Tag: light

#365daysofbiking Bending the light

January 25th – The mist still hadn’t lifted, and in fact it seemed to be becoming more dense.

I’d been over to Burntwood for an errand, and came back via Chasewater after dark, getting some shopping in on the way. As I rattled down the bumpy north shore path where it runs between the Rugby Club and Chasetown Bypass, concerned for the fragility of my purchases, I noticed the curving ‘wall of light’ effect of the streetlights on the fog, bending away from me like I was repelling it.

It was one of those moments when an unexpected, mundane scene caught a unique light and became precious.

Like Clayhanger did  a few days before. Low cloud does have its benefits, I guess.

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#365daysofbiking Persistence of the night

January 24th – But of course, the crippling thing about this time of year is that there’s great optimism in the morning light, when one can actually see the dying of winter.

But when the dark repossess the day on the way home, it feels like deepest winter again: Which being in January as we are, it actually is.

The persistence of the night – like here in Green Lane, Walsall Wood – is sobering, depressing, but essential. The dark may be retreating. But we’re a ways away from the death yet. We must keep pushing, keep going.

Until the persistence is no more. For another season.

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#365daysofbiking On the dark side

January 5th – Not sure what happened here. it was a decent sunset as I headed from Newtown up to Sheffield on an errand, so I stopped to catch it at Clayhanger Bridge.

This image is not how I remember it: It seemed much lighter at the time, and far less dark.

It actually felt open, light and beautiful, not dark, brooding and dramatic as it looks here.

This camera is very strange sometimes, I must say. (And no, exposure comp wasn’t turned right down.)

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#365daysofbiking A beautiful approach

December 26th – I love Chasetown High Street – day or night, it’s actually a great little thoroughfare: Busy due to the mix of housing and shops, the hill combined with the mixed architecture makes it fascinating.

On a wet Boxing Day evening, on the way back from seeing family it was nice to stop and take a picture.

I’d still like to make a low rent version of the Bullitt car chase here. But on choppers or BMX bikes. It’d be fab.

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#365daysofbiking Dark is the night

November 25th – Returning home, I took the canal from Walsall Wood, but the towpath was horribly waterlogged and muddy, so I headed back towards the Anchor Bridge to get to High Street.

I was struck by the almost ethereal appearance of the pub, it’s reflection in the canal and the effect of the mist gathering on the water.

It was very, very dark, but so very beautiful too.

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#365daysofbiking The storm’s passage

October 8th – Returning from Birmingham, caught suddenly in a shower on the platform at New Street Station, I was fascinated by the darkening of the sky, then the light catching the buildings as the end was in sight.

In all the mad, frenetic urban landscape, I love the power it still maintains to capture the light beautifully.

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#365daysofbiking Violet ultra

September 7th – A busy day, so I slipped out late with a good opportunity to try and learn more about the Canon camera’s behaviour in low light.

This meant paying a visit to an old favourite – the brutalist portal that occurs every night in Silver Court, Brownhills when an ATM’s lights tun part of the 1960s parade of shops violet.

This still fascinates me as it’s so, well, dystopian I suppose.

An odd, hometown curiosity.

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#365daysofbiking The lateness of the hour

August 30th – Yet another late night. Catshill junction provided another good opportunity to find out how to get the best out of the Canon G5X mark II.

I’m beginning to like it but still not confident that what I capture is what I want.

I loved the effect of the garden lights and LED street lighting. That really has made urban night photography a different game.

In this late hour it’s hard to explain just how dark these scenes actually were.

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#365daysofbiking The imperfection of being


July 6th – Feeling down, out for an evening ride to cheer myself up: Just a short loop up to Chasewater at dusk.

My stomach had been bad and I wasn’t feeling great, but the evening light did make me feel better at least.

Sometimes, in summer when the weather’s not great and you’re stuck in, it can be worse than being stuck in on a grey winter’s day. The feeling of a chance lost, of summer passing without you, can be painfully real.

But today, the sunset was beautiful, Chasewater and the canal did it’s best to catch my eye, and I remembered that after all, tomorrow is another, usually better, day.

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#365daysofbiking Different light

May 11th – A busy day elsewhere, and a late ride out saw me cross the Pier Street Bridge in Brownhills at dusk.

This time next week it’ll be busy with boats for the all-weekend Brownhills Canal Festival, but right now it was quiet and peaceful, which only the gentle chatter of waterfowl breaking the silence.

No matter what time of day you come here, there’s always a defferent light to make it uniquely lovely.

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