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Fashion Editorial with Barbra

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FASHION EDITORIAL WITH BARBRA

I’ve known designer Barbara for a few years now. We’ve collaborated on several occasions (here for example) and became friends along the way. Earlier this year I decided to carve out a day every month for personal, creative work where I invite various people to collaborate and take some photos just for fun. It allows me to experiment, and try things I don’t get to do with paid clients. It also gets me excited about photography again. Barbra’s been on the list of prospective collaborations for this and lucky for me she was up for having some photos taken. We shot a lot with hard light that day, something I’ve always been scared of but I am scared of it no more thanks to how this shoot turned out. We were going for retro vibes - some Old Hollywood, some 1980s. Have a look below.

Hair, Make Up & Styling: Michelle Watson
Studio: Basement49

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Nikon D850 + Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filter
Profoto A1 x 2
Profoto B10
120cm Octabox
Softbox 3' Octa
Softgrid Octa
Reflector

Emma Dunlop

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Editorial shoot with singer songwriter Emma Dunlop

I met Emma Dunlop when she came to the opening of my exhibition Women At COP26 last autumn but actually, as it turned out, I photographed her many years ago as part of The Kennedy Cupcakes dance troupe at a corporate event in Glasgow. We chatted very briefly at the launch and I remember thinking it would be great to photograph her at some point. We managed to make it happen last month when we spent a day in a studio with a small, yet brilliant team, trying different things and just having fun. We wanted a lot of shadows, shapes, androgyny, oversized suits and playing with the ideas of masculine and feminine. I never shoot with hard light, like ever, so this was something new for me to try as most set ups we prepared for this session were all about hard lighting. See our initial references below as well as a few of the final images.

Hair, Make Up & Styling: Michelle Watson
Assistance: Jack Thomson
Studio: Basement49

Visual References

Behind the Scenes (taken by Jack Thomson):

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Nikon D850 + Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filter
Profoto B10
Profoto A1
Profoto OCF Softbox 3' Octa

Profoto OCF Beauty Dish White 2'

Neewer 120cm Octabox
Reflector

Justyna Jablonska's Lost & Found

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LOST & FOUND: A CELLIST’S JOURNEY

This was probably one of my favourite projects last year. Performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in August, Lost & Found: A Cellist’s Journey, was a rumination on Justyna Jablonska’s personal and musical journey from Poland to Scotland after finishing high school in her hometown of Łódź. It mixed cello, electronica and video projections to tell the artist’s story.

Justyna and I have worked together on several projects in recent years and it’s always a joy and a challenge. For Lost & Found, my task was to take promotional images, design the artwork and produce a trailer for the show. Justyna wanted everything to have a vintage, analog feel so most of the images were shot on film and I tried to incorporate that aesthetic in the promo artwork and video.

While Justyna is based in Edinburgh, we took the main promo images in Glasgow as its industrial history and vibe are closer to Łódź, where Justyna is originally from. Have a look below:

Promo Poster for the Edinburgh Fringe

GEAR PHOTO
Nikon FM + Nikkor 100mm f1.8
Kodak 400TX

Nikon D850 + Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filter

Sony A7III + Sony 85mm f1.8
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filter

GEAR VIDEO
Sony A7III + DJI RS 2
Sony 35mm f1.8
Sony 85mm f1.8
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 FilterS

Jill Jackson, Yours Aye

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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:

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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

Dunt

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I’ve known Samson, aka Dunt, for many years - he plays drums for Horse whom I collaborate with frequently. He’s also a brilliant producer in his own right, however, and last summer we took some promo images for him at Dry Docks in Govan. It was a very simple affair, just the two of us and a camera, have a look:

GEAR
Nikon D850 + Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filter