The purpose of the Leeds Owl Trail is to inform and inspire people about Leeds' rich heritage and also to create new owls for future generations to enjoy.
"The Leeds Owl Trail is a unique concept that's brilliant for Leeds. It enables both visitors and residents from all backgrounds to explore and experience our beautiful city." - Tom Riordon - Chief Executive Leeds City Council
The first owls were spotted in Millennium Square in 2000. In 2002, Antonia Stowe who is a visual artist started to look around to see if there were any other owls around Leeds.
The original map of the Leeds Owl Trail had 10 Owl locations and in 2010 the map extended to 25 Owl locations.
The whole reason the Owls are used on architecture of the city is because they appear on the Leeds Coat of Arms.
The Leeds Coat of Arms was developed over a period of time and contains 3 owls. These owls came from the coat-of-arms belonging to Sir John Saville the first Alderman of Leeds.
The Owls on the coat-of-arms are said to look like European Eagle Owls but there is no evidence to support the fact that European Eagle Owls lived in this country around that time. So when Sir John Saville designed his coat-of-arms he might just have liked owls and that breed.
Some of the Owls on the trail are not in the most obvious places so you have to look carefully.
The earliest Owls to be created on buildings have been there since the 1700's.
Some of the owls on the architecture are harder to spot than you think.
2. Write about the research in your own words.
What I have decided to do for my Summer Project is photograph all of the owls on the Leeds Owl Trail. I was unaware that the owls were all over the city of Leeds until a couple of weeks ago when a friend told me about the trail and handed me the leaflet with all the locations on. I decided to choose this for my project as there are photographs that have been taken of the owls but none that are particularly special or do the owl statues/engravings any justice.
I have done a bit of research reading up on the trail as they have their own website, I didn't find a whole lot of information on there but there are quite a lot of facts about each owl on the map of the whole trail. I found out that some of the first owls have been on the city's architecture since the 1700's, I think that the Leeds Owl Trail is a good and interesting way to find out about some of the history behind the architecture around the city of Leeds.
I found a quote from the Chief Executive of Leeds City Council - Tom Riordon who said "The Leeds Owl Trail is a unique concept that's brilliant for Leeds. It enables both visitors and residents from all backgrounds to explore and experience our beautiful city."
The first owls that were noticed in Leeds are the golden owls in the Millennium Square which were discovered in 2000, but in 2002 a visual artist named Antonia Stowe wanted to know if there were any other owls around Leeds so she created a team of people to discover the rest. The original map for the Leeds Owl Trail had 10 owls on it but in 2010 was recreated and now has 25 owls on the trail.
I also read on the Leeds Owl Trail website that the reason for all the owls all over Leeds is because the first Alderman of Leeds who was named Sir John Saville designed the coat-of-arms for Leeds and although the owls on the coat-of-arms look like European Eagle Owls there is no proof of them ever living in our country around that time, so peoples guess is that he just liked owls and that breed too.
I looked at some of the webpages to buy tickets to go on an offical tour for the Leeds Owl Trail and it was written that some of the owls on the trail are in quite secretive places so you have to keep your eyes peeled and look carefully as you are on the trail. I am very excited to start my trail of the owls and photographing them too, hopefully I will be able to capture them in a good and different way.
3. Plan your project
Word association -
Leeds
Place
Countryside
Landscape
Sunrise
Sunset
Skyline
City
Architecture
Landmarks
Tourism
Money
Shopping
People
Mind Map -
Sketches -
4. Produce your product
5. Evaluate your project
I think generally I really liked the way that my photographs turned out. I wasn't sure when I first loaded them onto my computer but after I had edited them all and picked out the best, I was really happy with the outcome. I think what I like most about my images is in how some of them the owls really stand out and are easy to notice, but in a few you have to search and look carefully to actually notice the owls on the building. I originally wanted to edit my photographs into black and white but ended up really liking the colours on the majority of the photographs. When I edited them I just enhanced the highlights and shadow aspects of the images to give them a sharper effect which I think worked really well as it makes the images look stronger and sharper.
Some of the things I don't like about the images are that when I actually went out shooting with my camera the weather was quite bad and the sky was very grey so that when I edited the pictures to brighten them up, the sky ended up looking a bit orange. Another thing that I don't like is that on some of the shots I used flash and it has reflected on the building which ruins the image slightly.
If I could do this project again and improve it, I think I would choose something different to what I chose to shoot because when I went to go take my photographs I found it quite hard to spot the owls on the buildings. Although I had a map, some of the owls were high up on the buildings and not very visible to the public, so that restricted me to how many different pictures I could take. My original idea was to shoot every owl on the owl trail but I could only catch a few which is why I chose to have a few shots of the same ones, but I would have liked to have more of a variety.
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