Autumn Garden Photography at Dartington Hall

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Autumn Garden Photography at Dartington Hall

Dartington Hall, near to where I live in Devon, is a 14th century great hall with elaborate gardens. It’s well-known for its dedication to the arts, education, and sustainability, and hosts festivals, concerts, and exhibitions. In the autumn mists, with all the muted colours and magnificent specimen trees, it’s a beautiful garden to photograph, packed with seasonal interest and atmospheric vignettes. I took my trusty Billingham bag, packed with a Fuji X-T4 with various lenses and had a lovely morning wandering along the paths and terraces.

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Updated website news

Between decorating the kitchen, weeding the garden, finishing a book and travelling here there and everywhere for work, I trawled the archives and found some new images to update the website. Thanks to Rosie Nevins I have a new logo and the whole thing looks rather better I think! If you are not already ‘subscribed’ to my email list, please do so here (in the sidebar to the left). I’d love to hear what you think, and thanks, as ever, for looking at my pictures. I have completed and delivered ‘A New Cottage Garden’, to be published in 2024 by Pimpernel Press; quite a job, as I built the garden from scratch, photographed it and wrote the text…

By the way, the decorating is far from finished ;-)

Thanks for reading this, and if you would like any more information, do get in touch. If you’d prefer not to hear from me, please unsubscribe! PS thanks to Iride and Sandra Design, Sarah Price Garden Design (Chelsea 2023) and Kelling Design for the images above.

Recent Magazine Photography

Recent Magazine Photography

As ever, I have been shooting for various magazines, and this summer saw a few nice features coming out, including one from a shoot for Grand Designs Magazine that was used on the cover. Thanks as ever to the owners who allow you to wander around their rather lovely properties!

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Recent work for The South Sands Hotel in Salcombe

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I used to work at this place when I was a boy. I was car park attendant and had an absolute blast of a summer, living in the ‘staff accommodation’ at the back of the hotel (these are now rather plush suites that overlook the beach, but back then they were hovels with no electricity… still, you don’t care when you are 18 and away from home for the first time do you?!). The hotel is now a rather fabulous beachside place with beautiful rooms and a view to die for. Thanks for the work, South Sands Hotel!

A week in The Caribbean with P&O Cruises 'Arvia'

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They said they wanted me to spend a week on board their new ship; in January. In the Caribbean. Ummmmm… difficult decision, but ‘Oh go on then’…

It may sound like the best of jobs; eat all you can, wearing just a tee shirt and shorts, and occasionally get an afternoon off to explore a quiet desert island. But, honestly, we did a lot of work and it’s actually quite tricky manoeuvring a tripod up 14 flights of stairs (actually there was a lift), but you get my drift. I shot restaurants (there are at least a dozen of them), cabins, theatres, and spa areas, and the weather was perfect. It’s so much easier to get a nice image of a pool if the sky is blue! Many thanks to the wonderful crew and management of P&O Cruises, who were brilliant.

And many thanks to the ever fabulous ‘Sunday’, a content marketing agency based in London who organised and drove the whole show… brilliantly done!

Back to normality now, I’m off to shoot a house for Grand Designs Magazine, and desperately hoping for some blue skies in Cornwall tomorrow!

A Winter's Tale

Well, it’s mid-march and in previous years I would now be on the road, photographing various houses, gardens and hotels, all bathed in a wash of warm spring sunshine. Actually that’s probably a bit of a false memory (!) but we can dream! It’s cold and damp here (fortunately for my garden we have missed the snow in South Devon), so I am in the office doing admin.

It was a quiet but productive winter and I was lucky enough to shoot for a week in the Caribbean for long time clients P&O. It was definitely sunny there! I also photographed a couple of fabulous kitchens for Guild Anderson in Wiltshire, and also had a lovely day at Ascott House, now run by the National Trust, for Maak Contemporary ceramics… and there was a day near Dartmouth, photographing an amazing tree planting project.

Mostly though, I have been writing and photographing for my book, ‘A New Cottage Garden’ to be published next year by Pimpernel Press. I think it should be an interesting and (I hope!) beautiful book about making a garden. From both a personal and educational standpoint. Before I actually embarked on this, I hadn’t really thought through what was involved in writing and photographing a book, let alone actually building the garden! so many things to think about and plan. For inspiration, I visited East Lambrook Manor, one of the spiritual homes of cottage gardening for this project, and also popped down to see old friend Bath at Gunwalloe in Cornwall… always a joy!

Anyway, here’s to the swift arrival of spring, and thanks to all my clients and work friends. Keep in touch, I hope to see some of you again this year. The website has been revitalised; there are lots of new images, and plenty more to come!

Gravetye Manor, East Sussex, England

I have spent much of the last year photographing at Gravetye Manor in East Sussex. What a joy it’s been. I have done a series of shoots for one of the garden magazines and have also been involved in shooting some interiors for the hotel itself. Alongside this, I have been photographing for a book due to be published in 2024 about cottage gardens, and if you know your cottage gardening you will know that William Robinson, who lived here for much of the early part of the twentieth century, was a major figure in popularising that style of gardening. It’s a beautifully planted garden and the current gardener, Tom Coward, has done a fabulous job keeping the ethos of Robinson, whilst also paying heed to the needs of a modern garden. He and his team have also been a help when it comes to my own efforts in the garden; It never ceases to amaze me how much I don’t know about gardening! despite having been quite obsessed for many years…

If you would like to see any of the recent garden images at Gravetye Manor, please do let me know (there are some on the website, but I can send samples if you like). And if you are after Hotel Photography, do check out my web site, and many thanks for reading this! Have a great week, Mark

From Greece to Chelsea

It’s been a busy few weeks. As my last post described, I had been in Greece, shooting for interior designers MHD… then on to Chelsea for a rather more ‘normal’ show (last year we had the slightly odd spectacle of late summer at Chelsea so it was good to be back with the more usual early summer hues!). Also a kitchen shoot with Guild Anderson in Wiltshire which looked fabulous. I have selected a few images for this post, but have uploaded a lot more on to the website. Please do take a look and keep in touch!

I’m also working on a book for the excellent Pimpernel press about cottage gardens… here’s one from my own place… let me know if you know of any beautiful traditional cottage gardens! might be worth a visit ;-)

Greece, beautiful Greece

Always lovely to be commissioned for a photography job but some definitely have a particular 'hard to turn down' allure - do you ever work in Tuscany? Can you photograph our castello near Sienna? We're looking for an interiors photographer for a project near Jaipur...  And so it was when the brilliant Martin Hulbert Design team wondered if I had the time to document their work at a private villa on a Greek Island - um yeah sure... 

The villa was perched over an impossibly pretty bay in the hills, with views across to Albania - a mere eight miles away; steeply terraced gardens filled with Bougainvillea and Lantana were by talented garden designer Julie Toll who coincidentally I've worked with before. Having also worked with Martin on other occasions, I knew the house would be equally breathtaking and so it proved to be - the only problem being how to capture it all in the allotted time. Fortunately, as we had a full team on hand from his London studio (similarly pleased to be on site), it worked out well.

The week ended with a trip to Corfu Town (Kérkyra) - a jewel of a place with its Byzantine and Venetian influences - watching a cricket match cold beer in hand in the large square, the Spianáda, as thousands of raucous swifts ricocheted above. Well, someone's gotta do it...

Interior images to follow ;-). Please do get in touch if you’d like me to travel far and wide for you (I’m off to Le Marches in Italy later this month for Appassionata Property… another tough gig I suspect ;-)

A Norfolk, London and York Photography extravaganza with Kelling and Martin Hulbert

I have just completed two weeks shooting for Kelling Designs, all across Norfolk and London. The work is colourful, elegant and interesting. And Norfolk is a beautiful county, and one that I would visit a whole lot more, if it wasn’t for the fact that, as a Devon based photographer, the journey takes a while! Here are some of the images, many thanks to all involved, especially the clients who were wonderfully generous with their houses and their time.

And just before that I shot some of Martin Hulbert Designs new work in York, at the No 1 York hotel… as ever, a sumptuously assured display..

Thanks so much for reading this and do keep in touch if you have interior or hotel photography requirements… It’s getting very busy but I can always find time for new projects! have a great week, Mark

Hotel, Interior and Garden Photography 2021

Morning all, its cold cold cold here, so I have been looking back at a warmer summer of garden photography…I have begun a new project this year, shooting for a book about cottage gardens which will be published by Pimpernel Press in a couple of years time. I’m photographing some amazing and inspirational cottage gardens (large, small and in between!) and doing some ‘how-to’ images as well. Much of the work will take place in my own garden, so the muddy quagmire that is my new ‘patch’ will need to shape up rapidly!

Its not all about the great outdoors though, and as usual, there have been hotels to shoot, and some interiors to drool over! I shot Bowood House Hotel last week, where the head chef served up some goodies that just looked amazing (tasted great too)… Bowood has its own amazing garden, famous during the spring when Rhododendrons and Bluebells steal the scene.

Studio Goldy are a young design practice in London, and this work was in West London… clean, fresh and contemporary… watch out for great things from them…

I do hope you enjoy reading this, many thanks for your support this difficult year for all of us, and please do get in touch if you’d like to discuss photography in the coming months. I can send you sample images and am always happy to discuss rates and terms… until then, have a good week and thanks again. Mark

Hanham Court Gardens, a place I return to again and again… this is an autumnal shoot just finished and available as a feature set…