Hotel Photography at the Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire

The Grove Hotel, Hertfordshire

I recently spent three busy days shooting at the Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire (hosts to the Ryder Cup and a very famous current American President!), with Martin Hulbert, interior designer extraordinaire, who has remodelled and designed most of the rooms over the years. The lounges and bar areas were magnificent, and we took time to shoot the conference facilities too. Slightly surreal as it turned out, as the current Covid crisis meant that the whole place was empty… made things easier for our work, but Im sure that now they have reopened, things are a lot busier there! I love the attention to detail in Martins work; the fabrics and wall coverings are all hand painted, the colours are beautifully restrained and furniture all hand picked, or designed and made.

I have also been shooting gardens galore… its high season and the planting is lovely, the days are long and I am making the most of it. I have done features for Country Life, Country Homes and Interiors and various other garden publications. Let me know if you are an editor looking to fill space next year! I have lots of options..

Garden Photography near Winchester

I have also set up and begun selling some of my prints. These are beautifully printed black and white images, of Italy, gardens around the world, corners of Devon, Venetian gondoliers and barrels of cider in atmospheric barns! … ideal for interior designers with walls to fill in hotels or houses… take a look at the page, I have even found a fabulous framer who can finish off the piece to perfection.

Wild flower verges at East Prawle

Wild flowers found at Coastguard Cottages in East Prawle

If you are interested in persuading councils to NOT mow your local roadsides, please do take a look at the Plantlife website and sign their petition!

Late last year, we decided not to mow the verges alongside our small private road where we live. In only our first year of no-mow its been a revelation. The number of wild flowers has increased, and there are plants there that I had never seen before. Usually, the verges of the road are strimmed every couple of weeks, and this process obviously means that many of the natural plants are unable to produce seed. The next stage will be to mow after the seeds have set, in late summer. The result of all this is that verges are brimming with flowers and insects, and (in my opinion) it looks fantastic! Here is a list of some of the species I recorded just this summer…

Bristly Ox Tongue

Field Poppy

Ribwort Plantain

Greater plantain

Curled Dock

Broad leaved dock

Heath Bedstraw

Common Mallow

Wild Carrot

Perennial Sowthistle

Fennel

Greater Knapweed

Yarrow

Rough Chervil

Cats Ear

Red and White Campion

Scarlet Periwinkle

Creeping Cinquefoil

Field Bindweed

Herb Robert

Broomrape

Hairy Tare

Hedge Woundwort

Hedge Mustard

Nipplewort

Red and White Clover

Dandelion

Field Daisy

Birds Foot Trefoil

Small Flowered Cranesbill

Common Vetch

Hop Trefoil

Meadow vetchling 

Trailing tormentil 

Fleabane

Common mint

Common ragwort

Greater willowherb 

Hawkbeard 

Pineapple weed

Great mullein

Field scabious

Yellow rattle 

Hogweed

Spear thistle

Hemp agrimony

Agrimony

Common bent (grass)

Yorkshire fog (grass)

Ox-eye daisy

False oat grass (grass)

Wild Umbrellas (more wild flower photography!)

three common wild umbellifers in the country lanes of south devon..

Umbellifers are a diverse wildflower family (celery and carrots included), and at the moment there are many in flower in the countryside. Three that are commonly come across and worth learning the difference of are Hemlock Water Dropwort, Hogweed and Cow Parsley... they are all white, but the first has distinctly separated heads and grows near water, the second is much stouter and taller with notched petals, and the last has delicately cut leaves (the one you see down the country lanes). Importantly the first is VERY poisonous. Not included here are Fennel, Carrot, Angelica, Chervil and Dill... all are excellent for the bees!

Autumn in East Prawle, Devon

Autumn nature photography, East Prawle

What a year for REAL seasons in the countryside of Britain. We had a real cold winter, a wet spring, a LONG hot summer and now a colourful autumn. We are just moving in to winter, which is bittersweet I always think, but the memories of a lovely year, weather wise, come flooding back (maybe not the best analogy?!) every time I flick through all the photographs on my computer.. and here are some of those images, along with a bit of John Clare's poetry (the best ever nature poet?)