Back in February, 12 of us from Sidmouth Photographic Club (SPC) set out from Devon for 3 days of photography and fun in Birmingham. We arrived by lunchtime on the first day and quickly made our way into town to get cracking. We started in Digbeth, full of fascinating street art which is notoriously difficult to make into something other than a record shot. Some of the group used it as a great backdrop to capture people against, but you needed a lot of patience to wait for the “right” person to walk past (and we all know what my patience levels are like!).

Over the 3 days we wandered around different parts of the city, taking in the station, Selfridges building, Bullring, new Library, canals etc. – sometimes en masse, sometimes alone/in small groups – and it really is a fascinating place, with plenty of characters (especially round the station). Even so, I struggled to find interesting or unusual compositions…and the light was sooo flat every day – not an interesting shadow/silhouette to be found! I wonder if sometimes there is so much vying for your attention, that it’s difficult to focus in on what’s that little bit different. But I would definitely recommend it as a destination for street/architecture photography.

We certainly had a lot of fun as a group though – plenty of banter, refreshment stops and good food, and the odd embarrassing photo (spot the SPC model below!)…all available for the right price of course!! I think it’s fair to say that Mike (who organised the trip), must have felt like a teacher taking an unruly group of kids on a field trip – but there were no visits to the hospital or police station, so I would say he got off pretty lightly this time!

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One of the trip highlights for me, was coming across a young guy (street name juptr) filming his rap video next to a couple of old fashioned phone boxes. I couldn’t resist hijacking his shoot and asked if I could take a few pictures. He was very obliging, so when I got home I decided to create a few different looks for him. He already had a couple of tracks on Spotify which I’ve added to one of my playlists, and he and his friend were most surprised that a middle-aged woman was remotely interested in hip hop/grime/drill etc. (let alone knew what it was) and listening to Radio 1 Xtra! Haha – never judge a book by its cover, innit!

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The most engaging building in Birmingham has to be Selfridges, which looks like an alien spaceship that’s landed in the centre of the city! Fascinating abstract shots to be had, especially as the disc colours subtly change with the light. It’s been photographed thousands of times, so it was challenging to try and find an angle or shot that’s unique.

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