Great Britain is very well mapped by our brilliant Ordnance Survey organisation that began its amazing work back in the middle of the eighteenth century.
They produce a wide range of meticulously detailed maps that can be ordered online or bought from all good bookshops. Without Ordnance Survey maps, I would never have been able to explore this green and pleasant land in the way I have done. Their maps have led me to all manner of secret and wonderful places as I have plodded through the landscape.
Unbeknownst to me, OS have been staging a series of photo competitions this year - the prize being to get your picture printed on the front cover of one of their maps.
It seems that they had no suitable entries for OS Explorer maps 279 and 280 which cover lands to the east of Sheffield. So - they trawled through the geograph website and found two of my pictures and wonder of wonders they are now being used on the map covers for Doncaster and The Isle of Axholme!
I don't think they are the best examples of my photography by a long shot but they do the job required and I am rather proud of this very unexpected achievement. It gives me a little taste of immortality even though the many people who purchase and use these particular maps will have no idea who the photographer was. OS are sending me complimentary copies of the maps.
And now that I know about this competition I have sent off a dozen entries for their Landranger series of maps so maybe I will have another success or two. Of course there's no prize money involved but still I am well chuffed!
The Isle of Axholme is a low-lying rural area west of the River Trent. It is where Shirley's parents Charlie and Winnie had their arable farm and it really does have something of an island mentality - rather cut off from the outside world as it was before Dutch engineers finally drained the area in the seventeenth century. For this reason, it is especially pleasing that my photo of the riverside has made it on to the front cover of Map 280.
Hey! Hey! Hey! That's great! How wonderful, Yorkie! Give yourself a few pats on the back for me....my arms don't reach that far...please do it on my behalf!
ReplyDeleteYou must be feeling so proud...and rightly so! (And if I shouldn't have used "so" there...so be it...I don't care)! :)
In the good old Aussie vernacular...Good on you!!
Well done! :)
Ouch! Ouch!... I just gave myself two of your hefty pats on my back Lee! It bloody hurt!
DeleteFame and infamy ~ you will be snapping pics of the baby royals next.
DeleteLee, so formal ~ Aussie vernacular in some parts would go ~ Onya!
I thought that Onya was an Australian girl's name - now even more popular than Sheila!!!!
DeleteYorkie, her full name is - "Onya Owyagoin".
DeleteThat's awesome! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteMaybe you have a second career ahead of you as a photographer?
:)
Thanks Jennifer... but everybody is a photographer now. To make good money from it would be really difficult. I might have more luck as a gigolo!
DeleteCongratulations are in order.
ReplyDeleteThey should credit you and pay. This is commercial use and should carry suitable remuneration. They will have had to up sample the image for print and that doesn't do your work any favours. I think it's very naughty of them.
I don't care Adrian. In my life I have got used to being ripped off - it's par for the course.
DeleteCongratulations. It's always a plus when some of your material is used.
ReplyDeleteThanks Blue!...Sorry, I meant Red!
DeleteWell done Yorkie , you are becoming quite a published photographer. This is great news indeed.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry Leishy, I will not forget you when I reach the limelight of success.
DeleteThey should use your pictures for every area where you can supply them one, but it would be only fair to pay you for them.
ReplyDeleteMy Uncle B. from Chapeltown who always takes me and my sister on great hikes and walks when we're in Yorkshire uses OS maps all the time. Next year I'll tell him that I know the man who took some of the cover photos.
Uncle B will be gobsmacked! It's like knowing one of The Beatles or Barack Obama.
DeleteSometimes recognition is as good as, if not better than, payment. The Isle of Axholme. Have you visited there lately?
ReplyDeleteWell done Mr Pudding.
Ms Soup
Thank you Alphie. We used to visit The Isle of Axholme regularly till Shirley's parents died. Going back at the end of October for a diamond wedding celebration - not ours!
DeleteI am very proud of you, Mr. Pudding. If they had notified you ahead of time, I am sure you could have let them choose from many wonderful pictures of the areas that you had photographed. Good on you, sir!
ReplyDelete