Mollie Makes Magazine
Nice coverage for Mollie Makes of Shevie Moyles work down in Cornwall...
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17 04 13
Wow, its all gone mad now! off to Cornwall for a hotel shoot tomorrow, back to Bath for a hotel shoot on tuesday, then to East Sussex for two days shoots for magazines, then back to Bristol to prepare for four days in Italy... see you on the other side...20 03 13
Ongoing work with Chateau Impney in Worcestershire see here... and many other jobs too.. Homes and Gardens shoot last week in Devon, and some rather smart new architectural clients based in London this coming week... watch this space!17 01 13
Well, the year's turned and I'm mooching around in the office trying to reorganise/springclean and generally do nothing! It was a good year (2012) and you can read a review here... At the moment its snowing here in Bristol, so any excuse to discuss 'not snowing' weather would be gratefully received!15 7 12
Well its 'here we go again' time!... off to Cornwall again shooting for 25BH magazine, then straight back and up the M4 to shoot for a day with Esti Barnes of 'Top Floor Rugs' in London on wednesday. Then another shoot for Route One in the next couple of weeks, and a final shoot for the wonderful National Trust at Powis Castle Gardens ... Blimey...Twitter Feed
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Tag Archives: garden photography
The Greatest Garden Photographers in the world (?)
A motley bunch indeed… is this, in Chelsea Flower Show’s centenary year, a record of the most revered and influential garden photographers or just a bunch of reprobates with annoying tripods and camera bags?… pictured here are some revered legends of the garden photography world… Jerry Harpur (with next generation Marcus too), Andrew Lawson, Clive Nichols, Jonny Buckley, Andrea Jones, Derek St Romaine, Gary Rogers, Vivian Russell, Clive Boursnell… considering the amount of money they’ve all made from their myriad books and publications, you’d think they’d be a little less scruffy wouldn’t you?! (apart from Jerry who has made an effort)… and you know what? considering I’m supposed to be a photographer, its a bit embarrassing, but when viewed full size, this picture is slightly out of focus!! don’t tell anyone…
The Garden Photographers at Chelsea Flower Show, 2013
Westonbirt spring sunshine
Beautiful light yesterday morning for flower photography at Westonbirt Arboretum… a great way to start the weekend, fresh air, (loud!) birdsong and a riot of colour from the Rhododendrons, Magnolias and windflowers… enchanting place…
Magnolia buds at Westonbirt
Corylopsis at Westonbirt Arboretum
Prunus, Cherry Blossom
Hydrangea seed head
Did you forget Mother’s Day??
Have you forgotten Mother’s Day? why not at least send a free E Card from my website, easy to fill in and send, you can feel better immediately (!)… to be honest, you should have remembered and sent her one of the many beautiful PROPER cards available on the ‘Shop’ page… along with prints and posters for your wall… go on, hurry up and feel better!
Devon Life cover
Thanks Devon Life for a nice front cover, march 2013… lovely Magnolias, easy to shoot really… you just need blue sky and a great Magnolia in full bloom… the garden photographer’s season starts with a bang!
Devon Life front cover, Magnolia in full effect!
Spring is nearer….
Lovely little shoot at one of my favourite gardens, Bristol University Botanical Garden…. Prunus mume in full effect… at last! after weeks of cold, the air feels milder and there is some colour!
Blossom at Bristol Botanic Gardens, spring is here!
Snowdrops…
Snowdrops, a garden photographers favourite… we’ve spent the best part of two months couped up in an office, and now we can get up and out, and shoot some flowers… to me it signals the start of the ‘season’… here are a few from last year…
Galanthus (snowdrops), harbingers of spring… at last…
Focal Point
I have been recently testing a plugin (FocalPoint2) for Lightroom (the software I use for all my processing of images), and its got me thinking about the ways we use the ‘focal point’ in an image. Unless there is a ‘focal point’ in an image, the viewer tends to scan quickly across the image and move on…we need a point that the eyes can ‘rest’ on so that the eyes stay still for a minute and look at the picture. As photographers, we do this in various ways… the rule of thirds suggests that the focal point should be about a third of the way across, or down, the image, and if that point is accentuated (with colour/contrast and focus) it helps. We can also blur out the back/foreground so that the focal point is more obvious, and this is where this plugin, ‘FocalPoint2‘ is a great help. Obviously, its good to get the image right in the camera, but this plugin, neatly integrated into Lightroom, is wonderful for those images where, looking back, you wish you’d used a different f-stop, and hence had a different depth of field. Its very controllable, has an amazing array of ‘presets’ that replicate different lenses, and is infinitely adjustable. It would be easy to go a bit too far with it, and turn all your images into slightly gimmicky ‘flickr’ style shots, but if you’re careful, I think its a great addition to the workflow… here are some very basic samples with before/after examples…
FocalPoint2 plugin for Lightroom samples on an autumn day
Hotel, Interiors and Garden Photography, a review of the year, 2012
After spending a lovely new year at Fingals, it’s time to get back to the grindstone, but not before I have a brief look back at the work I did last year. It reall was a mixed bag of assignments, from following NT gardens through the seasons to shooting a top hotel in Tuscany, Il Borro. My work is varied (that’s how I like it!) and I feel as ‘at home’ in a vibrant spring garden as I do in a Midlands ‘Spa Resort’ with four swimming pools and a 5 star chef!
Hotel Photography 2012
Hotels wise it was a good year, and I shot a range of places, from small ‘bed and breakfast’ businesses (Bolotho Barns for example), to huge, multi-restaurant and spa resorts with hundreds of bedrooms (Hoar Cross Hall). Somewhere in the middle are the small hotel operations, with 10-15 bedrooms, owner operated, and with , more often than not, very good kitchens serving locally sourced food. These are enjoyable jobs as the owners know every room, the staff are their friends and they are able to put their own stamp on the places (Gliffaes Hotel, Boskerris Hotel, Tasty Ski Company). I have often said it but I love shooting these sorts of hotels as I get to do a bit of each of my favourite types of photography – gardens, interiors, food and lifestyle.
Interiors Photography for editorial and commercial clients, 2012
It was a busy year too, shooting for my commercial clients: Mandarin Stone are one of my favourites… we shoot lovely houses, finished with wonderful ‘products’, and the client really enjoys, and more importantly, understands the value of careful styling and propping. Another valued client is Top Floor Rugs, with whom I did a fantastic shoot at an amazing house in North London. Again, the client understands the importance of photography and the way that the products are shown (apart from the fact that she is also a world class rug designer!). I also had a good year doing editorial for interiors magazines and shooting major features for Country Living, Homes and Gardens and Saga.
Garden Photography for the National Trust 2012
Out into the rarified world of the internationally important garden, and I spent another year shooting, through the seasons, with the National Trust. I worked at three gardens, The Courts, Lacock Abbey and Powis Castle, and spent many happy hours watching the way the gardens changed through the year… frosty views at Powis, early spring shoots at the Courts and fullblown summer borders at Lacock. It’s hard to think of a job I prefer more…
All in all then, an excellent year… even if the weather wasn’t amazing!
Autumn Flower Photography for a cold winter day!
It’s freezing here in the office and I’ve got my long-johns on, but Ive just been editing pics from a recent autumnal shoot at Bristol University Botanic Gardens, and the warmth of the colours is helping keep the frost out of this room! Its going to be a while before we see these colours again in the gardens of England, but one of the joys of this job is reminding yourself what you did earlier in the year!
Autumn Flower and Garden Photography
Powis Castle, A National Trust Garden through the seasons…
I have had the privilege in the last year of photographing at Powis Castle in Wales. I have been taking pictures through the seasons for the National Trust guidebook, and its been a joy revisiting the garden every few weeks… the structure of the garden shines through and the lovely planting ‘dresses’ up those terraces, borders and vistas. The actual castle is an imposing building, full of history, collections of antiquities, and a supposedly good collection of ghosts! The gardeners, led by David Swanton, do a great job, and as with all the N.T gardens, its always a picture (literally!)
Powis Castle Photography in spring
Powis Castle Photography in summer
Powis Castle Photography in autumn
Powis Castle Photography in winter
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