Ay Up, Nottingham

 

Those who don't live in the East Midlands may not understand this, but the area is a bit artificial. Unlike other urban conurbations, there is no central town. The west Midlands coalesces around Birmingham, while we have Newcastle forming Tyneside and the towns of Lancashire orbiting Manchester.

The East Midlands does not really have a heart, instead it has triple centres in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham. In one way or another, I have had connections with all 3. My wife comes from Leicester and i worked there for 3 years. I live just outside Derby and worked there for 2 years. When we 1st moved from Manchester we rented a house in Nottingham for 6 months, and my wife still works there.

I therefore know them all pretty well. However, for some reason, while I enjoy Derby and Leicester, I have never felt comfortable in Nottingham, and generally avoid it. I am never really sure why, but I think unlike Derby and Leicester, Nottingham does not really have a city centre, just a spread of shops etc, smeared around the city. In Derby for example, everything you need to get to is pretty well within walking distance. With Nottingham you quickly find yourself in a maze of anonymous streets.

Also, when it comes to culture, Nottingham is severely lacking. Yes, it has some great theatres, but when it comes to art in comes a poor 3rd. For example, Derby has the Quad, and the Museum and art Gallery, with a great Joseph Wright collection and Leicester have the New Walk Museum. Finding similar collections in Nottingham is more difficult.

I was therefore surprised to hear that there was a small photographic exhibition in Nottingham in a museum I had not previously been aware off. The Bonington gallery is attached to Nottingham Trent University (or NTU) and it was showing a collection of photos taken by Baltimore-based photographer John Dean during his time as a visiting student to Nottingham Trent University in 1976. 

It probably is not appreciated enough how important NTU has been in the history and development of UK photography. For example, I heartily recommend Dialogue with Photography by Paul Hill and Thomas Cooper, both NTU lectures. They were also responsible for the creation of the Format exhibition, ironically in Derby, one of UK's premier photographic exhibitions. 

To be honest it 2026 has been a poor year for photographic exhibitions. I manged to screw up going to the Lee Miller exhibition at the Tate Modern, and have been desperately find an alternative, but there just does not seem to be much planned. Even the afore mentioned Format, was not running this year.

So, I decided to head into Nottingham. Finding the gallery was not a challenge, although it was hidden within the various buildings of the city centre campus. Getting in was the bigger challenge, in fact, it was closed. You see although I had checked the opening times, I had missed the fact that did not count on bank holidays.   

I was sort of stunned. A museum that basically closes during it most accessible period (Mu wife later explained that it is largely staffs with students). What was I to do now?  

There was only one thing to do...take photos...

Contemporay Views

First however I gave Nottingham another chance. I headed to Nottingham Contemporary gallery. One of the issues is that despite being Nottingham’s premier art venues the gallery building does not really stand out. I have walked past it numerous times, but never felt going in. It also has this weird system where, despite being free, you have to pre-register. 

Saying that the staff are incredibly nice. There were two exhibitions on, Lines That World a River by Shahana Rajani and Cemetery of Martyrs by Dala Nasser. The 1st was a based around videos taken around the Indus valley and the change in the environment caused by the damming of the rivers in Pakistan. The 2nd were Cyanotypes of graves in the Lebanon region. Both were interesting in their own way, and I always find I get something from any exhibition, saying that they did not keep me involved for very long, so I used the cafe for a quick coffee (After a brief conversation with the Barista on the benefits of the Fuji Camera system). Unfortunately, I was also tempted by an excellent book on spaceflight photographs, maybe driven by the Artemis II mission. 

Ay Up My Duck

So, onto the photography. Nottingham has a lot of lovely buildings, but they are often well hidden, or been interspersed my later modern dullness. You therefore have to work quite hard in Nottingham to find areas of interest. One thing Nottingham does have however is areas of Graffiti murals and I was determined to take images against those.

I started in the old market square. An area that is neither old, or a market. It used to have a great fountain which you could take images of City Hall against (It is no longer the City Hall), but this has been turned off for years, and now consists largely of pigeons. Still a great area for street photography.

Did someone say "Duck"?

I then headed towards the Broadmarsh...or where it used to be anyway. Nottingham used to have two shopping centres.  This distribution was always a bit weird, and the Broadmarsh was always the poorer cousin of the Victoria centre and a few years ago it was decided to demolish it. However, being Nottingham, they then struggled to work out what to do with the area. This was not helped by a major financial crisis that basically bankrupted the city. So a plan was hatched to make it into a green area, which is a great idea, bhut slow in execution. 

Under the tramway underpass however they have built a leisure area. As with all such areas, it has a sort of apocalypse vibe, and I certainly would not like to be there in the dark, but as it was, between the graffiti there were some lads playing basketball, so I got of a few shots.

I then headed to the castle. Nottingham makes a big thing of its connection with Robin Hood, but the castle lets the side down by being nothing like the movies. It is also a big tourist trap, and I did not linger

guide explaining why Nottingham castle looks nothing like the Hollywood movies

Finally I headed back to the tram stop to tray and take some images against the wall murals 

So after a day photographing Nottingham, do I know appreciate it more? Nottingham has always been a great place for Street Photography. Unlike many UK cities with identikit high streets, it boasts a variety of shops and places to eat. My younger daughter often goes there for nights out and for the young I understand the attraction. 

However that diversity also creates tension between the have and have nots, which again is a sign of Nottinghams relative decline. This means I an never really comfortable walking around, alone, with a camera.

I get the same vibe in London. That feeling of not being welcome and out of place. That tension however is what drives great photography. Nice places are photographically deserts. If you can put your paranoia in check and be brave such places offer great opportunities  

So,  I am glad I did it and it was great to have a day with no pressures just taking photos. 

Pity about the exhibition though...

Best thing about Nottingham, tram city makes getting out easy

Caught this guy, going through his moves...

The city hall looks impressive from the outside, but behind it is just a rather empty shopping arcade. A goof metaphor for modern Nottingham

City Hall from another angle

Nottingham has some great buildingd, but you have to search them out

These were filming a video

Another dead part of Nottingham

Fashion guru's

  

Head Shot

 I am always looking for new photographic challenges. Sometimes it is some grandiose plan, but often it is something a little smaller.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from my day job saying our company ID cards would be replaced and we would need a new headshot.

My last ID photo was taken about 15 years ago, where as a group, we were marched down to an office, where a professional photographer took our corporate photos. That has been my company image since then. I always say that corporate photos are a bit like a reverse Dorian Grey. Instead of your portrait growing older as you stay youthful, th opposite happens. I have been in meetings where our images are displayed and it takes me ages to work out the youthful image on the screen is in fact the elderly person sitting next to me. 

Anyway that image has represented me for all those years, but even after it was taken I hated it. Apart from a face that looked nothing like me, I made the mistake of having my shirt open at the collar, a look that was dated even then.

So the opportunity to update that image was welcome. However gone were the days of paying someone to take my image, pretty well anyone with a phone can now generate one, and I am sure that would be the approach most would take.

But I'm a photographer dammit. The easy way is not an option, and if I was going to get an image of myself, it was going to be the best damn one I could make.

Doing Head

Portrait photography generally is not my thing. It just requires too much dedicated space and equipment and I have not got the spave. 

Then there is getting the best out of your subject. This requires you conjoling and instructing, something I am not really comfortable with. 

However in this case the subject would be me, so I felt I could handle it.

My 1st call was inevitable that tutorial space called YouTube. I wanted to know two things. Firstly, the optimum lighting setup and secondly, the best way to pose to get the most flattering shot. Fortunately, there are loads of videos on this sort of thing, however as I watched them I realised there were a number of issues

Most portrait photographers have a dedicated area, to allow the setup of the various lights and other apparatus. The other issue were most of the eaxmples were taking pictures of 20 something models, which to be honest, getting a decent image was not a challenge. Taking an image of 60 year old bloke would require a lot more effort. 

Still, I got the idea. Basically, I needed at white background and at least two light sources. One to illuminate my face, and another to illuminate the background to make it white. I also needed a reflector to ensure that both sides of the face were evenly illuminated (A third light would of been better here, but two lights was easier)

Having a Flash

Pros don't have to de-construct their living quarters to take an image

Professional photographers use speedlights, or main powered flashes. These are powerful lighst with infinite flashes. I have considered purchasing a few over the years, but they are expensive and in truth I just would just never use them. Instead, I had a number of flashes. 2 cheapo Newer flashes, and two better Godox models. My best one was a Godox T430, which is a great piece of kit. Unfortunately, some years ago I had dropped it on its Hotshoe mount, and bent a pin, so it will not now fire from the camera. However fortunately I have a wireless trigger, that will trigger that plus my smaller T440 Godox flash. 

The next question was the set up. I have a number of cheap reflector umbrella's so I could mount the larger flash on a stand, reflected from a umbrella to diffuse the light. I also had a large white cloth that I could hang as a backdrop. It was a bit creased, but ironing it would have been a pain, so I hoped as long as I kept the depth of field quite shallow, the creases would not show up. I also had a large white reflector which I hung opposite the main flash.

To illuminate the backdrop, I wanted to mount another flash behind me. However I could only locate one flash pole mount for the umbrella poles. In the end I resorted to an old flash hoder with a tripod mount on an old tripod.

Finally with the flashes mounted, and the backdrop up I was ready to begin. I decided to use my 85mm Viltrox lens since it was sharp and would hopefully provide the separation between subject and backdrop as long as the aperture was wide enough (About F5.6). 

In a professional studio, they have loads of space to put there kit around and place their camera lens. In my house the options were more limited.

The best place would be the living room, but that would mean kicking the family out and the dining has a large table. So the master bedroom is the only space large enough. However I had to work around the double bed, plus various other furniture and clobber, but there was just enough room to set the reflector, background and have enough seperation between my camera and subject. My other major problem was the room light which hung too low. This was fixed by the use gaffer tape to stick it to the ceiling. I am pretty sure David Bailey never had thesev issues.

Lone Worker

I then needed to set the lighting correctly. I needed enough light to illuminate my face, but not blow out the highlights. To do this I took a number of test shots using a self timer . 

To get the lighting correct it took a lot of repositioning of the elements, partly because I did not understand the power settings on the flashes which were by default to low. However with careful positioning of both the flash light, the power and also setting the camera ISO and aperture, I was finally ready.

Or so I thought, because just when I was ready, the backlight flash stopped working. I replaced the batteries, but nothing worked so i had to find an alternative and got one my cheaper Newer flashes. This could not be wirelessly triggered, but could be slaved to the other flash light.

My next problem was actually taking the photo. Like I said up to here I had been using a self-timer, but I needed another set of eyes to tell me if my pose was good and line the camera up. I therefore called on my wifes help

Family Affair

This is where my yougest daughter got involved. She declared my eyebrows as disaster and set about manicuring them. She also decided the tie I was going to use, just would not do. 

So suitably bedecked we were ready. Howerver I had to minstruct my wife on how to position the tripod and press the camera shutter, which took much longer thaty I thought it would, not helped by my dog deciding to get in on the act. 

In the end my ideas of playing around with various poses went out of the window. So my wife took 3 or 4 shots and checking them I thought...good enough.

Final touches

Despite the final image not being too bad (IMHO), there were still a few issues. I had a spot on my forehead that was easily removed in post. Despite being clean shaven that morning, my stubble was starting to show. That took a little bit more effort to hide.

The biggest problem however was the difference in illumination on both sides of my face.This I had to correct using a mask and a curves adjustment

So after 3 hours vof work I was ready

Conclusion 

So was it worth it? The answer is yes and no. For the purpose of a photo that will end up on a 3-inch piece of plastic that most will never look at, it was a little overkill. I did however learn a lot about my flashes, setting up a lighting rig and the challenges of portraiture 

And I alos achieved my task. OK the image still shows some old bloke, not some gorgeous subermodel, but it is a photo I can be proud of. 

So in a few weeks’ time, the image will adorn my new pass, and it will become my corporate identity, and I can take pride that it is all my own work...

The dog checking up on his best side

Somee Old bloke....

P.S

The other flash mysteriously started working later that evening, and I have no idea why