Back on the Blip

Well, here we are again!! I said in my last holiday entry that, having been bitten by the photography bug again, I was about to buy a ‘grown-up’ camera and so, this is the first product of said purchase. It’s so complicated against the “point and shoot” objects I’ve been used to but some guidance (and terrific company) from my guide and mentor, @Frazersfotos, round Birmingham last night gave me a chance to play with my new toy and also remind myself how pretty Birmingham has become in the last 20 years, especially around Gas St Basin and the canals. I am pretty sure I took a canal boat through the same stretch of canal that is in this picture when on a “booze cruise” holiday with friends around 25 years ago. How things have changed from the warehouses with busted windows and upturned shopping carts poking above the dark and sinister waters.
I really LIKE Birmingham. It has a reputation that arises directly from its gritty working class history (see Peaky Blinders - early series, not the fantasist Brummie ‘Goodfellas’ it has become in recent series) but the regeneration it has undergone and is still undergoing is transforming the city from grey, grim industrial sprawl to thriving, trendy metropolis. The sadder aspect is that, as the new expensive buildings spring up, so do the numbers of the homeless, populating, it seems, every second doorway. Some are in the grip of substance abuse, some are clearly cynical “professionals” but the overwhelming majority are just people struggling to deal with whatever wrench of  fate has brought them to their current circumstance.
However, back to the photos. Here is one of the more acceptable efforts from last nights walking tour. I am slowly realising that the quantity of total dross that these sessions generate would have killed my enthusiasm stone dead if I’d had to contend with the old cellular film days (I did of course - I am that old). Thank God I’ve lived long enough for the miracles of the Digital Age.
So, back on the blip and slowly getting to grips with the toys and the jargon. Hopefully more to follow in the coming weeks. I just have to resist the temptation to bankrupt myself with new lenses and tripods and stuff in the meantime....