Birmingham Christmas Market

December the 1st, Christmas posts are now officially allowed! Wahoo!

I visited the Christmas Market the other week, armed with my camera to get a few snaps of the festivities. The lights looked so pretty and warming, it's a shame the weather was so cold! 

Here are a selection of my favourites...

Ostrich burger anyone?

Looking down from the top of the new library in the city centre gave this picturesque view of the market.

With a slight height bonus I managed to grab this oldy-worldy view over the craft market towards Victoria Square.

This shot was taken from the new library, standing on the roof where the wheel starts to peep over the balcony.

The market is well worth a visit, particularly in the evenings as the sun sets and Christmas lights come on, it's a very pretty sight to get you in the festive spirits.

Smethwick Canal

So I paid Smethwick Galton Bridge a visit and took some snaps down by the canal. From the train it looked like the area would have a fair chunk of industry surrounding so I was a little disappointed when I first arrived to find there wasn't any. However thankfully the weather was good so I managed to grab a few pretty shots instead.

This image is my favourite by far, I love the depth of field and resulted contrast. 

Birmingham

Don't expect to see anything spectacular on this post. It's a developmental post this one..

I visited Birmingham not so long ago to do the first shoot in my project on the city. I couldn't have picked a worse day to go, the weather was atrocious making it hard to get any shots.

With a wide angle lens, standing a little nearer to the bridge and I think this could be a bolder shot. With the two transportation routes in use at the same time, perhaps with a freight rather than passenger train as well.

The colours in this are fabulous as is the texture. The white balance is a little off and the shot could be improved with that. I would like to try this one again.

Crop and straighten this at the drainpipe and throw a flash at the fence and I imagine the shot could be entirely different. I intend to visit again and try this technique.

I will be visiting again in the coming few days, as well as a second part of the canal. Hopefully down by Smethick Galton Bridge. And Fingers Crossed the weather won't be so bad.

Shooting on the Streets

You might know that at the moment I am working on a portrait project that involves photographing people on the street. When I was in Birmingham I found this group of musicians entertaining shoppers and could not just walk past.

There is a lot of energy in this image, particularly for the chap playing the accordion - with his bright red jeans that match his instrument.

Since shooting the streets digitally, I have now taken to using the Hassleblad to get portraits. A camera which gets many peculiar looks when I'm out shooting with it but also a good conversation starter. Unfortunately the turn around for the images will take longer but it will be well worth the wait when we get to see what they have come out like.

Street Portrait 2

When you think that this gentleman's target audience is children, for a balloon seller he does not look most impressed. In fact, I'd argue that he looked bored and fed up, not at all impressed with his job.

For me however, this is a good thing. Check out the photo..

In my opinion this photo would be much less interesting if the guy was smiling. He just appears to be standing there for the sake of it, not because he enjoys it and considering how colourful the photo is the mood isn't overly bright.

On another note, is there anybody out there that wants portraits doing over the Easter period? Get in touch and let me know so we can arrange something. I have three weeks free to photograph.

Street Portrait

How often do you see the men stood outside shops whilst their partners are shopping?

Very often. Yes.

I hit Birmingham City Centre with my camera and decided to photograph these people and grab a cheeky portrait from them. This is what I got.

This gentleman was waiting for his wife, he didn't want to be snapped with his glasses on but I caught him as he took them off. I just love this shot, I think a lot of his character comes through.

Street portraits are something I will be shooting more and more in the coming weeks as I intend on getting a project out that is just photographing the interesting people I come across whilst out and about.

Also, I have three weeks with no set shooting or work timetable, if anybody wants a photo session, please get in touch and we can arrange something.

First Protest of 2013

I've been putting off posting this blog until Politically Me posted their article because it ties in very nicely to my photos of a protest I accidentally found when in Birmingham on Saturday, 5th. I'm not going to say anymore about it, I'll let you read it from the link above.

However, one thing I will point out is that I was not protesting at this event, I followed it for a period of time in order to document it.

Outside Burtons.. just about.

Staff inside, manager with the radio calling for more security.

After the protest moved on from HSBC staff were still reluctant to open the doors while a customer tried to get in.

Two of the protesters.

A young child present at the protest.

Protesters made their way in to Armani Exchange before being forced back out again.

The Bullring shut all entrances/exits in order to keep shoppers safe.

Here security battled with a protester in order to be able to shut the door.

At the rally, balloons were released in which some of those gathered chose to jump on.

Large congregation of protesters.

Group shot.

Close up of a second group shot.

More young protesters present at the event.

These two men were debating whether or not the protest was good or bad.

The final shout out of the rally.

Unfortunately, post rally, shops such as Starbucks had to clean up bits of graffiti from their shop fronts. 

When I hit the city that day I only expected to test a few new filters I'd been given but it certainly turned out to be more eventful than I imagined. Many of those attending were armed with cameras - both for stills and video and I'm not sure whether that was to protect themselves as they recorded the event or to document it because they were proud of themselves being there. Who knows? I'm just glad I had mine on me. 

2012 Review

As it’s a fresh start in 2013 and I’ve done so much in 2012 I thought I’d write a post to review my year of work as I know I became a much more confident photographer through a series of projects. So lets look at some favourites aye?

First of all we have Rescued, this was my FMP for college where I decided to investigate how many animals are homeless, stuck in an animal rescue centre. I travelled all over the place with this project and met some wonderful people that volunteer to look after the animals and train them.

I also learned a lot about Photoshop with this project, I rarely use the programme but had no choice here.. Not just to achieve the desired layout for the image but also to correct white balance on many images as I found shooting in the centres I was often working with multiple different lighting set ups. I also fell in love with a particular cat on this project, cat 3 down 4 across – Hank. I’d still adopt him if I could.

Moving on we have my WWII project, my absolute favourite for the year. I’ve always been a great fan of History and in particular war. But I don’t want to be a war photographer. I found people in my village that had been children during World War Two in different locations around the UK and asked them to recall memories of the war whilst I photographed them in the Studio. I was surprised as how well people responded as I know for a long time the war was unspoken of, and some still refuse to recall the difficult time. I was even luckier that they were able to bring with them items that they still owned from the war.

I shot this project on medium format film using a Bronica to try and keep the history alive within the images. The stories I got were incredible and if you want to know of any of the stories please get in touch. Or the link through to the Facebook album has brief details. Above are Betty, Colin and Jim.

But as well as these two projects I have attended and photographed two Protests, most recently #demo2012…

 Attempted live Fashion Photography at Mid Cheshire College Fashion Show which raises money for charity and thoroughly enjoyed it..

Campaigned for a very good friend to try and get him the position of NUS President at NUSNC12 and photographed the entire three days of the conference, learning how terrible my telezoom lens is, more so in low light…

 Plucked up the courage to start asking people for their photographs, which I must say is not in my comfort zone at all…

Got in to university in Cheltenham and shot my first live event with a same day deadline with them at Tewkesbury Mop Fair…

And finally completed my first extended project at university handing in on time, Hesters Way. A project which will be continued yet and hopefully become my first real Documentary…

I have done even more than this but to find out about that you will just have to explore my blog more, or my Facebook page.

I have no goals for 2013 particularly, I just want to keep growing as a photographer and push myself further with work. Oh and finish (if it’s possible to finish a documentary?) Hesters Way maybe.