Summer events and landscapes #photography
The end of spring and through the summer is the events season for me and I hope to do a lot more this year. The first carnival is next weekend. I’ll still do landscape photography, but will be photographing people more and so I’ll try to either get close to them or zoom in with a 18 – 105 mm lens. (more…)
Spring and summer #photography
Through spring and summer there will be a lot more opportunities for me to take photos. I want to do more events this year and I did one on Saturday night. In this picture, you can see the church that dominates the skyline. There was a fund raising show on Saturday, to raise funds to repair the ‘Woden’ window. (more…)
St Georges day parade #photography
It’s St George’s Day on Thursday, but the events were last weekend. This is the Stone Cross St George’s day parade in West Bromwich. When I’m photographing an event, I try to tell a story in pictures and then add words to the story. (more…)
Markets #GE2015
I photographed the local market in Wednesbury this week. Do you suppose all the goods on sale were British? Me neither. We live in a global market now and everything seems to have a price. I have been helping students with their writing and one has graduated and got a job in Shanghai, she asked my advice this week. (more…)
Heritage, art and culture #Blackcountry
In the Black Country the culture has an eclectic range of influences. People have come from many countries and brought their cultures to influence ours. The main source of influence though is the industrial past. (more…)
Happy Easter #review
I’ve been writing this blog for a few years now, so when I want a picture to start the post or a bit of inspiration I just look in my media library on WordPress. I just caught these two geese flying over Hydes Pool last April. I named them Maverick and Goose, because they were flying in formation! (more…)
Hoss Muck #review
This photo of a wood pile one of the more usual photographs I’ve taken here in the Black Country. I saw in local news that one place I have taken photos is now become a dumping group and someone has dumped what we in the Black Country call a load of ‘hoss muck’. The council says this is a bio-hazard. (more…)
Creating a Black Country image #photography
I’ve been using pictures of daffodils lately, to signify spring in my recent articles. I’m not sure where the quote ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ comes from. Some say it comes from a Chinese proverb. It does sound Chinese… (more…)
The Saturday Review #Blackcountry
The sun came out a little bit on Tuesday, so we went out to take some photographs. This is Farley Park in Great Bridge. I’ll be using more pictures that I took on Tuesday for my weekly photography lesson on Wednesday. (more…)
End of winter #photography
Living in the middle of the Black Country means the roads are always busy, so I like to go out to take photos on a Sunday. Being in the shadow of the Welsh hills means we get a lot of rain too. It rained again on Sunday! (more…)
Creative Black Country? #Sunday #Ramble
I read this morning that here in Britain we aren’t very good at creating technology, but we are good at using it. There is no British version of Microsoft, but we have lots of creative people using computers to create art, photographers using digital cameras and of course trendy writers. (more…)
Shooting in winter #photography
Photography can be quite challenging in mid-winter. I took this shot last Tuesday of the frozen canal. I tried to get the rail around it and the reeds to give me some depth. I made it lighter in editing to try to make the whole picture lighter. (more…)
The Sunday Ramble: the Man in the Sky
If you are a regular Sunday ramble reader, you’ll know I like to go out and take photographs on a Sunday afternoon. It seems people are copying my Sunday ramble idea. I have to try to make my post search engine friendly, so you can search for my Sunday ramble, but mine aren’t the most popular… (more…)
The Sunday Ramble: the last day of Autumn
The Winter Solstice
It’s the winter solstice today when it will get dark quite early, it’s the shortest day. The actual time of the solstice is around 10pm this evening and so I think that means this is the last day of autumn and winter starts tomorrow. According to the BBC the nights will start getting lighter, but not the mornings, not until in the new year. (more…)
Photography: Christmas edits
This is the time of year when you can dig out the snow pictures and edit them for Christmas messages and effects. These edited pictures can make your Facebook Timeline look cool or if you have a blog, you can change to a Christmas header. (more…)
The review: the modern world
I’ve been checking the weather forecast it seems this could be a good weekend for photography. At the time of writing, Saturday morning, the light is really good. Modern technology allows us to take great photos and share them with the world without messing around with films or processing. (more…)
The Sunday Ramble: referendum
I have some new readers today, so I thought I would remind everybody that I live in the heart of England, here in the Black Country. I have some readers overseas and so I should explain that the United Kingdom consists of 4 parts. (more…)
The review: an interesting week
It was an interesting week. The warmongering in the middle east and Ukraine stifled the stock market again yesterday. The sanctions against Russia are getting more serious now. France is threatening to hold back the two warships they ordered. I wonder what they wanted those for? Humanitarian aid trips? (more…)
The powers that be…
There was news this week that Sandwell Council have been culling the geese in Sandwell Valley and Victoria Park in Tipton. It seems, it took a freedom of information request to get them to admit it. A pest control company has been herding them up and killing them off. (more…)
Frying Pan Charity Bike Ride
I’ve been photographing events like the Party in the Park, Carnival and the Fun Day recently. People often tell me they didn’t know about the event and so didn’t go to it! So I’ll tell you about this charity bike ride at the Frying Pan in Darlaston in advance. It’s today, 9th August 2014 at the Frying Pan in Darlaston starting at 10am. (more…)
Photography: Wednesbury Carnival
Wednesbury Carnival
I photographed Wednesbury Carnival on Saturday and although the weather was good, it is still difficult taking photos in really bright sunlight. I tried to do a lot of close up shots and some general shots to show what the carnival was like. (more…)
The Sunday Ramble: Black Country aye it.
It’s only a week to go now to our carnivals. If you want somewhere to go today, the Oak House in West Bromwich has a ‘do’ on. I have other plans. I will be taking photos this afternoon, but I have to take it easy. I have bad leg… (more…)
The Sunday Ramble: Onny in the Black Country
I had two text messages yesterday afternoon one after another; from Black Country Si. Who’s rattled his cage? I thought. For a moment I thought it might be something serious, like Banks’s running out of mild… (more…)
The Review: Birmingham floating market
Birmingham
Last weekend I photographed the narrow-boats at Waterside Place in Walsall. This weekend they are in Birmingham doing a floating market. Try to take a look at that this weekend, you could even take your camera! (more…)
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