The Big Picture - West Midlands

The Big Picture team were at Dudley Zoo with hundreds of photos and a panel of the mosaic on Wednesday, so visitors could contribute to breaking that World Record.

The Zoo’s section of the mosaic was completed in record time with help from John’s Lane Residents Group from Tipton Road Methodist Church, who were visiting as a treat.

There are still many panels to go, over a hundred still need their photos added, so if you’ve time to help and would like to be part of The Big Picture please come to one of the workshops. You can find full details here.

Liz Combellack, whose photo of Birmingham’s Markets is one of those shortlisted to be come the World Record mosaic, has sent us this picture of her proudly pointing to her work on the billboard advertising the grand unveiling.

Liz says ; “I have a wrist injury at the moment, and therefore cannot currently take any photos – well, not any decent straight ones anyway.  I am itching to get back into it when I am fully better, and being a part of the Big Picture is something really positive to keep me going until I’m fully healed!”

Liz isn’t the only one who has been to see their photo as part of the shortlist. Annie, the mother of Lydia who took a photo of her neighbours, has also sent us a picture.

There are currently 65 completed World Record mosaic panels, with 6 in progress at Thinktank as well as some out around the West Midlands. That’s great, but there’s still a long way to go!

Diane Fellows, whose photo is one of those shortlisted, was helping out at Thinktank (pictured left, sticking down images) along with other volunteers.

If you’ve got some time to help out with the construction, and would like to be part of breaking that World Record then you can find details of the nearest workshops to you here.

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Tim Caddick is a professional photographer working in the West Midlands, who has been enjoying The Big Picture and has been uploading some of the pictures he’s taken over the last couple of years.

One of the things Tim enjoys doing most is taking photos for Comic Relief, and Sport Relief too, you can see some of his most recent ones in this gallery.

We talked to Tim and he agreed to share some of his experience with people, helping those who’ve got more into taking photos because of The Big Picture or who would like to improve.

So, have you got any questions you’d like to ask? Maybe you’d like to know about what to look for when buying a new camera, or you’d like to know what a term like “exposure” really means, or perhaps when to use flash. You can ask Tim anything, anything polite(!), just comment here and he’ll try his best to answer your questions.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the number of people that sent us a photo by post, or dropped into their local art galleries, Jessops shops or other Big Picture places.

While we’ve counted them all and they will be part of the World Record mosaic, we’ve not had time to scan each and upload and every one – so please bear with us while we do that. They will appear in the galleries on this site in the next weeks.

The site is also taking a long time (due to heavy use) to pick photos up from flickr — but they’ll all get here eventually and are part of the World Record, thanks for your support!

110,000 photos will take a lot of putting together!

There are drop-in workshops across the region, you can pop-in and help for 10 minutes or a couple of hours. Find out more here.

There are other chances to help create the mosaic for our World Record attempt, either by yourself or as part of a group like a team or club. If you’d like to get involved, please email us at [email protected]. We’ll get in touch personally with more details as soon as the wheres and whens can be decided.

We’ve done some investigation of all the photos that are part of The Big Picture, and here are some facts we’ve found out:

• Birmingham featured in the most photos, followed by the Black Country, then Stoke and Staffordshire.
• Stoke was home to the biggest single contributors, with one Big Picture supporter sending in 5,000 images
• The most photographed places in the Big Picture include Ironbridge and the Shropshire Hills.
• There are over twice as many cats than dogs in the Big Picture
• There are four times as many photos tagged ‘work’ than ‘home’
• The most photographed activities on the Big Picture include holidays and sport

We’ll keep looking and bring you more facts over the coming weeks.

You don’t need to have a mobile phone, or digital camera to join in with The Big Picture — if you’ve got prints of photos there are a number of ways you can get them to us.

You can post them to our freepost address: The Big Picture, FREEPOST BM2782, Birmingham, B18 6BR. Or drop them in at our partner galleries — there should be one near you:

• Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
• Ikon
• New Art Gallery Walsall
• Wolverhampton Art Gallery
• The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery
• The Herbert
• Hereford Museum & Art Gallery
• The Old House, Hereford
• Market House Heritage Centre, Ross on Wye
• Hereford Museum Resource & Learning Centre, Friar Street, Hereford

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The football season is drawing to a close, there are promotions, relegations and even European places still to be decided – sport is an important part of the West Midlands and we want to see everything that you’re passionate about in The Big Picture.

The Big Picture team were at Stoke City on Sunday, to celebrate with all the fans - including TV’s Nick Hancock!

Even if there’s nothing to play for we’d like to share the story of your season, and if you’re not a football fan we’d still like to see any sport that you do like! Add all your photos to our Sport gallery by tagging photos “sport” as you upload them.

The photos from the day at Stoke are here (if you’re struggling to find yourself you can see all of the images on one page here on the Big Picture pages on Flickr).

The BBC and the Arts Council are looking for photos that say “Englishness” to the viewer. They say “It doesn’t have to be a thatched cottage. It doesn’t have to be the village green and duck pond. It doesn’t have to be a rolling landscape.”

Upload your photo to The Big Picture (you must tag the photo ‘madeinengland’), add a short description of what the scene means to you and the picture will be part of a gallery on our site.
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Why not celebrate Mother’s Day with a difference this year. We want to hear what makes your Mum so special, so send us a message along with your photo and we’ll display it on our website for all the world to see!

travellinglamberts added this great picture of two people who obviously love their mum - it would be great to see and read about how much you love yours. Mum’s are special all year round, but it’s nice to have one day to let them know.

Add your picture to the Big Picture as normal and make sure you tag it ‘mum’ so it appears in our special gallery automatically.

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“Geoftheracer” - or Geoff Friswell to his friends has been adding photos to The Big Picture - and these of him on his motorbikes caught our attention. Geoff, from Wolston near Coventry, is 62 and still loves riding and competing in trials and speedway events.

He says: “I’m sure you would be amazed at the antics of us old codgers, but of course we don’t ever grow up, so we stay young!” The team at Midlands Today were ready to be amazed too, and so Geoff and friends are featuring on the programme. (Watch Midlands Today at 6.30pm weekdays or again online at bbc.co.uk/midlandstoday).

We want to hear the stories behind all the photos in The Big Picture, and there’s even a chance that yours could feature on your local BBC service – Local site, radio, or event Midlands Today – so don’t forget to include a contact email address if you’d like that!

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What do you love most about the West Midlands? Is it a building, a park or open space? Or is it just because your favourite people and animals are here?

February is all about love - so keep adding photos to The Big Picture and tag them “love” so they’ll appear in our special ‘love’ gallery

Julia Perry added this unusual photo of a cat and dog that love each other!

Don’t forget to tell us what you love - and why the photo shows that - The Big Picture is all about the stories as well as the photos (some are being featured on the BBC, as you might have seen). And remember to include an email address - as we’ll need to talk to you about your story if it’s to feature. (more…)

This week is National Chip Week – so we’d like to see your photos of your favourite chip shop.Does it have a great name (like Le Codfather - added to the Big Picture by “jonnie” ), does it serve the lightest chips in the West Midlands, or are the staff the friendliest around?

If you like to cook your chips at home - why not add a picture of your home-cooked chip supper to The Big Picture? With fish, with eggs, with a pie, red sauce, brown sauce, mushy peas, even gravy (yuck!) - we want to see them all!

Upload a photo - tag it “chipshop” - and we’ll see them all on our “chipshop” tag gallery.

There’s not only one “Codfather” in the West Midlands though - *lizbeth* has spotted one in Walsall too:

The Big Picture tour of the West Midlands this week has been tiring, but loads of fun. Today we were up especially early to meet BBC Coventry and Warwickshire’s breakfast team and Liz Kershaw by the Lady Godiva statue. It was worth it - as we not only took loads of photos ourselves - but got lots of promises from the people of Coventry to add theirs to the Big Picture website over the weekend. Andrew from BBC Coventry and Warwickshire has even been uploading his.

Then to Birmingham it was - to catch people as they arrived to watch the panto - we even caught some dancers from the Dance Xchange and got them to do a pose we couldn’t dream of copying!

Pictured are Laura Cadlow and Celine Alwyn, from Barebones, the touring company of DanceXchange, getting ready for the International Dance Festival Birmingham.

The Big Picture team spent today in Stoke - and the photos we took there, along with the hundreds you have been adding yourselves, have pushed the current total over 3,000! We met loads of great people, and Kerry continued her media stardom stardom by talking to Max from BBC Radio Stoke about how we were getting on.

Moving on from Tontine Square, we spent the afternoon at Trentham Gardens, where passers by - and their furry friends - were happy to pose!

Knights, Queens and Archbishops were in the frame when The Big Picture team joined the cast of the play Edward II at Warwick Castle today - and Ben Sidwell from Midlands Today was seen chatting to a suit of armour (we thought it was empty, but he may have known better!). If you’d like to watch a little of his report you can see it online.

Earlier in the day we were in Worcester, where people were waiting for us with their photos as we arrived! We set our giant photo frames up outside the Guildhall and took loads of photos, like this one:

Where: Lady Godiva Statue, Broadgate Coventry

When: Friday 24 January at 9am till 11am

Who: The Big Picture team and giant oversized photo frames

Come and find out more about The Big Picture. Be in it, by stepping into our giant photo frames and take away goodie bags - including disposable cameras.

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You may have noticed that the Big Picture website experienced some technical problems yesterday evening - we’re sorry for that, but pleased to say that they’re fixed now.The overwhelming number of visitors to the site, and the huge volume of photos being uploaded since launch on Monday slowed the site right down and in some cases you may not have been able to get to us at all. Our technical gurus worked hard and quickly to sort out these problems and are confident that the site is now much stronger.

Sorry if you experienced these problems but we hope, and are almost certain, that it won’t happen again.

If you have any questions please email us at [email protected] and we’ll do our best to help.

Children from Bridgnorth Endowed school joined The Big Picture team today at Blists Hill Victorian Town in Ironbridge, Shropshire - dressed in costume from their upcoming production of Oliver! - and they sang for BBC Radio Shropshire too.

The Big Picture has already got 1,400 photos in the albums - so keep adding yours and we’ll be on target for that world record. Don’t forget your photos can be of anything that you feel represents your life in the West Midlands – that could be a nice landscape, a building, your family or even your pets - like Tiger here who we met today in Shrewsbury Town Centre: