I do think that my industry - photography - is in decline. Not because of any recession, but because of amateurs who pretend to be professionals. I have nothing against people picking up a camera and being serious about this craft, but when they start advertising themselves as professional photographers, and yet have no formal training, how can they call themselves a professional photographer? The amateur photographer who decides to set up a little website and shoot the occasional wedding may think they are being professional, but in my eyes, they are diluting the level of professional photography. Why? Because they are no flippin’ good! As simple as that. What makes it worse is that they are charging professional prices for images that are well below professional standards.    (more…)

I’ve just added some new software to my website. Called Photocart, it will be responsible for hosting the preview galleries and allowing customers to order and buy preprints.The shopping basket bit if great and works a treat, but the slideshow part is very, very slow in its operation. For existing customers, I would just like to warn you that it’ll take about 15 to 25 seconds for a small slideshow to load - such as a portrait session - and between one and two minutes for a large show to load - such as a wedding.It really infuriates me when software does not say what is does on the packet. I was looking at two packages, both between £150 and £200, and I picked the Photocart because of its slideshow functionality. I’m not happy, but that’s the way it is with software. I did this last year with some software, TAS Books, and I hated that too. More money wasted.If you are a customer and find the slideshow part of your gallery too slow, then please bear with me, as I now intend to separate my slideshow galleries from my preview and purchase galleries. This is going to take a week or so. In the meantime, I implore anyone to try before you buy… 

A short while ago I managed to get to the Edinburgh Tattoo. At the tatoo there are two shows on a wedensday, and three on a Saturday. I opted for the 7.30pm show on a Saturday night and managed to get some shots I was really happy with, but I really wish I had gone to a later show, as the sky was still too bright to capture the effect of the spotlights. Anyway, here’s a few pictures from this years tattoo.

The Norweigian Army drill Squad were amazing. each rifle weighs over 5 kilo’s and they throw them around with precision as though they were made of balsa wood.

 You have to be there to feel the vibration off the massed bands. Pictures just don’t do them justice.

 The Band of the Royal Marines were there as usual - always my favourite.

 A long shot of the massed bands for the finale.

 And taking the lead of the parade and giving the salute to the VIP was the Officer in charge of the Norweigian Army Drill Squad.

And as the sun sets over another Edinburgh Tattoo…

Hopefully before it finished for 2008 I’m going to try and get to the 10.30 pm Tatoo. I want to get some strong floodlit shots, plus the fireworks. Fingers crossed…Would I recommend visiting the Edinburgh Tattoo? Definitely! Whether you are old or young, its a sight worth seeing. A true spectacle.

Yesterday saw me in Oban, photographing Katrina and Glen on their wedding day. The past few week for me has been a blur. With weddings, portraits, commercial work and some family commitments, the past few weeks has just flown by. With yesterdays wedding being in Oban, I knew it was going to be a long day, plus I was expecting rain - but what a great day it turned out to be. Joyful, good fun and completely dry of rain.

 Katrina looked lovely in her stuning dress of ivory white, and black diamante embroidery. Glen looked quite good, too!

  Katrina and Glen were married at St Conans Kirk, which is at Lochawe, about 25 miles before Oban.

The bridesmaids, who were katrinas sisters, wore black lace dresses. 

Katrina, with lochawe in the Background. 

Finally, Katrina and Glan on the centre of Oban, making the best of another photo-opportunity.

It was a great day, which finished off with a Ceilidh in the evening. I really felt like joining in, as everyone was having so much fun, but I had to make the drive back to Helensburgh…

At last Natalie and Jamie were married at Gartocharn, and then had their reception at Ross Priory, which is on the banks of Loch Lomond. Natalie wore a beautiful pale pink dress, with five layers of lace in the skirt. Jamie wore a black and grey kilt, with a black jacket and black shirt - and a pink tie to match Natalie’s dress. Here are a few pictures to see how beautiful natalie looked…

Natalie and Jamie had hired a really unusual wedding car.

Natalie and Jamie looking relaxed, happy - and most of all in love….

Natalie looking beautiful and classical.

And this is Natalie and her lovely bridesmaids.

Reveal magazine are featuring Natalie in an August isue, so I’ve emailed them several images to choose from. I’m looking forward to seeing my pictures in print, but this is nothing in comparison to the wonderful day I had. I shot some great pictures and had a great time in the process.

Some photographers have software that does everything at the touch of a mouse button. All I use is Photoshop, and having used (and taught) photoshop, I do know a little more than the average person. Then again, Photoshop is so vast, sometimes I feel as though I’m only scratching the surface. Anyway, I decided to have a play this morning with some of the Loch Lomond images. Here we go….

In this shot, I simply increased the contrast and made some adjustments to the colour channels. 

 In this one, I made enough adjustments to make the image look as though it is seen through an infra red camera.  

 And of course - how can I forget black and white.  I made several variations with lots of tonal hues, but in the end I settles for plain old monochrome - which i achieved using something called the channel mixer and Lab Colour.  

 I could play with this for hours. Better than watching TV, I suppose!  

This is Will’s. He didn’t want a “boring” portrait - he wanted something good for his facebook.  This is what he got!

And belive it or not, he loves the pictues and thinks they’re ”kewl”….which I think is supposed to be a good sign…

Which goes to show…who needs a studio!

On Thursday evening I was driving back to Helensburgh from Glasgow when I notices some really dramatic cloud formations over Loch Lomond. I raced home, grabbed my camera kit, tripod, torch and panorama head and raced back to Loch Lomond again. I got there about 10.20pm and started shooting about 10.30pm. By the time I got there is was more or less “dark”. This is one of my first batch of shots - and if anyone’s interested, the exposure was 15 seconds at f13 (rated at 200 iso).

 This second shot is actually five frames that are stitched together to make one big file. This is the far-side of Loch Lomond with Ben Lomond in the centre, and was taken at 10.40pm. The exposure was 1 second @ f6.3 (200 ISO).

 This last shot was six frames that are stitched together, and were taken at 10.45pm and the exposure was also 1 sec @ f6.3 (200 ISO).

 Before I got my new Nikon D3, I could have taken the same shots with my trusty D2x at the same time of the evening - but I would have had to use a longer exposure and the quality would have been spoilt by excessive pixellation and long-exposure “noise”.  The D3 is a truly remarkable camera and I just love using it. I wanted to stay longer - but I had to beat a hasty retreat due to the “midges” - and still have the bites on my hands, neck and head to prove it. I got some nice images, though - so it was worth it!

On the 20th Sept in 2007 the QE2 made its last official visit to the Clyde and berthed at Greenock. I was fortunate to be there for its historic last day, which was a more memorable by the flypast of the fantastic Red Arrows. So, why have I put some QE2 pics on here? Well today when I was booked to take some ’scenic’ pictures of Greenock for some postcards and some calendars. I thought I’d have a look through my files and whilst doing so I found my QE2 shots - which I had forgotten all about. Here’s a few shots to show you the spectacle of the day. 

The Red Arrows are truly awesome. I’ve seen them several times over the years, and even though I’ve come from a Naval heritage - I still find this display team one of the best aerial shows on the planet.

 What made the day even more memorable - was that it stayed dry - a unique event for Scotland!    

 Even though the QE2 is an old lady, she still looked majestic alongside the warf in Greenock.  

 I managed to catch this shot as the QE2 sailed out of the Clyde. Fortunately, the onlooker in the foreground made the image more poignant. The end of an era….     

Just over a week ago I bought a petrol powered strimmer. Argos had a sale on and as I was sick to death of running cable out everytime I wanted to use the electric strimmer - I thought I would give the petrol strimmer a go.

Its wonderful. It makes lots of racket, and cuts and strims a treat - and within five minutes I had taken the heads of a whole row of new plants my wife had planted just a few days before! As you can imagine - I wan’t very popular and that evening dinner was a rather quiet affair….

I’ve been using a Tamrac camera bag for about two years. I like it because its very tall and I can get my Nikkon 70/200 lens in the bag stood on end - with the lens-hood attached. Its also got a big zippd compartment on the back of the bag that allows me to keep a large lastolite reflector in the pocket. I also keep my camera (24/70mm lens), a 12/24mm lens, an SB800 flashgun, and a large diffuser for the flashgun - plus an assortment of small gargets and gizmo’s.

Lat week I thought I would treat myself to a bigger camera bag - so I bought another Tamrac. I was going to get a Domke, then a Lowepro, but them I thought I’d stick with tamrac as they are tough bags. Another stoke of genius….!

Well - it was too small. Just not tall enough for my long lens, and the rear pocket won’t take the lastolite. This bag will now sit alongside my Billingham bag, my Lowepro Rucksack, my Kata rucksack, my silver ally case, my peli case and my calumet stroller case…..

When I went to Focus at the NEC earlier this year, one of the things I wanted to do was look at camera bags - but I never go around to it. Sometimes, buying things off the internet is just a real pain. I like to be able to touch and handle the product before I buy it, and now that we have to buy most things off the internet, it really becomes a gamble when you buy something. Will it fit, will it work, what does it feel like? This is something that I’ve done several times of late - buying something online, then finding it wasn’t really suitable. Bring back shops…!  Now, what about that Domke bag, or the Lowepro…..or am I becoming a bagaholic…!

When it comes down to it, all photographers are different. Some will only use the lenses made by their camera manufacturer, and some have an open mind. I’m in the latter camp, and over the years have used lenses my Tamron, Tokina, Sigma - and of course, Nikon.

I quite like Tokina lenses, but I’m afraid to say that with Sigma - some lenses are not as better than others. I’ve got a 24/70 f2.7 which is superb, yet I’ve got a 12/24 which is very poor. I’ve also used a 17/70 which was superb, and a 80/400 which was very hit and miss.

Currently I’m using a mixture of Nikon and Sigma lenses. The best lens I’ve used for a long while was the Nikon 17/200 - which meant that at a wedding, I could keep this lens on the camera all day. Now I’ve got the bigger chipped D3, using the 17/200 is impractical so off it went to Ebayland. I’ve still gots lots of other bits and pieces to get rid of, but I just can’t bear to part with them - like my Fuji S3Pro. What a lovely little camera that was.

I’ve had my Nikon D3 now for a good few weeks. It cost alot of money, but was well worth the expense as it really has made some of my photography a little easier - in terms of working in low light. Its still quite a handful though, and there are quite alot of technical issues with it. I still haven’t managed to full digest the instruction book (all 444 pages) but I’m getting there. One thing I have noticed as I get older, I find it more difficult to take-in technical information. Its not that I can’t take it in, its just that sometimes I find that I can’t be bothered. Maybe its information overload. 

Regardless of all this - I still think that this is the best camera I have ever had the pleasure in using, and definitely the best DSLR camera in the world.

The week before last I had to photograph a very excitable, precocious and nippy young lady called Poppy - who happens to be a Cairn Terrier puppy. She was about 15 weeks old, and a little bit of a handful - but I did manage to get some nice pictures of her.

How did I get this picture? With much persistence, patience and a small rubber squeeky toy!  (the wonders of modern technology…)

Last week the Antonine Fencing Club at Clydebank had their annual awards ceremony. There was lots of fizzy drinks, lots of grub, and of course - lots of prizes and awards. My daughter has been fencing since she was eleven. She’s now 17 and fences quite well. This year started off well with her going to several competitions in Scotland and the UK and being ranked No.8 in Scotland for the U18’s - but then the exams reared their ugly head, so due to them, she’s had to give many competitions a miss. Never mind, there’s always next year. Here’s a picture of the prize winners at the Antonine Fencing Club, with their coaches, Jack and Colin.

  BTW: Colin - we’ll be there this week (the 9th), and I’ll bring the pictures with me…..

Last week I also shot Kirsty and Russell’s pre-wedding portraits. They are getting married at the Popinjay Hotel near Hamilton later this year. I’m also looking forward to this wedding, as the Popinjay is a really intimate venue, plus the day promises to be a whole lot of fun. This is one of the pictures from the shoot, of Kirsty and Russell in an “intimate embrace”… 

Well, its been raining for so long, it comes as a bit of a shock when we get some sunshine - and I was blessed last week at Susan and Sandy’s wedding. The day started off a bit grey, but by the time we got to Cameron House, the sky was blue, the clouds white and the temperatures rising. I’ll post the first one on here, and I’ll pop a few more on next week. This is Susan, looking elegant and beautiful. 

Last week was a busy week, with one thing and another - especially one wedding and three portraits. Phewwww. The week before I was in the North-west for a few days, and while down there I shot Katrine and Glen’s portraits. They get married in Oban during August, which promises to be a lovely wedding - due to the location of the kirk and the nearby ocean.

Anyway, here are three images. I likes all the images I shot during the session, but as I limit myself to three images per “blog”, I suppose I could say that I do like these images a bit more than the rest.

The pictures were taken in the evening at Gawthorpe Hall (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-gawthorpehall/) which is an Elizebethan hall outside Burnley, in Lancashire.  Having two nice people to photograph made my job easy; to have gawthorpe hall as a backdrop made my job even easier. This was a day I really enjoyed.

A few days ago I shot some pictures at the Drovers Inn for Mercedez. This is a really old pub at Inverarnan (to the north of Loch Lomond about halfway between Tarbet and Crianlarich). The Drovers has been a pub since 1705, and to be honest, I don’t think much has changed since 1705 - as the pub is full of wonderful character. And what great staff; always willing to help and offer a cheery smile. I was booked to take some pictures of their new Minibus for the Mercedes Benz magazine, as the minibus is a new type of vehicle that has been finished in an unusual way. I got there early and to kill some time had something to eat and a cup of coffee. Wonderful! The food was lovely - and the coffee excellent. I love coffee, and if i get a good cup of coffee, then I’m in wonderland. Thank you, the Drovers, and I advise anyone to drop into the Drovers if they fancy a drive into the country for some fine food and hospitality. Anyway, whilst I was waiting, I took a few pictures. This is how the drovers looks today: 

I decided to have a “play” with the image to make it look “old”. Its a shame about the sun brollies, but never mind, almost there…. 

 And this is the new Mercedez minibus: 

 And this is one proud owner, and one very friendly and genial landlord, Mr Strang.  

 Thanks again Mr Strang for being understanding whilst I took all those pictures, and for managing to smile for so long.  

Yesterday I photographed Sheena and David’s wedding at at the Ben Lomond centre in Tarbert, near to Loch Lomond. It was a remarkable day. As a wedding photographer I get to photograph weddings that are fairly standard - or as standard as we’ve come to accept them.   Yesterday’s wedding was as traditional as a traditional Scottish wedding could be as Sheena and David had decided to get married wearing traditional highland dress, even down to Sheena’s dirk, David’s broadsword and both their traditional footwear. The wedding was beautiful, romantic and completely unique. Here are a few pictures to show you just how lovely the day was. This is Sheena and David.

This is David and Sheena with the three beautiful bridesmaids.

This is Sheena and David on the banks of Loch Lomond.

This is the Celidh that ensued after the main meal, and the start of the evening’s festivities.

Well I just couldn’t resist it! I had to make at least one of these images monochrome, so here it is. I converted it to monochrome, then added a touch of sepia. I quite like it. It looks just like an old picture.

The weather this morning was beautiful, and to commemorate this - as this is a rare accurance at these latitudes - I went out with my new Nikon to take some pictures locally. Infact about 10 minutes walk from home, so not only was I “green”, the exercise also did me good. Actually, my wife had taken the car shopping…..     Anyway, here’s a few pictures. Please enjoy.

The picture above is a panorama of about 120 degrees. It contains about 8 images which I’ve overlapped to make one long picture. The original file size is in excess of 200 MB and you can make out the buildings on the other side of the clyde.

The picture below is a standard shot looking along Helensburgh pier and over towards the Isle of Bute. I’ve increased the saturation of the image, and it looks really tasty.

This picture is looking down at the reflections of the uprights of Helensburgh Pier. I was going to make this one black and white - but there’s just too much colour to ignore.

This is a picture of the blue sky and a big oak tree. I love the combination of the deep blue of the sky and the green of the leaves.

Yesterday - having no weddings, nothing really pressing plus lots of sunshine, we went into Dumbarton to watch the annual Scottish Pipe band Championships. What a fantastic spectacle, and what fantastic music. I’m going to introduce something called “Soundslides” onto my website soon (that is still images combined with audio clips) and I was kicking myself that I didn’t take my MP3 recorder with me, otherwise I would have made a soundslide. Anyway, avoiding the temptations of the beer tent, the Aberdeen Angus burger bar and Mr Whippy, I shot some images on my new Nikon D3 and I’ve put them into a seporate gallery/slideshow, which you’ll find by clicking this link:

Pipeband Slideshow 

Here’s a taster:

After a week of lovely sunshine the weather has broke. Well not really broke, just a little bit damp, overcast and cool. the weather is supposed to be back again tomorrow. I bought a new camera last week. The Nikon D3 - which is Nikon’s top of the range camera. I was using the D2x camera and had no intention of changing this year (as the D3 costs £3k for the body alone) until my friend - Perthshire Photographer Amanda Gard -  convinced me of the benefits by investing in the D3.

I used it yesterday for a portrait session with Natalie and Jamie. I was amazed by the image quality. Its just a shame the internet doesn’t allow you to see the full quality. Anyway, I had an early wedding this morning in Coatbridge, so on the way there I manageg to grab a quick shot of Loch Lomond. Shame there was no sunshine…..

Yesterday I photographed Natalie and Jamie. It started off with a bit of a hiccup as i had to go into Glasgow - and I got clamped - which meant that i missed my appointment. Lesson learnt - always have my diary and contacts with me! Anyway, we managed to rescedule later and I spent a pleasant hour at Loch Lomond and Ross Priory shooting some lovely portraits. Here’s Natalie - looking just beautiful in a bed of bluebells.

I love this shot too, upright, with the large oak tree in the background.

We can’t forget Jamie, Natalies minder (from creepy crawlies). Lookin’ good Jamie!

After a photo-shoot, onced I’ve processed my images through - that is, converting them from RAW files to JPEG files - that’s once the real work starts; cropping, retuouching and messing about. I just looooooooove this shot…..

Last week I went to Aberdeen to shoot the pre-wedding portraits for Sheena and David. What a nice couple. I got some great shots too, so it was a real bonus!

I like this shot, too.

And I also like this one very much. I can’t wait to shoot their wedding, because they look so good together.

Don’t highland pipers look fantastic. As a casual observer, it seems to me that the older they get, the more flamboyant they get. Nothing wrong with that. The more flamboyant the better, as far as I’m concerned.

This is Daniella and Mark from the weekend in Perth. Well, not much of Mark, mostly daniella - but I’m sure you’ll agree with me, the tight crop is worth it. Wasn’t she a beautiful bride?

Whilst waiting for the next part of the day at Saturday’s wedding, I managed to catch a quick 20 minute walkaround  of the nearby Dunkeld cathedral. Truly awsome to think that parts of this church have been standing since the 1300’s. Sacked during the reformation in the 1500’s, and then with the greater part of the church burnt out during the 1700’s, the clock tower and the main chapel remains. In its day it must of been an amazing site to see. This is a pic of the clocktower and part of the ruined cathedal - which I’ve “aged”…