Scotland I love you...

...but you are hard work!

I am taking a break! I'm kicking off my boots and putting on my bare feet and heading off to Spain to enjoy a drink with every meal and some weather you can make sense of. I shall return with stories and photos galore I say. I am wielding not one but two film cameras on my travels. Not a pixel in sight.

I am overdue a few updates which I shall hopefully tackle on my return. The last crazy month has seen some production images for several shows which are starting touring. Some fabulous coverage of events from the NTS, Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre and the SCO, on top of the rest!

All going well I might also have a snapshot of a current personal project I begun at the start of the year. All very exciting stuff!

But get me out of here quick.

Adios a todos!

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Be Wide

Last week saw the annual musical mélange of Wide Days descend on Edinburgh at Teviot Row. It is a two day consortium of speakers, panels, workshops, showcases and of course, blaring music: a hot bed of music industry knowledge to serve the uninitiated.

I was invited to cover the main events of the day-time panels and discussions. As the proverbial fly on the wall, it is hard not to pick up more than just photos. There was a lot of very solid knowledge from very sharp and sympathetic minds. Gems even that I could take on board for my own approach to creativity. First that it is a business, given,  but second that it is important to share the workload and get hard hitting feedback when you can. Creativity is not a path to be gone alone, and there was a great vibe about the event that lit some flames and got everyone's minds on building up the community.

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A Little Fun

Its not everyday the photographer gets a mention! When a picture is worth 1,000 words (on the old exchange rates anyway), there tends to be little editorial real-estate for the creative process behind the scenes. And rightly so, articles can be in depth enough without needing to know about the textile content of the backdrop materials and nasal shadowing of the subject. But interestingly, the interview and the photoshoot are almost as enjoyable as the finished product.

This flattering quote is from Julian Corrie in his New Blood feature in this month's Skinny. The shoot in question was arranged by the creative folks at The Skinny at the Glasgow Science Centre. If you haven't visited or don't know anything about it, be sure of this: it is a world of fun. You could end up having too good a time. And so it went. Legging it through wonderful, interactive floors, setting up images at instruments, mirrors and displays and getting distracted by all the toys. Me and the staff bombarded Julian with sponge balls and built him a fort out of tetris foam blocks. Hardly what you can call "effort", when you're splitting your sides.

Go on and have a listen to his work here

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