Article
Cutting
the Cost of Getting Your Photographs
As photographers we like to be out and
about taking photographs at any opportunity we can but this can be a costly
exercise and we may have limitations due to the amount of available disposable income we have. So in this article we are going to take a look at how we
can reduce our costs of getting those photographs we want by concentrating
on cost effective ways and methods of getting around the UK and Ireland,
reducing the amount of money we spend when out looking a methods of reducing
accommodation costs, and entry fees.
The best place to start in your research
for finding this out is to use this website, Photographers Resource as here
we have various articles relating to reducing costs and those methods you
can use to do this. From the Location Guides we have you will be able to identify which of them have FREE
Access - look out for the
 symbol on the index pages, or those that are a part of the Tesco
Clubcard Deals scheme (highlighted with a T on the locations lists), and
those that are marked with symbols
 (English Heritage),
(National Trust) and others that will be free to members of those
organisations.
Not
all involve entry fees, and some that do like railways can often be
photographed without the need to spend a penny. Windmills, canals, a lot of
our architecture, villages and towns, many wildlife situations and bird
reserves can be photographed without the need to pay any entry or
membership fees.
Local photography
 may also not involve you in any transport costs.
Getting into UK Attractions Cheaper or
for FREE
There are many visitor attractions, and
tourism within the UK is a growing marketplace. Many of these
attractions are managed by many different organisations, government
departments and private enterprises. Some of those that are not private
enterprises have free access, such as those run by the National Museum of
Wales which includes
St
Fagans National History Museum
near Cardiff. While others can give imply FREE entry by allowing it as part
of a membership benefit, or by taking part in a voucher scheme such as the
Tesco Clubcard
Deals
, or City Passes. In
most cases commercially run attractions can only give discounts and this can
be done in various different ways.
As well as the methods mentioned here there
are other methods to consider which can reduce the cost of entry fees. These
are such items as discount vouchers/tokens which can be found in leaflets,
brochures, and other marketing promotions. They can be available in Tourist Information Centres, Motorway
Services, local businesses, accommodation facilities such as hotels and
B&B's and other local attractions in the same area. Many of these offers will give a discount off
the entry fee usually around 10%, or some will have '2 for 1' offers, or adults
pay and children free etc. Even if you live locally to the attraction they
will still be available to you, pick up the leaflet and take it along with
you.
There is also the option of
becoming a member of the various UK organisations looking after our heritage
and wildlife and take out annual membership with them. For most if not all of
these one of the benefits is to have free access to most if not all their
properties and centres. Of course if we were to take out membership of every
organisation at once it would not be that cost effective and in reality you
probably wouldn't be able to see everything on offer in one year. However in
most cases after about 4 visits you will have recovered your membership fee.
With so many the best option is to look at what is available and decide
which areas are of interest to you and what you may want to focus on and
then look at rotating the membership of these to keep the costs down, so
that for example one year you might have membership of the National Trust
and another year membership of English Heritage.
Some of the organisations you might want to
look at include:
- English Heritage - over 400 historic
properties to visit including abbeys, castles, ruins, stately homes and
palaces throughout England.
- National Trust - more than 300 historic
places, landmarks, open spaces and gardens to visit throughout England and
Wales.
- National Trust for Scotland - With 16
islands, 76,000 hectares of countryside, 7 national nature reserves, 26
castles, palaces & country houses, 4 battle sites, 35 gardens, 72 holiday
properties, and 4 birthplaces of famous Scots.
- Cadw - which is now the Welsh Assembly's historic environment
division. It looks after historic buildings, ancient monuments, historic
parks, gardens and landscapes as well as underwater archaeology. The Wales
equivalent of an English Heritage.
- Historic Scotland - an executive agency of the Scottish Government and
the Scottish equivalent of Cadw and English Heritage.
- Historic Houses Association - represents 1500 privately owned historic
houses, castles and gardens throughout the United Kingdom, of these 350
are regularly open to the public on a commercial basis. They have two
types of membership, the main is obviously for those people who own the
properties, but they also have a Friends membership for individual and
family members of the public who would like to support them and get free
access to those properties that are open to the public. Their website is
good and you can search the properties by region to find something to
visit.
- RHS - Royal Horticulture Society - a
gardening charity with a commitment to gardeners, through flowers shows, 4
of it's own gardens across England, advice, research as well as lectures
and demonstrations.
- Woodland Trust - a woodland conservation charity who conserves,
restores and re-establishing native woodland. As at 2008 they have over
1,000 woods.
- Wildlife Trusts - there are 47 local
Wildlife Trusts across the whole of the UK, Isle of Man and Alderney.
Wildlife organisations - such as:
- WWT - Wildfowl and Weltands Trust with 9
centres across the UK promoting wetland habitats and wildlife.
- RSPB - Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Although there is
free entry to the majority of their sites being a member does allow you to
get in free to those reserves that have admission charges amongst other
things.
- Scottish Wildlife Trust - as at 2008 they have 120 reserves and 3
visitor centres spread throughout Scotland. One of these visitor centres
is at the
Falls of Clyde
 in
New Lanark, where they have CCTV beaming live action of peregrines and the
Corra Linn Waterfall.
We have put together a
Membership Benefits
of Organisations
page
which identifies the membership benefits of all those listed above and from
here you can link direct to the membership page of their website to get
further details on membership rates etc.
This is only a fraction of the
various membership organisations around the UK, that offers additional
benefits to its members including many special interest groups such as
Heritage Railways where some over the ability to get Lineside Passes at a
discount allowing them to access the railways and get super shots of steam
trains in the countryside. See our article on
Photography on the Railway
for more on this.
Other ways to get cheaper, discounted and
in some cases free access into visitor attractions is via either voucher and
discount schemes or from City Travel Passes, both of which we look at here.
Voucher and Discount Schemes
- Tesco Clubcard Points - Clubcard
points can be used in a number of ways but are four times as valuable when
used for obtaining Deals Vouchers, this includes entry fees to a wide
range of places, the cost of meals in many restaurants and cafes and much
more. We have an article covering this,
Tesco Clubcard
Deals
.
They can also be used to pay for membership to organisations such as
English Heritage - see our
Organisations Membership page
to find out which ones, they are marked
with a (T).
- Airmiles - This scheme is run by
the British Airways Group and can not only be used for taking flights
around the world, but you can also use them to get cost effective days out
when converting Airmiles to attraction tickets. Our
Airmiles
page will tell you more.
- SmartSave - 20% off entrance to attractions or restaurant bill
from participating venues. You simply visit their website, printout out a
discount voucher which you take with you and show a SmartSave code to the
ticket counter or waiter before you pay and that's it.
Local and Tourist Passes
These Passes are special cards you can
purchase for a fee and then you can get free access to the participating
attractions, or discounts of meals in restaurants and in some cases
discounts on travelling as well. They can be purchased in a range of formats
and can be for periods of a single day to multi day versions. Some of these
include:-
-
The
London Pass
allowing you to purchase a 1 to 6 day card to get entry into 55 of London's
attractions, plus discounts and offers on restaurants, cafes, shopping
etc. You can also incorporate a travel element to allow you travel around
on the London Transport Network.
-
Visit Edinburgh Pass
- free entry to over 30
attractions, free return airport and city centre bus transport, free
comprehensive guidebook and 25 exclusive offers, including car hire,
restaurants, gift shops and tours.
-
York Pass
allows you to
purchase a card to get free or discounted entry into 30 attractions in and
around York.
-
Isle of Wight all in One ticket
- is a combination of ferry trip from the UK mainland and then bus and/or
train travel around the island, it also covers other options from other
companies.
-
Liverpool 3 day Mini Break
Card
- free entry to some attractions, plus free unlimited travel on the S2 and
S3 city bus routes as well as discounts on meals taken in some bars and
restaurants.
-
The
Cornwall Tourist Pass
-
is a discount card giving discounts on
attractions, accommodation, meals and shopping in Cornwall.
-
Historic Scotland Explorer Pass
-
An all in one pass for their properties, as well as the pass
covering the
whole of Scotland there are also 3 regional passes which are for Dumfries
and Galloway, Scottish Borders and Orkney and cover the participating
Historic Scotland properties in these areas.
-
The Dublin Pass
- Free entry to over 30 of Dublin’s visitor
attractions, transport from the airport to the city with Aircoach and
access to over 25 special offers and discounts in shops, restaurants,
leisure pursuits, tours and more....
The
VisitBritain website
 has details on a number of 'sightseeing passes'. There may well be
more local discount cards for towns and cities like the visitor cards for Cambridge,
Oxford, Bath and Brighton usually valid for 3 weeks and available from local
Information Centres. See this link for the
visitor cards
currently on offer.
Travelling the UK
Once we have decided where we
want to go we could jump in our car and make our way there, but with petrol
prices rising and car parking charges, and more people becoming more 'Eco'
conscious it may be time to think about other ways of getting around the UK. Normally the pace of life sees us in a hurry, we take little time to relax
and reflect, but most times when we are wanting to take photographs, that's
just what we are trying to do - take time out, relax, enjoy our environment
and countryside. Taking that once in a lifetime picture is one of the
reasons we are going, we are not trying to see how many pictures we can bag
in one day. However that said, if when we are out, because of the area we have
chosen to visit, we are able to get a lot of nice quality images, then that's
a bonus. So in this section we are going to take a look at how, if we take
other methods of transport instead of our 4 wheels, we can do this
economically and in some cases for FREE.
Travelling by Bus or Coach
Free travel, Yes I really did say FREE - well this is an
option for those who have acquired a greater experience of life, or who have an 'eligible'
disability. Since April 2008 it is now possible for individuals aged 60 and
over and 'eligible disabled' persons of any age to get a FREE bus pass. It
is not means tested, so is available to all over 60, men and women. There are
different operating rules in terms of where you are resident, when and where
you can travel to and from and in some cases other benefits are available.
In theory a person living in Brighton could take a series of free buses to
the Lake District, but you may need to allow a few days. The one place this is really an advantage is
photographing in your own local patch or counties, which is totally free,
and once you start looking you may find there is more than you thought
available to photograph near your home. For more information and ideas see:
Other options for the 60+ include:
Concessionary Fares for Young People (16-25)
-
Scotland has a Young
Scot National Entitlement Card for 16-18 year
olds plus young full-time volunteers up to age of 26, where you can get
concessionary rates while travelling on buses, rail and ferries throughout
Scotland. For example a third off bus and rail fairs, but if you live on a
Scottish Island you also get two free return ferry journeys to the mainland
each year.
See here for details.
- National Express Young Persons Coach Card - is available to everyone aged
16-26 as well as full time students and gives you up to 30% off coach
travel. However some special offer fares will are not covered.
See their website for details.
For everybody else
Special Fares and Cheap Tickets: Many local
bus services have cheap daily fares if trips are taken outside the rush
hour, as well as Rover Tickets which allow you to buy a number of trips for
a period or say a week or more, buying these when you want to do a lot of
travelling can prove more economic than the normal daily fare.
There are Coach Cards which operate in the same way as Rail
Cards, you pay for an annual card and then get reduced fares or offers on
your travel for that year. For example the
National Express Family Coach
Card
has two options one for 2+2 where the two adults pay the full fare but
both the children travel for free, the card in 2012 cost £16. On the Family
1+1 one adult pays the full fare and one child travels free and in 2012
costs £8.
City Sightseeing Tours. In the UK they
cover 30 cities/towns covered. They operate as a Hop On and Hop Off as much
as you like service at any of the bus stops on the route as well as allowing
you to see all the best sights and attractions that the town or city has to
offer. This may be a good way of getting around some of our cities as
well as a cost effective way to see and photograph the major tourist
attractions of that area. Being Open Top buses if you sit on the top in some
towns/cities they will go at a slow enough speed that you will be able to
photograph as you are travelling along. For more on where you might be able
to read
City Sightseeing Tours.
Another option is to look at coach companies who offer Coach Day Trips and
Holiday's by coach. These may be away for you to get to a place in the day
with the company of others and when stop offs are made to jump off and take
the opportunity to take your photo. Day trips normally go to the coast, or
historic houses, other historic places of interest and sometime just to a
large city like Cambridge to do shopping, these are normally cost effective
and usually includes the entry fee of where you are going to visit, the only
thing you're not in control of is the time you are there as you have to
follow their programme. Going further a field still, you could have a weekend
break say to Blackpool, where the coach takes you there, transports you
around the lights and includes hotel accommodation and meals, but during the
day the time is yours to do what you like. Via this same route you could
take a week or multi week break for example to Scotland or around the
continent. For details on
some of the companies I have been able to identify offering these sorts of
breaks take a look at
Coach Companies offering Days Out and Holidays.
Travelling by Rail
Let the train take the strain. Travelling
by train isn't necessarily quicker than going by car, they do not always run
to where you want to go so in a lot of cases you will have to use a
combination of transport methods to get around and it can be expensive.
However we have identified some ways where you can make savings travelling
by train and some methods you will be aware while others you may not even
have thought of including the use of Railcards for families, the disabled,
16-25 year olds, over 60's, special city passes, combination offers and more. I have put together
a separate page covering this -
Ways to Cut
the Cost of Rail Travel
.
There are also combination offers such as:
- London TravelCard - for getting around London includes travelling on
London Underground, London Buses, National Rail
Trains, The Docklands Light Railway, Tramlink as well as a 33% discount on
London River Services.
London Travel
Pass details.
- London Oyster Card for paying for bus,
tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and participating national rail
travel in London -
London Oyster
Card details.
- If you are
travelling to the Isle of Wight then consider the Ferry, Bus and Rail
combination pass -
Isle of Wight all in One ticket
will give you more details on what is on offer.
Travelling by Air
Most of us think of Air travel when we want
to go further afield into Europe or across the Atlantic and beyond, but
there are a number of services that will get us to Ireland, Northern
Ireland, Isles of Scilly, Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Scotland and
Scottish Islands. Many of the smaller islands like the Isles of Scilly are
serviced by small commercial airlines, where as travelling to Ireland you
can use the well known ones like RyanAir, EasyJet and BMI Baby. Many if not
all of these airlines have their own websites and ordering your tickets
(they call them e-tickets) direct online can give you some good rates. There
are also many websites on the internet where you can buy tickets as well as
getting last minute bargains the most well known of these being
LastMinute.com,
and last minute deals can also be picked up from travel agents in the high
street. The one thing to watch with Air Fares quoted is that they do include
everything, many of the discount airlines and tour operators quote low
fares, but then add on taxes and other charges later - making the costs
spiral before you leave. These can also in many cases take you to a regional
airport some way from your destination and you have budget in the cost and
time of travelling some distance to and from the airport.
Another option for some of these
places is to use the
Airmiles
you've collected.
Reducing
Accommodation Costs
When doing more
than a day trip there are also accommodation costs to consider, and offers
and considerable savings can be made by making use of the many websites on
the internet. Whatever the type of accommodation you like to have there is
usually a last minute, out of season, midweek offer available. It just
requires some determination and time on your part to carry out the research.
Also think about the type of accommodation you want, are you just expecting
a bed for the night and to be out all day then is there any point in having
a top quality hotel when good quality bed and breakfast establishments would
do just as well.
Some of the
Travel Pass/Discount cards that we've discussed above also have
participating partners who are offering accommodation at a discount or
offers such as 3 nights for the price of 2, or children staying free for
full paying adults.
Another way is
to use one of the Coach Companies that offer multi day breaks and include
accommodation, they usually have their favourite good quality accommodation
they use. Or if there are only adults in your party consider
something like the
Warner Short or Mini Breaks
where you can get a B&B in a hotel and
evening entertainment but the day time is your own.
You will also
find you can purchase a special type of guide book that includes vouchers
for FREE hotel accommodation providing that you purchase meals.
Also make
use of the Internet, websites like
lastminute.com
that
allows you to not only find latest offers on flights, holidays, hotels, city
breaks but also Car Hire, going out, restaurants, theatre and days out
discounts at UK attractions - so potentially can get yourself a bargain
trip. There are many different versions of these and they are not all the
same so it's worth checking as many as you can to find the best deal.
Overseas Travel
Most of what we have covered here has been
based on us taking time out to explore our own country, the UK. However
there were some offers I came across whilst researching this that would be
useful to those of you who travel abroad. For example:-
- Air Travel - see the
Airmiles
article to find out how to collect and use them
and save on travelling abroad.
- For Overseas Travel there is also a
group of City Cards available for 35 European countries see the website
featuring European City Cards
www.europeancitycards.com
for links to each of these countries offers.
- Also there
are Travel Passes for
New York
and
Philadelphia
in the USA.
For People with Special Needs
Those who have special needs such as a
physical difficulty, medical condition or learning disability or those
who care for them have a number of other discounts and options available to
them. We have a separate page
For People with Special
Needs
. We try to show some of this information
within location guides, but often there is more information on websites of
attractions but it may be difficult to find. A good place to start looking
beside the 'prices' page is the 'Access' page.
Overseas
Visitors
For Overseas Visitors
visiting the UK you can use many of the options listed here and accompanying
articles, but there are also various options available for you and not
available to UK residents - see our separate page 'Sightseeing for overseas
visitors'
covering items relevant to visitors from other countries coming to the UK.
To link to all the
pages we have available on making your money go that little further go to the
sub section
Controlling
Costs.
If you
know of other specific deals and offers then please do let us know.
|
