Basement49

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

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:

Jill Jackson, Yours Aye

New album campaign for Jill Jackson

“Yours Aye” is the brand new album by Scottish singer-songwriter Jill Jackson. After several pandemic-related delays, it finally saw the light of day in early May (hitting #1 on iTunes Country Album Chart no less). I’ve written about working with Jill many, many times (you can read about our first decade together here for example) and what can I say? It’s always a pleasure and a really, really good laugh.

Jill approached me last year to do a photoshoot for the new album cover and after sending me some examples of the mood and style of images she was after (see below), I suggested shooting the whole thing on film. Since Jill loves all things analog there wasn’t any convincing needed. I have to admit though that before the session I started panicking a little - what if I mess up and we don’t get the cover shot we needed? I got back to shooting film in recent years but haven’t done many 100% analog projects for clients so to alleviate my paranoia and to cover my back I took my digital equipment along with my Nikon FM and ended up using both.

We shot in Basement49 Studio as well as outdoors in Glasgow’s Merchant City. Gulabi did a brilliant job developing and scanning the 5 rolls we went through on the day (2 color and 3 black and white) and you can see some of my favourite images from the session if you scroll below. Wonder if you can tell which ones were analog and which were digital?

My involvement in the project didn’t end there however. Earlier this year I filmed Jill’s live sessions at Gorbals Sound studios as well as an interview, all of which are being used to promote the album on various platforms. I was also recently at Cottiers where Jill officially launched the album with a brilliant live set. Have a look below to see all of that and more. Enjoy and do check out “Yours Aye”, it really is a masterclass in songwriting and production.

Jill's visual references

for the session

“Yours Aye” Album Cover:

“Yours Aye” album cover shoot.

Basement49 Studio and Merchant City in Glasgow, June 3rd 2021:


“Live Sessions”

Gorbals Sound, March 6th, 2021:


ALBUM LAUNCH

Cottiers, Soundcheck & Live Show, May 19, 2022

Behind the scenes:

GEAR

Digital:
Nikon D850 + Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Studio Lights (can’t remember what was used exactly)

Analog:
Nikon FM + Nikkor 100mm f1.8
Kodak TX 400
Kodak Portra 400
Studio Lights

Video:
Sony A7III x 2
Sony 35mm f1.8
Sony 85mm f1.8
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filters
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 + Metabones Nikon G to Sony E-mount Converter
Profoto B10 + Profoto OCF Softbox 3' Octa
Neewer CN-216 LED Light x 2
DJI RS 2
Edited in FCPX

Live:
Nikon D850 + Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filter
Nikon D850 + Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 / Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8

BTS:
FujiFilm x100v
iPhone 11 Pro