Navigate The Blood

I’ve worked with Noise Opera on a few different projects in recent years (you can read about one of them here) and each time it was a great experience filled with challenges as well as joy but their most recent production took it to another level. Composed by Admiral Fallow and Gareth Williams with a libretto by Siân Evans, “Navigate The Blood” is a modern opera set in the world of whisky and gin manufacturing and it toured Scottish distilleries this past November. Long rehearsal days, multitude of people involved, numerous performance venues, different lighting set ups, travel - the whole project was as intense and demanding as it was rewarding. Working behind the scenes on such productions is one of my favourite things to do - love seeing the creative process, how different performances develop over time and the ability to capture artists with their guards down. An incredibly talented group of people was involved in making this opera both on and off stage, and I couldn’t be happier to have been a part of it. I photographed and filmed the rehearsal process as well as several live performances and you can check it all out below:

“Navigate The Blood” film
featuring footage from rehearsals and live performances shot throughout October and November 2018:

Rehearsals:

Glasgow Distillery Dress Rehearsal + Live Performance:

Behind The Scenes:

Behind Behind The Scenes:

GEAR:
Nikon D4
Nikon D700
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8
Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8

Sony A7III
Sony 35mm f1.8
Metabones Nikon G to Sony NEX E-mount Converter
Zhiyun Crane 2 Gimbal
Video edited in FCPX

Roseanne Reid

If you haven’t heard about Roseanne Reid so far that will probably change soon. She’s a a talented singer/sonwgwriter whose beautiful debut album “Trails” has just been released and there is a bit of a buzz about her in the Americana circles (having Steve Earle as your mentor and guest vocalist on the record doesn’t hurt the matter). I’ve worked with Roseanne on three promo videos for the album as well as some photography and you can check them out below:

“I Love Her So”
Filmed late November last year in Tentsmuir Forest on the East coast and features illustrations by Iona Lee as well as fan-supplied photographs:

“Amy”
A simpler affair shot during Roseanne’s performance and sound check at Saint Luke’s in Glasgow where she was the support slot for Blue Rose Code in March this year:

“Sweet Amy”
Filmed in Edinburgh late March:

In between takes for the “Sweet Annie” video I also managed to shoot a roll of film and take some portrait images of Roseanne:

Behind The Scenes:

GEAR
Video 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

Photography: Nikon FM + Nikkor-S 50mm f1.4
Kodak 400TX

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

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