Photography Days

May be of interest to some of you.

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Vic.

Hope this idea of charging photographers £80 day doesn't catch on in other places

Best way to stop it it is DON'T GO!!

[quote:Best way to stop it it is DON'T GO!! [/quote]I went about 4 years ago, when it was around £50, you get access into the Fox, Otter & Wild cat enclosures, with limited togs around, something like 10, it was a good day, aalthough £80 now looks a bit steep imo.

To be fair, they seem to be saying they charge on days when they're closed to the general public. £80 for a chance to photograph the wildlife without some idiot kid stamping around and scaring it away wouldn't be a bad deal if you managed to sell a few of the resulting images, and the reserve have to cover their loss of earnings given they'd usually make £10.50 per adult.

You can always go on a normal day, pay your £10.50 and dodge the crowds, like me waiting by the Monmouth bridge/gatehouse for 5mins yesterday for the zombie hordes to stop shuffling underneath it so I could have a clear shot!

It's a very dangerous precedent. Next thing they'll all be doing it and if you go on a normal day, you'll get a Security Guard coming telling you that photography is only allowed on the £80 days.

Wildlife reserves aren't exactly packed like Blackpool Funfair

The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) costs about £35 annual membership and you can go to any of their sites any day for FREE after that and take all the photos you want.

The one I usually go to is Martin Mere. A mate of mine was there last week and caught some good shots of a wild Peregrine Falcon grabbing a Pigeon during a week that a lot of school kids were there.

On the photography day I did with The British Wildlife centre, the keepers did bring the animals to you using food and managed to keep a relative natural setting, plus we were the right side of the fencing.

Trying to shoot outside the fence with potentially a long wait, it was worth it at least once, £50 equalled a good day, £80 may hae priced themselves out of the equation, but if togs go and pay that sort of money then you can't expect the centre to reduce the prices.

I won't be paying £80 !!

We're WWT members and are frequently at Martin Mere. I prefer it to Slimbridge, which I find too busy. Other great WWT sites, albeit with a different character to Martin Mere, are Caerlaverock and Arundel.

Llanelli wildfowl trust is excellent to....

Not seen Llanelli or Washington yet, but they are on our "to do" list.