Monthly Archives: June 2013

All Our Stories – Expression Through Creative Photography

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Pictures should tell a story

The Bottom – Pictures should tell a story

Light, light, light,  “if you only remember one thing from this course; that’s it”  said Derek Richards to FOPP members yesterday.    How fast, or slow, the light is picked up by the camera, what sort of light you are shooting in,  where is the light and the shadow for interest: an overcast day can produce much more interesting photographs than a sunny one.   A small tip was to think carefully about light if you were shooting groups with black and fair-skinned people, otherwise you would either get dark silhouettes or light ghosts.  So,  let there be some light – certainly a number of members were a little bit more enlightened about how their cameras actually worked, and what all the dials and buttons were for. Continue reading →

All Our Stories – Tracking The Past

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Trying to find the site of a building above the Tan House.

Trying to find the site of a building above the Tan House.

Part of the success of the geophysics survey at the end of July will come from knowing what might be found – this is where the paper archive research has a vital part to play.    Barbara has therefore been to Aireborough Historical Society to study transcriptions of the Manor Court Rolls for Kelcliffe in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century:  following which,  she went to West Yorkshire Archives to check the originals, as the variable Early Modern  spelling means mistakes are easy made; Barbara did find several mistakes.

Manor Court Rolls were the recorded minutes of the regular meetings held by local people to deal with the day-to-day running of a town or village.  The Court set the local rules and bylaws, dealt with dispute and fines, organized the local infrastructure and agreed community planning and agricultural phasing eg the crop rotation on the common lands.   Manor Court Rolls are a mine of trivial detail that when pieced together can give a fascinating picture of local life.  The only issue for the ones covering Kelcliffe and the Park, is that there are large gaps, Continue reading →