where we saw over 20 steam engines, ranging from massive traction engines and rollers to miniature engines. There were lots of oily mechanical parts to photograph, not exactly portraiture.

It was cloudy most of the time and we were lucky to miss the rain. Light was flat but was good for photographing machinery and portraits.
As we discovered in May, all those involved were very happy to be photographed, and willing to pose however we wanted, ideal for inexperienced portrait photographers.

However, the unexpected highlight for me were the music performances inside one of the sheds. Firstly, there was a 1940-50’s singer in a polka dot dress, she had a fantastic strong voice. Second, was an electric blues band, featuring a 16-year-old guitar playing prodigy and, thirdly, a heavy metal rock band! Even with my hearing, it took a while for the ears to calm down afterwards! This was more event than portrait photography.

As you can see, our events might be intended to be portrait photography but sometimes circumstances dictate we adapt our photography to suit!
As Bob puts it, “….. it was a gamble with the weather, but it turned out really well. We had a very enjoyable day with lots of opportunities to photograph different situations and, of course, lots of willing volunteers! Music was a bonus, and it was nice be able to capture people just having fun in a very relaxed setting.”

Why not join the Group if you fancy the idea of getting into portraiture?

Alan Edwards