Pete Ashton’s Blog

NEC, 25th Feb

Went to Focus on Imaging today at the NEC, my first visit to a trade show where I wasn’t putting it up or taking it down. I was there for a little under four hours.

By the gods these things are mental! I didn’t really do much other that wander around but I’m utterly exhausted from the experience. But I do have a few inches of glossy catalogues for cameras I can never afford.

Best stand was probably Ilford where they had photographers who used their film and paper on hand to talk about their work. Biggest disappointment was probably Apple who were just pushing Aperture, though I guess that’s understandable. Weirdest omission was no sign of Lightroom at Adobe. Hardly any freebees or schwag. I got three sheets of Ilford inkjet paper, a copy of the British Journal of Photography (which is pretty good) and a Nikon carrier bag. Got to play with a Gorilla Pod after hearing about them ages ago which was cool and I think they might actually be worth the money.

First of all, here’s my solution for dealing with road traffic congestion. On any given road where congestion is occurring every other car with a single occupant should be removed from the road and crushed. The owner would then be given a bike and bus/rail pass as compensation. I envisage some kind of large helicopter with a big claw picking the cars straight off the road for immediate disposal though I appreciate this might not be feasible.

I also think speed cameras should be replaced with a giant mallet that swings down on the offender flattening them and their car into the tarmac. Or perhaps a trap door in the road that drops them into a fiery pit of fiery fire.

With my stance on this issue clear, I find myself wanting to comment on The Great Petition. While single-issue petitions don’t really mean shit in the wider scheme of things, especially ones that are hyped by the Daily Express, this has resulted in possibly the most intelligent thing to come out of Tony Blair’s office in the last ten years. This email is long. It has sentences that are not sound-bites. It covers many points of view. It is, above all, quite calm and lacking in hyperbole. It’s in the sort of reasoned, level-headed voice you wish governments would use on a daily basis.

That’s not to say I believe him or anything. The motorists lobby is strong enough to force a climb-down on this not to mention the whipping he’s been getting from the reactionary tabloids. And the “big brother” issues are serious, regardless of who’s collecting the data.

But road pricing is a sensible move. After all, it costs me twice as much to travel by train at peak hours so I tend not to. Why should motorists be excluded from this sensible approach to dealing with transport capacity is beyond me.

So Tony, why did you wait until now before treating your subjects like intelligent human beings?

Walsall, Feb 18th. Bigger.

Sunday was the first Black Country Flickrmeet being a tour around Walsall, only the second time I’d ever been there. My knowledge of the area west of Brum is embarrassingly lacking. Or maybe not so embarrassing. After all, Birmingham is a pretty large place. When I lived in Southampton I felt no obligation to get to know Portsmouth though it was only a short train journey away. And, it has to be said, my knowledge of Coventry is equally poor.

But still, there’s this whole urban sprawl out there waiting to be explored which is handy as I’m starting to run out of places in Birmingham. On the last meet in Digbeth I felt like a tour guide, though of course revisiting places is never a bad thing, especially as Birmingham is changing so much these days.

But still, the Black Country has opened up a whole new area of interest and coupled with some developments in my blogging work (more on them later) I’m starting think outside the city boundaries and consider myself more of a West Midlander. Which is quite a development for a Birmingham resident.

The best thing about these Black Country meets is I’ve got nothing to do with them. I just turn up and let others lead the way. Very refreshing!

Of course now we have two monthly meets in the area along with everything else the photographic calendar is getting a little crowded leading to some musings on how we’re going to deal with it all this year. I think it’ll be fine but right now there seems to be a Flickr-related meetup every week, and that’s on top of all the other things going on. S’gonna be a busy year!

Set, slideshow, TTV shots still to come (been busy…)

Aston Cantlow, Feb 17th

World TTV Day was on Saturday, marking roughly the first anniversary of a Through the Viewfinder photo being posted on Flickr. Naturally I was going to partake in this occasion (and even wrote about it for CiB). However, Saturday was rather overcast in the Midlands and I found myself, not unwillingly, accompanying Matt and Anna and Matt’s brother on a very very muddy walk in the countryside. Not perfect photography conditions. But I prevailed. Tried out some new processing techniques too. (Cross process is so last year…)

Set, slideshow, etc…

Haven’t had a chance to look through the World TTV Day Pool yet but have already spotted some West Mids action in there, which is good to see, if not surprising. Today was the first ever Black Country Flickrmeet and of 11 attendees four had contraptions with them, and that’s not including Harri B who’d gone straight for the day. Photos from that will follow soon.

Digbeth, Feb 11th

Digbeth, Feb 11th

My photos from Sunday’s Flickrmeet are up. Here’s the set. Not a huge turnout but I’m not worried. Winter will do that, even though we had lovely weather again. There are now 95 members of Birmingham Flickrmeets which is quite incredible so the summer should be good.

The big find of the day was an open abandoned warehouse in Digbeth full of dead pigeons, broken glass, water and shit. It was great. My personal high, however, was finding the above yellow chair. There’s something about a plastic chair in the wild that really gets my juices flowing. I’ve got three now (one white and another yellow) and while that’s not many it’s the quality that counts.

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Blogging on my two other blogs is going well. It’s interesting how I approach each one. Created in Birmingham is a lot more formal as befits a paying gig and while I’m trying to inject in more personality it does take a while to get things right before posting, like they mean something. There’s no shortage of material for it though. If anything I need to cut down on posting news and get back to profiling people. On the whole I look at the archives for the last couple of months and I’m happy. Proud even. There’s still a hell of a lot to do though. My feeling that it’s going to take a good 6 months to a year to properly bed in seem realistic.

Brum Blog is proving a lot of fun, especially since I decided to abandon doing proper posts with titles and everything and just whack whatever crosses my path on it. It’s something of a return to old school blogging and I think my decision to use Blogger was a wise one from a psychological standpoint if nothing else.

Reaction to the blogs has also been good. The most interesting thing has been people asking me for advice on blogging, which kinda blew my mind at first. It makes sense though. You can do anything with the blog format, anything at all. So where do you start? What tone should you strike? What subjects should you cover? These things don’t really matter if you’re gradually evolving your blog but if your site exists to sell you and your services then it’s important to get it at least partly right from the outset. Is there a market for a Blogging Consultant? Did I actually type that last sentence?

Another nice side effect which I may or may not be able to take credit for is a small but noticeable increase in activity in the Birmingham-centric blog world. This is my secret agenda with these blogs - to provide a bit of substance on which an ecosystem or conversation can build. Early days still but I’m hopeful.

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I’m sure people are curious about the quilt. It’s coming together slowly. Very slowly. I’ve got four pieces now of a projected 49. More news as and when it becomes interesting.