Rory Hutton & The Royal Opera House

Last time I wrote about working with designer/illustrator Rory Hutton I mentioned we had some projects in the pipeline. One of them was a video highlighting designs for Rory’s collaboration with The Royal Opera House (you can find more information about this collection here). We wanted to create a short behind the scenes film depicting a design’s journey, from research and conception to execution and sale. We shot the video in Rory’s studio in South Block and you can check it out below:

And here are some portrait shots of Rory taken last summer in his apartment:

Behind the scenes of the video:

GEAR:
Nikon D4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Nikon SB-5000 Speedlight
PocketWizard FlexTT5 Transceiver
PocketWizard MiniTT1 Transmitter 
Neewer 120cm Octabox
Reflector

Video shot 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

Seafret

Seafret are Jack Sedman and Harry Draper, two super talented guys from Northern England, who released their debut album in 2016. Last summer they were filming a video for their recent single “Monsters” and I was asked to take some promotional images for the band in between takes. It ended up being one of my favourite shoots of 2018 - very laid back, all natural and relaxed, in a great setting (ex-dynamite storage warehouse in Ayrshire with lots of weird stuff inside and in the surrounding area). I recently worked with Seafret again while they were up in Glasgow recording but for now here are some images from that first shoot last summer:

Location scouting shots:

GEAR:
Nikon D4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4

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 

2018 Round Up

Well hello 2019. I’ve read enough short essays from various people on social media summarising their ‘18 so I’m going to spare you (and myself) another one. Instead, here are some of my favourite images I took in the past 12 months:

Frances Thorburn photographed on the set of “Love Is A Reason” music video for Caezar, January 2018

The Nighting Gals, February 2018

Eunice Olumide photographed for Nu Blvck, March 2018

Martha L. Healy’s “Keep The Flame Alight” album cover shoot, March 2018

Jill Jackson photographed on the set of “My Baby” music video, May 2018

Rab Noakes, July 2018

Rory Hutton, July 2018

Seafret, August 2018

Louise Rutkowski, August 2018

Cameron, October 2018

Jak, October 2018

Lauren Hutcheon, October 2018

From “Feral Ground” project with Grundvold, October 2018

Laura, November 2018

And, as always, here’s a round up of my favourite music from 2018:

ALBUMS OF 2018

Dirty Computer Janelle Monáe
Caution Mariah Carey
Isolation Kali Uchis
Honey Robyn
Golden Hour Kacey Musgraves
I Used To Know Her H.E.R.
Murmurations Simian Mobile Disco
Bloom Troye Sivan
Ella Mai Ella Mai

SONGS OF 2018

Butterflies Kacey Musgraves
Love That Makes You A Cup Of Tea Gretchen Peters
Make Me Feel Janelle Monáe
GTFO Mariah Carey
Missing You Robyn
Bloom Troye Sivan
Like Sugar Chaka Khan
After The Storm Kali Uchis
Tongue MNEK
Boys Lizzo
Hard Place H.E.R.