Yana Skakun
Yana Skakun
Exeter, Devon
Natural and cinematic portrait photography in Exeter and across Devon — the Cathedral Close's medieval setting, the Quayside warehouses, Northernhay Gardens, and Dartmoor's moorland beyond.
Exeter is one of England's oldest cities and one of its most photographically varied for portrait work. The Cathedral Close — one of England's finest surviving medieval ecclesiastical precincts, with the Norman facade of Exeter Cathedral at its centre — provides a portrait backdrop of 900 years of continuous architectural history. The Quayside — the 17th-century wool trading quayside above the tidal River Exe — provides a converted-warehouse urban portrait environment specific to Exeter's maritime character. Northernhay and Rougemont Gardens, immediately beside the Cathedral, are among England's oldest public parks and provide a formal green setting for portrait sessions within three minutes of the city's main architectural landmarks.
I photograph all portrait types in Exeter: personal branding and professional headshots for Devon's growing professional sector, family and couple portraits, creative and editorial sessions, and corporate photography. My approach is natural and relaxed — the session is planned around each client's specific brief and around Exeter's location character and light.
I cover Exeter and the wider Devon region — including the Exe Valley, Dartmoor National Park, the East Devon AONB, Torbay, and North Devon.
The Cathedral Close — the medieval precinct surrounding Exeter Cathedral, one of the finest Norman-to-Gothic cathedrals in England — provides a portrait backdrop of extraordinary architectural density. The Cathedral's ornate West Front (the largest surviving collection of 14th-century stone sculpture in England), Mol's Coffee House at the Close entrance, the cobbled Cathedral Yard, and the Bishop's Palace garden combine to form one of England's most photogenic ecclesiastical streetscapes, particularly in early morning before the tourist traffic arrives.
Exeter Quayside — the 17th and 18th-century wool-warehouse complex above the tidal River Exe, where the Exeter Ship Canal begins — provides a portrait environment unique in Devon. The converted warehouses, the historic Custom House (1681, the oldest surviving Custom House in England), the canal basin, and the restored Victorian warehouses along the quayside provide urban-industrial portrait backdrops with Exeter's specific maritime character. The Quayside is at its best in the morning before the café and cyclist traffic builds.
Northernhay Gardens — the Victorian public garden laid out in 1612 on the site of the Norman castle motte, making it one of England's oldest public gardens — lies immediately north of the Cathedral. The formal garden terraces, the war memorial walks, and the elm and plane trees provide a contained green portrait space in the heart of the city. Rougemont Garden, the second park in the same precinct, has the surviving Norman arch of Rougemont Castle (built by William the Conqueror) as an architectural portrait element.
Dartmoor — the granite upland National Park 15 miles west of Exeter — provides Devon's most dramatic portrait landscape. The granite tors (Haytor, Hound Tor, Bel Tor), the open moorland, the stone-walled lanes of the East Dart and West Dart valleys, and the Dartmoor river gorges (Lydford Gorge, the Dart valley above Dartmeet) provide portrait settings of moorland grandeur accessible from Exeter within 30 minutes. Extended Exeter portrait sessions often combine a city-centre character location with a Dartmoor landscape session.
The East Devon AONB — the red-cliff coastline from Exmouth to Lyme Regis, including the World Heritage Jurassic Coast — provides Devon's most accessible coastal portrait setting from Exeter. The red cliffs at Ladram Bay, the beach at Budleigh Salterton, and the estuary of the Otter at Budleigh provide portrait settings of a completely different character to the granite-and-moorland Dartmoor locations, with the warm Devon red-sandstone geology giving a distinctive colour palette.
The Exe Valley between Exeter and Exmoor — the pastoral river valley running north from Exeter through Tiverton and Bampton — provides gentle Devon countryside portrait settings in a less-visited landscape. The Knightshayes Court (National Trust, Victorian Gothic country house with formal gardens above Tiverton) and the Exe Valley village churches (Bickleigh, Thorverton, Cadeleigh) provide portrait locations of gentle pastoral character.
£245
45 min
£395
90 min
£595
Half day
Personal branding and professional headshots for Devon's growing tech, creative, and professional service sectors; family and couple portraits; editorial and fashion sessions; actor and performer portfolios. Exeter's variety — from the Cathedral Close to the Dartmoor moorland — provides excellent location options for any session type.
Yes — combining the Cathedral Close and Quayside for the characterful urban-historic elements with a Dartmoor tor or river valley for the landscape component is one of my most popular Exeter extended session formats. The two environments are 25–30 minutes apart and provide a genuinely varied body of images from a single half-day booking.
Yes — Budleigh Salterton, Ladram Bay, and Sidmouth are all 30–40 minutes from Exeter and I use these locations for Exeter portrait sessions wanting coastal Devon character. The red-sandstone cliffs of the East Devon Jurassic Coast have a colour palette very different from the grey granite of South Devon and Cornwall.
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