Touch-down

So this is where we are. One helluva round trip coming up!

Just back in Scotland after a week of diamond weather and amazing shooting in Kohler, Wisconsin,  working alongside Hamish Campbell and the Kohler team on some new campaign imagery for The American Club Resort. Just seen the weather report in Edinburgh for the rest of the week - Take me back now!

Back on the ground, and still a little jelly legged,  here is a run down of my work over the last few weeks.


I was invited to cover the Write Here Festival at the Traverse Theatre last month, a series of workshops and events that support script development in theatre writing. Among the discussions and round-table activities I was also offered a privileged role in the rehearsal of Tim Price's Demos (complete with gloves and scarf) that wrapped up the festival.

I have recently started working with the multitalented Scottish Chamber Orchestra who asked me to produce some new images for the SCO Chorus.

I was also invited to the Usher Hall to capture the performance and flower presentation of Nicola Benedetti with the SCO for their performance of The Four Seasons.

Events Consultants Scotland asked me along to get busy behind the scenes at the annual dinner of the Scottish Friendly Assurance at The Glasgow Central Hotel. What I thought was set to be sophisticated, calm black tie evening, soon became a full blown party thanks to Incognito Artists. Table dancing, bouquet swinging and chorus chanting all before desert.

More updates to follow, stay tuned!

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Har Harr

There is a lot to be said for the cold and the rain to bring out a darker side of the imagination. Mid May, and I was expecting a slow incline of daylight and a steady blooming of heat. We should all know better. Five degrees and a lead sky. The Arctic howl of December through our clothes, a flowing mire beneath our jaded shoes.  The worst shock to the system is the disappointment, that we have to wait in suspense for our summer to ever arrive.

The upshot is that I started touring my archive of the images I took over Winter for some consolation on how bad it can get. We need no reminding of the dark once the sun is baking our pavements again so I am happy to post them here for now. Tragically enough, these images of a very sombre Edinburgh Haar are only about a month old. Scotland, as ever, defies the definition of Winter.

Down in Leith it is business as usual. A busy football Saturday, pubs rammed. The opposing ends of Hibernian Stadium invisible to each other through a thick wall of white, according to reports. Shops' shutters up, dogs to be walked, traffic lights green, football practice at 10, paper supplements, bus stop queue, Kirkgate pigeons, shopping bags at the bar, traffic lights red. And all the while, a heavy silence. Like holding the world on mute as the white envelopes everything. I walk around and see some of the most banal things blown out of proportion. A woman and her dog, burnished like two spots of ink on canvas. A flock of seagulls, noiseless from nowhere, bluster limply overhead like debris in a gale. A father and daughter emerge kicking a football in the Links. Shrouded in a cavern of grey, their breath on the air like coal trains as they run directionless, only to be swallowed again into nothing.

And a solitary figure, who seems more at home in the blankness than anyone. Hi Rab:-p

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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!

e

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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