Everyday People, on the streets of Birmingham

Hello, my name is Jay, a.k.a.jayjayjjetplane. I am a photographer from Selly Oak in Birmingham, and I'd like to tell you a little bit about my passion for Street Photography :-)

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I took up photography a couple of years ago as a distraction from the agonies of sciatica.  I was encouraged to walk more, because cycling could make my injury far worse, especially after I had corrective surgery.  So, I found myself walking the city streets, the parks, the canals and beyond, armed with a camera but with no specific photographic purpose in mind. 

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To be honest I really didn't know what I was doing, I simply snapped what I thought looked good, architecture, reflections, sunsets, trees, street art, anything and everything.  Photography is one of those passions that sweeps you up and embraces you, it's seriously addictive. 

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I started going to Instameets and photography walks around the city, looking for inspiration, but often I felt dissatisfied with what I was capturing, it wasn't really 'Me' if you know what I mean?  My wife, Sue, commented after seeing a batch of my pics, that she wished I'd snap more people.

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I'd never really thought about people photography, or Street as it's commonly referred too, before.  But the seed was planted. 

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A couple of weeks later on a photo-walk with my dear friend (the ultra talented) Barry Whitehead, he showed me the rudiments of street photography, how to get stuck in, capturing people on the move, what to look for, shutter speed, composition.  By golly, what a thrilling 90 minutes that was, it was full on immersion.

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With my shutter speed set fast I mooched very slowly through throngs of people heading from one side of the city to the other. I took about 200 photos, many of them rubbish, but I was hooked!!  As the people streamed past us I looked for interesting people, funny hats, interesting hair, expressions, emotions, lovers holding hands, people looking sad or angry, anything.  I haven't looked back since!

dndimg alt="" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/DSC_1148-2.jpg" style="width: 100%;" />Street photography is intoxicating, addictive and wonderfully rewarding.  You're always looking for interesting moments, expressions are fleeting, but if you can capture them, I really believe you're preserving something special, as a sort of 'memento mori', as my good friend Dave Allen once said to me. 

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Birmingham has a long and famous history of building, knocking itself down and re-building again, it's what we're seeing right now before our eyes at the moment. But the one thing that doesn't change is the People.  Brummies, regardless of their background, are warm, funny, rough around the edges, often inspirational but always friendly, if a little daft. 

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So, by taking photos of my fellow Brummies I hope to capture something of our time, that's perhaps missed out by the great architectural or landscape shots of our fair realm.  People are the Lifeblood of a city.  Without them a city is just a vast empty collection of concrete and glass, without purpose or power.  

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Pictures of the City need people in them. My friend Simon MacCreery recently said that using people in city shots gives the viewer a sense of scale, which is completely right.  I think there's another truth that perhaps Simon never thought of.  Using People in your photography adds emotion and mood, they inhabit the pictures, animating the scene and giving life to the City.

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I'm a keen explorer of our fair city. As I said earlier, I walk a lot! I love the winter time, when the nights draw in early, so the streets are still jam packed full of people after dark.  I regularly walk through Selly Oak, my local, on my way home from work. I have a little 35mm prime lens on camera, it's fast and lets in heaps of light, which is what you need to capture a live night scene.

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I find street photography at night a real thrill, the images you can produce are so moody and emotive, yet weird and beautiful too. At nightfall the city changes, darkness fills every street corner, light is scattered, it prickles the air or falls softly from shopfronts, buses become beautiful portrait windows, cafes turn into tight little vignettes of emotion. It's dark, visceral and I love it. 

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So, the next time you're out in the City, having lunch with friends, and you're watching the people go by, look for me and my camera because I've probably just snapped you!

Be well my Friends, be well!