January 4th – In Birmingham for the sfternoon, it was a good chance to fiddle with the new cameras: both gave a good account of themselves. 

As regards the Canon, I discovered I had indeed broken a setting – it has a hardware dial for exposure compensation which I’d inadvertently adjusted, making my pictures dark.

Birmingham itself is still doing what it does best – changing. The Brutalist treasure that is Alpha Tower seems forlorn and distraught before the demolition of the last part of the Conservatoire and Fletcher’s Walk, and new buildings are springing up all over the city centre.

But it’s the quiet urbanity and light that charms in Birmingham most, when night falls. I still love this place with all my heart, but I’m getting to the point where I don’t recognise whole parts of it anymore.