September 2020

Time For A Dram That I Cannot Drink

I do like a dram however I was at The Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine to sample a wee dram that was undrinkable. It was an eighty year old bottle of Scottish whisky salvaged from the 1923 SS Politician, one of Scotland’s most famous shipwrecks and the inspiration for the much-loved Ealing Studio comedy Whisky Galore. How cool was that! Abigail McIntyre, Senior Curator at the Scottish Maritime Museum was the person trusted to hold the bottle. I was too scared in case I dropped it. Also in the picture was the helmet that was used by deep sea diver George Currie when he brought the bottles up from the seabed. I used a small flash inside the helmet to give it a cool look and brighten up the bottle. 

The Sound of the Proms

I have been back in the Glasgow City Halls a couple of times over the last few months and what a delight it was to get the opportunity to go and and listen to the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra performing in the world’s greatest classical music festival, the Proms. What an amazing sight to see all the musicians, all socially distant, performing together. Conducted by the very cool Alpesh Chauhan, the highlight was pianist Stephen Hough. My favourite shot is always looking through the lid of the grand piano.

Making a SplashI have passed the Pinkston Watersports Park at Port Dundas many times and have even walked around the old industrial canal site before it was built. It’s a community paddlesports centre with Scotland’s only artificial whitewater course.There is so many things to do there, kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, wake boarding and now tubing. What a lot of fun that looked. STV news person Polly Bartlett  was in trying it out for a TV piece. She loved it. I must say she was very brave. The white water tubing was quite thrilling to watch and great fun to photograph. 

City of Glasgow Merchant Navy Day

It was so good to see something happening in George Square after the long time in lockdown. Thirty City of Glasgow Merchant Navy cadets with Principle Paul Little and Glasgow Lord Provost Philip Braat attended the annual wreath laying ceremony. This was the first time the students from the college had formally gathered since the lockdown back in March.

Brooch In A BoxMy favourite lens at the moment is my 100mm macro bought last year from a pal. It is brilliant for portraits, macro and product photography. I had been photographing cakes with it last month.I was asked by my better half to photograph some of her new creations. A ‘Brooch In A Box’. These are hand printed silk brooches, from original paintings, finished with free motion embroidery. They look lovely in the photographs and are selling well too!