Photographer on a Devon Farm

There are times when working as a photographer you secure a really good and enjoyable commission.  I have photographed on many farms across Devon and many with great wildlife interest, but a recent commission to photograph Hall Farm for the Woodland Trust proved exceptional.
 
Hall Farm was owned by the founder of the Woodland Trust and is now run by tenant farmers Clive and Gilly Venables. 
 
One my first visit Clive gave me a quick tour of the farm and I then took the portrait shots of Clive and Gilly as commissioned for the Woodland Trusts Broadleaf magazine.
 
I decided to do the landscape shots on a return visit as the sun was directly overhead and very harsh.  I returned at 5.30 am a couple of days later.  My plan was to work my way around the farm and take pictures at various places I had picked out on my tour with Clive. 

I was commissioned to take images both for the inside of the magazine and also for the cover.  Broadleaf has a wrap cover so a single image is used across the front and back.  It is something of challenge to take photographs that have the right layout for this.  They need interest on the right hand side for the front, along with space for the straplines, they also needed interest on the lefthand side for the back cover.  It was fun trying to work all this out - literally in the field !
 
I needed to show the way trees had been integrated into the farm management with the hedges, in some of the parkland like fields and newly planted copses. 
 
Sheep are the mainstay of the farm, so I needed to get them in context with the trees as well.
 
There was so much to photograph that after six hours I had only covered around a quarter of the farm and the sun was so high in the sky that I gave up.  But it was an amazing commission.  Clive has planted fruit trees in the hedges, so when they mature apples and pears will be on the menu.  The parkland like fields have several mature trees in them but alongside are much younger trees that will ‘take over’ when the older ones eventually die.  Huge bushy hedges separate the small fields. The hedges are cut and layed only every ten years, so they grow wonderfully bushy and harbour lots of wildlife. 
 
Hall farm is a classic Devon farm and a dream commission for a photographer.
 
Below are a two emails following my submission of the photos to the Woodland Trust.
 
Dear Paul
I viewed your DVD this morning, and what you've done is superb! There are some very strong cover options (cleverly composed!) and a great variety of other shots. Clive and Gilly are very photogenic! I am so grateful to you for all your effort - I won't forget!
Thanks a million, SJ
 
 
Email sent a few days Later
I took the pix to Grantham (Woodland Trust HQ) yesterday, and the WT is thrilled with them. So thanks again, Paul: you really have excelled yourself.
SJ
 
I look forward to seeing what they choose for the next Broadleaf magazine.  To find out more about the Woodland Trust click Here
 
Devon - June 2010