Shortly after joining Walsall wood camera club i discovered that they were going to move their home.
The new home of the camera club will be at the Anex (the old boys school) at the top of Brownhills.
Having been a witness to the parking problems that they had at the church hall in Walsall wood, i fully understand their reasons. There is potential for the club to grow, but not where they were located.
The Anex will provide ample parking and a room easily large enough to accommodate and increase in membership.
You can find a link to the club here. Contact details and meeting times are all available for anyone interested in joining.
It is a friendly and welcoming club, so if you have a passion for photography, get yourself along to a meeting.
Happy days.
Showing posts with label brownhills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brownhills. Show all posts
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Walsall wood camera club on the move.
I attended this weeks camera club, not knowing what was on offer for the night.
It turned out to be an interesting night, with a show from one of the members and a show of hands from the members.
Once everyone had settled into their seats, John Smith addressed his audience John is the chairman of the club and a very friendly and welcoming fellow.
I knew there had been an emergency meeting in the week as i was at a committee members house having a lesson in framing.
It turns out that the meeting was to look for or at a new venue for the weekly meetings. John explained to his audience that the old Brownhills boys school (the Anex to me), had some very good facilities and were courting him to take the club there.
I must admit that the church hall that they use is very small and the parking is disastrous Often the church will have events on the same night as the club, which causes visitors to park way away from the hall. The hall itself is not quite big enough for the amount of members they have. It all adds up to make sense for a move to a new venue.
The show of hands was almost unanimous for the move. It was stated that the subs/fee's would have to go up, and this was not because of the cost of the new hall, they would go up anyway.
From a new members point of view, the subs are very cheap indeed. i paid £5 to get my membership card and £1 per week subs. For that i get a cup of tea and a biscuit, which is bloody good value i think.
I would at least think putting the subs up to £1.50 would be the least they should do.
Now onto the show, which one of the senior and very skillful members put on with his wife.
One of his images in particular was a fantastically good shot in my opinion.. It was a black and white shot of a tattoo'ed gypsy, taken at a horse fair.
I had a chat with the presenter about HDR (high dynamic range) photography. He shoots almost all of his images in RAW. Most cameras convert photos into jpegs as soon as you take your shot. they do this to compress the image size and save space on your storage. Where a jpeg will lose the information captured in dark areas (i.e in the back of a dark shadow) RAW will keep that information to allow you to try to enhance it. I have now decided to give RAW a go and see if it improves my shots. We got into talking about HDR photos which really float my boat. The quality of HDR images is easy to see. In essence you take three photos of a subject without moving the camera if possible. Your first photo should be under exposed and your second over exposed, the third should be correctly exposed. One photo will show the images in its normal and acceptable light. The second will be dark and highlight the features in the very bright parts of the image. The third will be too light and show details of the shaded dark areas of the image. What you do then is in simple terms merge all of the images so that your dark areas have definition, the light areas have detail and your base shot fills out the rest. It works, but it does take some mastering. i tried a quick experiment at work today as i drove to my office. I wound the window down in my car and took three snaps of some random trees.
On the face of it there is not much difference in the images. I think the top image is slightly deeper than the second image, but that may be my imagination. I will do some more HDR photos soon and get them put on the blog.
It turned out to be an interesting night, with a show from one of the members and a show of hands from the members.
Once everyone had settled into their seats, John Smith addressed his audience John is the chairman of the club and a very friendly and welcoming fellow.
I knew there had been an emergency meeting in the week as i was at a committee members house having a lesson in framing.
It turns out that the meeting was to look for or at a new venue for the weekly meetings. John explained to his audience that the old Brownhills boys school (the Anex to me), had some very good facilities and were courting him to take the club there.
I must admit that the church hall that they use is very small and the parking is disastrous Often the church will have events on the same night as the club, which causes visitors to park way away from the hall. The hall itself is not quite big enough for the amount of members they have. It all adds up to make sense for a move to a new venue.
The show of hands was almost unanimous for the move. It was stated that the subs/fee's would have to go up, and this was not because of the cost of the new hall, they would go up anyway.
From a new members point of view, the subs are very cheap indeed. i paid £5 to get my membership card and £1 per week subs. For that i get a cup of tea and a biscuit, which is bloody good value i think.
I would at least think putting the subs up to £1.50 would be the least they should do.
Now onto the show, which one of the senior and very skillful members put on with his wife.
One of his images in particular was a fantastically good shot in my opinion.. It was a black and white shot of a tattoo'ed gypsy, taken at a horse fair.
I had a chat with the presenter about HDR (high dynamic range) photography. He shoots almost all of his images in RAW. Most cameras convert photos into jpegs as soon as you take your shot. they do this to compress the image size and save space on your storage. Where a jpeg will lose the information captured in dark areas (i.e in the back of a dark shadow) RAW will keep that information to allow you to try to enhance it. I have now decided to give RAW a go and see if it improves my shots. We got into talking about HDR photos which really float my boat. The quality of HDR images is easy to see. In essence you take three photos of a subject without moving the camera if possible. Your first photo should be under exposed and your second over exposed, the third should be correctly exposed. One photo will show the images in its normal and acceptable light. The second will be dark and highlight the features in the very bright parts of the image. The third will be too light and show details of the shaded dark areas of the image. What you do then is in simple terms merge all of the images so that your dark areas have definition, the light areas have detail and your base shot fills out the rest. It works, but it does take some mastering. i tried a quick experiment at work today as i drove to my office. I wound the window down in my car and took three snaps of some random trees.
 |
| HDR attempt |
 |
| none HDR photo. |
I am off on a metal detecting dig on Sunday which may offer some opportunities for good Photos.
Happy snapping.
Saturday, 13 October 2012
Engine lane Brownhills and my shock visit.
Today I took the dogs a walk up Engine lane at the top of Brownhills. My
objectives were to exerciser the dogs, but i also wanted to do a search
for building long since lost. The said building has been mentioned numerous times on the very informative and entertaining Brownhills Bob blog. It appears on old maps, however there is no mention of its use.
I was shocked to find that the cycle way at the top of the lane had a
thick chain across it. Obviously not for the convenience of cyclists,
so why was it there? I know there have been problems with motorcycles previously, but that's a bit extreme.
 |
| Definitely no cycle way here! Notice national cycle route on gate. |
I moved on into the wooded area where I think the long lost building may
be, that was after negotiating some rather nasty barbed wire obstructions. It
began to dawn on me that these obstructions were not haphazardly put
there. They were there for a reason (probably not sanctioned) which i can not yet confirm. It would certainly bring a motor/cyclist down in a hurry.
 |
| If you look closely the barbed wire is looped out from the gate about 18 inches! |
As we moved into the wooded area a cow let out a moo that was obviously
only a few meters away. I nearly crapped myself when a large brown Heifer
lifted its head only three meters in front of me. It was then i noticed that the
whole heard were close behind it. I made a hasty retreat and put the dogs on a
leash. I couldn't see any signs warning of the livestock being on the
land, which i thought was a bit naughty. Two guys walking their dogs were
coming my way and I asked them how long the cattle had been on the land? They
informed me that they had been there for some time. They also passed a not too complimentary comment about Ansell's riding stables taking over the place.
 |
| Stand off with cow, i lost. |
 |
| The view of the cabins from road. |
I returned to the part of Engine lane that the building may have been
located and took some measurements under the watchful gaze of the
cows. On my way back to the car I took a few snaps of the land now occupied by
the riding stables.
 |
| This was wild scrub in the past, my only concern now is the amount of barbed wire there is. |
I personally don't mind what they are doing with that land. It
looks a lot tidier now than before they set up camp there. If they are
responsible for the chain then that is out of order, as is the looped barb
wire. I am not sure it is them who put up the chain as i think it may be there
to stop the cows escaping. It’s all a mystery to me, but i have no doubt someone
will tell me what is actually going on.
 |
| A view up engine lane. |
Thursday, 19 April 2012
The man that was Fluepot, a local legend.
Brownhills once had a few characters worthy of a small slice of infamy.
Though their happenings probably were not note worthy on a daily basis, they were on an accumulation basis.
One such character went by the name of Fluepot, real name Peter Cooper. Now i am not an expert on the goings on of Fluey, but have worked with him and heard many a tale which i believe are true.....well to some extent anyway.
One such tale came about just after the end of the Falklands war. There was a glut of work on the island for civil engineers, which Fluey purported to be. This was a highly paid job in a land far away from home. Now legend has it that Fluey was amongst the first batch of civil engineers to land on the island. They were billeted in army type barracks, and had full access to military facilities i.e the Naafi and bar etc. Now Fluepot enjoyed a drink to say the least. In fact i would say he spent at least half of his waking hours intoxicated. If he had money in his pocket he would be found in a public house somewhere in the Brownhills area. Not long into Fluepot's stay on the Falklands he had become very familiar with the local ale. Fluey did not know the meaning of "had enough" and almost always drank himself into a coma (cash allowing). On one such occasion, he managed to soil his bed with both number 1 and 2! This had followed a couple of bed wetting episodes which had been noted. Any way this angered the contractors so much that they forcibly removed Fluey from the island and sent him on his way back to England.
The legend being that, Fluepot, aka Peter Cooper was the first person to be forcibly removed from the Falklands islands after the Argentinian army were removed.
Fluey was a regular in the old Anchor pub when it stood at the side of the bridge. He would pick his wages up on a Friday and from that point on it was a full on onslaught against his liver. My uncle Martin said that one day as Fluey stood at the bar he managed to let all of his bodily fluids go while trying to Fart (gross i know)! Anyway that led to him being bared for a while.
One of my last memories of Fluepot was my wife and me sitting in our car at the bottom of the high street outside the old swinging fish chippy. I could see Fluey heading towards us, it looked like he had been to Mario's as he had a large fish and chip wrapper in his hand. He was on the three steps forward and one back routine when he unfurled a large piece of cod. I said to my wife "look, i bet he drops that". True to form, he picked up the fish (by the tail), the fish began to bend away from his mouth, the more he lent forward the more it bent until it snapped and hit the floor!! I knew he would do this, he bent over picked it up and flicked the gravel from it and, yep...he carried on eating it.
Anyone who has phots of the old Anchor or Fluepot, if you send them to me i will scan them and get them back to you.
Fluey, to you i doff my cap R.I.P.
Though their happenings probably were not note worthy on a daily basis, they were on an accumulation basis.
One such character went by the name of Fluepot, real name Peter Cooper. Now i am not an expert on the goings on of Fluey, but have worked with him and heard many a tale which i believe are true.....well to some extent anyway.
One such tale came about just after the end of the Falklands war. There was a glut of work on the island for civil engineers, which Fluey purported to be. This was a highly paid job in a land far away from home. Now legend has it that Fluey was amongst the first batch of civil engineers to land on the island. They were billeted in army type barracks, and had full access to military facilities i.e the Naafi and bar etc. Now Fluepot enjoyed a drink to say the least. In fact i would say he spent at least half of his waking hours intoxicated. If he had money in his pocket he would be found in a public house somewhere in the Brownhills area. Not long into Fluepot's stay on the Falklands he had become very familiar with the local ale. Fluey did not know the meaning of "had enough" and almost always drank himself into a coma (cash allowing). On one such occasion, he managed to soil his bed with both number 1 and 2! This had followed a couple of bed wetting episodes which had been noted. Any way this angered the contractors so much that they forcibly removed Fluey from the island and sent him on his way back to England.
The legend being that, Fluepot, aka Peter Cooper was the first person to be forcibly removed from the Falklands islands after the Argentinian army were removed.
Fluey was a regular in the old Anchor pub when it stood at the side of the bridge. He would pick his wages up on a Friday and from that point on it was a full on onslaught against his liver. My uncle Martin said that one day as Fluey stood at the bar he managed to let all of his bodily fluids go while trying to Fart (gross i know)! Anyway that led to him being bared for a while.
Photo thanks to Brownhills Bob.
One of my last memories of Fluepot was my wife and me sitting in our car at the bottom of the high street outside the old swinging fish chippy. I could see Fluey heading towards us, it looked like he had been to Mario's as he had a large fish and chip wrapper in his hand. He was on the three steps forward and one back routine when he unfurled a large piece of cod. I said to my wife "look, i bet he drops that". True to form, he picked up the fish (by the tail), the fish began to bend away from his mouth, the more he lent forward the more it bent until it snapped and hit the floor!! I knew he would do this, he bent over picked it up and flicked the gravel from it and, yep...he carried on eating it.
Anyone who has phots of the old Anchor or Fluepot, if you send them to me i will scan them and get them back to you.
Fluey, to you i doff my cap R.I.P.
Monday, 16 April 2012
A day in the wilds of Ludlow.
On Sunday i had double booked myself in to covering the out of hours phone for work, and going on an organised metal detecting rally with the club i hold membership with.
On Saturday evening my good wife had decided that we order a Chinese curry in for a treat. My son Darren loves a curry, and my wife is partial to a a bit of Chinese as well! Anyway, i had a mixed meet curry (i usually have noodles). My son also had a mixed meet curry, with spare ribs and sweat and sour pork balls. The wife being a veggie had a plain curry and rice.
About 2 hours after i had eaten mine, i started feeling a bit queezy! i asked the others if they felt sick, which they did not. it wasn't long before i was on my knees in front of the porcelain thrown! i soon hit the sack feeling pretty sorry for myself. My son told me the next day that he had felt sick on the night as well.
Well i woke up on Sunday feeling like i had been in a car crash. I was determined to go on the rally so began filling the vehicle with my goodies. i had my call out phone with me and my work folder with all of my contacts details in it. About half way through my journey i had a call out for Nottingham which i passed to the engineer (we cover heating breakdowns). That's going to be it for the day i thought as i arrived at the venue at 8.30am. It was a picturesque valley occupied by almost exclusive pasture land. I looked at my phone and noticed a very poor signal, this was worrying. a quick walk around the first field showed that the higher part of the field gave a boost to the signal on my phone. then, my phone goes off again. Another call for Nottingham, which i passed to the engineer. At this point i decided to set my phone calls to go to the engineer in Nottingham should i have no signal. We later had another call for Boston, which took the engineer over two hours to reach. However the volume of calls had put me on edge and upset my rhythm on the fields.
The searching began well, with me finding a Victorian half penny within the first 10 minutes. i then went on to find another two Vicky's within about 20 meters of the first one. However i was concentrating my search to an area where i knew i had a good phone signal, rather than where i thought the better part of the field was. I eventually moved to the next field which had no phone signal, i quickly moved onto the highest of the fields which had a signal but did not look as attractive. By looking attractive i mean that the field which had no signal, had a old barn in it as well as ruins of an old house. i found very little over the next couple of hours. one of the lower fields produced a Georgian penny but that was about it.
I have made a few friends on the few rally's i have attended. frequent stops for a chat are sometimes the highlight of the day. I spoke with the guy who got the club the permission on these fields, his forum name was "Ayit" sadly i don't remember his real name but will make an effort in future to recall it. He had found similar to what i had found. Another member had found a large roman crud, basically a bronze disc with no discernible markings. He later found a cut quarter hammered silver coin i believe from near to the old house. I later found out that quite a few hammered silvers were found near to the house, with one of the members finding as many as five. Another of the lucky fellas found a silver roman brooch which i have a great desire to find some day. i also heard that he may have found a Celtic coin. Again i only know his Forum user name which i believe is Woody (well done woody)
I had to leave at about 3pm as i had an hour and half drive home, and was still on call. The wife was going to the cinema on the evening and i did not want to arrive as she went out.
All in all it was a very enjoyable day. There may be another rally on the opposite side of the valley, which looks even more appealing. its south facing and has some interesting field markings. Lets hope i am not on call that week as i would be really p***** off if i could not have a whole day at it. Thanks to JJ (organiser) the marshals and all who attended.
woz.
On Saturday evening my good wife had decided that we order a Chinese curry in for a treat. My son Darren loves a curry, and my wife is partial to a a bit of Chinese as well! Anyway, i had a mixed meet curry (i usually have noodles). My son also had a mixed meet curry, with spare ribs and sweat and sour pork balls. The wife being a veggie had a plain curry and rice.
About 2 hours after i had eaten mine, i started feeling a bit queezy! i asked the others if they felt sick, which they did not. it wasn't long before i was on my knees in front of the porcelain thrown! i soon hit the sack feeling pretty sorry for myself. My son told me the next day that he had felt sick on the night as well.
Well i woke up on Sunday feeling like i had been in a car crash. I was determined to go on the rally so began filling the vehicle with my goodies. i had my call out phone with me and my work folder with all of my contacts details in it. About half way through my journey i had a call out for Nottingham which i passed to the engineer (we cover heating breakdowns). That's going to be it for the day i thought as i arrived at the venue at 8.30am. It was a picturesque valley occupied by almost exclusive pasture land. I looked at my phone and noticed a very poor signal, this was worrying. a quick walk around the first field showed that the higher part of the field gave a boost to the signal on my phone. then, my phone goes off again. Another call for Nottingham, which i passed to the engineer. At this point i decided to set my phone calls to go to the engineer in Nottingham should i have no signal. We later had another call for Boston, which took the engineer over two hours to reach. However the volume of calls had put me on edge and upset my rhythm on the fields.
I have made a few friends on the few rally's i have attended. frequent stops for a chat are sometimes the highlight of the day. I spoke with the guy who got the club the permission on these fields, his forum name was "Ayit" sadly i don't remember his real name but will make an effort in future to recall it. He had found similar to what i had found. Another member had found a large roman crud, basically a bronze disc with no discernible markings. He later found a cut quarter hammered silver coin i believe from near to the old house. I later found out that quite a few hammered silvers were found near to the house, with one of the members finding as many as five. Another of the lucky fellas found a silver roman brooch which i have a great desire to find some day. i also heard that he may have found a Celtic coin. Again i only know his Forum user name which i believe is Woody (well done woody)
I had to leave at about 3pm as i had an hour and half drive home, and was still on call. The wife was going to the cinema on the evening and i did not want to arrive as she went out.
All in all it was a very enjoyable day. There may be another rally on the opposite side of the valley, which looks even more appealing. its south facing and has some interesting field markings. Lets hope i am not on call that week as i would be really p***** off if i could not have a whole day at it. Thanks to JJ (organiser) the marshals and all who attended.
woz.
Friday, 13 April 2012
Dirty waste!
Being a metal detecting enthusiast, i must bring up something i have stuck in my craw at the moment.
All over the country you will notice farmers fields which have large quantities of what appears to be soil tipped across them. This in fact is not soil, but green waste. It is widely used as a fertilizer on arable land as well as pasture land. Its a known fact that this waste is contaminated with whatever we gardeners/council tax payers see fit to throw into our Brown wheelie bins.
While out wondering the fields with my detector i have found all sorts of crap lying on top of the ground. There are huge amounts of plastics which take forever to degrade. tin foil, toys, money and scrap metal are abound. This stuff is being mixed with our food crops and eventually consumed by us on a daily basis.
The companies who "recycle" the green waste are supposed to remove all of the said anomalies before distributing it to farmland. They are instructed to remove the contaminates, or send the material to landfill. the land fill option would be ultra expensive, so i guess the contaminates get overlooked. The farmers i would think are being financially awarded for taking this waste off the operators hands. So there goes any chance of the farmers moaning too much about the quality of material they receive. When the detectorist fraternity moan about it, people see it has them being selfish, as the metal waste can render the land useless to detect on. This is true to some extent, however it is undeniable that our land is being contaminated.
There is a petition going around to make government aware of this here. It would be nice to think that some one in government is already aware of this and the legacy that we are leaving for our children.
All over the country you will notice farmers fields which have large quantities of what appears to be soil tipped across them. This in fact is not soil, but green waste. It is widely used as a fertilizer on arable land as well as pasture land. Its a known fact that this waste is contaminated with whatever we gardeners/council tax payers see fit to throw into our Brown wheelie bins.
While out wondering the fields with my detector i have found all sorts of crap lying on top of the ground. There are huge amounts of plastics which take forever to degrade. tin foil, toys, money and scrap metal are abound. This stuff is being mixed with our food crops and eventually consumed by us on a daily basis.
The companies who "recycle" the green waste are supposed to remove all of the said anomalies before distributing it to farmland. They are instructed to remove the contaminates, or send the material to landfill. the land fill option would be ultra expensive, so i guess the contaminates get overlooked. The farmers i would think are being financially awarded for taking this waste off the operators hands. So there goes any chance of the farmers moaning too much about the quality of material they receive. When the detectorist fraternity moan about it, people see it has them being selfish, as the metal waste can render the land useless to detect on. This is true to some extent, however it is undeniable that our land is being contaminated.
There is a petition going around to make government aware of this here. It would be nice to think that some one in government is already aware of this and the legacy that we are leaving for our children.
Thursday, 12 April 2012
Brownhills developments.
It has been slowly sinking in to my thick head that i enjoy reading blogs, and had aught to try blogging myself.
I have been using Facebook for a couple of years or more now, and had the great pleasure of meeting some old long lost school friends while doing so. One of my friends, introduced me to an amazing blogger by the name of Brownhills Bob. I have followed Bobs blog's with enthusiasm over the last 12 months, and have consequently been introduced to other interesting bloggers in our area, well Walsall area anyway. Bob's blog centers on the happenings in and around Brownhills, he also covers other interesting villages etc as he rides around the countryside on his bicycle. So thank you Bob for setting the blog seed in my heavily composted brain.
I live in the shadow of the new buildings which are going up at a rate of knots at the bottom of the high street. These buildings now occupy the ground which once had the wretched 3 story maisonettes stood on it. For those who have not been to Brownhills for a while, two of the four high rise have now gone. Those that have been demolished are Wayne house and Bailey house (where i once lived). Humphries house and Severn house are in the latter stages of a refurbishment which has left Humphries house in a shade of pastel Blue and cream. Not sure it looks right yet, but it could only be an improvement on its old facade. Severn House (kids always knew it as block Severn) however has not been fully revealed by Wates and WHG. All of Brownhills maisonettes have now been raised to the ground. The buildings which i live in the shadow of are about 5/6 of the way through the building stage. They are modern looking thinks with curved and sloping roof's. the facade comprises of wood and render, again in pastel shades. The building which replaced the Maisonettes next to the Anchor pub, is the one which is 5/6 the way through developments. The building going up opposite the old Anchor garage is in the embryonic stage, however it will be much like the other building once completed.
Lets hope that WHG see fit to move a suitable type of tenant into these new buildings. It would not take long for the buildings to fall into a state of disrepair should they be filled with "dole dossers" and the like.
Below are two images. Top one is Humphries house in the latter stages of renovation, looking from the canal side.
Second image is of the old gully at the bottom of Hodgkins close leading through to Anchor bridge. This gully will be lost once the new buildings are complete.
I have been using Facebook for a couple of years or more now, and had the great pleasure of meeting some old long lost school friends while doing so. One of my friends, introduced me to an amazing blogger by the name of Brownhills Bob. I have followed Bobs blog's with enthusiasm over the last 12 months, and have consequently been introduced to other interesting bloggers in our area, well Walsall area anyway. Bob's blog centers on the happenings in and around Brownhills, he also covers other interesting villages etc as he rides around the countryside on his bicycle. So thank you Bob for setting the blog seed in my heavily composted brain.
I live in the shadow of the new buildings which are going up at a rate of knots at the bottom of the high street. These buildings now occupy the ground which once had the wretched 3 story maisonettes stood on it. For those who have not been to Brownhills for a while, two of the four high rise have now gone. Those that have been demolished are Wayne house and Bailey house (where i once lived). Humphries house and Severn house are in the latter stages of a refurbishment which has left Humphries house in a shade of pastel Blue and cream. Not sure it looks right yet, but it could only be an improvement on its old facade. Severn House (kids always knew it as block Severn) however has not been fully revealed by Wates and WHG. All of Brownhills maisonettes have now been raised to the ground. The buildings which i live in the shadow of are about 5/6 of the way through the building stage. They are modern looking thinks with curved and sloping roof's. the facade comprises of wood and render, again in pastel shades. The building which replaced the Maisonettes next to the Anchor pub, is the one which is 5/6 the way through developments. The building going up opposite the old Anchor garage is in the embryonic stage, however it will be much like the other building once completed.
Lets hope that WHG see fit to move a suitable type of tenant into these new buildings. It would not take long for the buildings to fall into a state of disrepair should they be filled with "dole dossers" and the like.
Below are two images. Top one is Humphries house in the latter stages of renovation, looking from the canal side.
Second image is of the old gully at the bottom of Hodgkins close leading through to Anchor bridge. This gully will be lost once the new buildings are complete.
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