Digbeth

From time to time, something happens that makes me extremely glad I live in Birmingham, and not somewhere like London, or nearer London at least. Last weekend I went to town with my BFF (my mom) to take photos in the style of Margaret Bourke White's building photos to fill a page in my sketchbook I've had empty for months, and I thought that the falling down buildings in Digbeth would be good for these. Plus, I've been meaning to photograph Digbeth for ages and ages. Welllll, we came across the Custard Factory (that I've actually never been to before, despite living here for my whole life) which was brilliant to photograph. I think it was, anyway. Here are some of the photos:

Giacomo Brunelli

 

http://www.giacomobrunelli.com/index.html

Again, if anyone would like to buy me an earlyish birthday present, I'd love to have his book.

#3

sarahnb photostream

#2

sarahnb photostream

#1 - Looking through my Flickr photostream...

Occasionally I look back through my full up Flickr photostream, sometimes because I need to delete things to add something new, sometimes just because. I've had this account since July 2008 and I used to upload lots but don't really any more, due to lack of space and I sort of just gave up with it. I tried really hard to get it seen a bit more but to no avail. Sort of. I think I should get a pro account. But I don't know. I've been thinking about this since I got the account.

But that really wasn't the point of the post. I was going to post some of my older photos from my Flickr that I particularly like, or just that I feel like posting.

 sarahnb photostream

The serviette, blu tac and photography book thing sort of worked again. Better with smaller cakes for a shallow depth of field and less focus I reckon. This cake is delicious. I made it with mah sistah for our momma's birthday yesterday.

William Eggleston

Since this is a blog I made specifically for photography related posts, I figured I should do some posts about my favourite photographers. I do it on my tumblr as well so there's even more reason for me to do it here.

Obviously this particular post is about William Eggleston, and I always think of him as my complete favourite because there is not one photo of his that I've seen and don't like, or that doesn't interest me, or so on. I don't really look back at my old photography teacher that fondly, since I don't think he taught us that much, apart from when it came to the dark room, but he was the one that brought William Eggleston to my attention so that makes me really glad I had him. I know I would have found out about him eventually, but the sooner I did, the better. 

Looking at Eggleston's photos as much as I do also makes me see things as though they were from one of his photos, for instance when we're going out somewhere and driving somewhere I haven't really seen before I always look for the kind of thing that would be in his photos and look amazing, and imagine trying to take photos like his. The fact that he took photos of what he saw would look good in places he visited and didn't particularly set things up makes me glad because I don't consider myself good at setting up a photograph at all, and prefer to just keep an eye out for interesting/ aesthetically pleasing  places or things that are already there. His photos make me notice things more. (But they also make me sad that I wasn't alive in the 70s and want to go to Memphis.) It's also his photos that made me interested in and excited by film the most, I think, despite being interested in it a bit before I knew of him. I use him for practically every photography unit I do and whenever I take a photograph I always think of his.

Here are some of his photos, there are too many I love to have favourites.

I'm so glad he has a good website, too, www.egglestontrust.com. It has loaaaads of his photos on it.

(If anyone would like to buy me a late Christmas present/early birthday present, I would love William Eggleston's Guide. ;) Well, I'd love all of his books but that is definitely the most affordable. If not, I'll just have to buy myself a present...)

A new addition to my (small) camera collection.

My sister's very generous friend has given me even more photography goodies, including one of these Baldixette cameras. It's medium format, German, was made in 1956 and I like it a lot. It's got two apertures; f9 and f16, two shutter speeds; 1/60 and bulb and three focus lengths. Also it's very purdy. And the photos are 6x6.

I've been wanting to try out a medium format camera for a while so I'm really happy I've got this now. The other goodies I was given are a big bag of film (colour, b&w, 120, 35mm, various ISOs, expired and new) which is great because black and white film was also on my lengthy shopping list, and some books on developing and lith printing which will definitely come in handy since she also gave me almost everything I need to set up my own dark room. Happy happy.

Here are some photos I found on Flickr that were taken with this camera.

openspace02s by Jacob Schere

Found photo and amazing coincidence by RaúlM. 

Beach houses @ IJmuiden by Jelle Knüppe