I am curious (yellow)

This quirky film title from the 1960s seemed an appropriate way to introduce this subject - just a bit of fun in North Walsham one evening along the lines of capturing images on the theme of colour. After spotting a bright yellow bin near to headstones in the churchyard I decided that would set the theme, seeing as the town centre seemed to have acquired something of a yearning for the colour yellow.

Experimental wedding photography

I've often thought it would be really great to become a wedding photographer, but the market is saturated and it's hard to see a way of breaking in. I think one way is to find a niche market and exploit it, and I've been trying to read around ideas on this in particular and wedding photography in geneal by reading Photo Pro Magazine - they seem to have regular features on this subject that look to be pretty useful. No doubt I have a good deal to think about but I'm trying to work towards this over the next couple of years.

I've been playing arouind with some pretty drastic crops of some pictures I took a few weeks ago at a wedding in Suffolk, and so here just for fun are four images. It gives me some ideas and things to work on - sometimes a crop works and sometimes it just doesn't.

RedBall leaves Norwich

Kurt Perschke's RedBall left Norwich on a high note with an appearance in the Erpingham Gate at Norwich Cathedral on 22 May. Gone but not forgotten. It was only a red ball, really. Or was there somehing more? Amateur photographers had a field day - so watch this space for more. Rumour has it there's to be an exhibition based on red ball photographs in October. Remember, you heard it here first....

Rosary Cemetery

We visited Rosary Cemetery in Norwich last Sunday. The first non-denominational cemetery in England, it was opened in 1821 and occupies a steep and thickly wooded site looking south toward the city centre. It's one of Norwich's undiscovered gems and laid out in a formal arrangement on the site of a former market garden. There are many symbols and monuments and many fine specimen trees along with a wide range of birds and butterflies. There's much interest to be had in wandering through the avenues seeking out unfrequented corners and their stones and monuments. We're going to join as Friends and come along to more of the guided talks they hold from time to time - and maybe even volunteer for some conservation work.

Redball comes to Norwich

Kurt Perschke's Redball project has arrived in Norwich as part of this year's Norfolk and Norwich Festival (http://www.nnf10.org.uk/). It's been to places such as Barcelona, Sydney and Toronto and now it's in Norfolk before even going to London. It's a fifteen foot inflatable red ball inflated and squashed into a whole series of gaps between various buildings in the city over the peeriod from 7-22 May. It will show some of the city's architectural heritage in a new light (sites will include the Cathedral's Erpingham Gate, Pull's Ferry, St Peter Mancroft church, Norwich Castle and the Sainsbury Centre at the UEA. I think it's a real plus for Norwich and already has generated good deal of interest. Here are some pictures I took today of the red ball wedged next to a jeweller's shop opposite John Lewis.

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I wil be following the red ball around Norwich with my camera and adding some more posts.

Birmingham's outer circle

There is something of a history to the Birmingham outer circle, or more specifically the National Express number 11 bus that runs its entire length. Though I seem to remember from living in the area many years ago there was no distinction between the two, the buses are now designated the 11A (anti-clockwise) and 11C (clockwise) services. That's certainly useful if you become disorientated and aren't sure which way you need to travel. It takes around two and a half hours to travel the entire route of some 27 miles.

There's an entry on Wikipedia, or see this summary:
http://www.buspassheaven.co.uk/index.php/rides/76-west-midlands/124-11-birmingham-circular

There are some interesting happenings that sprang from this.
For example a project known as 11-11-11. On the eleventh of November 2009 people were invited 'to take part in a pyschogeographical epic. A window of eleven hours to complete a circuit of Birmingham’s number eleven bus.There were rules. But not many:
Get on the 11C at some point after 11am on 11/11.
Get off the 11C exactly one circuit later.
You can get on and off the bus as many times as you like (don’t spend more than an hour off bus at one time).
Document your journey; photos, film, writing, cross-stitch, knitting, amigurumi, poetry, blog, twitter, however you like.
Meet up with others as mad as you, if you want.
Record everything here — or on your own space and link us up.
The idea is that a snapshot of the real Birmingham from a number of different people will emerge, one that’s unedited, unspun, and unwashed. Circling the city will force the gaze inward, focussing our attention exclusively on our municipality'. http://elevenbus.co.uk/

As I remember, this arose from a similar project one year earlier that had concentrated on producing a photographic record. Perhaps inspired by this, I recently travelled a fair chunk of the outer circle to record impressions of the journey along with photographs of some of the main sights along the way.

Statring from Addison St in King's Heath, I travelled anti-clockwise on the 11A as far as Perry Barr (I had intended to go further, but ran out of time and needed to get to the city centre for lunch). This route took me past Sarehole Mill (unfortunately before it opened for the day), and very close to Hall Green dog track, Villa Park (Aston Villa FC's ground) and Perry Barr dog track. I took some shots from the bus, but concentrated on these sporting venues and soem of the pictures are included here.

My impressions. Hall Green dog track were very suspicious of someone wandering around with a camera and wanting to take pictures of the stadium; they wouldn't let me in. On the other hand, Perry Barr dog track was simple to enter and there was no-one around (I even tried knocking on the door at the security office). At Villa Park I eventually managed to persuade the security to let me in for a few minutes as long as I didn't stray too far, and it was well worth it for a few shots of an empty stadium with a few ground staff working. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Going to the dogs

At the end of March I had a really interesting evening out ot the Great Yarmouth dog racing track. On a really wet and miserable evening I was able to stay out of the rain and enjoy my first ever visit to a dog track. A group of us had a reserved table in the restaurant - part of a deal which included entrance and a meal. Quite good value. I was really looking forward to the visit as a fascinating photo opportunity, though I wasn't quite sure what to expect.


There were I think about 14 races over the course of the evening and they seemed to come in rapid succession. I have no idea whatever about how to bet on the dogs so declined to try my luck at any of this - but did find the time to get outside and down to the side of the track with my camera and seek out photo opportunities. And one good thing was this - if you set up a shot on a dog race, and it doesn't quite work, in a quarter hour or so you will have another chance, and so on. I really must find out all about how the betting system works at these places.





It was quite atmospheric, with darkness falling and the constant rain - though we were under cover the whole evening. while at the stadium. I've included some of my favourite shots here. The lighting was quite interesting, at least in the earlier part of the evening, and was useful for conveying the atmosphere, I thought. Another time, I might come pre-prepared on how the betting system works. I was mystified this time.