Autumn sittings are open — a small number of weekend dates remain through November.
Check a date →Roll no. 07 · frames 01–24
A small studio for unhurried portrait and editorial work. One sitting, natural light where possible, and a set of finished frames you will actually use — not a folder of four hundred near-identical files.
The studio note
Most people arrive saying they are terrible in photographs. Usually they have only ever been photographed quickly — at a desk, at an event, at arm’s length. Given ninety minutes and somewhere to put their hands, almost everyone becomes easy to photograph.
So sittings here are booked long, with time for a cup of something first, a walk to the light, and a second attempt at anything that felt stiff. I shoot far fewer frames than a busy studio would and spend the saved time on the edit, which is where a photograph is really made.
The work is mostly portraits for people who need a picture of themselves that isn’t five years old, and commissioned photography for small businesses and magazines who want rooms and people to look like themselves rather than like stock.
— Marguerite Vale, photographer
Sessions
Everything below includes the sitting itself, the full edit, and delivery of finished files at print and web resolution. If your brief sits between two of them, say so in the enquiry and I’ll quote the middle.
01
For one person, or two people who want a picture together. Studio daylight or a location you already like — a kitchen, a workshop, a stretch of coast.
From£320
02
A half day in your own space, photographing the people, the process and the details that make the work legible to a customer. Useful for a site rebuild or a first proper set of images.
From£780
03
Commissioned portraits and reportage for print and online features. Happy to work to an art director’s layout, or to shoot loose and let the page find its own crop.
PricedPer brief
Selected frames
Four frames from this year, with a note on how each one was lit. If a particular look here is what you’re after, mention the caption number when you write.
How a sitting runs
Four steps, no surprises. Nothing is charged until the plan is agreed and a date is held.
Step one
You write with roughly what you need and when. I reply with availability, an honest view of whether this studio is the right fit, and a fixed figure — not a range that moves later.
Step two
A one-page note before the day: where we’re meeting, what the light is doing at that hour, what to bring, and two or three reference frames so we both know what we’re aiming at.
Step three
We start slowly and stay talking. You’ll see the back of the camera early so you know it’s going well, and we stop while it is still going well rather than when the time runs out.
Step four
I select and finish the set myself, then send a private gallery with print and web files, plus a short note on which frames suit which use. Files stay available for a year.
Field notes
None of this is compulsory, but each one reliably improves the set.
Knit, linen, denim and wool hold shape and shadow. Fine stripes and small checks can shimmer on a sensor, and bright logos pull the eye away from your face every time.
The last two hours of daylight are the easiest light there is, indoors or out. If your only free slot is midday, that’s fine — we’ll work in shade or use the studio instead.
An instrument, a tool from the bench, a dog, a jacket you have had for years. People hold their own objects differently, and that difference is usually the best frame of the day.
A fresh cut or colour photographs best after about seven days. Sleep matters more than any of this — it shows in the eyes long before it shows anywhere else.
Questions
Four to six weeks is comfortable for a portrait sitting, and eight for a workspace day, since those need a site visit or a proper call first. Editorial commissions are often quicker — if a page is closing, write anyway and I’ll tell you honestly whether the date is possible.
Outdoor sittings go ahead in most weather. Overcast light is flattering and rain gives you frames you would never plan. If conditions are genuinely unworkable, we either move indoors to the studio or reschedule at no cost — that decision is made together the morning of, not the week before.
Twenty-five finished frames from a portrait sitting and sixty from a workspace day, delivered in a private gallery within ten working days. Each is supplied twice: a large file for print and a smaller one sized for web use.
You are receiving a finished edit rather than every exposure. If you want additional frames from the same sitting afterwards, they can be finished individually.
Two changes are included in a portrait sitting and that is usually the right number — a third tends to eat the time we would otherwise spend getting relaxed. Bring them on hangers if you can, and prioritise things you already wear over something bought for the day.
Yes, and those sittings are planned differently: shorter working stretches, somewhere to sit within reach of the camera, and no expectation that everyone looks at the lens at once. Say who is coming in your enquiry and I’ll build the plan around the person who will find it hardest.
Portrait sittings come with unlimited personal use, including prints and social accounts. Business use — a website, advertising, packaging — is covered by the twelve-month commercial licence included with a workspace day, and can be added to a portrait sitting for a fixed fee.
Editorial usage is agreed per title before the shoot so nobody has to renegotiate at layout stage.
Enquire
A sentence or two is plenty to start with. Every enquiry gets a reply, including the ones I’m not the right photographer for.