The Rotunda's 50th Birthday Party
I was very fortunate to be invited along to celebrate the Rotunda's 50th Birthday Party last week and it is fair to say, it was special! The building is a true landmark on Birmingham's skyline and is easily one of the most recognisable structures in the Midlands. It has been through numerous changes but currently is home to a boutique hotel and beautifully designed apartments which are testament to Birmingham's rising stock. It is fair to say that Staying Cool have the building in safe hands.
However, I was not there for a relaxing break, nor the free Champagne and canapes (though they were very nice!). I was there for the views and they did not disappoint! With an army of fellow photographers invited by the amazing folk at IgersBirmingham cameras were firmly planted toward the view across the Grand Central development and New New Street Station (this will be covered in a separate post). Everyone was amazed to see the sun breakthrough the clouds and give us a stunning sunset to really cap off an excellent event! Here's to another 50 years for the 'old girl' and I can't wait to see what the future has in store for her.
Capturing Birmingham's hidden beauty... Part 2
Birmingham as a city adopts, welcomes and embraces it’s inhabitants regardless of culture and creed and I believe that this is also true of it’s fabric. The less desirable, unattractive underdog buildings are embraced as icons and cherished as testament to the warmth of the city’s
There is no doubt that making Birmingham look beautiful is a challenge. With the right light and the right editing, it is possible. Over the past 12 months I have witnessed a ‘baby-boom’ of talented photographers taking to the streets to capture the hidden beauty of bleak-Birmingham and produce images that Birmingham City Councils marketing department must be salivating at.
You only have to search ‘Birmingham’ on Instagram and within a few scrolls of a digit, you will find striking images of the city’s once loathed buildings bathed in hipster filters and fresh life breathed into their concrete lungs. Popular pages such as ‘IgersBirmingham’ and ‘Hiddenbrum’ and many other social media outlets have created intrigue and mystery around the city and have forced people to look at the boxy beauties with new eyes.
Birmingham seems to have reached a tipping point. It may finally be on the brink of shedding it’s ‘ugly-duckling’ image. With redevelopment-a-plenty in the city centre headed by the Grand Central/New Street Station, Paradise Forum development and big plans down the line for HS2, the City may be coming of age with a bright future to look forward to. Riding the crest of this wave will be the photographers, bloggers, former Londonites and all-round hipsters that have seen Birmingham’s true beauty.
Capturing Birmingham's hidden beauty... Part 1
Back in 2008, Birmingham was voted the UK’s ugliest City. This reputation has hung around the city’s neck for years and has become a long standing joke that everybody (apart from its residents) has had a good laugh at. However, Birmingham, much like myself, has been on a journey in that time and is fast becoming a desirable, metropolitan and dare-I-say, trendy place to live.
In fact, a recent study has shown that many ‘twenty-somethings’ have fled from the capital to the UK’s second city. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show nearly one in ten people in their 30s who left the city between June 2012 and June 2013 fled to Birmingham. Arecord 58,220 within the 30-39 age bracket leaving London 5,480 moved to the ‘ugly duckling’.
Being a photographer in the ‘UK’s ugliest City’ certainly has its challenges. The stark, Brutalist architecture of the 60’s and 70’s can still easily be found throughout the City Centre. As a former Industrial hub, the city has previously shed its skin and looked to the future and adorned itself striking architecture.
The bold, blocky structures such as Birmingham Library and the infamous New Street Station Signal Box are the main offenders in what can be coined as Birmingham’s ‘Grey’ period. A lot of the City’s buildings have been demolished to make way for the kind of stereotypical, glass fronted modern buildings that can be found in every major city in the world.
In my own photographic journey, trying to capture a more beautiful side to Brum’s urban landscape, I have unearthed a strange contradiction to the scornful comments about the bleak wasteland that is Birmingham’s architecture and found that there is some serious love for the former ‘ugliest city’.... Part 2 coming soon....
Snow-way! Birmingham gets a light dusting...
As some of you may know, I also shoot cars and earlier this week I had a rather nice Volvo to shoot around Birmingham City Centre. Just as we were finishing the photos, I noticed that there were little white flecks on my lens. It was only bloody snow! I'm not a fan of using my very expensive camera gear in the white stuff but it did make for an interest end to the shoot with the Volvo, a car which after all - should be able to handle a bit of adverse weather.
When I got back to St Paul's Square, the snow had started to settle and I didn't hesitate to grab a shot of the square looking all wintery. I got back in the warm and planned for an early morning trudge out in what I imagined would be Canadian style snow drifts. However, the next morning, when I got up at about 6.00am, there wasn't a drop to be seen, it had all vanished like we'd had a a magical heatwave in the middle of the night. Fear not though, weather reporters predict that Britain will be in for another battering soon enough and even as I type this, I can feel the skies growing heavy with cold, white picture-making heaven - fingers crossed for some more 'winter-wonderland' images of Birmingham soon!
#Birmingham #Photography #Snow #SnowUK - Follow me on Facebook for more :)
Independent Birmingham
Founder and all-round good guy Joe, of Independent Birmingham recently contacted me to 'Capture winter/festivity' in Birmingham. This sounds simple, but trying to capture the essence of winter and the Christmas feel in Birmingham is a lot harder than you may imagine. Apart from 'missing the point' for quite a while, it was very hard to capture the spirit due to the lack of good old fashioned frosty weather to make everything look festive. That and time constraints meant that capturing Birmingham in the midst of the festive season was actually quite a challenge. looking forward to seeing which images are finally used but here is a selection of 'potentials'...
Picture Birmingham
I was born in Birmingham and have lived in the England’s real second city all of my life. Raised in Longbridge, I still remember the first time that I went to the City Centre and everything about it felt huge. Since then I’ve been obsessed with the place, people and the atmosphere that this very special city has.
My main passion in life is Photography, I feel uncomfortable without a camera in my hand and from a young age I have loved having the ability to freeze a moment in time. It’s only natural then that I waste many hours roaming streets of our city capturing its more beautiful side. I love to get lost in the city and forget any other worries that I have and just enjoy my surroundings. Birmingham has taken a lot of criticism over the years and I think now people are finally seeing the city for what it actually is.
I enjoy looking for new angles, fresh perspectives and do my best to try to create striking images that show the true Birmingham. From the bustling New Street and Victoria Square, to the beautiful St Paul’s Square and the walkways of the canals, there are some stunning places to roam around in Birmingham. There is no escaping its industrial heritage and some of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s architecture is maybe not the most flattering. Even challenging modern structures like the Selfridges building that is certainly ‘Marmite’ in its ‘love it or hate it’ uncompromising style can look striking in the right light.
Photography is more popular than ever and with affordable cameras and Instagram, it’s great to see thousands of people taking pictures of the city. There are many landmark building such as the Library of Birmingham that provide fantastic photo opportunities as well as a platform to view the city from on high. Many of my favourite places to shoot are perfectly accessible to the public and I often have to fight for a spot to get the shot that I want. I never see this as a negative though, it amazes me that tourist are going back to far-flung parts of the world and showing friends and family pictures of our home city.
There have been many things that have happened in my life that have threatened my photography from being attacked online to bereavement, I have threatened to quit on a few occasions. However, I can’t walk down a street without spotting new things, fresh perspective or just watching the changing light wash across the city without wanting to capture it. It’s this that keeps me going and makes me want to carry on. For this reason, I feel very fortunate to live in a challenging but beautiful city.
You could call this a ‘thank you message’ or a ‘love letter’ for the city but it’s not. It’s a call to arms, a rallying cry to anybody that lives in Birmingham to stop looking at the negatives and see the positives of where we live. Next time you are in the city, take a few minutes to look around, take in the Parisian style architecture above New Street, the soaring Raddison building (Beetham Tower) or take a walk through the Jewllery Quarter or Digbeth and look at it with a positive attitude (and don’t forget to take some photos!).
See the original article for Birmingham Updates HERE
It's Christmas time...
And that means one thing, The Frankfurt German Market has hit Birmingham! The market divides people, a lot of people love it for it's fantastic range of food, drink and bric-a-brac, whilst others hate the crowds, the congestion and the general hassle of trying to get through the markets. Personally, I love the markets as it provides some fantastic photographic opportunities. Every year I rush to markets in the hope of grabbing an image that really stands out.
However, this is where the problem begins. As many of our Facebook feeds and Instagram accounts will testify, everybody gets the same shots! Everybody with a camera phone will get a shot of the Carousel, the market stools and of course, the big wheel! I think this is great as I love to see people taking photos but it does mean us 'photographers' have to try a bit harder! In general, we will try to make our images stand out by either adding Black & White, reflections or creating a long exposure to blur out things like the big wheel.
A great place to get some market shots from is the Library of Birmingham's 'Secret Garden' and if you time it for a sunset, then you can get some really great results. This year I want to challenge myself though and not just go for the more obvious shots so I will be trying to hunt down different angles, using different techniques and avoiding beer before shooting! Keep an eye on my Facebook page to see the results and most importantly of all, have fun at the markets!
Autumn hits St Paul's Square
Like a lot of people, I think Autumn is my favourite season. I love the colours, the leaves turning to golden oranges and browns, the low sun illuminating the early mornings and the cool crisp air. It really is a special time of year. It also helps if you're lucky enough to live by quite a few trees that shed there leaves and create a carpet of colour all around them.
St Paul's Square in Birmingham is one of those places and it is beautiful at this time of year. So when I woke up earlier this week and saw the sun was out, I decided to grab my camera, run out and try to capture some of it's beauty. Autumn is a photographers dream but it doesn't last long so get out there and get snapping!
