# Urban explorers in the South West... photo help, please!



## Nostalgia Jackie (Apr 22, 2022)

Hi everyone
I'm a journalist working for the Live news websites in the South West.
My brief is nostalgia and history and I'm always on the lookout for photos of abandoned places that would make an interesting article. 
I'd love to feature photos from your explorations around Cornwall, Plymouth, Devon, Somerset and Bristol.
For example, I'd love to do a piece about the long demolished Barrow Gurney Mental Hospital. There are a lot of posts on here from a few years back before the bulldozers went in. Would anyone like to share their photos of the place for publication? Afraid there's no budget but all images would be fully credited as you wish, of course.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes, Jackie


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## night crawler (Apr 22, 2022)

Nostalgia Jackie said:


> Hi everyone
> I'm a journalist working for the Live news websites in the South West.
> My brief is nostalgia and history and I'm always on the lookout for photos of abandoned places that would make an interesting article.
> I'd love to feature photos from your explorations around Cornwall, Plymouth, Devon, Somerset and Bristol.
> ...


The only advice I can offer is to pm the person conserned and ask them. They can only say yes or no and if they re like me would be willing to let you have ome


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## mick_3d (Apr 24, 2022)

Isn’t DP is all about Citizen Journalism? The stories and images are documented right here, first hand.


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## night crawler (Apr 24, 2022)

In a way but the photos taken are owed by the people on here who take them and they are very protective of where the places are they took the photos. If some ones wants to share information I am sure they will


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## HughieD (Apr 24, 2022)

Ah, the classic words: "afraid there's no budget".

But all is not lost: "all images would be fully credited".

If something is worthy, it's worth paying for, even if it's a menial amount.

Ultimately, though, it comes down to the choice of the individual.


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## Foxylady (Sep 4, 2022)

HughieD said:


> If something is worthy, it's worth paying for, even if it's a menial amount.


I'm afraid I agree with that. I've allowed free publications before but, like everyone else, these explores and the subsequent photos take a lot of time and money to produce. I'm someone who has painful disabilities and also can't drive, many of my local explores consisting of bus rides along with several miles walking through the countryside, and as a 35mm photographer there's processing, scanning, post-editing, then long hours researching and writing articles for my blog, as well as the ones I've posted on here. 

The last person to ask acted as if they were doing me a favour to take two bus rides across the county and give them not only free photos but also have the copyright to be able to publish them with other sources, lol! 

Sorry about the personal reply, but I wanted to explain what's involved in getting our photos. We've all got different circumstances - many others have long road trips around the country - and mine's just one to show the reason why I've decided to decline. But I do wish you the best, Jackie; things aren't easy these days and I hope your career goes well.


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## wolfism (Sep 4, 2022)

Nostalgia Jackie said:


> Would anyone like to share their photos of the place for publication? Afraid there's no budget but all images would be fully credited as you wish, of course.


I've seen this from both sides, as it were, and suffice to say I understand in a bit of detail that if images are commercially published, then the publisher is doing so on the basis that they're making money from ad revenue, cover price of magazine or newspaper, clicks online, subscriptions and so forth. 

My personal opinion is that it's unjust to make money from someone's work (regardless of whether they're regarded as an "amateur" or "hobbyist") and not offer them a share of that. I've had my work published and been paid for that, and I'm grateful to have had an outlet. I've also had my work stolen online, and chased the publisher for compensation which they stumped up.

As Hughie and Foxylady suggest, you'd really be better to find a way to offer contributors something in return for the offer of publication, otherwise you may not get a positive reaction either on any UE forums, or on photo-sharing sites like Flickr. Better still, why not go out and shoot some photos yourself? Your story will be much better as a result, since the copy you write will tie in to your images, and nothing beats primary research. Good luck.


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