Paul Thomas Bell

I met Paul Thomas Bell, an award-winning blogger/writer/presenter, and an all-around renaissance man a couple of months ago for coffee after a few exchanges on Instagram. We chatted about how we got to do what we do for a living, about the world of social media, photography, music and everything else in between. We've also agreed that we should work together at some point and we finally managed to meet again last month and take some pictures. See the results below. 

GEAR:
Nikon D4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Nikon SB-5000 Speedlight
PocketWizard FlexTT5 Transceiver
PocketWizard MiniTT1 Transmitter 
Beauty Dish
Reflector

My Sister Ania

My sister Ania has been the subject/victim of my photographic endeavours ever since I knew how to press the shutter button on a camera. Now, I'd like to be able to tell you here a nice, sentimental tale of how I was a wonderfully attentive older brother wanting to capture every moment of my beloved sibling but that just wouldn't be true. Ania likes to tell the story of how, whenever the two of us were going somewhere together I would walk ahead with my headphones on, blasting music while she was trying to keep up with me a few steps behind. There's my level of brotherly attentiveness for you.

Having said that, she’s always been available to have a picture taken and willing to indulge whatever ideas I might have. Getting wrapped in cassette tape? Sure! Posing in a bath filled with paper offcuts? Bring it on! Wearing nothing but tinfoil? Where do I sign up? I could go on but you get the picture. Our relationship has changed quite a bit since we were kids and she not only became my absolute favourite person but also someone I truly admire. I don't photograph her as much as I used to these days as we're both busy with our work (Ania's a seriously talented, award-winning nail artist and runs a salon in Glasgow called Beauty Beehive) but there's probably a book's worth of images I've taken of her throughout the years. Some are great, some of questionable standard but all are a testament to our growth: her as a woman and mine as a photographer and I thought it would be interesting to share some of them here. Enjoy.

And here's a bonus picture of us together as kids:

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

FRANCES THORBURN & FRIENDS

Frances Thorburn is a fantastic singer-songwriter and an actress, known to many for her role as Kim Monroe in River City, and a couple of weeks ago she put on a truly splendid evening of music to raise funds for Moe Abutoq, a film director and a friend of Frances who was diagnosed with MS 2 years ago. The illness has been rapidly advancing and its treatment requires travel to Mexico and some £60,000. Frances invited a host of musicians for the night including Martha L. HealyKathryn JosephAngie Darcy and many more. "Celebration of Songs", as the event was called, took place on February 8th at Saint Luke's and featured material ranging from show tunes to Americana, Broadway to Paula Abdul (yes, really). I was lucky enough to be there and capture the night (see images below). If you didn't manage to attend the fundraiser you can still help Moe by donating to the JustGiving page Frances set up: 

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/frances-thorburnmoeabutoq.


SOUNDCHECK


CELEBRATION OF SONGS