Summer madness

What a crazy, (not) lazy summer its been this yer. For the obvious reasons, I’ve been catching up on work, and whizzing around the country shooting hotels, gardens, interiors and people… Here is some of the lovely editorial work I have done (many thanks to the magazines for the way they have published them…. I am looking forward to a productive late summer and, dare I say it, autumn! here’s to misty mornings, cooler evenings and fab low angled light, which makes for a good looking image… oh, and some cider apple harvesting ;-)

thanks to VSP interiors, French Brooks Interiors, The Concrete House, and Ambrose Vevers

Work for 25 Beautiful Homes, originally published in Homes and Gardens

Shot for Country Life magazine, summer 2021

Grand Designs Magazine article, shot at the concrete house in Lewes, Sussex

Shot for Period Living magazine, Summer 2021

Many thanks for taking a look, and please do get in touch if you need photography. I am very happy to chat through your ideas, and can give you an upfront quote. I am off to the garden to build a seed bed… I am shooting a book for the wonderful Pimpernel Press… due out in a year or two, but watch this space…

Best Pub Interior?

Hidden on my website amongst all the fabulous interiors I shoot for magazines, designers, hotels and so on, is my favourite interior of all. Down at the bottom of Devon is the Pigs Nose Inn… Just look at that red snug! I shot my local a few years ago but it hasn’t really changed, and best of all it’s back open after this horrendous year. Thats the table where I drink my cider and eat all the crisps in the pub…

The Pigs Nose Inn

Fear not, I haven’t turned in to a red nosed cider-drinking, croc-wearing old git (or have I?), no, I have been working hard of late, shooting for a couple of hotels, and for some interior designers based in London. And also working on a new project about cottage gardens… images below.

I’m looking for beautiful cottage gardens to photograph, so if you know any, let me know…

Thanks to The Pigs Nose Inn, Kitesgrove Design and to Beth Tarling in deepest Cornwall..

Happy Christmas!

A bit early I know, but wow, what a year we have had… we all hope 2021 will be a bit better, let’s toast the end of this mess and hope for better things. Wishing you all some good rest and relaxation… and do try to enjoy yourselves, even if it seems difficult. Things, as they used to say, can only get better… cue the music! love to all, Mark

Cosy fireside Christmas greetings!

The importance of photography for interior designers

Everyone has a camera now.  It is estimated that ten percent of photographs ever taken were taken in the last year.  More photographs were taken in the last two minutes than in the whole of the 1800’s!  And approximately 140 billion photographs have been uploaded to facebook.  So, with this huge pool of imagery, it’s obviously important that if you want your business to stand out, you need to have decent photography done.

And as an interior designer, great photography is part of your brand.  You have a website, a social media presence and a portfolio of images that you would like to use in magazines and even books.  Those images need to really show off what you do.  It’s no use having a set of pictures that are wonky, badly processed and too small for printing in the best magazines.  You have put huge time and effort to design the space with beautiful furniture, fabulous colour schemes and thoughtful decisions made about height, light and texture.  You have done your side of things, now you need a photographer who can present that in the best light.

Why can’t you do it yourself with your (admittedly excellent) iPhone? An interior photographer has a proper set up of lenses and a camera that can record very high resolution.  The sensor on my camera can record a range of light levels, from they darkest corners to the brightest window highlights, and in post production I can blend images to create natural pictures that show the viewer just what the room looks like to the human eye.  So, the equipment is up to the mark.  What about the rest of the job? An experienced interior photographer will also know how to set up that fantastic camera and position it so that

1. the image is level.  Verticals are vertical (!) and the viewpoint is natural and doesn’t look too fake with overly wide angle distortion (what I call estate agents photography!)

2. The images are properly exposed.  Those high and lowlights need to be properly recorded so that in post production they can all be combined and blended seamlessly to create the perfect exposure.

3. Composition.  A beautifully designed room needs to be shown off.  It should be natural looking, ideally not ‘into a corner’, and it should show the main points of the rooms design… and combined with various ‘details or vignettes’ that compliment the main image the photographer can build up a true impression of your work.  

4. The images are sharp!  As mentioned earlier, the lenses of today are incredible, and a decent interior photographer can ensure that the lens is set up so that the image is sharp from front to back... or NOT!  Sometimes a little soft focus in the right places can look lovely, but a good practitioner should know when to use this technique.

5. Post production is key to a days photography.  It will take nearly as much time on the computer as on the actual shoot to create beautiful work, and a good interior photographer will be fully conversant with various software to ensure that unsightly blemishes are seamlessly removed, colours are correct and balanced, highlights are dealt with and lampshades straightened!

I have been shooting interiors for 25 years, working with every magazine and many of the best designers, hotels and developers.  I shoot with top end digital kit and am expert in photoshop and lightroom software.  I can style the shoots myself, or am very happy working with stylists or designers in creating beautiful images.  I will give you a quote for one day or many, ensuring that you know exactly how much the shoot is going to cost.

Please take a close look at my website and drop ask if you have any queries.  I am happy to send more images if you would like a closer look at what I can do.

with thanks to Kitesgrove, Mandarin Stone, Kelling Design, Sophie Peckett Design and Kitchenhaus for the wonderful shoots I was privileged to do!

Hotel Photography

Bowood Hotel

I thought I’d write a little bit about hotel photography and why I find it such a satisfying part of my photographic work. I photograph hotels throughout the United Kingdom, Italy and France, Spain and soon India! I started my career as an interiors photographer, adding garden photography soon after. I have always loved gardening and beautiful gardens so it seemed a natural step to photograph them too especially as many of the magazines that I worked for had garden sections too. There’s nothing more inspiring and good for the soul as being out at dawn photographing a sublime garden.

Photography at Chateau Impney

Much of my time is spent photographing flowers and my fascination in photographing all things macro, small and floral, led me in to photographing food. It’s similar in many ways. I use natural light, I go in close and the current trends for fresh clean and unfussy food means that a plate of wonderfully prepared food can look much like a plate of flowers!

Barnsley House Hotel

So, in the early days, as I was asked to photograph a hotel in the Cotswolds. In fact it was Barnsley House, a fabulously designed place, done by one of my now regular interior photography clients Martin Hulbert Design!. It was also the home of legendary garden guru Rosemary Verey, mentor of Prince Charles. I soon realised that photographing hotels is a combination of my favourite bits of my job, the interiors, gardens, food and lifestyle.

Photography at Il Borro, Tuscany

A lot can be accomplished during a day at the hotel, especially if you are well organised. We can do 4-5 bedrooms, including bathrooms if required, some living areas, some food and a selection of other important areas ( maybe the spa? the restaurant, or even maybe the staff?) In an ideal world I would do two days as It gives me the chance to shoot over the evening, or early morning as well, and in a large hotel, it is surprising how long it can take navigating around the rooms as they become available! However, I am sometimes asked for just a half day, perhaps just to showcase the new menu, or a couple of new rooms recently decorated.

Photography at Borgo Pignano, Tuscany

Please do get in touch to discuss, and please take a look at this guide to hotel photography, which can give you an idea about how the day of the shoot progresses. Obviously, I am flexible, I can fit in with the rooms becoming available, and I am quick and tidy. Call me or email to discuss. Thanks for reading!

Please do contact me if you would like me to send you a free printed portfolio of my hotel photography

And while you are here, perhaps I could ask you to head over to my revamped Facebook Page and give me a like? many thanks.

Happy New Year!

I didn’t send any Christmas cards this year, but decided instead to send a New Year version. Thanks to all of you who I worked with last year, and let’s try and do it again this year!

I’m going to try and work hard on keeping my ‘footprint’ to a minimum this year, being clever with combining jobs so that I travel more ‘smartly’. I’ll also shoot more stock images locally, become more efficient in my vegetable garden, waste less and change my gas guzzling motor.

Enough of my resolutions, I’m looking forward to a good year of shooting (hurry up spring!), and would love to collaborate with you this year. Do get in touch if you have any beautiful interior, hotel or garden projects that need photography, and if any of you have nice places that would look good in print, do let me know. I’d love to come and see them!

Have a great New Year, Peace and Love to all. Mark

Christmas interior magazine photography

Its that time of year again, and I’m on the look out for houses that look great at Christmas time… colourful, cosy, well designed pads that I can shoot for magazines and make features of. So, if you have a nice place and you go to town at yuletide (I’m not sure I have ever used that word before!), or know someone who does, do let me know. We normally photograph in the couple of weeks before christmas, (or sometimes after new year), and its an informal affair, as long as the house is reasonably tidy (!) we can work miracles (christmas miracles!!). Keep in touch and let me know if you have any leads. And happy christmas ;-)…

New Portfolio for Mark Bolton Interiors Photography

My new portfolio! Mark Bolton Photography

I'm happy to announce that I have a new portfolio of my interior design photography. Please do get in touch if you'd like to get a copy. If possible I would like to drop it off in person, but am also happy to post to you if preferred. Full of gorgeous houses, amazing design and sumptuous spaces, it looks and feels like a magazine... and on another note, I am about to send out my first newsletter for a while, so please do contact me if I can put you on my list. I promise it won't be a deluge of posts, just a quick email once every few weeks... thanks!

Kitesgrove Interior Design Photography

Two day shoot for the fabulous 'Kitesgrove' interior design company, in an enormous apartment in London. Their work is wonderful, easy to photograph, meticulous in detail and well finished... also a great palette with soft tones. Luckily we had some good weather, so the sun was able to light those HUGE interiors! A joy to work with them again.

Photography for Mandarin Stone

Lovely day in the beautiful Dartmoor countryside photographing a location house for Mandarin Stone. The house was a converted old cottage with a rather funky extension, near Bovey Tracey. Photographing floors and tiling can be a little tricky... compositionally, making the floor the centre of attention isn't 'normal', and the flat shiny surfaces in a bathroom or kitchen can create problems with reflections. However, the beautiful soft wintry light was a help and clever use of Lightroom and Photoshop finishes off the images afterwards. Lovely house, lovely people and lovely client! what more do I need...