You will have gathered that one of my favourite places is the area under the arches of Snow Hill Station. I usually get to wander around Birmingham early in the morning and I finds this time the most inspiration for photographing Birmingham. I planned my visit by not getting off the train at Moor Street but waiting till Snow Hill. I then used the Livery Sgreet entrance and made my way down to the arches. The city council have installed lights that illuminate the subterranean space.
There are gated arches overlooking the canal where I presume they used to keep horses. The iron gates are designed with bars that create geometric patterns as they are lit from the inside. The light casts interesting shadows onto the wide tow path by the canal.
To access the area, there is a unique white iron staircase that leads down to the tow path. It is very quiet there in the morning and in spite of the bright lights you do feel quite vulnerable. There are the occasional runners and cyclists who make their way through the area. There are also commuters starting to pass over the bridge that crosses the canal. The area has graffiti and evidence of habitation by homeless people.
On one wall is the word ORALE which someone explained to me is an exclamation in Spanish which is used to express approval or encouragement. Very fitting for the scene that greets you in the morning.
Down to Photography maters. I had my normal camera set with me. I carry my iPhone for the quick picture and also my Sony DSC-RX100M5 camera which is very quick. I generally have my Sony on a program stetting to ensure that I get a quick picture. I do use on manual when I am after slow motion pictures but the program feature is very useful. For this morning, I also had my Canon 6D with a prime 40mm lens attached. This provides a crisper picture and brings out more detail.
Having said that the iPhone and Sony do produce some very good quality pictures in their own right. The prime lens makes me move around and this makes me “see” different views and angles. The Sony has a flip screen and this helps with those shots where I need to get down low. Not only do my bones creak nowadays but the tow path floor is dirty and muddy. I moved out to get a picture of the total reflections and it did give the appearance of a large eye.
A nice set of photographs which gave many people much enjoyment when seeing them on my social media channels. Always worth a look and the post code is B3 1HA if you wish to visit yourself.
Finally the cover picture was selected for England’s Big Picture which was a nice conclusion of my early morning visit to this interesting place.
