Levenshulme Photographers - Ed Sprake

The success of our innaugual Photo Competition for last year's Levenshulme Festival drew my attention to the impressive amount of accomplished photographers we have here in M19 and I thought this might be a good opportunity to showcase some of the entrants. First up, then, is Ed Sprake, whose picture of St Mary's was singled out for its use of light and framing.

Ed is an amateur photographer who captures anything and everything that interests him, although he has a tendency to gravitate towards photography with an aspect of human nature involved, be that gig and music photography, weddings and events, street photography or subjects that show the influence of humanity on the local environment.

While having had a digital point and shoot for a good many years, he first started getting interested in photography as a hobby in late 2007 and bought his first DSLR shortly afterwards. Since then, he has been fortunate enough to have the chance to photograph events including The Portico Prize For Literature 2010 Awards Dinner, some of his musical influences though gig photography, currently has a photograph on display in Terminal 1 of Manchester Airport and has one of his photographs as the background image for FlatOut Records label boss and musician in his own right, Peo de Pitte.

You can find Ed on the web at http://flavors.me/edsprake and a selection of his photography on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/edsprake and he's currently in the process of confirming his first joint exhibition in Manchester in April.

I asked Ed why he chose this paricular image to showcase his love for Levenshulme: "The local church is often the hub of the local community. In Levenshulme I had a few churches to choose from, but St Mary's has the interesting statue on the front which is lit up at night, and while I'm not personally a member of any religion, I've also been to a couple of community events such as the Levenshulme allotment show that they have hosted. Getting a good quality photo at night retaining detail in the statue of St. Mary while still showing the rest of the structure proved to be somewhat tricky so the final result is actually five separate exposures blended together post capture to recreate a similar scene to what you can see with the naked eye."

I'll be posting more of these features on our local photographers over the next few months so if you know anyone with skills behind the lens or an interesting Levy-related photography tale to tell do get in touch.