1. New Referrals Reward scheme 2. Dereliction and Decay Folio e-book
3. Cairngorms June 2025
4. Food photography/ still life Chez-nous
5. Bonus footage
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Hello there
We love how ideas can spend years in gestation then, suddenly, unexpectedly, reach term and announce themselves, fully-formed, in our minds. And so it was recently with our new Referrals Rewards scheme, now on our website and which you can read about in full, below. There is something pecuniary in it for you!
January is often a time of new ideas for us, perhaps resulting from the period of involuntary idleness over Christmas (that’s Niall talking; not for me it’s not- Charlotte). As well as our RR scheme, Niall conjured another pair of letters - D and D - for his new Folio ebook, Dereliction and Decay. As with our other Folio ebook, Burgundy Folio, this title is free to download. But don’t let that put you off.
With our Harris Retreat only a few weeks away now, we are looking to later in the year and would like to hear from you if you would like to join, in particular, our Cairngorms Retreat with Willi Rolfes which needs only three more to be a “go”. We hope to see you there. And of course, there our home-based Chez-nous Retreats, too.
Keep warm (or cool if you are reading this in Australia).
Our best wishes
Charlotte and Niall
New Referrals Reward scheme
Never has back-scratching been so satisfying
The scheme
Share our Retreats with your network of friends and social media contacts and for each person who books on and attends one of our group Retreats or Chez-nous for two, quoting your recommendation code, we will transfer 200 GBP (cUSD/ Euros 240) into your bank account. You can do this as often as you like, within the limits of the spaces we have. And all you have to do is subscribe to our free monthly newsletter, MENUette, which, since you are reading this, you clearly do already. Tell your friends, too, that they can take part.
You scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours.
How it works:
Get in touch to let us know you would like a recommendation code to use in your mailshots and social media posts. We’ll send you one. You don’t need to have travelled with us before although, obviously if you have, you can (we hope!) give us an endorsement as well as just pass on the information.
Let your network know about our group Retreats and Chez-nous - or just forward/ share our newsletter - whenever you like. It’s best not to send the same one too often, though, and try to keep your messages fresh. Make sure you include the recommendation code in all your sharing activity and that recipients know to quote it if they get in touch with us. This helps to ensure you get your reward.
When we have a contact quoting your code, we’ll keep you informed of the progress of the enquiry. We then confirm at the end of the Retreat that the referred client has attended and make the payment into your nominated account.
Even if you think you might not be able to travel with us, you can still share what we are doing with your network - and perhaps make some easy cash in the process. And that goes for clubs and societies, as well as individuals.
Keeping things fair and above board:
You will be paid GBP 200 as soon as the Retreat with your nominee has been completed.
Friends and partners on the same Retreat or Chez-nous cannot nominate each other, but one of them can claim the reward.
If two or more people nominate the same guest for the same Retreat, the first to nominate that guest will be the one who earns the reward. If there’s a dispute, we just need to know when you each sent out your mailshot.
If your nomination leads to more bookings from the same person, you will be paid for each of these bookings, too, for three years after the date of the first booking.
The nominee must be willing to share their email address with Food and Photography Retreats Ltd. AND you, for the sake of transparency and administration.
This Referral Rewards programme started on 1st January 2025, may not be back-dated to bookings made before then, and may be terminated at any point in the future at our discretion and without prejudice.
Dereliction and Decay Folio e-book
If you have Niall down as a “nature photographer”, you may be surprised by his interest in urbex photography. I despair. As he says in the book’s preface, ”..my idea of what counts as nature photography is perhaps a bit broader than most.” It certainly is, if his pictures of mouldy interiors, spooky cottages and broken-down machinery are anything to go by. Niall also claims that the work, “can be viewed as examples of the tragedy of hubris, where our endeavours to make our mark on, or to inflate our importance in, the world are deflated by ineluctable natural processes that work to reclaim whatever we build. Nature seeks to return all to the earth and, for me, urbex photography is about showing the process in its different stages”. I suppose all that’s true, but I would rather he got on and photographed some more plates of food so we can get on with my e-book! Still, the ebook is free, so you may as well download it and make up your own mind. - Charlotte
We are delighted to be working once again with our German friend and colleague, Willi Rolfes, to offer you a fabulous summer experience in the Scottish Highlands, with a definite wildlife photography slant.
Here are some of the options we have, some within the Cairngorms National Park, others a little further afield:
Fishing ospreys from low levels hides at Rothiemurchus
Roadside red grouse and other upland birds
Old pine woods
Loch Morlich at dusk
Wild-living reindeer herd on Cairngorm
Field studio photography of plants and insects
and if we want to drive a bit further (1.5 - 2 hrs each way)
Gannets and other seabirds at Troup Head
Bottle-nosed dolphins at Chanonry Point
Woodland waterfalls.
In between times we will have review and critique sessions when we discuss the work we have made. Our base will be the celebrated Ballintean Lodge.
We have three spaces remaining so let us know as soon as you can if you’d like to join us. You can read all the details in our brochure.
Chez-nous Retreats, as you may know by now, take place at our home in Burgundy, allowing us to deploy all our resources to teach you new skills, introduce you to new photographic experiences and provide you with a lot of rather nice food in a comfortable, relaxing setting. And it’s just for two photographers at a time.
Of the the many advantages of this sort of Retreat is that you call the shots with regards to what you would like to work on and from this we devise a programme to advance you in that field.
Something we have not pushed so much until now is how we can work with you to develop your food photography (and other still-life) skills, focusing on these these three main areas (these image come from a magazine pitch):
If you want a new creative challenge, food photography is a great starting point, with skills transferrable to other fields of photography such as still life and product photography. We will also talk about developing your own still-life projects (below), conceptually and practically.
If you’re weary of taking the same old photos, this might be just the tonic to restore your “mo-pho” (motivation to photograph). And even if food photography isn’t your thing, you may be able to earn a commission by suggesting it to someone whose it is!
Bonus footage Great tit illustration
I showed you some of these new composites in last month’s MENU-ette - this is the latest. It featuring a couple of cross (but wild) great tits photographed in the field studio, composed with other elements to suggest a local broad-leaved forest. I’ve gone over entirely to Affinity Publisher for making these pieces although for others that feature watercolour paint samples, I still rely on Photoshop as I have been unable to replicate my favourite brush in Publisher. So far.
If you’re interested in the technical gen…the birds were photographed, using a close-focusing 500mm f5.6 lens, against a translucent piece of Plexiglass (c40% light transmission) with a Godox flash gun behind, and with a second flash to provide the front illumination fired through a Manfrotto 2 stop diffuser, about 40 cm distant from the bird. A small amount of left fill was provided by a white board. Simple, really. No, really it is - once you’ve got the technique down. It was a similar process for the plant elements, only without needing to use a 500 mm.
We appreciate that you allow us to keep in contact via these mail-shots -and to let you know what we're up to.
If you can think of anyone else who might enjoy MENU-ette, please encourage them to subscribe.
Many thanks,
Our best wishes, Charlotte and Niall
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