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Current Newsletter
July 2009 Photographers Resource - Monthly Edition 67 |
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Historic Houses of England, plus National Trust
and
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In this Issue:-
The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct The Industrial revolution started only 300 years ago in 1709 at Coalbrookdale Shropshire, now Ironbridge, and Heritage, as a major business, has only taken off over the lasts 50 years. Many people well below retiring age can remember visiting Stonehenge when you could just stop your car and walk around it, before fences and entry charges were introduced. Many photographers will remember when you could
just walk around any property owned by or for the public and take photos, no
fences, photo rights, or monopolies set up to benefit some picture library owned
or run by some organisation or government organisation, with commercial deals
done where a commercial company can offer the prints for sale.... So how
has this come about, do you remember giving away your heritage, and who has the
right to tell you that you can or cannot photograph properties that we all own,
and what you can and cannot do with your own photos... Read more at The Heritage
Takeover.
In this edition we are looking a major Historic Houses in the UK and asking are the National Trust photographer friendly, as well as some photography topics. |
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Features 1. Major Historic Houses of England
A new article,
Photographing
Historic Houses, This is one major area that has been very thinly covered up to now within our location indexes, there are several reasons for this, firstly there are very many of them and secondly quite a lot are owned by the National Trust and many photographers don't look on the National Trust as friendly to photographers. We are looking at the National Trust in a separate feature below. This month we have been involved in a major task to index all the historic houses that are open to the public, this includes properties owned by the National Trust, English Heritage and privately owned properties. So far we have identified over 1200. Because of the large numbers we have concentrated on England initially and will come back to do Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland later. It is likely we have not found them all, so if you spot any omissions or you see tourism leaflets on your travels on other houses that are open to the public then please let us know.
Like most of our lists these have links from the
titles in the left column to our location guides and further along the line a
number of links to other sources of information on the internet. While we cannot
yet include every location in detail, we can take you to the information, and help
you also identify which ones may be of interest to you. We have produced
the list both by county and in straight
alphabetic order
Other articles we have that cover, in part, this area are:-
We also have an extensive amount of information on
Gardens
In the reference sub section
Controlling Costs,
If you have a Tesco Clubcard then take a good look
at
Tesco Clubcard
Deals,
We have some places covered in existing location guides and have added this month the following houses:-
2. The National Trust and Photographers We as photographers, although very numerous, are
often not treated well by government run organisations and the like, in most
countries, so finding the National Trust here in the UK not by many to be
considered photographer friendly, may not come as a great surprise. The National
Trust is not a government agency as such, but an organisation that
technically is a charity, but is something unique, managing properties and other
assets left to the nation, plus some taken in lieu of death duties by the
government. Its funded largely by membership fees but has other incomes
including a large slice from government agencies, councils and the National
Lottery. The problem for photographers is that they also run both a commercial
picture library and a print business and want to monopolise these areas. Many
other organisations also have their own picture libraries, but tend to handle
the way they deal with photographers differently. The National Trust are said
to be in the process of changing this to become more photographer friendly. On
their website it even says you can take photos inside their properties by
arrangement where the photos are not being used commercially. In the article
National Trust and Photographers
from everywhere, a little like the Monopoly game, every time the year goes around, they get more money, from members, from government agencies and by bequests and more. Even in these difficult times, when most are struggling, the NT's formula should hold up well. Their slogan is 'The National Trust for ever, for everyone', while perhaps this is not an accurate description now, we are hoping it will become in the future, and are pleased to hear that they are working towards it. What would Beatrix Potter think of the National Trust? Beatrix Potter, the writer of illustrated
children's stories, was a major donor to the National Trust, so I thought
I would try a little experiment to see if Beatrix Potter was brought back to
life if she would be welcome in National Trust properties. Beatrix may have
given her moneys and been a promoter of the trust at a time when it had far fewer
supporters, but would she now be welcome to produce stories and sketches based
on NT properties, and of course she would want to take some photos to base her
drawings on. We put this to the test, and our experiment and results are
detailed in the article
What would Beatrice
Potter think of the National Trust. Our research, tests and contact with the National Trust gives us hope, in the shorter term, that updated and more photographer friendly guidelines may make a lot of difference by later this year, and that there is a will to make progress. |
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Photographic Features 1. Landscape Photography
2. Depth of Field
The depth of field is the distance that is
apparently in focus at ay point. The amount that appears to be in focus is
controlled by a number of variables. In the article
Depth of Field (DOF) Explained,
In
last
months edition
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The Photographers Diary July is now here and as you will now expect we have a new page for the August events that are of interest to photographers and an expanded July page. During the summer months there are loads of events, activities and photographic opportunities available to any type of photographer. Obviously we all hope to have good weather and the opportunity to get out and enjoy what is on and with the longer days it doesn't even matter if you're working as there is still time to get out and photograph the wild stuff in our countryside, woods, parks and more. The main highlight of the Heritage Calendar this month is The Festival of History organised by English Heritage. This year it takes place at Kelmarsh Hall in Nottinghamshire on the 25th and 26th. This is two days of non stop photography with living history encampments and many battle spectaculars from the many re-enactment groups that take part. Other heritage events throughout the month include the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival, the Godiva Festival in Coventry or the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex a mixture of old and new. On water you have the Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames, the Spirit of the Sea at Weymouth a two week festival of regattas and festivals including beach volleyball. Other water events around the country include the National Hovercraft Racing Championships, powerboat racing, and the Eastbourne Extreme showcasing windsurfing, land yachting, kite buggies etc. In the countryside there are many country/county shows including the last ever Royal Show at Stoneleigh Park, and the Royal Welsh Show nr Builth Wells. Equestrian events include jousting tournaments, horse driving trials, Arab Horse Show and the more unusual Langholm Common Riding at the end of the month. In the air there are many vintage and new flying events such as the large International Air Tattoo at Fairford in Gloucestershire as well as Balloon Festivals in Basingstoke and Kite Festivals like the one held in Brighton and many smaller venues around the country.
During this month there is a major week long
annual wildlife event that takes place on the River Thames between Sunbury Lock
and Abingdon Bridge. This is the annual census of the population of Mute Swans,
known as
Swan
Upping. |
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Summary of Articles Included
In This Issue
National Trust and Photographers
What would Beatrix
Potter think of the National Trust
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Lists Added This Issue
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Locations Guides Added This Issue | |||||||||||
Blenheim Palace,
Oxfordshire
Witley Court,
Worcestershire
Moreton Corbet Castle,
Shropshire
Wrest Park,
Bedfordshire
Audley
End, Essex
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Galleries Added This Issue |
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