What I saw – January 2020 edition

Chinese New Year in Birmingham, Creative Mornings Derby , woodland in Bestwood Park and more…

A new regular series of articles where I want to share on my website some images I make which have interesting stories , but which don’t necessarily fit neatly into my portfolio of commissioned work as a candid storyteller , and also documenting features within the built environment

From top to bottom – starting out with a look at the Chinese New Year celebrations in Birmingham – hosted within the Arcadian complex – good to see many crowds enjoy the occasion and support the actors despite the weather being disappointing to put it mildly!

A detour through the Park Estate being on hand to make the most of the last of the Shepherd’s sky overhead in late December.

Photographing woodland on a brilliantly sunny day within Bestwood Country Park to round off 2019 – an enjoyable day spent getting lost within the many different woodland paths through the Park itself and eventually making my way through the other side.

On my way to visit the Creative Mornings Derby team – or so I’d thought , but I’d made a mistake and ended up being in the city a day early! But I was treated to a spectacularly foggy morning in any case . Started the morning with scenes in Bilborough , Notttingham where I saw market traders setting up for the day before heading over to Derby. From top to bottom – a bird perched atop Bonnie Prince Charlie – with the Silk Mill , undergoing renovation in the background. Irongate – with Derby Cathedral looming large in the background , as well as a view of shops along Sadler Gate showing in the background.

Coming back the following day to the Creative Mornings Derby event – and was treated to a fascinating talk by Victoria Taylor and a chance to meet some new contacts. With the topic of “roots” I thought this was a useful opportunity to reflect on different forks in the road and different paths I’ve taken in the last ten years of making photographs , but while being able to stay true to myself and my original curiosity while being able to apply these ideas to succeed commercially and add value. A useful book I’ve read on this is one by Mark McGuiness – Motivation for Creative People – and the main lesson I got from that is being able to move from solely working for a cathartic release but to see that external goals can also feed into an intrinsic sense of curiosity – and to see how they relate together.