Cloud House

BEST OF 2025

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2025 SUMMARY

I had every intention of posting this earlier this month, but this year’s January is running away from me. It’s not a bad thing however, as the beginning of the year in this latitude can often feel like inhabiting Mordor - dark, hopeless, grey, where time is stretched beyond limits and where the thought of spring and light is but a memory. It turns out that flying off to Italy on January 2nd can help with that predicament massively. Who would’ve thought? My partner and I spent some time in Palermo (18 degrees Celsius, thank you very much) and then Milan and since coming back, my work has been in overdrive. I’m in the middle of the Celtic Connections festival, which I’m delighted to be covering 3rd year in a row, and which will inevitably be the subject of the next blog post (in anticipation, you’re welcome to check out previous years’ outings here and here). On top of that, I’ve got major projects with Horse, Kris Drever and Rainbow Room underway so I’m a bit stretched at the moment. Again, not a bad thing at all, I’m enjoying the work and it keeps my mind from worrying about that massive tax bill hanging over my head. But hey, life of a freelancer, right? Anyway, enough rambling. Here are some of my favourite images from 2025 as well as the music I was listening to. Enjoy and have a wonderful 2026.

ALBUMS OF 2025
Euro-Country CMAT
Owls, Omens, and Oracles Valerie June
Man’s Best Friend Sabrina Carpenter
Lux Rosalía
Through The Wall Rochelle Jordan
Lifetime Erika de Casier
Lay Low Eddie Chacon
Vie Doja Cat
Addison Addison Rae
Can’t Lose My (Soul) Annie & The Caldwells
That’s Showbiz Baby! Jade

SONGS OF 2025
Wrong Annie & The Caldwells
Headphones On Addison Rae
Euro-Country CMAT
Balenciaga Covered Eyes Agnes
Type Dangerous Mariah Carey
Dopamine Robyn
Jealous Type Doja Cat
Tears Sabrina Carpenter
Berghain Rosalía
Doing It To Rochelle Jordan

Mugdock Park

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Portraits in Mugdock Park

Mugdock Country Park is one of my favourite outdoors spaces to photograph in. It’s easily accessible from Glasgow and not too remote. There are bits of it that feel like remote countryside, places that are lush green and overgrown with ferns. You can find meadows, huge trees, water, there are even ruins of a castle - basically a never-ending source of photo inspiration and despite having done numerous shoots there over the years, I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of the park. In fact, I got lost there for a bit on a shoot last year, wandering in a wooded area in circles. Below you can see one image from every shoot I’ve done in Mugdock Park so far. Enjoy.

Cloud House

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Cloud House are a Glasgow-based alternative/indie band and I’ve worked with them on a couple of promotional shoots in recent years. I’ve also had the pleasure of seeing them live recently at King Tut’s. It was my first live gig since the pandemic (theirs too!) and these gentlemen were pretty awesome. Here are select images from my sessions with them:

DECEMBER 2019 SHOOT / Mugdock Park

GEAR

Nikon D850
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Profoto A1
Profoto Air Remote TTL-N for Nikon
Neewer 120cm Octabox

NOVEMBER 2020 SHOOT / Basement49

GEAR

Nikon D850
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8
Studio lights + Octabox
Reflector

Behind The Scenes:

Cheerio 2020

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Well, 2020 was a doozy, wasn't it? I wrote a bit about my experience during the first lockdown before - remember that? We thought, or perhaps just hoped, that we were out of the woods by that point and life would merrily if slowly, come back to normal. I mean, LOL! At this point, I feel like that old lady in the Titanic wearily announcing “It’s been 84 years…”.

While my first lockdown was filled with making music, reading books about music and taking online music courses, the autumn one was filled with fanatic cooking and baking. Nigella Lawson has always been a huge inspiration for me (I’m pretty much convinced by this point that we’re the same person) but Lockdown #2 took it to new heights. I couldn’t tell whether these were the signs of me transforming into a fully-fledged “domestic goddess” in my 40s, or that a nervous breakdown was imminent. Still, nobody in my flat was complaining, obviously, and being in the kitchen really helped my overall mental health and became an outlet for creativity. Post-Christmas restrictions, however, just plunged me into a state of numbness. Needing an escape, and not being able to plan a physical one, I’ve been reading about Old Hollywood and watching movies from that era (Gilda, Sunset Boulevard, Jezebel, etc). There is something comforting about getting lost in that world. I also found a brilliant YouTube channel with video essays diving into the history of women in Hollywood through the prism of Academy Awards. Not that I’m obsessive about things or anything.

I do miss working and being creative but have been trying not to think about it or look too far ahead. 2020 has been a challenge and an eye-opening experience for everyone (I didn’t realise I had so many epidemiologists on my social media for example) but it’s over now and despite it being generally shit I still managed to take some photos I’m happy with and here’s a selection of them:

And I loved working with Tam Dean Burn on this music video for Louise Rutkowski:

ALBUMS OF 2020
Róisín Machine Róisín Murphy
What’s Your Pleasure? Jessie Ware
Gaslighter The Chicks
Future Nostalgia Dua Lipa
Women In Music Pt. III HAIM
That's How Rumors… Margo Price
Jaguar Victoria Monét

SONGS OF 2020
Murphy’s Law Róisín Machine
No Time To Die Billie Eilish
Levitating Dua Lipa
Ooh La La Jessie Ware
Midnight Sky Miley Cyrus
Gaslighter The Chicks