Dorset

To continue with our series of shoots with artisan food producers & craftsmen we thought we would share a recent shoot that Mark did with a Thatcher down in rural Wiltshire.
Whilst we have been searching for suitable projects for Mark so much has been through word-of-mouth, twitter & chance meetings with people. Recently Mark spent a day teaching photography to small businesses in Wiltshire for use on their websites etc. On the day he chatted to a lady who mentioned that her husband was a thatcher & may be looking for new images for his website. Now, never one to rest on his laurels the next day when he was back at his desk Mark called Adam & later the same week he found himself atop a thatched roof! Mark spent the day with them whilst they thatched the beautiful thatched cottage. He captured images of them using the traditional tools such as the legget which is used to force the blunt ends of the reeds inwards to bring them into line & shearing hook which looks like a left-handed scythe, except it’s right-handed and is used to shear the ears off the reeds. Mark got some fantastic shots of the tools, the skills & the craftsmen themselves. Thatching truly is an ancient craft; the first thatch was in the Bronze age – 4,500 years ago. Thatched cottages and farm buildings were the norm in rural Britain for a millennium or more. Adam Nash, who Mark spent the day with, is a Master Thatcher & is based in Crockerton, Wiltshire and thatches in Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset. You will see examples of his thatching scattered around the counties including Salisbury, Amesbury, Andover, Heytesbury, Tisbury, Shaftesbury & Warminster www.adamnashthatcher.co.uk

To those that know me and my work, most of the time I am photographing things with two to four legs, people and animals are what I specialise in.

This time last year I had a call from a local marketing company after I was recommended to them by a local design company in Thame. ‘I’ve got a bit a of a challenge for you’ said the voice down the phone. ‘What do you know about biomass energy?’

Ironically I had photographed a small biomass boiler in a pub I photographed for the Princes Countryside Fund a few months before. Biomass energy is a very efficient way of heating and many businesses are using it now to heat their premises due to it being cost effective and better on the environment. I had photographed a small boiler in a shed that was heating a small country pub but apart from that my knowledge was limited. Always one to rise to a challenge I accepted this gents offer to meet up for a coffee and discuss the project. Biomass boilers run on small wooden pellets that have to be manufactured and I was asked to photograph everything from the plant in Wales where the pellets are made to a swish BMW showroom and leisure centre in Milton Keynes who use biomass energy to heat their premises.

‘It’s boring stuff’ I was told, ‘you are going to have to be creative’ and ‘I’m thinking black and white’ came with the brief. So dates were put into the diary and off we went to these various locations to photograph the world of biomass!

It was brilliant, I totally enjoyed the whole project. I have always had a design head on my shoulders, wanting to be a product designer before finding photography many years ago. I enjoy the processes involved and the way we start with this and end up with that. I will bore you no more, but biomass can be interesting (he says hesitantly….) To find out more about biomass energy here is a link to follow.

If you are looking for a photographer for any commercial photography projects then please do get in touch, I would be delighted to discuss your ideas you may have. My client was thrilled with the images and told me if i can make biomass look exciting I can probably make anything look interesting.

Here are a few of my pictures from the biomass days……

This is what I love so much about my profession. The way that one thing leads to another through referral and how one day I can be photographing a beautiful country wedding and another day a mucky old boiler. Variety is the spice of life they say. I think so!