On Friday I had a great day taking the obscura to St Anne’s Arts and Community Centre over in Barnstaple, helping celebrate their 1 year anniversary since the reopening.

The amazing building made a perfect backdrop, and the trees gave the pictures some beautiful dappled light to enjoy from inside the obscura. It was a busy day, with lots of people stepping inside and being amazed by the projections – some happy sitting in there for a good while and helping me use the obscura. Focussing on the balloons, trees and visitors were great ways to show the obscura off, and it was the first chance to try a shiny new lens too (although I think I was most excited by this). We all agreed the fantastic costumes looked particularly dazzling, and worked really well with the over all look of the camera.

Here are the images of the wonderful folk in Victorian dress :

See below for photographs of visitors, staff and fellow artists and entertainers.. including talented tricksters and blood-stained surgeons! Click the images for larger versions.

After a day of obscura fun I was happy to give deliver my talk ‘Traps to Catch Sunbeams‘ that evening in the hall. All in all a great day, and I am really looking forward to working at St Annes more in the future!

All the portraits above were taken by rephotographing the view from within my portable camera obscura – find out more about getting the camera obscura along to your event – see here or get in touch..

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