Birmingham Instameet

On Saturday 24th January we hosted Birmingham’s first official Instameet. ‘Instameet, what!?’ I hear you say.. take a look.

We had seen 100’s of amazing Birmingham images coming through on social media, with photographers capturing the city in their own unique way. So we began to think, how can we get these guys together and create a community of avid Brummie photographers… *lightbulb* INSTAMEET.

Ok, ok, not everyone knows what an Instameet is, well it’s extremely straightforward. People that enjoy taking photos, get together, take photos together and upload them to Instagram using a specific hashtag – simples. [please note, you don't have to be an amazing photographer to come].

So months of organisation took place, where we linked up with Tim Cornbill (an amazing Birmingham photographer) who agreed to lead the meet and Steve Townsend (Associate Architects) who helped plan the route and the reasoning behind it. And before you know it, it was the day of the Instameet and we were awaiting the arrival of 50 Instagrammers/photographers that we had never met before to take them on a photo walk around the Paradise area.

As I mentioned, none of us had met before, which could have been pretty awkward, but it wasn’t. Everyone that attended had a passion for photography and Birmingham, which meant we all had more in common than we first thought. We all started chatting away and before we knew we were out in the sunshine (we’d crossed our fingers all week) snapping away - mainly in puddles as the theme for the Instameet was reflections (captured perfectly by Ling Yip @lingalong8).

After an hour and a half of photo taking we were all in desperate need of a drink so headed over to Coast to Coast on Broad Street, who had prepared complimentary lemonade, cocktails and delicious pretzels for everyone - The perfect ending, to a great Instameet (captured by Lula Belle) @Glamour_in_the_county)

This is the first of many Brummie Instameet’s taking place in 2015, with 10 photos being shortlisted from each, for the potential to be featured within the ‘More Birmingham Instagram Showcase’ taking place at the Ikon Gallery 28th – 29th November.

The hashtag for the event was #BrumMeetJan24 and we have now had over 600 amazing images uploaded, so take a look!

If you want to join our next keep an eye out for our Instagram post @Visit_Birmingham.