Prana for Life

Lifestyle Photoshoot with Yogi Siobhan Fitzgerald

Siobhan Fitzgerald is a yoga therapist who specialises in breath work. She saw some of the photography work I did a few years back for Our World Yoga and got in touch to see if I’d be interested in working with her. We met for coffee this summer, got on like a house on fire (shared Madonna obsession helped) and ended up scheduling a date for the shoot. The session took place last month in the Merchant City Yoga studio as well as outdoors in the surrounding areas. Siobhan wanted the images to be bright and airy so that’s what we went for. See some examples below.

GEAR
Nikon Z8
Nikkor Z MC 105mm f2.8
Nikkor Z 85mm f1.2
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filters
Profoto B10
Profoto OCF Softbox 3' Octa
Reflector

Mic Clark

Portrait session with Mic Clark.

Mic Clark is a Scottish singer/songwriter. We met briefly years ago when I was photographing his dad, Chris Clark, another accomplished musician. Last autumn, however, Mic got in touch to have some images taken for his own project. We shot at Basement49 and thereabouts and had the brilliant Michelle Watson on styling duties. Enjoy!

GEAR
Nikon D850
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Profoto B10
Profoto OCF Magnum Reflector

Mela Festival 2024

Photographing Mela Festival at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park.

The Glasgow Mela is Scotland's biggest free multicultural festival of music, dance, and arts held annually at Kelvingrove Park. This year it took place on Sunday, June 23rd, it attracted some 40,000 people and I was there to capture the event for Glasgow Life. Honestly, this was such a joy to photograph and I hope the images below convey that.

GEAR:
Nikon Z8
Nikkor Z 70-200 f2.8
Nikkor Z 14-24mm f2.8
Nikkor Z 85mm f1.2
Nikkor Z 35mm f1.8
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filters

The Road Less Travelled

Photography, artwork and music videos for The Road Less Travelled, a new album from Horse McDonald.

Horse’s new album, The Road Less Travelled, has been many years in the making. In fact, it’s her first release since 2013’s Home which was the first project I worked on with Horse. In the decade or so since, we’ve become frequent collaborators and close friends. With years of projects under our belt and the trust that came with that, Horse let me have the reigns of the visual side of the new album as well as its promo - from photography and video for the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, album artwork and vinyl packaging to various merchandise pieces. I even managed to have a small hand in the recording process and sang backing vocals on one of the album tracks (that’s one off the bucket list!).

The first piece of The Road Less Travelled rollout was the music video for “Leaving”, released back in 2022. In the 2 years since, Horse has completed writing and recording the album and everything was in place for a late spring 2024 launch. Late last year, we started brainstorming ideas for the album promo and for the album’s title track video. While the song “The Road Less Travelled” deals with a relationship ending, we decided to treat the title as a metaphor for Horse’s life, incorporating various iconic images from her 3-decade-plus career as well as personal snaps.

As for the album cover image itself, in late February we booked Basement49 studio and spent a few hours trying different things out. Originally, Horse wanted the album cover to echo the artwork for her 1990 debut, The Same Sky. I wasn’t overly keen on that idea - felt it was pushing the nostalgia factor a step too far - but in the end, it’s my job to bring the artist’s vision to life. The way I often tend to work, however, is to give clients what they think they want but also provide them with something they didn’t know they needed. In this case, what Horse didn’t think she needed was the very last image taken that day which, according to her, turned out to be as iconic as that 1990 shot. I can’t take full credit here though. Originally, my idea for this particular shot was to photograph Horse from the back, showcasing her distinct hairstyle from that angle, but our stylist, Michelle Watson, kept telling Horse to turn her head back to the left and that was that. When Horse received the contact sheet with the images taken on the day, that very last frame was her first choice for the album cover.

Scroll below for the videos, promo images, photos from the album launch at CCA and the album artwork.

ALBUM COVER SHOOT:
Styling & Make Up: Michelle Watson Creative

ALBUM LAUNCH AT CCA:

VINYL ARTWORK:
Limited, hand-numbered edition on red vinyl, gatefold with 12” x 12” exclusive insert

ALBUM LAUNCH BOOKLET:

Christian Shaw and the Witches of Paisley

Christian Shaw and the Witches of Paisley - a new opera project from NOISE.

“Christian Shaw and the Witches of Paisley” is a new opera in development from NOISE, with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working on numerous projects in the past decade (like this one for example). This time I was filming and photographing workshops for this new venture which takes as its subject matter Paisley’s textile industry and the last witch trial to take place in Scotland. It’s a fascinating story and I cannot wait to see the final production. You can learn more about the project from the video below.

GEAR
Nikon Z8
Nikkor Z 14-24mm f2.8
Nikkor Z MC 105mm f2.8
Nikkor Z 85mm f1.2
Nikkor Z 35mm f1.8
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filters
DJI RS 2