National Trust Project
Initial thoughts on what the National trust is all about: When I first read the brief for this project and saw it was based all around the National trust my thoughts immediately turned to what I can remember about the National trust and what they do. Growing up I would often go on holidays with my family to national trust and other places similar to it, these houses are located all around England and often these locations are small houses in the middle of nowhere, and would be often very old houses and cottages that would always look a bit odd. These are my memories and initial thoughts of what the National trust is and what they do which in till recently was to preserve old buildings for people to stay in. But now I'm older and I have been to a few national trust locations that are different I know they protect other types of buildings like castles and piece's of land that have interesting, environmental and historic value.
What is the National Trust?
The National Trust is a large charity that has been around since the late 1800s and has always been about looking after places in the UK of historic interest from castles to small cottages and at this point has over 5 million full time members, with the key people being The prince of Wales as the president, the chairman who is Tim Parker and the director Hilary McGrady. The charity has a range of different causes from food to land and landscapes, but mainly places of heritage. One interesting things about the National trust that stood out to me was its powers when it comes to places of historic interest in that it can either buy these locations or be gifted them by previous owners. It owns over 500 heritage properties, which includes many historic houses and gardens, industrial monuments, and social history sites all over the UK. The Trust also, aside from protecting historic locations, also protects nature and wildlife, the range of natural things they protect are ancient tree's as well as examples of our wild life from butterflies to deer, and are working hard to keeps these places safe for years to come.
The trust also has a selection of holiday cottages through out the Uk and people can stay in often remote or very scenic areas, and usually in an unusual or old building, the only down side is these national trust places are more expensive then other cottages, but offer more. Also there are hotels, owned by the national trust that often offer more as you are able to stay at these large houses with lots of interesting walks and gardens to walk in and look around; for example Cliveden house in Buckinghamshire which has lots of very beautiful grounds to explore, especially in spring when all the flowers are in bloom.
Ways in which the heritage sector is adapting to internet together with changing demographics.
One of the most obvious ways in which the heritage sector like the national trust and English Heritage are adapting to the internet is social media and the National trust has twitter, instagram, Pinterest and youtube in their arsenal. By comparison English heritage has very similar ones apart from Pinterest. Other ways in which these heritage sites and museums are adapting is involving new technologies such as Copper Hewitt's pen, which is a special pen that interacts with exhibits by using a sensor at the end of the pen that reads the information using a NFC tags and storing the information in the pens memory system. The original concept of the pen was that the pen could invite visitors who could learn about design by designing them selves whilst at these kind of museums, adding to that "Beyond working" as a tool for drawing, it would encourage visitors to engage with the works on view in the museum rather than looking at them through the small screen of the more traditional approach of a ‘museum App’. This concept isn't what you think of when looking at how the heritage sector is adapting to the internet but is a way they are keeping non internet things alive and well so that people aren't glued to their screens all the time.
Most important/interesting places the national trust owns.
Intro:Below is the top three most popular and visited places in the Uk with nearly 2 million visits combined yearly. The reason why I'm including this in my work book is simply because I want to show these amazing locations that are all over the UK and even though most of them are too far away I want to show the most visited and popular ones, not just the ones I can visit for this project.
1. Giant's Causeway, Antrim
The first and most visited national trust location in the UK is the Giants Causeway which is located in Antrim which is a very small county in northern Ireland that has basalt rocks that are shaped like hexagonals, the way these hexagonal shapes are made is by the rocks unique cooling rates which allow it to create these interesting shapes; the location is said to have around 40,000 of them. It is also said that the hexagonal shapes were formed over 60 million years ago by this cooling method. In terms of whether I would use this location as one of mine for this project it would have to be a "no" for one simple reason and that is that its in its own territory and I wouldn't be able to do any other locations for this project if I went for the Giants Causeway it would be very differecult to create a project there.
2. Cliveden House, Buckinghamshire
The second location with 475,604 visits in 2019 is Cliveden house which is located in Buckinghamshire and as you can see above is a very interesting and beautiful place, which is both a national trust location and a hotel; this is quite interesting as it gives you the option to stay and enjoy the land around the House which not many national trust locations allow. The house was built in 1666 by the 2nd duke of Buckinghamshire for his mistress. Along with antique furniture and period features, it has stayed true to its roots whilst also providing a luxurious setting to the rest. Now the stately home is set upon 376 acres of National Trust grounds along with the Hotel itself. Even though this particular location has jumped out to me and being very beautiful and interesting it would be quite difficult making it one of my five locations as firstly there aren't enough locations in Buckinghamshire and secondly it would be expensive staying in the local area or even the hotel itself to photograph this wonderful location.
3. Attingham Park, Shropshire
The third most popular and visited location in the Uk is Attingham Park, which as you can see above has a large house in the centre of the park, with 466,658 visits in 2019; it is one of the smaller locations with its main attributes being the grounds where people are able to do activities and walks. Built in 1785 its one of the more older location's in the national trusts arsenal and not maybe as unique as some of the other locations, but there are 200 acres of park land and woods that offers walks as well as sponsored runs and deer park where you are able to see wild deer all year round; its one of the more interesting locations in what it has to offer. For my project once again this location wouldn't work simply because of its location and how it would be difficult finding a place to stay near by along with other national trust locations to use for the project at the same time.
4. Castle Drogo, Drewteignton
The fourth and final location isn't in the top most visited national trust locations, but it is one that is a bit closer to home and would be a possible location I could include in this project, maybe as the location for the brochure. The reason why I say its closer to home is that I have access to a house where I can stay for free that is within driving distance of the castle and is a great location for my project , with many things to offer along with the castle I.e. the with a deer park south of the caste built in 1855, the park is surrounded by vast granite walls along with it being nature reserve with its veteran deciduous trees and the extremely rich lichen flora living on them, along with a great deal of many things to see and do at the castle. I plan at some point in the future to do a reccie trip to the castle to get a proper look and get a real idea to whether I should include it in this project.
National Trust VS English Heritage
Above are a few images from my recent trip to Eltham palace, which is a English heritage site in London, and the reason why I went to this particular site is that english heritage is one of National trust's biggest competitors and I wanted to see another charities site to get a feel of what they were like in comparison to National trust , which for this project I have yet to visit a sight, but from growing up visiting both national trust and English Heritage locations all over the Uk I know what the national trust has to offer as well. Adding to that I haven't seen a national trust location in a few years and I plan on going soon to refresh my memory on what the national trust has to offer in 2020.
So to compare these two charities they have a lot in common and offer similar things, but have a different history with the English heritage only being around since 1983, wheres in comparison the national trust has been around since 1895 ,making it 88 years older then English Heritage; however, it is surprising that even though English heritage has been around a lot less time they keep their locations in the same conditions and put the same amount of care and time in to them, and when you visit these locations you will notice this. In terms of locations there isn't a massive difference in size or amount with English heritage having 400 locations all over England and the National trust having only 100 more but over a wider area. So far obviously National trust is winning and by a lot, when you look at how much the two charities have made in the time period of 2014 and 2015 which is only a year or two ago English Heritage made £74 million pounds wheres the National trust has made a staggering £494 million pounds which is a £420 million pound difference. To conclude both charities are very similar in how they do things and how they show off there sites and even though the National trust is allot bigger then English Heritage they both but the same amount of work into preserving the heritage of the Uk.
Possible locations to shoot for this project
Idea's for locations so far: So far for possible national trust places for this project I am currently planning on dartmoor in Devon as there are many locations that would be ideal for shoots the main one being national trust locations so I would have plenty to choose from, the way I would be able to go to these locations would be my parents second house in dartmoor which is where I would stay and would allow me to go to these locations easily. The big issue is the Dartmoor National park which cover such a fast area of the dartmoor and means that it would limit me by a lot to were I could go and shoot for this project. But if I do some research I should be able to find plenty of good and interesting locations to shoot outside of the dartmoor national park.
Castle Drogo, Drewsteignton
The first possible location for this project is one ive already talked about and that is castle Drogo which is with in the dartmoor national park, but is a national trust location and the land on which it sits belongs to the national trust so its one of the few locations I could do for this project. Interms to what the castle has to offer as ive already said, quite a lot as along with the interesting castle its self which I plan on getting a nice shot both inside and out maybe for the leaflet location as the grounds are good for walking as well as being a nature reserve where deer and many other animals live, there is also a river that is near by where ive been before which I believe is part of the trusts land and I may see if there is a composition with both the river and castle in to create an interesting possible poster image.
Dartmoor national park
Above is a image of the area that the dartmoor national park covers which is probably 90% of dartmoor if not all of it and as I can't do most of the original locations I wanted to it may be that some of the non national trust locations I want to do I simple travel to locations just outside the park so it wouldn't overlap with the park and cause me to loose marks. But I will make sure that the chosen locations that are non national trust locations keep the idea of "Amazing Places" in mind.
Finch Foundry
Finch Foundry is the second location in the dartmoor national park and is a 19th century forage and the last in England and back in the 19th century it would make on average 400 tools a day for farmers and miners. These days its owned and ran by the national trust and offers tours around the place along with talks that run through out the day that talk about the history of the foundry and the family that created and ran the place, along with why they use the power of water to power the forge. In terms of using this location for the project I think that I have to at least do a reccie and see whether it could have a good composition for a poster or the leaflet, and if it turns out to be a really interesting location I will go back and do an actual shoot for the project.
Inspirations
Photographer: Thomas Heaton
When I first think of what inspires me with this project I first think of Thomas Heaton who is a landscape, travel and outdoor photographer from the UK and ive been following him for a couple of years know via his youtube channel where he posts videos on his adventures from the lake district in the UK to Namibia in Africa where he has photographed both the amazing landscape but also the wildlife. Above are a few of Heatons photographs and as you can see they are very interesting. What interests me the most about Heatons photographs and how he goes about taking them is that in his videos that range from 10 to 25 mins long he will often only take two to three photographs in each location and he will take his time when finding that perfect composition, and it makes me think about what I want to achieve and that some times its all about taking your time with a location to make sure you have taken it all in before taking your first photograph. A slightly different thing I have been thinking about is photographing in bad whether and also this particular brief and the changes it presets photographing landscapes at this time of year and how it is often dictated by the whether, but in the video above it shows Heaton out in scotland in the pouring rain and it makes me think that for this project ive got to keep going even if the whether is bad and Thomas Heaton inspires me to do that.
(credit:https://thomasheaton.co.uk/)
Photographer/Youtuber: Gavin Hardcastle
(Credit: https://www.youtube.com/user/fototripper)
The second photographer who has caught my eye while researching and looking for inspirations is a landscape photographer and youtuber by the name of Gavin Hardcastle who I recently discovered via the my other inspiration Thomas Heaton. The reason why I wanted to include another youtuber is simply because that's mostly where I get my inspiration along with my ideas from of where I may want to shoot for a project and how i would shoot that location. Along with his humorous parts of the videos he creates, he will always makes sure to tell you how he has gone about scouting and creating his photos and through out and at the end of each video he shows his final edit of each photograph he has taken during what ever location he has been to in his videos. In comparison to Thomas Heaton Gavin has a different mind set and a different way of going about photographing a location, often they will do a collaboration and make two separate videos on one location so that allows me to look at both photographers and how they go about photographing a location, and I will often watch both and always notice how they go about photographing from the location they are near a waterfall to what settings and equipment they have used to get the shot.
Mood board
With the images above these are the kind of images that have inspired me for this project and I will attempt to recreate. Obviously when it come's to the light and location I won't be able to recreate everything but I plan on trying my best. One thing I will have to do differently for my own photos is make sure they work and fit in the national trust templates that I have been provided with. Adding to that I will have to make sure I keep the final photos in my own style and not copy the images above.
Landscape Lighting styles
The images that are above are the types of landscape lighting styles I plan on going for this project which as you can see are a mix of direct sunlight and sunset light with the latter being my target for this project as you just can't beat a good golden hour photo shoot. When it comes to the types of photos and locations I want shoot at sunset it depends on the national trust location and whether it would make sense for the photos to be shot at that time or not as some locations like castle Drogo wouldn't necessary make sense for a sunset shoot especially for one of the posters or a leaflet, but by comparison a open shot over the moor would make more sense and for those types of shots thats what I plan shooting at sunset. Interms of shooting during the day weather its mid morning or mid after noon I will want to go for either a overcast day or a sunny day with clouds as they will offer much better light during the day then if it was bright sunny clear sky, as that type of harsh light just doesn't work for landscape photography and just gives the photos a very bright and contrasty look which is very hard to make look good in post. As you can see above some of the photos have been shot on bright days; but have been shot in sheltered areas such as forest which help with blocking out most of the light whilst at the same time letting in lovely dabbled light in through the trees which can create some really interesting photographs. Overall for this project I will have a mix of lighting styles and will make sure to plan for each day depending on the predicted forecast.
Final Theme For Project
So far ive done a lot of research for this project and have looked at many different locations and have come up with ideas in my head for what I want to do but not down on paper, in the past ive done something similar and then ended up not always sticking to my chosen theme or idea while shooting on a location ive found something else more interesting and ended up using the photographs from that sub location if you will, and then shown it in my D.W.B and may have even lost marks. But not for this project I will make sure I stick to my idea and theme as much as I can.
My main idea for this projects is to for the leaflet section to choose one particular location such as castle Drogo and shoot a series of image's of the national trust location with wide open landscapes shots of the place along with close ups of the small and interesting parts, in the leaflet to show one of Dartmoors most interesting locations and maybe even what you can do there. In terms of the other four posters I will find locations outside of dartmoor national park that a charity like the national trust would have in any advertising campaign like a wonderful sandy beach or large forest and I will try to capture the beauty in my own way and show what these amazing locations are like.
Above is one of the poster layouts and as you can see it has one large second for a image along with five small boxes for smaller images and my plan is to simple have a opening shot of a location and then have small detail shots of the same location for the small boxes to show in detail the location as well.
Pre-visualised layout
The poster above is the kind of thing that I'm going for this project for some of the locations these kind of images is what I want to recreate. As you can see the main image ive gone for is quite a busy photo I took a while back but it shows an amazing place which is wistmans wood and as a pre-visualisation I think it works quite well as a poster and shows of the location in quite an interesting way, for the final shoot I will obviously be doing something quite different which is the national trust and most of the locations I will end up photographing most likely won't look like this and I will have to make sure that they work for that particular location and poster.
Equipment list.
1.Nikon D810 pro body x1
2.Nikkor 16-35mm F4 pro lens x1
3.Nikkor 24-120mm F4 lens x1
4.Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8E ED VR pro lens x1
5.Hoya 10 stop 77mm ND filter
6. Manfrotto be-free advanced tripod x1
7. External hardrives for back up x2
Above is a short list of the main and most important things I plain on taking with me for this project and the 10 day period I'm in dartmoor. The camera setup ive gone for is quite a simple one being my main pro body I always shoot with being the Nikon D810 which is the perfect camera for this project simple because of its high megapixel and weather sealing which is perfect for landscape photography. When it comes to the lenses ive chosen three which have a range from 16mm to 200mm which is all the the focal length I need for landscape photography, out of the three the main lens I plan on using is the Nikkor 16-35mm F4 simple because of its wide angle capabilities of the lens. Some of the other smaller and less important things I plan on bringing is things like the Hoya 10 stop ND filter Which I plan using if I end up wanting to do any long exposure photography whilst out on some of the locations I choose. Overall Im bringing a varied mix of lenses and equipment all to get the job done.
External Professionals
When it comes to external professionals for my shoot and the project overall I decided not to use one simply because I didn't see why I needed one as I don't need any models or stylist as for my shoot I plan on having simple being landscape photos with a bit of architecture as well; and for that the only external pro I would need would be a location finder and at the moment all my location's will be National trust locations so hiring a location finder for this project isn't needed and for me not necessary. But for future shoots that are similar to this project but not the same I do plan on using a location finder, or model as well as a stylist and having the experience would be good for future use.
Accommodation
Interms of accommodation for this project for the actual week of shooting will take place of a period of 10 days at My parents second house which fortunately happens to be in Dartmoor and will allow me to do both the reccie and the final shoots allot easier and cheaper then booking a hotel and a lot nicer. One of the biggest parts of this project is the fact I can stay in a house as its the only affordable way of doing this project and I'm very fortunate that I can do it. If I didn't have access to a house in dartmoor like this I would most likely stay in a Airbnb house or apartment instead as it would be the next cheapest thing to staying in a house for free.
Job estimate
When it comes to how much this job would cost if the National Trust was really paying me, the estimate of 5 to 8 days of shooting and then in total 10 days of time in Dartmoor by my self. Im also going to be adding travel from London and then around Dartmoor as well to each location via the fuel costs which will roughly range from £50 to £90 depending on the distance and fuel needed for that particular journey.
Next is the accommodation which for this particular project/job is free as I will be staying in my parents second home for the ten day period, but if I wasn't then It would be Airbnb's for the entire project which I would estimate to be around £40 to £75 a night which over ten days is £450 with it being £45 per night in the same Airbnb.
Following on is the food estimate cost which will be a mix of home cooking and the occasional pub lunch which would cost from £25-£60 for one to two people depending on the type of lunch, when it comes to the home cooking for the week it will cost any wear from £200 to £350 for the ten days for three people for breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with smaller snacks and drinks.
Now there is one of the most important things to work out and that's the photographers cost for the job which depending on the photographs experience and reputation as a photographer who has just started out like my self it could cost any where from £1000 to £3000 for a job of this size, as for a someone who has being a pro for 10 plus years he could charge any wear from £4000 to £9000 for this job. To conclude this job is going to be an interesting one and for a actual paid job I would be a very interesting experience and good portfolio material for the future.
Reccie Plan
Before I start shooting this project I will need to do a couple of reccie's to these locations on dartmoor as well as going to the non national trust locations to see if they would be viable for the actual shooting week. Originally I was planning on going down for the weekend of 15th of February till the 17th but because of storm Denis I am planning on moving it to the weekend of the 21st to the 23rd of Feb and I hope the weather will be better.
Weekend of 21st-23rd: My plan for this coming weekend is to go two national trust location's in the Dartmoor National reserve, these two locations are Finch Foundry and castle Drogo. In-terms of opening times and dates finch foundry is open is from the 15th till the 23rd of February which is perfect and it will allow me to do a reccie on the weekend of the 21st, interms of castle Drogo its open from now till the summer which includes the cafe along with the garden and a few other things, the only thing that is closed is the castle itself till the 16th of march when its open from 11:00am till 5:00pm and I should be allowed to shoot it for my final shoots.
Journey times: The journey times for these two locations are very close together, Finch Foundry is 39mins away by car and quite close so if I need to make one then more visit to the forge I can. Castle Drogo is again very close to the house and as you can see below 36 mins away which makes it very assessable by car.
Reccie Results
After a very wet trip to Dartmoor I where ive explored some of the most interesting places they have to offer that all happen to be National trust locations Ive gotten a good idea of what I want to photograph for the leaflet and at least two of the locations. How ever there are still other sites I want to visit such as lynford Gorge which was not open this weekend (22nd-24th) due to bad whether but should be open in march when I will be in Dartmoor for the final shoot. Another location I want to visit is East Soar beach which I attempted to visit 24th but once again due to the high winds and pouring rain I had to give up, but from what Ive researched of the place it will be a good location to shoot for one of the A2 posters. Overall this Reccie gave me allot of information and insight to these locations and what I will do for the final shoot.
Castle Drogo
Above are a few images from my trip to castle Drogo last weekend and as you can see at the moment the castle is still under renovations but will be finished by the 12th of March which will mean I will be able to shoot it when I am it comes to march 22nd. I also learned the access you can get around the castle so I will now know that when it comes to the final shoot I can get some interesting angles. In-terms of what I have planned for the final shoot of this location is to do it as one of the poster locations where I can get a good open shot of the castle and then five smaller detail shots of the interior of the castle. As a back up plan I also plan on over shooting the location so that if my leaflet location doesn't work out then I can use castle Drogo as my back up.
Finch Foundry
For my visit to Finch foundry I learnt allot of how the place works and what I can shoot for the final shoot in mid march. The main thing that I have learnt from my visit to the foundry is that interms of the action shots that I envisioned originally for this locations of people using the forge I found out that the most they to is a 20 min presentation/demonstration of the forge where there is a man will talk about what the forge use to do and then what it can do now which isn't much and the most he does is heat up a old peace of metal and no real action happens. So before the final shoot I will need to rethink what I can do and shoot and whether I shoot the man who does the demonstration and use that as the one of the main shots in the leaflet and then have smaller detail shots for the rest of the leaflet and show what the location has to offer.
Soar Mill Cove
The third location that I visited was Soar beach which is about an hours drive from the house and will be one of my poster locations for the project. Unfortunately when I visited this location it didn't look like the image above as it was raining heavily along with high winds and hail so I wasn't able to get to the beach and had to turn back. But for the shooting week I will still go there and shoot it for one of the posters.
Lydford Gorge
Lydford Gorge is my fourth location for the poster and once again because of the bad weather I was not able to go, along with the fact the Trust closed it because of high winds. But once again it still plan to use it as my fourth location. One big thing with this location is it can be quite popular and for my shoot I plan on getting there early for the shoot so I have choice of where to shoot and for how long as my biggest worry is people and the large amount that will be there later on that day. Another thing I have to take into account is this time of year the Gorge doesn't look like what you see above and I will have to make sure I remember that for the final shoot and try to create an interesting composition with what ever the conditions are like. One small other concern I have about this location is finding a composition as from what ive researched its not the biggest place and the interesting parts may not be as big as Im thinking which may force me to go for the easiest composition and thats not what I want to do.
The fifth Location
For the fifth location I have yet to decide on where to go as there aren't a large amount to choose from with in driving distance of Widecombe, on top of that some of the locations aren't very interesting to photograph this time of year because of the weather and general greyness and lack of colour.
1. Location one is Compton Castle which is the first proper castle ive looked at but is closed in till April and even then only open for two days so wont be an option.
2.The second location ive looked at is Bradly which is medieval manor house but once again is closed due to the time of year.
3. Third location is Buckland abby which was open in 1801 and luckily is open all year round only being closed on Christmas and for the moment will be a back up location.
4. A fourth possible fifth location is Cotehele which is an old atmospheric Tudor house with Medieval roots that fortunately is also open all year round and is another interesting back up location
Final 5th Location-?
In terms of a final fifth location the most interesting and assessable location in the area is Buckland abby which is a Abby that was built in 1278 making it over 700 yeas old and one of the oldest locations that ive chosen and has along with the Abby itself has a estate you can walk as well as a garden and shop, and even though most of these things are much more enjoyable in summer, my plan like with all the other locations I have chosen I will photograph it to convey the message that these locations are still interesting places to visit in the winter months of the year.
Final Plan
For the this up coming 10 day period I have allot to do and photograph and my plan for it is to during the 10 day period to visit each of the five locations at least once to create some interesting images for the project, I may have to visit some of the locations more then once simply because of the weather as some days it may be to wet and some to dark due to heavy clouds, if there happens to be bad weather the whole time I am down there then I will have to go out and shoot anyway and get the shots need.
Development on the final theme: Since I last talked about the theme and idea behind the project my thoughts have changed slightly since visiting these places for my reccie and one of the big things that ive been thinking about is the weather and how will it effect my shooting period and photographs. The theme and idea from this point onward will still keep the original idea of showing what Dartmoor has to offer but now it will be what Dartmoor has to offer in winter and how its still and interesting place to visit even at this time of year.
Timing on each location: When it comes to the timing for each location I will want it to be different for a couple of different reasons mainly being light and how it will effect the shots I want and can take i.e Soar mill cove is an hours drive and for the particular open landscape area Im gonna want either evening light or sunrise light to create some interesting photos for the fourth poster. By comparison Finch Foundry which is mainly and indoor location I will want quite allot of light so that I won't need the flash gun so that shoot will be taken early morning to midday for the brightest light. For each location I will also want to get there with plenty of time to spare so that I can find the composition that work with the best light as well as making sure i have time to get the five smaller detail shots for the the posters. Over all timing will play quite allot on whether I get the shots and create the perfect poster and leaflet.
Backup Plan
Incase while I'm shooting this project one or two of the national trust if not all of them location closes due to the covid-19, I will need some other locations to shoot instead that still convey my message which will be reasonable easy due to there being lots of interesting locations near the house I'm staying in that don't involve contact with lots of people. The only three places that will really be effected by the national trust shutting is Castle Drogo, Buckland Abby and Finch foundry which all involve contact with people and would be the most difficult to replace if they close with equally interesting locations.
The only big issue with some of these other place's such as Wistmans woods is that they are in the Dartmoor National Park and count as part of the it so I will need to make sure that Im careful and only use places like Wistmans wood if I really have to. If the national trust does not close all their sites it may give me the advantage of a quite shoot were I won't have to deal with avoiding people to get the shots I need.
Final Invoice
Above is the final invoice for this job and as you can see ive used one of my real invoices from an old job that I did last year and simply changed it and updated it for this one by changing some of the key parts. For this invoice I have put in five sessions of shooting which is what I did on five different locations and added the total all together and as you can see it came up to £7,500 which is not a 100% accurate but as close as I could figure out. The other two costs are food and travel which is for a period of 10 days and once again a estimate that ive made to the best of my abilities, the food cost that has a total of £300 over a period of 10 days includes breakfast, lunch and dinner during the 10 day period. When it comes to the travel I added up the fuel costs going from London and back as well as the drives to all the locations. As you may have noticed there are a few things missing from this invoice in the costs box and they are accommodation costs and renting costs, the reason why I didn't include the accommodation costs is that I had a place to stay already that wasn't going to costs me anything to stay at during the 10 day period i was down there. Interms of the rental costs I didn't have any simple because I didn't need to rent anything from any store for this project as I already owned all the equipement I needed and had not reason to add extra costs to the job.
First Back Up Location
Wistmans woods
The first back up location is Wistmans Woods which is located on Dartmoors national park and about 45 min journey from the house, the wood itself is an ancient wood that once coverd much of Dartmoor around 7000 BC and to this day still stands. What I find interesting about this forest is how all the tree's are very short and coverd in moss as you can see in the photos above that I took a while ago. The reason why I made this forest a backup location is because of the lack of contact with other people while visiting, theres no visitors centre and only a short walk so it will be a good place if all the National Trust locations shut.
Venford Reservoir
The second back up location is Venford reservoir which ive also visited previously and has allot to offer in terms of photograph, as you can see above apart from the reservoir itself there are water falls that you can accuses via walks through out the area. The reason why I didn't use this place previously is because it is once again part of another charity and like with wistmans woods I didn't want this turning into a shoot for another charity so that why this location is a back up and only if I need it will I use it.
First Shoot Results
The first location that I shot was Buckland Abby which is a 45 minute journey from the house, and has many different angles and places to explore and allowed me to get some interesting shots as seen above.
What went well: The main things that went well for this shoot was the lighting and colours, The forecast for that day was cloud for most of the day but fortunately the weather was better then expected and almost perfect as it was light cloud with sunshine though out but not to harsh and helped light the photos in just the right way. Another thing that went well was the colours and how there was a surprising amount of it, flowers everywhere and it just helped add that bit of interest and colour to the photographs.
What went badly: The only thing that really went badly was not being able to access the inside of the abby to get interior shots which would have helped, but due to the current circumstances with Covid-19 the buildings were all shut making all the shots I took external. Originally this location was just going to be a poster, but after experimenting with some of the edited photos as you can see below ive decided to turn this location into the leaflet as explained below
Second Location Results
My second location was originally Castle Drogo but unfortunately I wasn't able to use it as my second location very well simply because it still being refurbished as there appears to have been a delay because of Covid-19, and all the fencing was still up around the castle apart from at the very back but due to the angle and how close I had to be to it as you can see above the images simply did not work. What I decided to do was photograph the grounds of the castle and got a few shots that will work in the first poster. I also walked down to the valley below which is surrounded by woods with a river running through it as you can see above, these images along with the photos from the grounds of the castle will make up the first poster.
What went well: The first thing that went well with this shoot would have to be that I was able to create a interesting series of images of the grounds surrounding the castle and one or two reasonable photos of the castle from a distance. The second thing that went well was the weather was good the entire day and allowed some interesting light through the forest while I was there which helped create some interesting images.
What went badly: The main thing that went badly with this location ive already coved and that is the castle not being fully open to photograph, originally I would of liked to get a nice open shot of the whole castle for the main image of the poster with the five smaller images being interior shots of the castle but that was not the case unfortunately. The second thing that didn't go so well was the weather which was good but not perfect due to the fact there was not a single cloud in the sky which meant the entire shoot I had harsh light which obviously isn't good for the type of photography I'm doing for this project and meant that any photos that involved the sky had allot of negative space which really took away what kept the photos together.
Third Location
For the third location I went with the original place East soar cove thats was about an hours drive away from my house.
What went well: The main thing that went well with this location would have to be the weather even with no clouds I had sunshine the entire time which helped the look I was going for this location. Another thing that went well and the most important is that I got all the shots I needed with extra so I have plenty to choose from when editing.
What went badly: The first bad thing that happened was that the national trust closed all there locations along with the carparks which meant that I could not go down the cove the normal and short route, instead I had to walk an hour and half along the cost path to get to the cove, although it allowed me to get some extra shots which was the upside. Another bad thing was the fact there was once again no clouds which meant in some of my shots as you can see above have allot of negative space in the top part of the image which means either I leave it alone or photoshop some clouds in.
Fourth Location
Above are the images from the fourth location which is Grimspound which is an ancient bronze age settlement... and not on my original list of locations for this project but due to the lockdown that happened while I was shooting this project that effected the national trust and made it completely shut all of there locations and the ones I researched and looked at so I found out about Grimspound which is a area of 24 ancient stone huts that have been standing there for 4000 years and was very close to wear I was staying and in fact a 45 min walk which allowed me to use my daily exercise to walk there for sunset and capture not only the large main stone circle but also Hookney Tor above it allowing me to get a interesting view of the local area and some nice photos.
What went well: The main thing that went well with this fourth location would have to be the light and timing as I was able to get there before golden hour and sunset so that I would look around and see what possible compositions were available and then when it came to golden hour when the light became nice and soft and golden it allowed me to get some really nice shots of both Grimspound and the surrounding area.
What went badly: The only thing that really went badly with this location would have to be a lack of clouds which as you can see above with the images they have allot of negative space in the top part of the images which is never good when it comes to landscape photography. Over all this new back up location worked well and allowed me to shoot a fourth location and along with the nice light im now able to put together a fourth poster.
Fifth And Final Location
As you can see above the photos that are there are the same as from the reccie trip and are from Finch foundry, the reason why I am using the exact same photos from the reccie trip is because of the closures of all the national trust locations during the end part of the 10 day period when I was in dartmoor. For obvious reason I couldn't go back and shoot this location again so this is why I'am using the same photographs again. Also the reason why this location is no longer the leaflet is because the first location Buckland abby produced some really nice photos and plenty of them that just worked better in the leaflet layout then these photos of finch foundry.
What went well: The main thing that went well with the original shoot was getting all the shots I needed, of course at the time of shooting this location as the reccie trip the photos I was taking were never meant for the final poster and were very simple shots but now that after some reflection and no real choice I have enough good photos for the final poster and will have to really think where to place them in the layout.
What went badly with this location: The main thing that went badly with this location was mostly getting the action shots and how after watching the little example one of the volunteers and only seeing him hit a small piece of metal with no real interesting photos coming out of it which meant the main few shots I wanted could not really come about. One other small thing that did go well was not bringing my flash gun with me which meant that I had to bump up the Iso of my camera to get a decent shutter speed which obviously meant that when you zoom into the photos they get a bit noise and having a flash gun would of allowed me to use a faster shutter speed with out raising the ISO. Over all considering all thats happened with this project I was able to use the old photos from the reccie trip in the final location poster and finish of the project nicely.
Final Indesign layouts for posters/leaflet.
Buckland Abby (leaflet location)
Above are a series of screen shots of the final leaflet edit and as you can see ive gone for a shot of the main abby for the the opening shot and front cover of the leaflet, to create this image I decided to go for a wide angle focal length of 16mm so that I could get everything in I wanted, then I as the clouds that day were particularly interesting I decided to go for a long exposure of 15 seconds to get the slight effect of movement in the image. when it came to the rest of the images I went for a mix of detail shots of parts of the area along with wider angle shots of paths and stairways as you can see above and overall I think this is my favourite out of the all the 6 things that I had to create for this project, I just think that the colours and the angles along with the compositions created a really interesting leaflet that just works.
Grimspound Final Edit (Portrait Poster 1)
(Excuse image quality drop)
Above is the final edit for the first poster and as you can see is of the fifth location Grimspound one of the non national trust locations. For the main image I went for one of the high up shots I took from the top of the tor looking over the bronze age stone circle, Out of the ten photos I took on this shoot this one worked the best and made the most sense to have it as the main image for the poster and even though its not the best photo I took while out on this shoot it works the best. When it came to the five smaller images there was no real order to them and I simple choose photos that showed off the location and would attract people to the location whilst keeping with main image style.
East Soar Beach final poster edit (Portrait Poster 2)
(Excuse image quality drop)
For the second portrait style poster I had quite a few different images to choose from and I tried putting the images into the landscape style to see if any of the other images would work in that format but after allot of moving images around the poster above is the my final edit and I think shows the location in the best light. When it comes to the main image what I did to create was originally whilst out on location I took two photos of with out moving my camera the first was a long exposure of 30 seconds with having the camera focussed on the rock then when it came to the second image the it was allot simpler and just involved focusing on the rocks and cliff in the background, then after editing the images separately in Lightroom first then moving both the images over to photoshop and using the brush took blending the two images together to create what you see above. Over all this location turned out very well considering the weather and I'm very happy with the final out come.
Castle Drogo and surrounding grounds.(Landscape poster 1)
For the first landscape poster above is what I chosen for the final edit and would of been what I got printed if I had been able to, as you can see the main image is quite a interesting one and quite different from the others Ive chosen and in my opinion the best photo for the job as it shows layers in the way that you start off with the bottom of the image where there are colourful flowers then your eyes move up to the trees, and then the bush and the castle its self. When it comes to why I didn't choose any of the other photos you see in the little boxes that show a much clearer image of the castle the reason is that they dont work the same especially the close up photo of the back of the castle its just works as a smaller image then larger one. The reason why I ended up with this choice of images isn't because I think they are perfect photos with perfect light and compositions its because I didn't have the choice to go back and reshoot this location because of the whole covid-19 situation and how we aren't allowed to leave our house for any unnecessarily travel, and unfortunately for some of the other locations it was the same issue where I couldn't reshoot certain shots and just simply had to stick with what I had. Overall this location and poster came out much better then I originally thought when finding out the restrictions I had and works overall.
Finch Foundry (landscape poster 2)
Above is the fourth and final poster for this project and as you can see the main image that I chose is not what I originally planned to use or invasion for this location but after allot of thinking and moving image around the image above is what I chose because out of all the images I took on the shoot this image worked the best and made to most sense when in keeping with the brief that was set. When it comes to the other smaller images I unfortunately did not have much choice as my selection of good usable images from the reccie shoot was small and some simply did not work in the final layout so had to be discarded but as you can see the images I chose work and show some of the smaller details of the foundry which is what I originally wanted for this location. Overall this final poster came out allot better then I originally planned and considering all the issues I had with not being able to shoot it for the main shooting week and still having good enough images from the reccie it came out being one of my favourite posters.
Overall Final Conclusion
What went well: Over all this project has had its ups and downs but in my opinion has been a success with the main things that went well being the first of which was the weather which for the entire week was nearly perfect with sunny skies everyday, the only bad thing being that I didn't see a single cloud for the most of the project. Moving along from that I was able nearly get all the shots I wanted for each of the four locations that I visited during that ten day period even if I had to change one or two of them. Adding to that the locations that I wasn't able to reccie and get an idea of worked out to well and gave me some really interesting compositions for each of the locations.
What went badly: What went badly: Altogether this project has had its bad and differecult moments from difficult shooting conditions to not being able to shoot at all. One of the biggest problems that I faced while shooting this project would have to be not being able to get full access to some of the National trust locations from the start of the project that happened all due to Covid-19 and how it forced the national trust to close all inside access to buildings across all of there locations the main two being for me were Castle Drogo and Buckland Abby as well as Finch Foundry both of which gardens and ground surrounding were open but not the interior which really restricted my photograph making opportunities. Adding to that castle Drogo had all of its scaffolding and fencing still up around the entire castle which meant you could not get a clean shot of it that involved the entire building. When it came to the difficult shooting conditions I had lovely sun the entire week but as previously mentioned this meant no clouds which cause's to much harsh light which is never a good thing in landscape photography and creates to much contrast in images and generally gives them in my opinion a snapshot kind of look which was definitely not what I was aiming for this project. One other thing that went badly was not being able to go back to Finch Foundry which was closed completely due to Covid-19 and as previously mentioned meant I had to use the photographs from the reccie trip instead for the third poster.
What I would do differently next time: When it come to what I would do next time I would do things how I planed for, which would be to take my time and shoot not only the outside of some of the locations I visited but the inside on-top of that I would wait longer for better weather where I had cloud to fill negative space and create a nice even light in my photographs. On top of that I would shoot all of my original locations as planned instead of having to find new locations that were never even thought of and in general create a better project. In conclusion this project went better then expected and even with all the difficulties and set backs I was able to create some interesting and note worthy images for the national trust.
