Light and Shade II

Went to Birmingham for the second time in a week on Saturday evening, intending to have a balti at the Royal Naim on Stratford Road, for years my favourite balti house by a long way. And it was gone! In fact Stratford Road seemed stripped of Balti Houses, and Stoney Lane not much better. There were still a fair few on Ladypool Road, thank goodness. So what has happened to the Balti Triangle, and especially the Royal Naim?

It’s 25 years since I first went to Birmingham to go to university. Back then, the city was a dump in virtually every way - the attractive historical buildings were still being demolished to make way for anodyne and anonymous modern edifices, and the city was full of underpasses. I didn’t see a proper tree for 10 weeks. My home town of Leeds had been through a difficult time, but Brum seemed to be utterly defeated. On sundays, I would wander along the canal towpaths, picking my way through the discarded needles and broken glass, but this was the best the city had to offer on a sunday morning, the closes thing to physical escape - paradoxically, a wander along to Winson Green for a pint at the Bellefield.

But now - well, what a change. Where once it was hard to find a pub, now there’s nothing but. The paths are safe, clean and even. The architecture both old and new is striking. It’s a nice city. How things have changed!

OK, here’s the new Light and Shade. Following the riproaring success that wasn’t the original version (Light and Shade , now archived here), welcome to the new blog detailing one man’s rambling journey through the wonderful world of photography. Let’s see if I can keep this one updated, and from now on, I’ll try to only say something when I’ve got something to say…

I was just reminded of this stuff, partly by finding some slides I had forgotten about. I used to use a lot of it, as it was cheap, being East German. Very. UT18 was the one I used most, a 50 ASA (as then was) film of unique colour rendition. It’s the only film I know that could give a gold cast to everything, although cyan skies were much more common, as is a general magenta cast. I miss it - time for a digital recreation of the effect.

Should’ve been shooting the primary school’s Country Dancing team on Tuesday - postponed until Wednesday due to a thunderstorm. And then the weather forecast was so bad it was cancelled altogether. Never mind!

Well, preparatory work continues, so that’s at least something!

Am I barmy? I’m setting up a darkroom again, just for the hell of it….

It struck me (whilst out with the camera) that my photography is spent searching out natural beauty, for the most part. Some photographers may make the ugly worth seeing, but it’s not for me.