Performance

Celtic Connections 2024

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Documenting the 2024 Celtic Connections Festival

Well, this January flew by for a change, thanks to Celtic Connections, the world-renowned folk, roots and world music festival. Glasgow Life approached me late last year asking if I’d be interested in documenting the 2024 outing of the annual winter event and I was, like, hmm, I need to think about it. I’m kidding, obviously, I jumped at the opportunity!

This year’s festival run from January 18th to February 4th, with over 300 events involving 1,200 artists across 25 of the city’s venues. I’m not superhuman and was able to photograph only a portion of that, but hopefully what you see below is a good representation of the 2024 Celtic Connections. I had a blast and am looking forward to the 2025 edition if they have me back. Enjoy a selection of my favourite shots from the past 3 weeks:

GEAR
Nikon D850 x 2
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 35mm f1.8
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filters

Dusty Won't Play

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If you missed Frances Thorburn in “Dusty Won’t Play”, A Play A Pie And A Pint production at Òran Mór this June, shame on you cause it was a feast (and I’m not talking about the pie). The play which originally premiered in 2017 tells the story of Dusty Springfield’s 1964 visit to South Africa where the singer defied local apartheid laws prohibiting concert performances to mixed race audiences. Frances is a force to be reckoned with, both as an actress and a singer (and those aren’t easy songs to sing), and she was mesmerising. I’m hearing talk of the play being brought back for another, perhaps a larger-scale run if you didn’t manage to catch it this time around. Here are some images taken during the dress rehearsal:

GEAR
Nikon D850 + Nikkor 85mm f1.4

Navigate The Blood

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I’ve worked with Noise Opera on a few different projects in recent years (you can read about one of them here) and each time it was a great experience filled with challenges as well as joy but their most recent production took it to another level. Composed by Admiral Fallow and Gareth Williams with a libretto by Siân Evans, “Navigate The Blood” is a modern opera set in the world of whisky and gin manufacturing and it toured Scottish distilleries this past November. Long rehearsal days, multitude of people involved, numerous performance venues, different lighting set ups, travel - the whole project was as intense and demanding as it was rewarding. Working behind the scenes on such productions is one of my favourite things to do - love seeing the creative process, how different performances develop over time and the ability to capture artists with their guards down. An incredibly talented group of people was involved in making this opera both on and off stage, and I couldn’t be happier to have been a part of it. I photographed and filmed the rehearsal process as well as several live performances and you can check it all out below:

“Navigate The Blood” film
featuring footage from rehearsals and live performances shot throughout October and November 2018:

Rehearsals:

Glasgow Distillery Dress Rehearsal + Live Performance:

Behind The Scenes:

Behind Behind The Scenes:

GEAR:
Nikon D4
Nikon D700
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8
Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8

Sony A7III
Sony 35mm f1.8
Metabones Nikon G to Sony NEX E-mount Converter
Zhiyun Crane 2 Gimbal
Video edited in FCPX

Are We There Yet?

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“Are We There Yet?” is the title of Jill Jackson’s most recent album. It was released in May last year and I was responsible for shooting publicity images for it, documenting the recording process as well as filming music videos for the first two singles, “My Baby” and “Goodbye”. The photoshoot took place on a cold winter day in December 2017 in Glasgow’s Charing X area, Kelvingrove Park and my flat. It was freezing but Jill is a trooper and this shoot was, quite literally at points, a walk in the park in comparison to some of our previous endeavours (for “The Ones That Got Away” album cover for example, I had her standing knee-deep in ice cold Loch Lomond waters in November).

“My Baby” music video was filmed backstage at the Barrowlands as well as during album’s launch night at Saint Luke’s while “Goodbye” was filmed in WEST On The Green and Glasgow Green. By the way, the album itself is brilliant so go get yourself a copy.

 

“Are We There Yet?” Promo shoot:

Recording process (at Kyoti Recording Studio):

Barrowlands dressing room during the filming of "My Baby" music video:

Album Launch at Saint Lukes:

GEAR:
Nikon D4
Nikon D700
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8
Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8
Nikon SB-5000 Speedlight
Neewer 120cm Octabox
Reflector


PocketWizard FlexTT5 Transceiver
PocketWizard MiniTT1 Transmitter 

Videos filmed with Sony A7III + Sony 35mm f1.8
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Metabones Nikon G to Sony NEX E-mount Converter
Zhiyun Crane 2 Gimbal
Edited in FCPX

Noise - Love Speaks Opera

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Noise is a Scottish opera company whose aim is to broaden the audience for contemporary opera in Scotland. I’ve worked with them previously on their “Hirda” project, an opera written in Shetlandic dialect, and was delighted to be back photographing and filming their most recent production, “Love Speaks”. “Love Speaks” is a short opera written by Kevan O’Reilly and Jenny Knotts about love and relationships, celebrating the availability of prEP on NHS Scotland. The short piece was directed by James Robert Carson and featured stellar performances from Marie Claire Breen, Douglas Gordon, Kenny Reid and Shuna Scott Sendall. You can see the short film I made for this below and some images from live performances and rehearsals.

GEAR:
Nikon D4
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4

Video filmed with Sony A7III + Sony 35mm f1.8
Metabones Nikon G to Sony NEX E-mount Converter
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8
Zhiyun Crane 2 Gimbal
Edited in FCPX