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. 

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.

Flat 47

In case you haven't already heard I've started to do a documentary, one I can work on in my spare time. Title, "Flat 47".

I want it to be a black and white documentary, and whilst I've started it on digital a few shots here and there could end up being done in film. Maybe. I can't decide yet. Probably not due to expense though.

Anyway, I started some shooting for it this weekend...

Thursday 8th November.

This was my most successful shot of the night and I'm still not overly fond of it. However it does demonstrate the style I was originally out aiming for. I've since sacked off the square format. 

Saturday 10th November.

I believe this collection of bottles (and cans) has been growing since the start of term and I haven't even captured it all yet.

Family shot? I like this shot. Turns out once you get the hang of a Metz Flashgun they can be quite useful. I'm still practising though.

Something was funny. 

Now this shot would be easy to turn in to a Square format image which I intend to do at a later date. However it isn't one I want to turn Black and White because I love the burst of colour in it. 

Another group image, it's just a shame one person wasn't paying attention.

This project is definitely going to be a long one as it keeps going. And I think it's definitely going to take a while before my camera becomes ignorable. I mean ...

Clearly not appreciated! Sadly the photo didn't turn out or this would be quite a mugshot.

Mugshot

So we all know that a few weeks ago I went and photographed Tewkesbury Mop Fair, (if you didn't you should click here). Well there is a portrait from that night that I keep noticing. I didn't include it in my final edit because it's a little grainy, despite shooting 400 ISO, I'm not sure why this is but it can't be changed. Sadly. But anyway, it's this one:

I love it, I didn't even need a flash to light her face up. 

On another note I'm still having trouble with Redbrick, the student newspaper at Birmingham uni. They don't seem to want to give inabout crediting me. They've now got it in to there heads that because they posted the article online with another of my photos it's okay and that should be enough for me. Well they are wrong. (Oh yes, article available here). If printing my work was going to be such an issue for them they never should have - that's how I see it. Correct me if I'm getting this all wrong.

Published!

So the Tory Conference party last week that I went along and photographed? I got one of my photos printed in the Birmingham University newspaper, Redbrick, from it this week. Sadly, it's not credited to me but I can assure you it's mine.

Which photo? This one..

The original

How it appears in the paper.

I'm not keen on how it's been edited but I suppose it's my first publication since I started at Gloucestershire Uni and hopefully it'll be corrected. But if you want to read the article that goes with it by James Phillips, click here and go to page 8.

I Protested Outside the Tory Party Conference

Sunday was an interesting day, a protest in Birmingham. The TUC organised for a protest to happen outside the Tory party conference to show them how angry numerous people from all sorts of backgrounds are about the cuts they are making to the public sector. I'm pretty sure to them it won't make a blind bit of difference but we gave it our best shot and it was great to see so many people coming together in unity for one thing.
Here are some snaps from the event.

I love this photo just for how clearly the woman stands out against all the other dark colours. 

These were some very angry musicians, especially the banjo player (as you can see above). They were singing on their way round the protest.

Onlookers watching from the balconies.

Another musician - Brum surprised me with how musical they are. This young lad was more than happy to pose for a photo.

And the age of the musicians varied all the way round, as did their instruments. 

Fire Bragade Union were out in force at this protest, shouting to everyone just how the cuts are affecting the vital services. 

Some more musicians on the march in the city, these two images I think show how far and wide these cuts reach.

Old and young coming together.

Onlookers again, stood in Victoria Sq. watching the march come to an end. Some of the people had been with us for the duration.

This image is just fabulous in my opinion for no reason other than the banners. Grannies against the cuts - I often forget how it must affect them as well.

All of these images to me show how the actions the Tories are taking, along with the Lib dems in this coalition is causing everybody anger and frustration. It also shows how little the Tories are doing to change this, instead only making it worse. But it also shows how people of all ages and backgrounds can come together in force when there is a point to be made. 

Movement

I thought I'd try something new today and use slow-ish shutter speeds in daylight. I've not done it before. I set my ISO to 100 and my shutter speeds varied between 10/1 and 6/1 with an average aperture of 9.

A very busy shot, this was one of the first I took. I don't like the angle, looking across however I do like how many people there are and the variety as some people move and others don't.

This image is much quieter than the previous, and most of the activity takes place on the right hand frame. I should have cropped this image a bit further to remove the exits of the shops in the background, even though you can only see the floor of them.

This image I think is much less obvious that the blurs are people as they just look like splodges of colour. I'm fond of the the change of texture throughout the floor - I think it keeps the shot interesting.

A busier shot with people flying in at a few directions, even if you can only see a small part of the foot on the right hand side of the shot. 

Out of the four images I prefer the latter two, because of the angle, looking down.

To all of the images I have reduced the saturation before uploading them and increasing the lightness a tiny bit, I do like the effect it has given them, it makes the frames look much colder, silvery almost. 

Tomorrow I'm off photographing a protest in Birmingham - so excited!

Train Stations

I've been on my travels this weekend, off to that city they call Birmingham. It'd been a while since I last went and funnily enough I felt about as rough as the last time I went too! 

I took this at one of the small train stations around the city, Selly Oak, it's full of students there! 

Next weekend I'm heading back to Birmingham, but not to photograph the train stations there. No, this time I'm off to a protest - education based! So look out for those photos next week.