2013 Round Up

2013 was a strange year for me. A lot of changes, some life-changing decisions, a few very fortunate encounters and lots of work. All in all not a bad one just a bit strange on both, personal and professional level. So here we are now, in 2014. I'm not one for making New Year's resolutions (I know myself all too well to pretend I'd ever stick to any of them) but I do like to look back at the previous 12 months every January. We've got this ritual in my household where on New Year's Eve we try to list the high points of the passing year and I would recommend this to everyone. It somehow makes you feel that little bit more optimistic at the dawn of new annum once you realise that there were good things that happened even in the shittiest of years. Now don't worry, I will spare you my list, what I will do instead is share some of my shots from 2013 that I'm particularly proud of for one reason or another:

And since we're summarising 2013 I will indulge a bit and make a list of music that I happened to fancy last year. Feel free to shrug your shoulders, raise your eyebrows and comment on my choices:

ALBUMS OF '13

Beyoncé BEYONCÉ 

Lorde Pure Heroine 

Janelle Monáe The Electric Lady 

Hot Natured Different Sides of the Sun 

Daft Punk Random Access Memories 

Horse Home 

Little Mix Salute 

Goldfrapp Tales of Us 

Morcheeba Head Up High 

Blood Orange Cupid Deluxe

SONGS OF '13

Lorde Royals 

Daft Punk Get Lucky 

Destiny's Child Nuclear 

Hot Natured Alternate State (feat. Róisin Murphy) 

Little Boots Motorway 

Miley Cyrus We Can't Stop 

Petula Clark Cut Copy Me 

Naughty Boy La La La (feat. Sam Smith) 

Rhye Open 

Sky Ferreira Everything Is Embarrassing

Blog Reboot

OK, I think it's time to re-boot this blog. I mean, my last post was in August and that's just embarrassing. In my defence, when I started this whole blogging idea I still had a full time job which combined with shooting over the weekends/in the evenings and editing till late at night left little room (let alone inspiration) for writing. That's one side of the coin. The other one is that I've admittedly been struggling with the concept - who, in all honesty, cares about my latest photography commission? Turning this into a kind of photo advice blog is not gonna work cause that's just not me. Focusing on the technical aspects of the photos would bore me to death and I'd probably burst into tears if I had to come up with those lighting set up diagrams. Plus, there are people out there who do it already and with more competence than I could ever hope for. I keep reading online advice about how your blog should be SEO friendly, have meta here and bollocks there and while I'm sure it's all very important I simply cannot write having all that as my main focus. I used to keep a regular online journal a decade ago (before the word blog entered our collective lexicon) but that came quite effortlessly and I truly enjoyed it at the time. So I've decided to hell with trying to be Google-friendly (not like that was working anyways, let's face it) and write for the fun of it. Well, that's the idea anyways. Cheers to that then and Happy New Year!

Christine Bovill's Piaf

I went to see Christine Bovill's much talked-about "Piaf" show at the very beginning of its run at this year's Fringe Festival in Edinburgh and I was floored - by the artist, her performance, her voice, the theatricality and last but not least The Famous Spiegeltent setting. How could I not come back and try to photograph it? I met Christine for coffee in Glasgow's West End, she kindly agreed to let me document the concert and I came back to Edinburgh to photograph the penultimate performance of this year's "Piaf" run. It was quite an unusual setting for me - the only instruments were the piano and the violin (and Christine's voice, of course), The Famous Spiegeltent is a very intimate venue which combined with an incredibly attentive audience made me feel quite aware of my presence there. You don't want to disturb anyone and draw attention to yourself and I did the best I could given that I'm 6' 4" and the shutter on D700 is a rather loud one. Here are some photos for you to see. I have no idea if there are any plans for future "Piaf" shows but be sure to see one if you get a chance, you won't be disappointed!

Sean Kennedy

Sean Kennedy is an up and coming Scottish singer-songwriter with whom I did a shoot last summer (you can read about it here). The results of that first session ended up on the cover of his debut EP "Love Don't Live Here" (as seen here) and I was looking forward to working with him again. This time it was an indoors shoot and we used Contrast Studio in Glasgow's city centre. Since the studio we used had plenty of natural light and it was a beautiful, late spring evening (something you don't get in Glasgow that often) we decided to split the shoot into 2 sections - one for shots with available light only and another using studio lighting. Huge thanks to Laurabelle, my light assistant supreme.

Stella Bartram

I've recently found myself being asked to do more and more fitness-oriented photoshoots. It's quite ironic, really, given my close-to-none interest in sport - I used to do yoga and pilates and now swim regularly but that's more to do with me turning 30 some time ago and desperately trying to rip my body from Mr. Gravity's persistent hands rather than any competitiveness or huge desire to be fit. Still, I found photographing athletes very interesting and quite different from the usual portraiture sessions. Apart from the technical aspects (lighting to emphasise the physique, etc) there's definitely more awareness of one's body and posture as well as confidence that come with a lifetime of training and making a living out of being fit. First fitness-oriented shoot I did was for the 2011 Ladies Handball Team Calendar but apart from the subject matter itself I wouldn't say these pictures could necessarily be classified as fitness ones. In terms of light and set up this was really a portraiture session which was meant to capture 13 beautiful girls who happened to be handball players. I wasn't trying to highlight how toned their bodies were or such. Things were different however, when the fantastic Neo Marketing send Stella Bartram my way. We had several meetings to discuss the concept and feel of the images she was looking for and after each of them I'd spend hours scratching my head, reading articles about fitness photography and considering cancellation (not necessarily in that order). Sometimes though, you just have to bite the bullet and that's what I did.

That first session with Stella Bartram happened a couple of years ago, we both enjoyed the experience, the images have been very well received and we have been talking about doing another photoshoot ever since. She's a very busy lady however (what with running her fitness empire, whipping celebrities into shape and promoting healthy lifestyle in general) and it wasn't until this February that both of us found the time to get some pictures taken. Rainbow Room International very kindly agreed to let us use their space as well as take care of Stella's hair for the 2 different looks we envisioned, I had my lighting assistant extraordinaire Laurabelle by my side and off we went.

We are already planning another session, something a bit more gritty perhaps. In the meantime though, I managed to catch Miss Bartram doing what she does best - training. I was asked to take some pictures of Stella's Metabolic Mayhem workout in aid of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research UK at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum in Glasgow. It was a beautiful albeit rather chilly early spring morning, people turned up in dozens and I got to witness firsthand why the Bartram brand is so successful:

I certainly know where to head once I start losing the battle with Mr. Gravity and some laps in the pool won't be enough to keep my butt from hitting the ground anymore!