Portraits at Amberley Heritage Museum Events in West Sussex

I’ve already talked about Amberley Heritage Museum in the personal section of my website. The place is a gem and if you find yourself in this part of West Sussex I’d encourage you to visit. The museum is considerable, nestled into the South Downs and covering many acres. Its purpose is to preserve and educate with respect to our industrial history. The museum hosts a number of themed events each year and these are great fun. Fascinating exhibits are one thing, but what about all the people who work so hard to support the museum? This post is a tribute to the many dedicated men and women who help to make the museum, and it’s events, so special.

I love all kinds of re-enactments, be they mediaeval or relatively modern. Authenticity is everything and the historical groups I’ve encountered do that very well indeed. Many of the Amberley events surround technology, particularly vehicles. Depending on the theme there might be days for steam locomotives, Land Rovers, military vehicles, vintage motorcycles, vintage cars and in fact anything else which represents a bygone era.

It’s unsurprising that virtually every visitor to these events will have a camera with them. It would be scandalous not to. In fact I always have a camera on me, pretty much wherever I go. I’ll keep a compact camera in my handbag and that’s how the majority of my recreational photographs have been captured. For that reason I favour mirrorless photography equipment for both my professional and personal life. These Amberley Museum event photographs may look controlled, but they’re not. I’m just walking around taking the snaps like any other tourist. But because I’m a professional portrait photographer I do have the advantage of knowing where to place myself to get a good angle, decent light, and an appropriate background. That’s what environmental portraiture is all about, and I do a great deal of it when it comes to family photography and even modern business photography.

It’s lovely when visitors to events show their pictures on social media or on a personal web page. It’s a great way to highlight important places - places which deserve a bit of promotion. Incidentally, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking lots of pictures at events like this and publishing them as I’ve just described. Participants fully expect to be photographed and in the age we live in they understand those photographs will likely appear on social media. The same applies to members of the public who attend events and gatherings – we’ll end up in someone’s photos. If we don’t like it, we really need to stay at home.

Lastly, you own the copyright to every picture you take (the subject of the photograph has no claim on your output). Permission of subjects isn’t required for any usage which would be described as personal, artistic, or newsworthy. Incidentally GDRP doesn’t affect the use of photography in this way, particularly since these photographs don’t contain the kind of data which would fall under those provisions.