The Big Picture - West Midlands

Top Midlands photographer Pogus Caesar has a new exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, and it proves that you don’t have to use expensive cameras or equipment to get wonderful results.

In the centre of the exhibition room are Pogus’ cameras (shown left) and they aren’t expensive or flash — proving that if you’re a good enough photographer you can take great pictures with anything!

That Beautiful Thing by Pogus Caesar runs from 26 April to 12 July and shows images captured in the UK and abroad, offer a fascinating view of this artist’s varied photographic career of more than 20 years.

Birmingham Museum and Art gallery has many more items than it can have on display at any one time - the rest are usually hidden from public gaze. But on Saturday 5th April, the Collections Centre will be open to the public, 10.00am - 3.00pm, to explore and photograph all the weird and wonderful objects.

Come and take your own snaps of the amazing objects like cars, motorbikes and fire engines in one of the biggest museum stores in the country. Bring your own camera or mobile phone and have a ball. Professional photographers will be on hand to help and there’s a chance to enter a special competition. Winning photos will be displayed at the centre’s Open Day on 26th May.

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Andy Warhol said that in the future, everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. Claim yours every Saturday in March at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

You can visit the Pop Art gallery, slip into some cool 60’s fashions and step into the viewfinder to have your moment in the limelight. See photos from this event.

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If you’re in Birmingham then the Public Space at BBC Birmingham (in the Mailbox) is worth a visit to see a photo exhibition by Jaskirt Dhaliwal.

Featuring images of Asian musicians it “features artists who go against the stereotypes of what it means to be Asian and a musician”. Neeta (left) is a a singer, songwriter, pianist, selective guitarist and producer.

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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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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 New Art Gallery Walsall is having a birthday party - and you’re invited. It’s fun, free and buggy friendly!

Join the team for ‘The Big Party’ on Saturday 9th February as the gallery celebrates its eighth birthday with a big bang. Everyone is invited for a big knees up and a host of free events in and around the gallery. We’ll have party hats, pass the parcel, a treasure hunt and birthday cake for everyone and much more. There will be cameras for you to take photos of family and friends enjoying the day. It’s a great opportunity to enjoy taking photos - and even get som inspriration from photos displayed in the gallery.

Join the free celebrations in the gallery and in Gallery Square, put it in your diary! When was the last time you played pass the parcel?

There’ll be free goodie bags for everyone, and free family portraits for children who are eight in 2008.

For more information, contact the gallery on 01922 654400

New Art Gallery Walsall

Where: Wolverhampton Racecourse

When: Monday 21 January at 12pm till 4.30pm

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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The Big Picture launches with an exciting week of events around the West Midlands!

Join us near to you to find out more about the world record breaking attempt to create the largest photo montage in the world, and to learn how you can help create the biggest photo album in the West Midlands.

The Big Picture team will be at Wolverhampton Racecourse on Monday with giant oversized photo frames so you really can be in the picture. We’ll have some fantastic giveaways including disposable cameras. In the following days we’ll be in Shropshire, Stoke, Warwick, Coventry and finally Birmingham.

Where we’ll be and when:

Wolverhampton Racecourse - Monday 21 January - 12- 4.30pm

Ironbridge Blists Hill Victorian Town - Tuesday 22 January - 10am – 12pm

Shrewsbury Town Centre - Tuesday 22 January -2pm – 4pm

Worcester Guildhall - Wednesday 23 January - 11am – 2pm

Warwick Castle - Wednesday 23 January - 5.30pm – 7.30pm

Stoke, Tontine Square - Thursday 24 January - 10am– 12pm

Stoke, Trentham Gardens - Thursday 24 January - 2pm – 4pm

Coventry, Lady Godiva - Friday 25 January - 9am – 11am

Birmingham, Hurst Street - Friday 25 January - 1pm – 3pm