November 9th – Passing through New Street on a drizzly, cold November evening, I caught the lights and signals of New Street mingling with the city skyline, centre stage the brilliant Brutalist gem, Alpha Tower.
One of the joys of winter is seeing this view, the signals, the reassurance of light, warmth, machinery safely in control and life above going on as normal.
Birmingham is glorious in it’s beauty sometimes.
October 26th – The gorgeous and remarkable sunsets also continue. Again, coincidentally passing near Shenstone, I caught an astoundingly dramatic mackerel sky sunset that lasted all of 15 minutes before it disappeared.
As I left Shenstone station, there were hints in the sky to the west, and as I cycled home, I watched the shy intensify until it almost seemed to catch fire.
Then, by the time I got to Stonewall, all trace had disappeared from the sky and dusk was falling.
And yes, I do love the drama and geometry of pylons, and what better backdrop than a stunning sunset?
September 29th – A long morning involving a trip to Telford with a stop off at Tipton on the way. I set out in a damp, windy landscape, but there was clearly a better day on the way and the clearing weather lifted my grim mood.
Passing Grove Hill on the Chester Road at Stonnall, the sky was neatly divided between day and night, clear and cloud, bad weather and good.
And the light, clear, fine day was winning.
August 17th – Another sunset return after an early start and late finish. As the more perceptive amongst you will have noticed, my main blog operations are currently on reduced power for a few days due to workload. Which is a bugger, but they do pay me so I’d better do it.
It is nice, however, to return through a twilight, almost somnambulant Walsall. The moon is still full, and rendering normally mundane views magical, and keeping me company as I pedal wearily home.
Sometimes, the moon is company, and sometimes, that’s all you need.
May 28th – I returned from Burntwood via Chasewater at sunset.
It was peaceful, and remarkably, I had the dam to myself. The dam, and the magic.
It’s been ages since I caught a decent Chasewater sunset. Pleased with this.
January 5th – My experiments with the night-time view of Wednesbury’s twin sisters from Kings Hill continue. This is the third camera I’ve had a go with, and the best so far and more what I was after, but the limitations of the Nikon S9900 – lack of manual focus and noise – were very apparent.
I know what I want, and this is almost it, but I need to learn more about the craft to get it, I think.
It’s still beautiful, though, and one of the best views in the Black Country.
December 10th – A photo I’ve wanted a crack at for a while, and will return to with a different camera, I think.
The twin sisters of Wednesbury, at night, from Kings Hill. This is a fantastic sight and I’m not sure how best to capture it. There’s something really warm, cosy and maybe even a little Christmassy about the lights, the houses, the skyline and somnambulant colours.
The Black Country often isn’t conventionally beautiful – but the beauty it does display is breathtaking and unique. How I love this place.
October 31st – I passed Stowe Pool on the way out, and on the way back. That classic view – almost a cliche with local photographers now – still captivates me. The light was nice, the sky beautiful, and I just drank in the view for as long as I could.
I was so lucky to see this today.
October 14th – The twin sisters of Wednesbury are a bit of a muse for me at the moment. I took a photo of this view last week, but on a dull day. This evening as I trundled through Kings Hill, the spires were caught in golden, low sun that also caught the turning trees.
I love this view, the colours, the clock and the rooftops. Hope I see it in snow this year. Wonder if it makes a good night shot?
August 12th – The photography was better, but I wasn’t.
Still pretty rough, and not really any better, I got out a little earlier and bumbled off to Chasewater to catch the sunset. Getting used to a new camera can be odd and the Nikon seems to have interesting habits; it doesn’t seem to do sunsets quite the same as the Panasonic, which tended to redden them, where as this one tends to pull out the pink aspect more. It worked better than I thought it had from the picture preview.
From there, I scooted back to Brownhills as it got dark. Some shots from Clayhanger’s railway bridge using a gorillapod allowed me to experiment and found that aperture priority allowed me to get the hash, sharp light pattern I like. That was a real discovery.
I was a lovely evening, and although I felt dreadful, I’d learned something, so it wasn’t a bad trip, really.
And then there were the toads…
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