National Trust and Gardens...

I'm working towards entering the International Garden Photography competition. Nothing unusual there. So one of the first question you have to ask yourself is where should I go to photograph a garden (it is more complicated than that).. One of the obvious suggestion that has been made to me is 'well there's always the National Trust...' Are yes the good old National trust. The reliable old relative that you always know about but don't really start to appreciate until you are getting on a bit yourself.

However, it turns out that the old codger has a dark side. It has always been interested in raising money - I, like every other member, get enough fund raising bumph from them every year - goodness only know what the carbon footprint of all this lot is but that is another story. Now they are taking serious action to control their image rights. If you want to enter any photograph taken on a National Trust premises then you must get permission from the Trust before you enter it into the competition. (Click Here to see the full restrictions)

I just love the way that the lawyers who wrote these restrictions have the bare faced check to start the restrictions by saying the Trust '...is pleased to be able to offer photographers the opportunity to take photographs at its properties ...' However, to take up this opportunity you must get written permission from the Trust before you actually take any photographs. They very handily provide the form to fill out so that you can get it signed before you enter any property. Interestingly they don'y ask for such a form to be completed by entrants to their own photo competition (Click here for the rules)

We will set aside the way the restrictions totally contradict the opening sentence of their rules and consider the photograph I took of the Red Squirrel I took at Formby National Trust site last year. The question is this. Does the National Trust claim the image rights of the Squirrel? This is a wild animal that lives on a National Trust Site. Do I need to get a release form signed before I use this photograph - if so from whom? I suppose the Trust could argue that the pine tree in the photograph is their property and so they do have some rights over that - but a wild animal who lives in their woods?

Are we getting things slightly out of proportion here? Probably. But that is the crazy form filling world in which we live. A hoo. By the way the photograph below was not taken on a National Trust property but rather a public footpath in Narborough.