Saturday was the kick off to the City of Alexandria’s Civil War Sesquicentennial. It marks the 150th anniversary for when Alexandria became involved in the United States Civil War. I was asked to capture the day with my camera by the Old Town Alexandria Patch.
When I’m asked to cover events such as this, one of the ways I like to do so is to take portraits of those involved in the event. For this instance, I managed to capture portraits of the many Civil War interpreters who were in period costume.
The woman at the top of this post is Patricia Tyson, of the Female Re-Enactors of Distinction. She is portraying a woman who lived during the Civil War era named Hallie Quinn Brown. Despite the very warm weather that day, Tyson told me that her period style dress was keeping her quite cool.
Above is photographer Terry Thomann, from Fredericksburg, VA. He specializes in large format photography using the wet collodion process. He was very friendly and gladly explained to me the steps needed to take a photograph using this method. Using this equipment in bright daylight, a proper exposure takes about 7 seconds he explained.
Michael Schaffner portrayed the Provost Marshall, a law enforcement officer during the Civil War. I was drawn to him because of his glasses. Many interpreters in costume had on modern style sunglasses, which made me not want to take their photos. But Schaffner had glasses that, at least to me, seemed more in line with the period’s style.
G. Richard Crozier, who is portraying Gen. Robert E. Lee, kindly posed for a portrait when I asked. He was not very talkative, but I think that may have had to do with the weather. He seemed extremely warm in his black suit. I was sweating just looking at him.
You can find all of my photos from this event over at the Old Town Alexandria Patch.