A Birmingham weekend

Earlier in December I had a weekend in Birminmgham, including a couple of visits to the well known Frankfurt Christmas Market that is open every day from the middle of November to a couple of days before Christmas. It does seem to get bigger every year. Apart from ther usual stalls selling candles, ceramics, small toys, candlea and jewellery, there are the food and drink stalls and this time the market has extended almost to the ICC. At this end it's a mixture of all types of stalls taking advantage of the passing trade: the German stallholders are concentrated in New Street and up to the Art Gallery. But you can now get hold of pork scratchings or ostrich burgers. What most appeals to me is the atmosphere around the food stalls: the sausages, chips and fried mushrooms, the crowds, watching people cooking the hot food. As always seems to happen, it rained most of the time I was there, but it never seriously dampened people's enthusiasm for the event.

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I also had a great evening out at a relatively new swing dance event in Birmingham - Hot Ginger. 'A night of retro style and retro dance'. Very good vallue, a very friendly cvrowd and superb swing music to dance to, in Moseley. I had the mobile with me and took a few pictures making use of available light. Details on http://www.hotginger.org/. I did try to find myself a decent Hawaiian shirt to buy, but without success - this might have to wait for the warmer weather to arrive. The organisers are aiming to hold one of these events about once a month, and I hope to be able to make my way across to Birmingham again soon.

Norwich sunrise

There was a beautiful sunrise here in Norwich on Wednesday around 8.00, and here are a couple of shots I took on my mobile. These were taken standing in front of the window next to my desk,

looking south towards Poringland

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Lens culture

I've recently returned to following some of the photographic blogs, including the excellent Lens Culture.
http://www.lensculture.com/webloglc/index.html
In particular I noticed the entry about the Paris Photo 2009 exhibition that took place last month, including the piece on art market anarchy:

'A surprise act of art market anarchy took place just outside the entrance to the exclusive gala VIP opening night at Paris Photo 2009 last week. While the crowd of well-dressed international art collectors began to enter the giant hall at the Louvre, dozens of pranksters quickly dumped thousands and thousands of anonymous vintage photos into a giant heap, and tossed handfuls of photographs in the air. "Free, free, free!"A surprise act of art market anarchy took place just outside the entrance to the exclusive gala VIP opening night at Paris Photo 2009 last week. While the crowd of well-dressed international art collectors began to enter the giant hall at the Louvre, dozens of pranksters quickly dumped thousands and thousands of anonymous vintage photos into a giant heap, and tossed handfuls of photographs in the air. "Free, free, free!" Even in this art-loving socialist capital, this act caused a momentary cognitive disconnect....'

I'd really like to have been able to gather up a random selection of photographs in this way and try to make something of them with a montage. And maybe the Paris photo 2010 should be pencilled into my diary for next winter.

Black and white portraits

I've participated from time to time in the Guardian Camera Club's monthly photographic assignments. Each month an assignment is published and you can submit up to six pictures through the Flickr group (appropriately tagged). For instance October's theme was rivers, and the current November project (submissions up to 14 December) is black and white portraiture in the style of Jane Bown.

At the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich a week or so ago I took a few shots of Teresa, and I've included a couple of these here. All done in something of a rush, but that's the way it has been the last few weeks.