England trip

[Kirk Gittings]

I am traveling to England later this year so my wife can visit her family. We will be around Leistershire in the Midlands. What are the best months and good locations to photograph. I am an architectural photographer by trade and am looking to expand my b&w fine art portfolio. I don't need good "vacation" weather. I am more interested in good "image" weather stormy etc. I may also make a side trip to Glasgow to check out the fascilities at the Glasgow School of Art where I may be teaching summer of 2005.

[David E. Rose]

Kirk, The Glasgow School of Art is well worth a trip. All of the Macintosh buildings in and around Glasgow are great. It is an amazing testament to Macintosh's vision that most of these buildings have been used for the same purpose for 100 years. The Glasgow School of Art and the Willow Tea Room are particularly good examples of this. Beyond the Macintosh stuff, Glasgow is a wonderful urban environment to photograph. Of course, once you get as far as Glasgow, you should go a bit further north to the Highlands! Loch Lomond isn't to far north of Glasgow. I think that the Scottish Highlands are about as senic as the UK gets.

As far as time of year, I have been to Scotland in the winter, early spring and late summer. I found all of these seasons to be fine- the main thing is to avoid the summer tourist season!

[Bob._3483]

As far as visiting times go, try to avoid the 2nd week in July to the first week in September as that is when schools are on their summer holiday and as such is the peak season for local tourism.

On the architecture front, there are of course any number of old churches and cathedrals but note that you will mostly need prior permission and, especially in cathedrals, a donation, to use a tripod inside. There are likely to be other restrictions concerning times allowed so do check first. Another option is the multitude of Neolithic and Bronze Age sites. No others are as impressive as Stonehenge, which is some 150 miles south of Leicestershire, but they can make for haunting images in the right weather & light: see http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/home/ for locations.

Birmingham, just down the road, shows just how bad 1960's and 70's urban planning could get. Thankfully, the new development of the Bullring shopping area looks like being a great improvement. Still under construction, the finished areas would make good architectural subjects: especially around the new Selfridges building which is quite radical in shape and design (well, for England it is!).

Autumn is always a good time for colour landscape so you might consider Cumbria (alias: 'The Lake District'). Whenever I am feeling hemmed-in here in the city, I browse to: http://www.personal.u-net.com/~keswick/ldp.htm for a dose of fresh air; that guy is out and about most days with his digicam: check out the "Recent Pictures" link. The tail end of September and well into October seems best for Cumbrian colour, as it will be for most of the country: plus you get an increased likelihood of early morning mists on the lakes. I usually rent a cottage from: http://www.cumbrian-cottages.co.uk - much cheaper than an hotel and provides much more freedom.

For some ideas of locations in general see: http://www.uklandscape.net and browse to either the map or search by county (although a quick look shows Leicestershire with only 3 picture to its name).

Cheers,

P.S. luckily, your wife can tell you how to pronounce "Leicestershire" correctly - I'm sure much simple amusement is afforded the locals, listening to most non-British visitors try... ;-)

[mark blackman]

Kirk, Leicestershire places you pratically in the centre of England, and within easy distance of enough architecture to keep you busy. A trip to Glasgow, with an othernight stay, is also doable (as I'm sure you know, Glasgow is in Scotland, not England!).

As others have said - summer is not the best time for photography, unless you get up early to catch the favourable light. One thing to bear in mind, the British landscape is more a collection of reatively low, rounded hills. There are no mountains as most people understand them, no hugh rivers, massive lakes, vast swathes of virgin woodland. On the other hand, there is quite a mixture of landscapes, architecture and ancient structures all crowded together in a compact space.

If you want to seek out some interesting industrial architecure from the 19 century, you can't beat following the tow-paths alongside many of the canals that criss-cross the midlands, especially in and around Birmingham & Wolverhampton.

[Colin Carron]

Mark, Glasgow is a fine city which mushroomed in the 19th C so is full of amazing architecture from that period. Sadly the industrial sites such as the shipyards and ironworks are all gone now. I suggest you might look for buildings by Alexander 'Greek' Thompson as well as the better known CRM. His Caledonia Road Free Church is a scandalously neglected ruin now but there are several other examples of his work. North of Glasgow is the wonderful Loch Lomond/Ben Lomond and Trossachs area which provides plenty of photo opportunities. For more urban drama Edinburgh is a mixture of medieval, classical (Adam), and more modern buildings and with its hilly location, a good place for photography. There are any number of great places further north esp in the Western Isles.

As mentioned above Leicestershire is nicely central in England so really it is up to you. I would suggest you find a subject that interests you about the place, research it, then come prepared to shoot. My suggestion would be the Pennines and North York Moors which are glorious countryside and include a number of dramatic ruined Cistercian abbeys such as Rievaulx and Fountains.

good luck with your trip!

[Pete Watkins]

Mark, I suggest that you look at the English Heritage website this is a government department that looks after most of our best heritage sites. I think that temporary membership is available to tourists from overseas. The number of sites available would justify paying the annual membership fee. The National Trust are out there but they have many restrictions on photography and I would not give them my money as they allow all kinds of hunting with dogs on their land (sorry to get political but this is a massive debate in England). Local authority websites such as leicestershire.gov, warwickshire.gov and any county you fancy.gov will give you so much tourist information that you will be researching photographic possibilities until the day that you set out. The Welsh border counties are a lot closer than the North of England and many intresting castle ruins are in this area. Look up preserved railways if you are into this sort of thing. The Welshpool & Llanfair railway is only 100 miles or so from Leicester and Derbyshire offers many sites of interest to photographers, theNational Tramway Museum at Crich being one of my favourites. Neothilic stone circles are also not a million miles away if you want really ancient stuff, the Rollright Stones and Arbour Low are fairly near and if you go the right way The Rollrights are on the way to Oxford. Oxford is a real pig for parking (the wardens are all gestapo trained) but it is a beautiful city. The park and ride is there if you can put up with a trip of a couple of miles in smelly badly driven busses (yes of course it's the automatic gearboxes). I hope that this helps. Pete

[Bob._3483]

The National Trust only ban photography *inside* the houses they own: this is partly a security issue (burglars have been known to 'case the joint' with cameras, noting alarm system placement etc) and partly to avoid annoying other visitors. That is the only restriction on photography that I know of. External photography of the buildings and grounds is allowed.

Cheers,

[John Hennessy]

Kirk,

I'm a little fuzzy on distances such as from Lester (that's as close I'd try to match actual pronunciation) to Wells. Distances don't matter much anyway --- it's time that counts. In New Mexico distance and time have a relationship; in that part of England on the narrow roads its every sheep, lorry, and minicooper in a race for the next spot wide enough to pass.

Wells Cathedral is of course well photographed but as always fresh eyes see new things. Unlike the Continent it is very tripod friendly. You will need to pay an extremely modest fee to use a tripod in the interior but I told the verger that he should charge much more because it must cost a fortune to maintain those ancient places and photographers would pay it no matter what --- it's that great. The Close is good too. It is up to you whether to re-look at Frederick H Evans before locating the stairs to the Chapter House. But prepare to be disappointed in one thing: the stairs themselves are individually replaced occasionally. Evans' CA 1890 image shows treads almost completely smoothed down to the next in places but now most are much more recently replaced.

It (and other English cathedrals) also contrast with the continental counterparts in the that they were and still are very damaged. The Reformation and the Puritans were not kind to these places. That becomes a large part of what makes them such worthy subjects.

If you spend less than two-three days you will want to go back.

John

[David Bennett]

John,

I live in Nottingham (20miles North of Leicester). You have a great opportunity to photograph lots of historic sites...Leicester Cathedral though small is magnificnet in it's diminutive beauty!. Then go visit Nottingham for the Church of St Mary the Virgin High Pavement, and marvel at it's saxon roots. The area surrounding the church is fascinating too (known as "The Lace Market") with excellent examples of good victorian (19th century) and Georgian architecture. Nottingham Castle is quite frankly disappointing! unless you like modern (1850's) style buildings, BUT the view from the castle is stunning. Now then for landscape stuff you are 1 hour away from the UK's most famous Derbyshire countryside. Give the derbyshire tourist office a call and they send you - free - guides to all major sites of interest. The area is known as the "peak district" and is stunnning. If you can... go visit the UK's most interesting Church in Lowick Northamptonshire (less then 1 hour away). see the unique octagonal bell tower and then go have superb meal in a real pub - The Snooty Fox. I'll only promise one thing...you will not be disappointed!!

Have a great trip

David

[Charlie Skelton]

Re: No real mountains as people understand them.

We do have real mountains, they are just not very high. The Cuillins in Skye have impressed many a seasoned alpinist, and the Mountains of Snowdonia possess great ruggedness with knife edge ridges. The lake district to be fair has rather more of the ' big rounded hill' look, as does much of Scotland accessible by car ( a lot of the more impressive views are on the Northern faces where glaciation has cut huge corries, many of these have a multi hour walk in and you want to be there in the early morning or late evening, both popular times for the midges). A further complication of these areas is the if Leicestershire seems peculiarly spelt, the Gaelic ( pronounced Gallic) is a different world eg. Coire an t-Sneachda ( in the Cairngorms), or Bidean Druim nan Ramh ( Bijian drim nan raav) in Skye.

Seriously though, if your in Leicestershire, there will be endless possibilities with the quiet quintessential rural landscape ( we possess in common with China, the feeling that every part of England has felt the hand of man). Churches are good fodder too, if you go midweek when no one is about, you are unlikely to be too troubled by needing permission, at least for the exteriors. Stonehenge is amenable to photographers providing you have no commercial intentions, the main problems is that it always inundated with visitors and you are confined to a perimeter path, hence it is very difficult to get good shots without people in it, there is another option however; if you contact them before hand they let a small group in when there are no other visitors and you can get right up to the stones; they don't advertise this, it's a sort of open secret.

Another, perhaps less obvious option for architecture is the City of London ( the banking area), on a sunday morning this is completely deserted, and you might even be able to set up in the middle of the street.

One to avoid near Leicester is the Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood fame, there's not much forest at all, it's all a bit disappointing!

For travel times, 40 MPH is probably a good pessimistic average in the south of England when you are off motorways / serious main roads, having said that, everything is very densely packed here, so whereas in the southern states you could drive for an hour and see nothing beyond road and desert, here you would pass a dozen villages each with one good church, probably some lovely old houses too, and generally a decent pub.

The weather here is very changeable and can be good or bad any time of the year, if you are here for a few weeks you will get clear days, wild days and days when it does all sorts!

I hope you enjoy it here, it's a great place.

Charlie.