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.

Apple day at Gressenhall

On 25 October we visited Gressenhall Museum of Rural Life in Norfolk for the annual apple day - the purpose of the event is in celebrating the many varieties of apple including the rare ones. I did take quite a few pictures, mainly in the apple identification tent, and towards the end of the day, in the Gressenhall orchards. While there I decided to join the East of England Apple and Orchards Project - which aims to help conserve local orchards and local apple varieties. According to their magazine the five fruit trees in our back garden countsa as an orchard! I've included a few photographs here. Apples make quite undemanding subjects for a photographer.

Wells-next-the-Sea

We went to Wells on the north Norfolk coast a few weeks ago late in the afternoon and walked out across the beach and past the beach huts to watch the tide come in and see the setting sun. I know from the last time I went there in the winter just what a great place it can be for photography at the end of the day, with the vast expanses of sand, broad vistas, and sense of isolation.

These images were taken in the rapidly fading light and I was quite pleased with both of them - after several tries.

Norwich medieval churches (part 2)

Continuing with the remaining four themes of the photography competition, and following on from the previous post, these are my chosen pictures:

Worship and contemplation: St Peter Mancroft - I took several pictures of the chapel sign, as I felt that from one of these I would find a suitably plain image with reasonable lighting. I considered other churches but came back to what is a fairly serious image in the end.

Art and architecture: St Peter Mancroft -

Again, this church provided great opportunities for another category. After several attempts to find an interesting angle of the carved oak figure of St Paul - with St Peter in the background - this one seemed the most satisfying.

Enjoyment and fun: St Peter Parmentergate, King Street - Here I made a couple of visits to the Tae-Kwon-Do class in the church and decided to enter a shot incorporating the martial arts Mickey Mouse and a student in the background - one of the more light hearted entries.

Innovation and change: St Lawrence, St Benedict's Street - although I made three visits with the camera and tried all sorts of possible angles and subjects ath this church (it has a fashion and textiles display two days a week) I came back to one of my first shots, with a fashion display and mirror reflecting the church window.

Al in all, an interesting project that made me think of Norwich's churches in a wholly new way - which was one of the aims of the competition.