The Photography and Video Show 2024
Having attended previous incarnations of the show , I wanted to go along. Not necessarily to make any large investment in equipment , but more of a fact finding mission to see what is about and to do some hands on viewing of products for myself.
So having got the early bird ticket offer I headed out on Saturday (16th March 2024) to travel down to Birmingham , almost 90miles from my home. The show always opens at 10am so I gave myself enough time to arrive , park and then walk to the show halls. Arriving at the National Exhibition Centre from the M42 side it was clear the day would be a busy one with very slow moving traffic entering the site. So having parked and collected my camera bag , yes I did take my camera and two lenses, I hiked to the hall and arrived with five minutes to go before the doors opened.
Upon entering the show you are immediately greeted with the, sometimes overwhelming choice of what to see first, for me I headed to the KASE filters stand. This year the KASE stand was conveniently located near to the entrance and not hidden away at the back of the second hall , why a filter manufacturer first you may ask, well simply put a local photographer to me Stephen Elliott is one of their brand ambassadors so I pop by to say hello. Even at this early hour people were trying to snap up bargains and the stand was busy , so I said the briefest of hellos before heading around to other stands.
As a Canon shooter the temptation would be to head to the large Canon stand to try out lenses , camera bodies etc , but my focus was just on experiencing the show. Throughout all of the show days there are many keynote speakers and masterclasses that are taking place so it is important to use the show guide to identify where these take place , something I failed to do and so I missed two talks , one by Emma Finch and the other by Joe Cornish - must try harder to get to these early. Anyhow I then found myself back at the KASE filters stand and listened to the talk given by Vanda Ralevska (mylenscapes) about her journey from Czechoslovakia to the UK and how this transformed her love of photography. After listening to Vanda I stood up and headed to purchase a new cleaning kit as my existing one is a bit weather beaten now, At the counter I found myself stood amongst some of You Tubes most recognisable photographers , Adam Gibbs, Thomas Heaton and Nick Page - I took a few moments to chat with Adam and found myself enjoying the chat , then it was time to play the choose the polaroid game with Thomas and Nick , difficult to choose small polaroid images that are of the Birmingham area. Anyway I will leave it to them to present the outcome of that on their You Tube channels.
Having now purchased my cleaning kit I went off wandering again, spending time to look at products available , chat to the Royal Photographic Society regarding gaining a distinction and the upcoming changes to submissions, and then spent time photographing the various models that had been supplied by Creativity Hub Events and Rotolight - all of whom were thoroughly professional in their craft despite the throngs of mostly male photographers snapping away all day - this I find is always an opportunity as someone that typically does not shoot portraits to see if I could under the less than ideal lighting in the arena actually get some “OK” images..
At lunch I bumped into two of the members of the High Peak Photography Club and had a pleasant time talking to them , it is one of the reasons I enjoy the club so much is that the members are friendly and welcoming.
Then with the final throes of the afternoon drawing in I stumbled across Graham Currey, a great character model , who had attended the club , here resplendent in his monk style outfit - he and Emma Finch that I mentioned earlier run Session Days where you can attend and photograph various characters in unique settings and we had a really nice chat about upcoming events and a possible return to the club.
Overall , despite the event being very busy I once again had a really great time , yes parking and food at these events seems expensive but overall its an experience and a day away from the normal…so roll on next March…
