Heritage Photo Walks & Talks

Heritage Photo Walks & Talks

Heritage Photo Walks & Talks is a workshop-based project developed by Paul French, a qualified photography mentor, for Special Interest groups as such Local History societies. The project aim is to focus on mentoring group members by guiding them in the best way to capture, record and share high quality digital images, whether photographic, video or audio memories using just their basic mobile phones or digital cameras.

Local History groups thrive because the members enjoy learning about the development and cultural heritage of their house, village, town or region. An important benefit of membership is the opportunity to work, individually or with neighbours, in researching the archaeology, history or cultural heritage of the local area and recording that knowledge in the local archive for future generations to appreciate.

Using the images and information gathered you might prepare a scripted and illustrated talk, telling the story that could be shared within your group or shared to rekindle memories of other local residents who are less mobile!

In these fast moving and ever-changing times, the need for an accurate visual and digital archive is of immense value especially while decay and demolition of the country’s historically significant heritage and buildings is widespread.

However, it should be said that a Heritage Photo Walks workshop is not a curated “Cultural Heritage Trail” where a group of enthusiasts are accompanied by a local tour leader recounting stories and anecdotes about the social and cultural history of the area or properties. Heritage Photo Walk workshops, usually delivered in three parts, are led by a professional, qualified, photography mentor who will explain and demonstrate the optimal settings needed to get the best from a basic mobile phone or a high-end Digital Camera. Understanding how best to compose an image with a few simple techniques will help capture good quality purposeful visual or audio recordings – every time the camera is used.

Unlike curated birdwatching or nature walks the photography of buildings, streets and historic monuments good weather is not always conditional as photographers “should be” used to picking the moment when the light is right to get the shot they want. A clear blue sky with bright sunshine is probably worse than a cloudy, damp day in the rain! Throughout any day the colour quality of light constantly changes from the golden pink of the dawn, through the harsh blue/white light of noon to the rich yellow glow of the evening. A photographer needs time to plan the camera angle, exposure, then compose the shot, and finally take a photograph, not to be hurried to move on by the group leader to complete the prepared circuit and get back for the set time! Prior to the workshop the selected Trail for each walk will be shared, together with any available “Then” images, to the registered group members on a Google My Map, which is a digital online map.

Unless it is specified a typical workshop will run for 2-3 hours in the morning or in the event of a full day being planned with a further 2-3 hours in the afternoon. A short time after the photo walk, allowing reasonable time to edit the pictures, there is an option for the group to meet, either in person or online using Zoom, to share and discuss a small selection of pictures taken during the walk, this will be arranged for a mutually convenient date/time when the group meet in person, with their cameras, at the start of the photo walk.

To optimise the value of the “Heritage Photo Walks” workshop once images have been selected and collated, we will work with the Local Community Groups and History / Heritage Societies to create and script an illustrated presentation telling the story of those images and recordings describing how the passage of time has impacted the cultural heritage and development of the local area/region. The local society will then retain a copy of the presentation for their local heritage archive.

When the story is scripted we will arrange to visit local Residential Nursing/Care Homes, Hospice or Social & Charity Groups to deliver a 45 minute illustrated talk to the residents/group members.

For details of example "Then" images for the Workshops go to - https://www.flickr.com/photos/hpwt/albums