Sandwell is anxious to throw off its Black Country image, the civic mission statement is Great People. Great Place. Great Prospects. The air pollution has gone leaving plenty of industrial architecture to admire. My reason for alighting at Sandwell & Dudley railway station was for a meeting of the RPS Landscape Group at The Old Schoolhouse, Oldbury, the home of Smethwick Photographic Society.
Sandwell is anxious to throw off its Black Country image, the civic mission statement is Great People. Great Place. Great Prospects. The air pollution has gone leaving plenty of industrial architecture to admire. My reason for alighting at Sandwell & Dudley railway station was for a meeting of the Royal Photographic Society Landscape Group at The Old Schoolhouse, Oldbury, the home of Smethwick Photographic Society.
Wayne Brittle gave us a talk about his photography of landscapes; his technique includes early morning light, including planning to be in place to capture spectacular sunrises; he often uses glass filters in front of the lens. My take-away from his talk was to remember a telephoto lens for landscapes; it’s worth its weight in the rucksack.
The guest exhibition in the SPS cafe was invigorating, this is the annual exhibition of the Gamma Photoforum, a group of about 35 enthusiast and professional photographers each presenting a panel of three framed photographs on a subject of their own choice. The range was enthralling, landscapes to close-ups, street photography to formal portraits etc, but what made the difference for me was that each of the three images had a clear motivation, a clear intention, a reason to have been selected, speaking strongly and clearly out of the frame in purely visual imagery. So a story or an atmosphere or a character rather than just “lovely” or “nice” or “pleasing”.
So here are my three photos of Sandwell.
Note: members' faces pixellated as this was not a public event