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

Keep The Flame Alight

One of my favourite projects of 2018 was working on Martha L. Healy’s sophomore album “Keep The Flame Alight”. The publicity images and the album cover, as well as music videos for album’s lead single “No Place Like Home” and its follow up “Keep The Flame Alight”, were all shot in Scottish countryside (Stirlingshire to be precise, “Keep The Flame Alight” was filmed at Dreamcatcher Cabins). I also designed the album packaging. If you’d like to catch Martha live, she will be opening for Jill Jackson in a couple of weeks at this year’s Celtic Connections (tickets here). I’ll be there and so should you cause both of these ladies rock. In the meantime, check out the video and some of the photos we took for this project:

Behind the scenes

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
Zhiyun Crane 2 Gimbal
Edited in FCPX

GEAR:
Nikon D4
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Neewer 120cm Octabox
PocketWizard FlexTT5 Transceiver
PocketWizard MiniTT1 Transmitter 

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

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.

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