Inside and Out

Sometimes you get a nice feeling about a house – maybe the location, the outside space, or just the general vibe. I often shoot big country piles which I wouldn’t buy even if I had a billion quid spare. It’s a matter of taste I guess. This one is called Ulgham Hall – not so much a hall, as a decent sized, grade 2 listed, four bedroom detached house in a village full of people who seem to live their life away from everybody else – I’ve never seen anybody walking along the pathway ever. The village has a pub called The Forge which looks like it’s never open. Funny sort of place on the road between Morpeth and Widdrington Station. Anyway, I had the keys to the house, and on this day, my missus decided to come along. I parked on the small driveway to the front, and looked at the imposing exterior of the building. The agent had said that the property would benefit from “honest photography”, and as I opened the front door into the hallway – sporting several years of non-occupancy

About two years ago I was forced to give up my small, but perfectly formed studio space in the East End of Newcastle, as the main client I was servicing had created their own studio adjacent to their admin headquarters. I used the place for shooting thousands of clothing product shots every year, and it had been running successfully for 3 years before it became untenable. I’d started with a much smaller space to keep costs down, but as my workload increased, the need for greater storage and for room to maintain separate working areas within the room became urgent. Here is a bit of a heads-up as to what you’re going to have to do in order to make any space workable, and what you’re going to have to make provision for in relation to day to day expenses. Unless you’re lucky enough to take over a dedicated shooting space occupied previously by another professional, you will need to prepare the room/s to the spec that you’ll need for your type of work. I dedicated myse