Photography | More editing
I took this photo on Sunday. I don’t usually add a frame to my pictures, but I did quite a lot of editing on this on. I even put those corner decorations on it. I parked my car a little awkwardly to take this picture because I wanted to rest the camera on the car door.
Photography | Victorian buildings
There are still a lot of Victorian buildings in this area and they are worth photographing. I remember walking down this street many years ago on Christmas Eve. I could hear the Salvation Army band playing Christmas carols around the corner. It felt like I was travelling through time to the England of Charles Dickens. Darlaston is still quite Dickensian… (more…)
Darlaston | preserving images of industrial history
I have started photographing old buildings so we have some nostalgic reminders in years to come of our industrial past. I suppose even modern buildings will be interesting, they don’t last like they used to. I found this factory interesting and there are other buildings, like the fire station, that are interesting too. This was in Darlaston in the West Midlands, otherwise affectionately known as Darlo!
Photographing and preserving history
There can be many reasons for taking photographs. It can be to create art, for nostalgic reasons, to preserve history or just for the fun of it.
Art in Darlo and Walsall
Darlaston, otherwise known as Darlo, is part of Walsall; but doesn’t seem to always be remembered by the council when they are spending money. There is a ‘new’ art gallery in Walsall that aspires to hosting the Turner prize, but the work of local artists in Darlo went on display in the library. I went to review it and took a few pictures. These are the watercolours. I thought most of them were good.
Does Walsall need a summer exhibition?
The weather was stormy this week, but seems to be picking up for the weekend. For some people the economy seems to be picking up too.
Population, parking and Darlo
Bonjour! I’ve just found out, I have a couple of readers in France, so I thought I would say hello. For the benefit of my overseas readers, I’ll remind you all that I live in the heart of England. The Black Country is a just North of Birmingham and includes the City of Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall and Sandwell. (more…)
Am I happy? Oh, yeah.
According to the ONS, we are now much happier, cheered up by the Olympics and the Jubilee last year. Married couples are happier than single people, apparently. I can imagine some graduate researcher knocking the door of an unmarried mother in the Black Country and asking if she’s happy, just after she’d applied the Anusol to her latest tattoo.
Walsall on the telly
Last Friday, I upset a reader with my post about the benefit system. That programme was on TV again last night. I thought it didn’t do justice to anyone involved. Most of them seemed to be playing to the camera. The media studies graduate was trying work as a carer. Why not pair him up with a television or radio presenter? That was what he has a degree in.
Wednesbury carnival photographs
I went to Wednesbury carnival on Saturday. I took quite a lot of photographs and met up with family members. I think local events are important for community spirit and they benefit the local economy. There were other events around the Black Country at other parks.
Shows and carnivals
Today’s title conflicts a little with today’s picture. That’s Brunswick Park in Wednesbury, setting for today’s carnival. Darlaston has a ‘Party in the Park’ in Victoria park and some things going on in King Street. Wolverhampton has their show on all weekend in West park. So there is lots to do today.
Its carnival time!
The carnival is on in the park on Saturday (13th July). It’s a beautiful park and we have beautiful weather this year too. Brunswick Park is a Victorian park and close to Junction 9 of the M6, not that we want outsiders coming. It’s unfortunate that the car park isn’t open or bigger for that matter.
Only in the Black Country
The Birmingham Black Country half marathon was run yeserday morning. They were running down the tow path of the canal. It was a time trial, it’s a bit difficult to run a marathon on a tow path; not too much room to spread out. Someone went in the canal last time trying to overtake! The run went through Sheepwash nature reserve past the balancing lake. At least it’s a bit scenic and a pub at the finish line… (more…)
Neodigital Art | Artistic editing
Darlaston is a local town with quite a few Victorian buildings, so we wandered around there a couple of years ago taking a few photos. These pictures can be edited and the ‘modern’ things taken out to give the picture a real Victorian look.
Neodigital Art | bleak winter
Yes, I have taken some new pictures this week. It was dark and depressing and I had to use a slow speed on my camera. I decided to explore a little, driving through narrow streets, I thought I might be able to photograph interesting buildings for a change. I ended up at this canal and so made the best of it.
This week – the truth?
I have written a few blog this week both on this site and on a zillion ideas. The UK is still in recession, the government still insists on austerity and the rich get richer. I write my ideas on how to cope with all the things that are happening. This week saw the ‘truth’ as the Sun saw it after the Hillsborough disaster. They backed the police, who blamed the fans, but now we get closer to the truth. Am I surprised that a police officer claims that she was coerced into changing her statement by an officer from the West Midlands? Perverting the course of justice isn’t new. News International publishing total crap isn’t new either.
A different pace of life…
There is something fascinating about narrow boats. I suppose they represent a slower pace of life away from the madness of modern life. They might be slow, but they get there. Someone has nicked all the lighting from the canal and stripped out the cable; it would have been dark staying there overnight. No wonder they are traveling in a convoy. Most of the boats have television aerials and some even have satellite dishes. That dog looks happy enough on the tow path and his owner was reading the paper. Farther up the tow path they were sitting on the benches having a little barbecue. They have all moored on that one side of the canal though and all is not what it seems. The local people tend to walk down this side, because if they walk down the other side it leads nowhere. The drunks on their way home from the pub, the graffiti artists and the odd jogger. (more…)
I live in Wednesbury
Wednesbury
Why am I writing about where I live? Because this week my blogs have been featured on the YamYam, a local news website that aggregates local news and views from websites like the Express and Star newspaper. I’m a baby boomer, my mom had 8 children. I grew up in an era of listening to the radio and the sound of drop forge hammers pounding away. I live about half way between Wednesbury and Darlaston and I can remember hearing the drop forge hammers of Golchers, Garringtons and the one at the bottom of St Pauls Road when I was in High School. (more…)
Black Country humour
My mate has just come out of the hospital; he had both legs amputated. I popped round to help him out; just until he gets back on his feet. I said, “Bill, I’m goin’ to the supermarket, do you need anything?”
He said, ” Ar, bring me a couple of chicken legs.”
I said, “C’mon Bill, you’re clutchin’ at straws now…”
Neodigital Art: Update One
Neodigital Art
Neodigital Art - Try unusual angles, pointing the camera up at a building.
Neodigital Art: Update One
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence in the 1870s and 1880s. The name of the movement is derived from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant), which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satiric review published in Le Charivari.
I wrote my first blog about Neodigital Art, last week and it seems to have captured the imagination of the imaginative. There were many schools of impressionism in the 19th century besides that Parisian one. The reason why the Paris based one was more successful and better known was that simple reference to it by Louis Leroy in his satiric review. I hope my reference to Neodigital Art will have a similar effect but again there are many different schools or styles. (more…)
