Are We There Yet?

“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

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

Soul Nation Choir

Soul Nation Choir, run by the incredibly talented Chris Judge, is a Scottish rock choir that blends pop, soul and gospel in their performances. The best of the best vocal talents have gone through its ranks: X-Factor contestants, Bafta winners, West End stars - you name it. I've been photographing them since the choir's inception some 5 years ago: from candid, behind-the-scenes moments to images taken on music video shoots and during numerous live appearances. It's always a joy to work with them, I've made some friends along the way and I thought it was about time I compiled and shared some of my favourite images taken during these past 5 years. Enjoy and catch them live if you get a chance - they'll leave you smiling for days.

Horse - Careful

Horse McDonald is a legend and a recent recipient of DIVA Magazine's Hall of Fame Award. Working with Horse is always a pleasure and we've done several different projects together over the years but the publicity images for her critically-acclaimed one-woman play "Careful" are definitely among my favourites. Shot on a cold winter day at Britannia Panopticon, the world's oldest surviving music hall, it was a very low key affair - just us, lovely Marta on makeup duties and a reflector. The play, written by Lynn Ferguson and directed by Maggie Kinloch, is a brutally honest, and at times painful story of identity struggle and self-acceptance and our goal for the promo images was to capture the intensity and intimacy of the performance. Peter Lindbergh, as well as old Hollywood photography from the 1940s, were our points of reference:

Behind the scenes:

And here are some photos taken during the play's run in Glasgow's Tron Theatre:

Bare Knuckle

"Bare Knuckle" is the title of Chris Stout & Catriona McKay's new album. It was released last December to unanimous critical acclaim and the duo has just been nominated for BBC Radio 2 Folk Award 2018 (Best Duo category). I've worked with Chris and Catriona for many years but "Bare Knuckle" was definitely the first time I was involved in their project to such extent - from promotional photoshoot to album artwork and promo posters, from filming the title track's music video to covering the album launch at Queen's Hall in Edinburgh. I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to my work so being able to oversee every aspect of this album's rollout (creatively speaking at least) was truly rewarding. It's also been an absolute pleasure, sometimes a challenge (I'd never done a music video before) but above all a genuine privilege to work with artists of this calibre who also happen to be really decent human beings. 

ALBUM PROMO

ALBUM COVER

LIVE AT QUEEN'S HALL

CELTIC CONNECTIONS PROMO