Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017
As the year slowly comes to an end, it is always natural to look back and see how your year has been and what you have achieved. My 2016 and has been busy and overall, very productive.
I am pleased to say that I have worked with a number of new clients and formed some great relationships along the way. My Automotive work has kept me busy but I have definitely noticed a shift towards my Birmingham/Landscape work as the year went on, something that I am sure will continue in 2017.
I have seen my work develop over the year, I hope for the better and have enjoyed new challenges with new clients that have taken me well and truly outside of my comfort zone. I have also had a bit of a surge in print sales, which is hugely satisfying as I don’t believe an image is ever truly complete until it is hanging on a wall – more of that in a future blog post though.
I also held an exhibition in Bullring and even though it came to a rather abrupt end, it was still a special moment to see my images in such a prominent place in the heart of the City. I have had my images turned into works of art and sold for many thousands of pounds and went on to (finally) produce my own calendar, thanks again to all that have purchased one!
2016 has really been the first year that I have started to feel that I am finding my way in what is a very challenging industry. None of which, would be possible without the support that I receive from friends, family and all of those that follow me on social media, in one form or another. To all of you, I am truly thankful.
I would also like to thank all of the clients that I have worked with (obviously) and all of the Birmingham related folk who have shown me a lot of support of the year including Birmingham Updates, IChoosebirmingham, Brumpic, Independent Birmingham, IgersBirmingham, Bullring, Vincent-Van-Doodle and countless others, thank you all.
Special thanks also goes out to the huge community of photographers in Birmingham that are an endless source of inspiration and motivation. Many of which I am proud to call my friends and to all of you, I wish you a successful 2017 (not too successful though, I’ve still got to eat!).
Finally, looking to 2017, I have some outrageously large plans including monthly workshops, a video series, regular newsletters, tutorials, more exhibitions, hopefully some new clients and obviously, the continuous stream of images of my beloved Birmingham. However, more about those in the new year. For now, thank you all for your help, support and motivation and I wish each and every one of you an amazing 2017!
12 Days of Christmas - Giveaway!
At this time of year, everyone starts looking back at what they've achieved over the last twelve months. I have been doing the same recently and I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with how it has gone. I will do an 'end of year' post soon, but the one thing that always amazes me is how much support I get. I mentioned this to a friend recently and they laughed and said 'yeah I know, you 'really appreciate it...' The problem is, I do and I don't really know how to say it...
I have done 'giveaways' before but I always end up feeling really bad at the end of it as I can only give one thing away. So after a little think, I decided to do a '12 days of Christmas' giveaway (and yes, I know it's not the proper '12 days' of Christmas but I always have to be different!). Now this isn't as simple as it sounds, as the first big challenge was to find 12 things to actually give away! Fortunately, I have a stockpile of framed and unframed prints!
Next was how to do it. I generally post to Facebook every few days, so I am a bit concerned that posting every day might get a bit annoying. So after some (not very deep) thinking, I thought I would split it between various social media, so one day FB, the next Instagram and so on. Finally, I thought, what about people who aren't on social media? Well that was the easy one, to enter, simply sign up to my Newsletter to enter - to subscribe, check the right-hand side of this page. They will be scheduled as follows:
Day 1) Tuesday 20th December - Facebook (/rossjukesphotography) - PRIZE - 2 x A3 Festive Print - WINNER - Chloe B.
Day 2) Wednesday 21st December - Instagram (@rossjukes) - PRIZE - 2 x A4 Mounted Prints - WINNER - Lena M.
Day 3) Thursday 22nd December - Twitter (@ross_jukes) - PRIZE - 2 x A3 Prints - WINNER - Mark C.
Day 4) Friday 23rd December - Newsletter (Subscribe on the right) - PRIZE - 2 x A3 Prints - WINNER - Chris G.
Day 5) Saturday 24th December - All Platforms (& email newsletter) - PRIZE - A1 Signed Print - WINNER - Antony C.
Day 6) Sunday 25th December - Newsletter (Subscribe on the right) - PRIZE - 2 x A4 Framed Prints - WINNER - Elizabeth M.
Day 7) Monday 26th December - Instagram (@rossjukes) - PRIZE - 2 x A4 Framed Prints - WINNER - Maria E.
Day 8) Tuesday 27th December - Twitter (@ross_jukes) - PRIZE - 1 x A4 Framed Print - WINNER - Kelly J.
Day 9) Wednesday 28th December - YouTube Subscribers (/rossjukesphotography) - PRIZE - 3 x A4 Prints - WINNER - Dan D.
Day 10) Thursday 29th December - Facebook (/rossjukesphotography) - PRIZE - 2 x A3 Prints
Day 11) Friday 30th December - Twitter (@ross_jukes) - PRIZE - 2 x A3 Prints
Day 12) Saturday 31st December - All Platforms (& email newsletter) - PRIZE - Signed A3 Print
I will post around 6.30 each evening on the scheduled platforms so please keep an eye out for them.
HOW TO ENTER:
Now for the fun bit, entering is really simple! On Facebook, Instagram or Twitter - simply 'Like, share or comment' on the set posts. For YouTube and the Newsletter, simply subscribe and a winner will be picked at random! It really is that simple...
PICKING WINNERS & COLLECTING PRIZES:
Winners will be picked at random using WooBox or a similar app. For the Newsletter and YouTube subscription, winners will be chosen at random by a third party app. Winners will be contacted within 48 hours and arrangements made for the winner to collect the prizes (they will be in Birmingham City Centre so pleased make sure you will be able to collect - though I will, where possible, help with delivery if it is easier, though there may be a cost).
TERMS & CONDITIONS:
- The competition is open to anyone via my social media channels & newsletter. Entry will be via likes/comments/shares on Social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and 'subscriptions' to my Youtube Channel and Newsletter.
- Each individual may enter once per day, a 'like, comment or share' will be classed as one entry. Multiples, i.e. a 'like, comment and a share' by one individual will still only be classed as one entry.
- Details of the prizes will be posted on the day and are not open for exchange or exchange for monetary value.
- The competition will close at exactly 5.00pm the day after the original post. Winners will be chosen at random and will be notified within 48 hours of the competition closing.
- Delivery - Where possible, I will try to assist with getting the print to the winner. However, I accept no responsibility for the cost or condition of the framed prints being delivered. Where possible, I can arrange to meet individuals in Birmingham City Centre to hand deliver the prints. For national & international shippings, delivery will be arranged by the recipient at their own cost. I am happy to provided reasonable packaging for the item but any further costs will be accepted by the winner.
- The competition is in no way endorsed or run in conjunction with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Youtube. the competition may be suspended or terminated without notice at the discretion of Ross Jukes Photography and no alternatives offered.
- The competition is for the prizes documented and no alternative or cash alternative will be offered.
- By entering the competition, you are automatically deemed to accept these terms & conditions.
FINALLY...
Thank you once again for all of your support, I hope you have an amazing Christmas and good luck!
Street Photography in New York
Street Photography in New YAs you may be aware, last week I was very fortunate to go to New York. It was my first time in the city and to say that I was excited was an understatement. New York had long been one of my ‘must go to’ places and I was pretty Certain THAT I might take a picture or two (thousand) while I was there.
Laura and I arrived late on the Friday night. On leaving Penn Station and making our way to our hotel, I caught tantalising glimpses of New York and as I turned the first corner, was confronted by the Empire State Building. It felt a little surreal seeing it. At that point, it started to sink in, I was finally in New York!
The next morning, I woke up early, grabbed all three of the cameras that I had with me and hit the streets. It was eerily quite considering this city never sleeps. However, it felt amazing to have the city streets pretty much to myself. I was approached a couple of times by people looking for a small handout, a dollar here and there, so I thought it best to be a bit more discreet whilst walking the city streets alone.
I only used my ‘small’ camera, a little Ricoh GR, which became my best friend over the course of the week. Perfect for covert little shots here and there. I had to be ninja like to walk into a scene, grab the shot and leave without detection. That first morning alone was two incredible hours as I familiarised myself with the block layouts, the subway and later in the morning, the hustle and bustle of the city streets.
Throughout the course of the week, I found myself more inclined to shoot ‘street photography’ capturing the everyday scenes as I walked around completely smitten with the busy city streets. I rarely used the ‘big camera’, only for the larger landscape images. There was something to be said about being discreet as I feared that getting caught taking a picture of someone may result in a typical New York style abusive tirade.
With a mix of good light, heavy showers, day and night shots, I was pretty pleased with some of the images I captured. Overall, it was an amazing experience and one that I will hopefully get the opportunity to replicate sometime soon.
West Midlands Wildlife Instameet - Brandon Marsh
It's no secret that I'm a fan of the occasional Instameet. It's an amazing community full of people passionate about photography (now that can't be a bad thing!). However, one of my favourite things about Instameets is the sheer diversity of the locations and subject matter.
The latest meet saw us travel to just outside Coventry and more specifically, Brandon Marsh Nature Centre. The event was organised by James Benwell from West Midlands Wildlife - https://www.facebook.com/westmidlandswildlife - and the highlight of the day was to be a murmuration of Starlings, a sight I was really looking forward to seeing.
James (aka @JimPanda on Instagram - well worth a follow, as is WMW -https://www.instagram.com/westmidlandswildlife/ ) organised the event with @IgersBirmingham and set about explaining more about the wildlife that we could expect to see. Now I'm no nature photographer and had already planned on just shooting a few 'landscape' images, but James quickly dashed any hopes of me seeing a Bald Eagle!
The day in the whole was very enjoyable and made a stark contrast to my usual City Centre based antics. Unfortunately, the murmuration did not materialise, yet I couldn't help but feel the faintest nip of the nature photography bug! There is certainly something enjoyable about walking around the countryside, treading lightly and challenging yourself to a new genre of photography. Though I think I might have to stick to the city shots for the time being, or at least until I learn where Bald Eagles come from!
Fancy grabbing yourself a bargain?
UPDATE - Sorry folks, they have now all sold. If you are still interested though, I am ordering a few extra prints so please email me at admin@rossjukesphoto.com - thank you all so much for your support ;)
So, a lot of you will have seen that I recently had an exhibition at Bullring Birmingham.It was a great experience and I was incredibly fortunate to sell the majority of my images (plus a quite a few reprints etc). However, I still have 3 left over and because they are huge (A1 framed) I have nowhere to store them!
So I am selling them at £100 each rather than the standard £150 - that's a massive 33.3333% off (or something like that!). The images are printed on Kodak Endure paper (really good quality if I do say so myself) and are framed in A1 frames (no border). The frames are black plastic poly-core with perspex rather than glass, this is due to the health & safety regs at Bullring.
The three images below are what I have left and unfortunately, I cannot offer delivery (as they are huge!) but I am happy to meet you somewhere in Birmingham to exchange. I am happy to accept payment via BACS or PayPal. If you are interested in purchasing, please email me at admin@rossjukesphoto.com - and let me know which image(s) you are interested in. Thanks for stopping by!
An Evening with IgersBirmingham on a very tall building!
I love trying to find new angles of the city that I have never shot before. SO when I was very kindly asked by the guys at IgersBirmingham if I'd like to come and take some photographs from a very tall building, I jumped at the chance!
I love taking long exposures so I asked if we could go around sunset, knowing that I would use the Aston Expressway, one of the major roads flowing through the middle of the city as my prime subject. We all met up, everyone was in a good mood and a lot of fun was had trying to get long exposures in (what felt like) gale force winds!
However, I did also start to grab some short clips of video with the intent of starting to create weekly video logs, or as they are called on the street, vlogs! Now I'm no looker and I really, really don't like being in front of a camera. However, it does add a really useful view on what I do and how I do it (apart from the fact that on this occasion, it was just too windy to talk about settings etc.)
So here is a very quick video from the evening, look out for more of these n the future! And before anybody says anything about quality, it was all shot on an iPhone - which to be honest, blows my mind! Thanks once again to IgersBirmingham and Aston University.
IgersBirmingham & Ikon Gallery - Mendelsohn Instameet: Balsall Heath
I had the pleasure of joining the amazing people from IgersBirmingham and the Ikon Gallery for a Janet Mendelsohn inspired meet in Balsall Heath. With the aim of showing Balsall Heath today and how things have changed in the near 50 years since Mendelsohn's original 'photo-essay' of the area, the day would see us explore some of the highlights of Balsall Heath.
Starting at the endlessly interesting Old Print Works, we had an inspiring introduction to Mendelsohn's works and a brief insight into Balsall Heath's past. Groups of around twenty took turns to explore the Moseley Road Swimming Baths - a beautiful Victorian building kept mainly in it's original splendor with a rare opportunity to explore many areas that would normally be closed off to the public.
After exploring the baths, we had an interesting route to follow around Ballsall Heath taking in the area and a chance explore the rich mixture of cultures living side-by-side. This was where I had promised to challenge myself and to delve head first into the world of 'Street Photography'. The challenge would be to approach interesting subjects and witness everyday life in the area to immerse myself in the culture of Balsall Heath.
This is certainly different to my normal style of photography, I was well and truly outside of my comfort zone. However, very much like the area I was exploring, my initial reservations were soon replaced by the sheer excitement of exploring new areas and challenges. It is fair to say that I barely scratched the surface of Balsall Heath . However, I think Mendelsohn would be pleasantly surprised by the modern day area and it's inhabitants.
Thanks goes to Fraser and the team at IgersBirmingham, Emily Luxford from the Ikon Gallery, Ian Francis from Flatpack Projects and all that helped organise a very enjoyable day.
Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016!
I think I say it every year but, how quick did that go! I have had some amazing adventures this year and finally feel like I'm starting to find my feet a little (even though I have along way to go!). I decided in early 2015 that if I wanted to get my photography 'out there' then I needed to get myself 'out there'. This is more of a challenge than it sounds, in particular when you're quiet a socially awkward person to begin with.
Much like the redevelopment of Birmingham itself, I feel that I have evolved and changed over the last twelve months and I have seen the heavily edited, over saturated style of my automotive photography creep, well, run in and jump up and down on my landscape shots. This is something that will change throughout 2016 as I intend being a little more subtle with my final edits. 2015 hailed many exciting changes for Birmingham, Grand Central, New Street Station, Paradise Forum all either starting or finishing their major changes. I was up for the challenge that lay ahead!
However, as life always seems to, it managed to get right in the way of any plans when we lost a very dear family member. It is always a challenge and it really drains any creativity from you but that is really insignificant when you know what other people are going through. After some time away and a little soul-searching, it provided a catalyst to push my photography on, after all, life is too short not to do what you enjoy!
2015 saw me get more involved in the local community, in particular with IgersBrimingham - which is just the most amazingly friendly bunch of people you could wish to go out take pictures with. One of the highlights of my year was holding my own 'Instameet'. I thoroughly enjoyed just talking about photography, helping people with settings and most of all, meeting some amazing people!
Towards the end of 2015 came something that I am genuinely proud of, my first exhibition! The good folk of the Old Joint Stock Theatre hosted the exhibition (which has been extended into 2016!). I'd never printed my work in bulk like this before and to see it hanging on the walls was an incredible moment. However, I have been more amazed by the people that have been to view it, offer great feedback and even buy prints! I am very grateful!
All-in-all, the year has had it's up's and down's, but more than anything, I feel like it has put me in a good place to really push myself in 2016! So what is on the cards for next year? I will be hosting more 'photowalks', offering 1-2-1 tutorials, even doing some video work so unfortunately, you will be seeing more of me! I have a couple of secret projects as well but more on those later in 2016. Probably the biggest change will be... I will be branching out of Birmingham (sorry, it's not you it's me!) I love travelling and feel it is time to combine this with my love of photography.
I just want to finish by saying a huge thank you to all of those that have supported me this year - IgersBirmingham, Independant Birmingham, BrumHour, Birmingham Updates (I swear I don't pay Luke for sharing my pictures!), Brumpic, Old Joint Stock Theatre, I Choose Birmingham, BBC Midlands Today, Birmingham Mail, What's On Birmingham and all the fantastic clients I have worked with (sorry if I have missed anyone, I have a shocking memory!). I would also like to thank all the amazing photographers out there that inspire me, (no surprises) Tim Cornbill, Verity Milligan, Tom Bird, George Daley, George Davies, David Rann, All of the IgersBirmingham folk! (you know who you are!) and many, many others on Istagram, Facebook and Twitter that inspire me on a daily basis!
The biggest 'thank you' though goes to all of those that have supported me in person or on social media. I can be quite negative and would have given up a long time ago if it wasn't for the kind words and support that I am shown on a regular basis. It really means the world to me, I can't thank you enough.
I wish you all an incredible 2016.
Ross
A belated Merry Christmas
The build up to Christmas is a busy time for everyone and unfortunately, I did not get time to post this before the 'big day'. Due to incredibly mild weather and the markets not quite having the festive feel that they have had in previous years, I decided to go with an older image yet still one of my favourites as I feel it captures the festive mood in Birmingham perfectly.
I hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas. I have certainly enjoyed a few days off. However, the hard work starts again now and I can't wait for 2016! There will be a few big changes on the way but more on that soon. I hope you all have a fantastic New Year.
Competition time! Free Giveaway...
To say a big 'Thank you' for all of the support I get on social media - I am giving away a free framed A3 print of Gas Street Basin in Birmingham. The giveaway is currently running on my Facebook page and will end on Sunday 13th December! So head over and make sure you have entered!
Click HERE to visit my Facebook page and enter! Good Luck!
I do really appreciate all the support that I get and in 2016 I will be hosting a number of events for free so sign up to my newsletter (link on the right) to keep up to date with the latest news and events. If you just don't want to chance it, the print will soon be available in my shop and as ever, if you email me I can arrange for any of my images to be made available as a print.
