March 5th – In Birmingham early evening, pottering from meeting to coffee shop to meeting, with a new camera to try out. All these shots were handheld, quick grabs. The image processing on the TZ70 is streets ahead of the TZ60. I like this a lot.

Almost as much as I love Birmingham – my past, present and future. I love this place with all my heart.

It’ll be even better when they finish building it.

February 13th – oops, I forgot my gorilla pod. Sadly, I only discovered this unfortunate fact in the dark, in Walsall Wood on my comment home. It was raining, and the air had suddenly become quite warm. My planned shots for the two sets of today were therefore lost, and I had to improvise. I don’t have steady hands, and the shake correction on the camera is vicious in it’s manipulation of images. These shots were all ⅛ or ¼ exposure, hand held. Quite pleased, really, although they are quite poor. Time was I couldn’t do 1/60 exposure without blurring the shot, so something is improving, I’m not sure what.

Walsall Wood itself looks great at night, and always has; the pubs and shopfronts cast a great light, and in the wet, the vehicle lights sparkled. Amazing that after so much change, and so much expansion, this place still retains a village atmosphere.