Justyna Jablonska's Lost & Found

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

Dog Digital

There are several interesting things about this particular shoot but none more so than the fact these images were taken late February in Glasgow - scroll down, have a look and call me a liar, I won’t blame you. But it was full on sun, clear blue skies, the works. Sometimes you just get lucky (or it’s global warming). Either way, the shoot was for Dog Digital, an award winning marketing agency based in Glasgow’s city centre. They were looking for portrait images of some members of their team and wanted a contemporary, urban feel with the city of Glasgow as the backdrop. The challenge was to feature the city but without making it too obvious so we focused on lines, textures and angles. Kirsty and Stuart from I’ll Be Your Mirror were in charge of styling the shoot (and, as ever, were a dream to work with) and Beccy Goldinger took care of hair and make up. The shoot was long and took 3 days to complete but it was actually very relaxed and fun. It’s always easy when you work with nice people. Check some of the images below:

Behind the scenes:

GEAR
Nikon D850
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8
Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8
Profoto A1 + Air Remote TTL-N for Nikon
RoundFlash Beauty Dish

Throwback: Patricia Panther

Patricia Panther is a singer, songwriter, producer, actress and an all around badass. We've worked together on several occasions but this throwback post is about our first collaboration back in April 2013 where we spent a beautiful (albeit cold) afternoon and evening shooting in the ruins of St. Peter’s Seminary in Cardross (I’ve written before about my trips there). Huge thanks to Ryan Vance for assistance.

GEAR:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8
Nikon SB-600 Speedlight
Lastolite 24” x 24” Softbox
Reflector

Behind the scenes photos by Ryan Vance:

Caezar

Caezar are Joe Donnelly and JJ Gilmour (former members of Scottish band The Silencers). Their debut album "Time" has just been released and I was lucky to work with them on promotional images as well as a music video for the album's second single "Love Is A Reason". The photoshoot took place on a rainy May day last year in Glasgow (huge thanks to Sarah Kesson for assistance). We wanted an urban, gritty feel to the images and Glasgow has plenty to offer in that respect.

The video was a different bag altogether. The band's brief was "black and white, weird and without us in it". I have to admit, I panicked a little - I had done 2 music videos by that point, both pretty much performance-based and I'd never written a treatment for one before. In fact, I almost said no to the project but I eventually had a moment of epiphany, got in touch with the amazing Frances Thorburn asking if she'd be interested in being involved. She said yes, as did Michelle Watson from Kitsch Me Vintage who provided custom headpieces, vintage dress and was in charge of hair and makeup on the day. Fran's spine-tingling performance is what truly makes this video and I can't thank her enough for agreeing to take part in it. We filmed most of it in my living room and in a back lane in Glasgow's Charing X area. There was some additional filming done all over the city centre from Fran's car on one very, very snowy night earlier this year. The visuals of Anton Corbijn were our reference point for both, the photography and the video. Check it all out below and if you'd like to catch the band live you're in luck Caezar are are playing Òran Mór in Glasgow on July 27th (you can get tickets here).

Caezar's debut album cover featuring a still from the video.

GEAR:
Nikon D4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Reflector
Video was filmed with Nikon D4 + 50mm f1.4 and a Neewer CN-216 LED Light and edited in FCPX.

St. Peter's Seminary

I love shooting outdoors, am always looking for new, unusual or in any way exciting places to use as a setting and it rarely gets more exciting than the ruins of St. Peter's Seminary in Cardross. I'd read about it online and one day in the summer of 2011, singer Jill Jackson (ex Speedway), her assistant and myself went onto an exploratory trip which eventually turned into an impromptu photoshoot. We found the place to be creepy as hell, we bumped into a couple of Japanese tourists bizarrely (you won't find these ruins in your travel book, trust me) but more importantly it also turned out to be an endless photo opportunity. I've been back several times since then, most recently in May with a shoot for Channel 4, and while the place is getting more and more difficult to access it never fails to deliver and despite my numerous visits I still feel there's more to see there. Here are some images from shoots I've had there over the years:

Jill Jackson

Jil Jackson

Scott Charles

Scott Charles

Patricia Panther

Patricia Panther

Channel 4

Channel 4