A truth well said by the big eared idiot. However inside the building the best values of municipal enlightenment remain. A place dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge in all its forms. Free to use and staffed by polite and helpful staff; the best council staff in Birmingham.

Despite the reign of terror by first Thatcher and then Bliar; both attempting to turn the nation into a selfish branch of Tesco’s, more concerned with mortgages and Big Brother, than the pursuit of knowledge, the public libraries remain.

A beacon of hope in a world full of bullshit.

I have always loved this statue; which doesn’t get the attention it deserves. The gallery doesn’t even sell postcards of it, preferring the pre raphelite daubs. Perhaps the fact that most people think its Gabriel rather than the devil himself points to a lack of biblical knowledge on the part of the good citizens of Brum. Personally I think the fallen angel forced to do bad by an arrogant and evil god is a rather good symbol of the city, perhaps not quite as good as the Iron Man!!

One of the things I particullarly like about my camera phone is the shape of the sensor,

rather than apingapeing the 35mm style of a 3:2 format, my sensor in the phone is very near to 5:4. 5:4 is a great format and is really good for composition. Given that the phone also uses a screen to compose rather than a viewfinder, it is all rather like using a view camera!

Actually the fact that there is no focus, aperture or shutter to control, composition is all with a phone so they can make great tools for teaching and learning a lot about photographic composition,

Now if only I can find a crack for the phones firmware that allows me to save the RAW data from the sensor (I shall ask Ben Wisley about this) it would be really good.

New blog site for my cameraphone uploads

Pete Marshall