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Top 4 in 2022

by Damien Walmsley Posted on
My Top 4 pictures of 2022, Damien Walmlsey

Each year photographers share their top photographs and I am no exception in doing this. I wrote a blog about my personal favourites for 2021. Now it is the turn of 2022 and I have limited to my top 4. Why four? Well the arrangement works well for Instagram and I am not such a fan of the Top 9 where the pictures are even smaller. The four pictures that I have selected all have a story to tell. The picture may have done well in national or local competitions. There may have been some nice comments about the style and composition that were pleasing to hear. I hope you enjoy the selections.

Regency Wharf
This picture received a commendation in Landscape Photographer of the Year in 2022 and was featured in the published book. This was quite an achievement for me as this is a very competitive competition and a place in the book is very much sought after. I wrote a blog about this picture and it explains how and why it was taken.

Regency Wharf, Birmingham, Commended in LPOTY2022 picture taken January 11th
Regency Wharf, Birmingham, My picture of Regency Wharf, Birmingham that was Commended in LPOTY2022

Selfridges 2022
This iPhone picture was well received by many people on my various social feeds. The picture celebrates the new look Selfridges after the discs has been replace. “The discs are back in town” is a blog I wrote about this and other pictures of Selfridges.

Selfridges July 2022
An upward view accentuating the symmetry.

Westside BID winner
Last year I failed to get shortlisted for the inaugural Westside Business District Calendar competition. So this year, I entered in again and I came first which was I was so pleased about. The prize was £175 voucher to an exclusive restaurant next to the ICC Birmingham. The winning picture is below and a description of how it was done in covered in my blog.

Winning photograph Westside BID calendar 2023
My winning photograph for Westside BID calendar.

Broken Life
I am not very good at Still Life photography and it was one of my assignments in a 52 week photography group that I belong to on Flickr. I am not sure why I went for this picture approach and it was well received on the Weeklies. It was my only shortlisting last year for #wexmondays. I am going to do more photography like this for 2023 so watch this space. Also read my blog about how it came about.

Broken plates
A place setting with broken plates and cups. What has taken place?
Categories blog

Westside BID Calendar winner 2023

by Damien Walmsley Posted on
Winning photograph Westside BID calendar 2023

In January 2022, I spent the morning walking around Gas Street Basin. The area was bathed in beautiful sunshine and I took several photographs with my Fujifilm x100v. Several of the photographs came out really well. I was lucky with the light and the weather. Plus there were several people walking along the canal tow path. There were two stand out pictures that I took that day. The first was from outside the Tap and Spile public house on the west side of the basin looking towards Regency Wharf. This picture was highly commended in the urban view category of UK Landscape Photographer of the Year. I also took pictures on the other side of the basin. One part of the basin that used to be difficult to access is The Wharf which has access to various offices including the Pakistani Consulate. On that morning I found that the barriers had gone and there is now public access to the area where you can access the canal bank. This gives you a great view of the Bistrot Pierre restaurant building. The morning was still and quiet providing excellent conditions for reflections of the restaurant. As luck would have it, a passerby came into the picture and looked backwards. I snapped him and found that he was centred perfectly. The picture turned out well and did not need much adjustment post processing. There was a good reaction on social media when I posted the picture. Therefore when the Westside BID calendar competition came up then I entered this one along with several others. I was pleased to learn that I was the overall winner for the competition with my Bistrot Pierre picture and my prize was £175 vouchers for the Craft restaurant in Brindley Place next to the ICC. There was also a cheesy write up of my win which I include here. The title was “Dentist ‘reflects’ on top prize in Westside BID’s 2023 calendar competition”.

The calendar in its display case.