This year, the Real Confetti Company offered evening viewings of the Confetti Fields for the first time, and I signed up immediately. There is always a short window when the Confetti Fields at Wick, near Pershore, open to the public. The weather and the timing of the delphinium blooms have a significant influence on this.
The view from the top of the field looking down towards Bredon Hill.
Although the dates did not suit the family calendar during the day, the evening timing worked for me. On a warm June evening, I arrived at the fields two hours before sunset.
On top of the viewing platform.The Delphinium flowers
As always, the vibrant colours of the flowers, neatly arranged in colour zones, were quite magical. The evening opening meant the field was less busy, allowing time to take pictures without the usual distractions of people walking through the lanes and avenues. When I arrived, the light was excellent and really brought out the colours. I met up with fellow photographer Dave Wells, and we were able to compare notes as we took our pictures.
The wildflowers were spectacular.Colour contrasts in the field.
Unfortunately, a sunset never materialised. The sun disappeared behind clouds on the horizon, and rain arrived just as we were leaving. However, this did not dampen my enthusiasm for photographing the flowers. Enjoy the pictures—and I have provided links to previous visits to the Confetti Fields in 2023, 2020, 2019, and 2018.
The Photography show turned out to be a great event. I was worried prior to the event as what it may be like especially as it had been put back after a few false starts due to Covid19. The show was held in Halls 1 and 2 at the NEC and when you walked in you noticed that the stalls were set more apart than normal providing a feeling of space. There were wide walkways and amble space to pass people.
Sunday was my first day and it appeared relatively quiet. This gave me the opportunity to linger at several stands and return to take several looks at the cameras on display. I had not booked into any talks, and those that I did attend for did not live up to their titles. The quality of the PowerPoints was surprisingly poor. One talk that I did enjoy on the Sunday was by Claire Luxton. Her artwork was spectacular with wonderful attention to detail. The way she produced the photographs involved a great deal of planning. She was also a very enthusiastic speaker, and I enjoyed her presentation style.
Models at the Fujifilm stand
On the stands, I handled several cameras, fell in love the Canon R5 but it is out of my price range and unlikely to be a camera that I would use that much to justify the price. I liked the new Z fc series from Nikon with its retro design but it would have to do well to be a better buy than my Fujifilm X100V. The Nikon is an attractive camera and as the person who was demonstrating the camera moved it around, the dials caught the light and it did look very attractive. There were also some very nice Fujifilm cameras that I was able to pick up and try out. The Cewe book stand display was lovely to browse through and I will use them for my 365 printed project.
Walls of Pictures
during the show I met up with Photography friends Martin Kelly and Ian Lewis. We found a quiet spot and did a recording of the Photo show. It was different undertaking a live recording and not having to do a zoom. After it was finished, I went and looked at the action area where there were displays of Bike jumping, juggling and breakdancing. Once again my FujiFilm camera did a great job. The evening finished with a few drinks in a local pub and then a get together meal at a local hotel.
Rankin with some of his admirers
The action arena at the show. Juggling.
Wedding Photography at the Nikon stand
Claire Luxton on the Canon Stand
Taking pictures at the Canon Stand
Bike Jumping
On Monday I was back at the show, this time to take part in a Digital Camera magazine walkabout. I had been long listed in a Garden flower competition on the Digital Camera Facebook page. Although I was not a winner, Niall Hampton the editor of the magazine inquired who was going to the Photography show. I mentioned that I would be there so he dropped me an email and I was selected for a walkabout around the NEC taking pictures for a feature in the magazine. I will cover this more in a future blog.
Walking around the National Exhibition Centre
Whilst I was waiting, I took the opportunity to walk around the lake and was taken in by the attractiveness of the place. It did surprise me that such natural beauty existed within the concrete jungle of the NEC. I also did a walkabout in the NEC itself covering the skywalk to the far reaches of the Exhibition Centre. I have some examples of the pictures that I took.
Lone figure
lookig up
Colours in the Airstream
Resorts world
Man out of Time
Resorts World on the Lake
Abstract on Airstream
Billboards and water
Metal Shapes
Resorts world and reflections
Yes this is the NEC
All Monday’s pictures were done with my Canon D5 with the 24-105 lens except one picture that was taken with my iPhone. This one picture made the picture of the day on BBC Midlands today. In summary the Photography show was worthwhile, I enjoyed the two days as each was different in what I saw and participated in. There were a few big names missing but the ones that were there such as Canon and Nikon more than made up for it.
This has been a week of rain and the days have been dull. Even though it is wet there are still great opportunities to go out and take photographs.. My early Wednesday walk from Snow Hill took in the canals that run underneath Snow Hill. The arches under Snow Hill are a favourite haunt of photographers and one can always find a good place for a picture. With the rain there had been condensation with rain collecting on the tow path near to the ornate gates which used to hold horses. Now the activity on the tow path is bikers commuting into work and runners making the best of the early mornings. I settled my camera down on the dirty floor at the edge of a puddle and started to take some pictures. It was difficult to control the bright light of the centre of the picture and the dark recesses of the tunnel. I could see on the first few shots that there was a perfect reflection that made the exit look like an eye onto the outside world. Just then a runner came past. It gave me an idea and by trial and error I set the camera at a shutter speed of 1/100 and f/6.3. I hiked the ISO up to 640. I set it for rapid shooting and then waited for the next runner. Soon enough one appeared and I took my pictures. I had to pick up the shadows from the RAW picture and also do a bit of dodging of the runner. The picture came out very well and was well received on social media.
The train station over the canal
After this I wandered over to St Paul’s square and took a few pictures of the Church and the tree lined paths that criss cross the square. The early commuters were oblivious to the camera and I took several pictures of the area. The black and white treatment suited the day, my ideas for the pictures and set off the charm of that particular area of Birmingham. Here are a selection of the ones that I took.
St Paul’s Church The paths around St Paul’s ChurchThe Jam house with 3 Snow Hill towering over itCommuting down Ludgate Hill to the City
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