MY HOME STUDIO…
My studio is rather unusual, as home-studios go. It’s a large, bright, spacious spare-room in a beautiful house, in the even-more-beautiful countryside of South West Wiltshire – about six miles outside Bath and three miles from Bradford-on-Avon, where I had previously lived for several years .
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t own this extraordinary house; it belongs to my father, David (87), who blithely tolerates my presence in part of it – in return for daily cooked meals and washed dishes. I moved in a few years back, after he was left abruptly alone after decades of marriage and family life; and happily, the arrangement works well for us both!
The modest size of my home studio space makes it unsuitable for group portraits or complex tasks such as fashion shoots – so for any projects like these, I would likely need to hire a local photographic studio with the right facilities, such as very large, seamless backdrops. There are a number of suitable studio’s nearby, if required.
However, the majority of my studio work is straightforward solo portraiture, and for this purpose, my home studio gives me everything I need, including professional-grade studio lighting and a variety of simple, uncluttered backdrops. All of the photos in my studio portraits portfolio gallery were taken this way!
…AND GARDEN!
I have known this house since I was a very small child, when it belonged to my grandparents, Hugo and Susan. It was a magical place to me then, and in many ways, it still is.
Most magical of all are the grounds of the property, which extend to about six acres. This includes a beautiful, if somewhat wild and overgrown, Victorian garden; a spectacular and dramatic rockery, built from locally quarried Bath stone; small patches of ancient woodland, and gorgeous, wide-open, landscape views over the Avon valley, below – overlooking the Kennett and Avon canal and the meandering curve of the river Avon itself.
This provides an abundance of beautiful backdrops for outdoor portrait photography - and many of my clients have been delighted to shoot here. There are, however, plenty of equally beautiful local alternatives to choose from, such as the picturesque town of Bradford-on-Avon, or the quintessentially elegant city of Bath!
