aston villa 1 v 2 norwich

The last game of the regular season is at home to Norwich. With a play-off spot already secured, manager Dean Smith chooses to rest Tyrone Mings, Tammy Abraham, Jack Grealish, John McGinn and Ahmed Elmohamady.

Elmo makes way for Alan Hutton who is given the captain's armband in recognition of his service and dedication to the cause. In all likelihood it will be his final match in a Villa shirt. 

Norwich draw first blood with a well-worked goal in the seventh minute by Finnish forward, Teemu Pukki, the Championship's leading scorer this season. Villa strike back with an equally well-worked equaliser by Jonathan Kodjia his third in four games. And so the teams go in level at half-time.

The second half proves equally entertaining with both teams going for the winner. Fittingly, it's Norwich who score with just a few minutes left to play, the goal coming from a low shot by Mario Vrancic.  It secures the Championship title deservedly for the Canaries, who have had a marvelous season. Let's just hope we can join them in the Premiership via the forthcoming play-offs!

the build up ...

 

rainy day, dream away

The homework this week for my MAC group is 'Street Photography', a genre I adore.  People - their face, their bodies, their speech, their mannerisms - are utterly fascinating. Everyone has a special story to tell as I discovered yet again during a brief foray onto the rain-soaked streets of Solihull.

Along the way I met a lady getting ready for her son's marriage in Cardiff, a young woman due to give birth to her first child any day now, a gentleman sipping a cup of coffee who wanted to talk about his new camera and a Big Issue seller.

Is this street photography or street portraiture? I neither know nor care - but what I am sure is that I was blessed to hear all these wonderful stories and take a few idle snaps. Hope you enjoy them.

 

the unacceptable face of fashion - the inexorable march of progress

machine made - or hand sewn?

 

the unacceptable face of fashion - back street fur trade

serendipity

Earlier this week I attended a fantastic talk by ace photographer, Mandy Burton.  Mandy was speaking ostensibly about her book, '100 Strangers and their Dogs', which you can read about on her mighty fine blog of similar name.  The talk, however, was much, much more than that. It was an insightful, hilarious, moving and humble story of life, and in particular how and why to take a step outside the comfort zone.

I first came across Mandy's work through Kate Green, my photography tutor at the Midlands Art Centre. She showed our photography group some of her amazing pictures and I was hooked from the 'get go'.  Do take a look at them on Instagram - Mandy's hashtag is #burty123m.

My head was buzzing when I left the talk and blow me down if I didn't stumble across a fantastic photo opportunity at some traffic lights just round the corner from where the event had taken place.  A Yorkshire terrier was looking out the open window of a queuing car. I nearly passed it by, but the urge proved too great to resist. I doubled back and took the snap above.

True serendipity, but weirder still I posted the photograph on my own Instagram account (#electrofried1000) only to discover that Kate Green knows both the dog and its owner!!