August 2023

Wedding Belles

My heart lies in press and commercial photography. I find the stress of a wedding to be too much.
I occasionally have done the odd wedding for friends. I took a couple of pics at my old Evening Times Picture Editor’s wedding in May.  Also a super wedding out in Fintry for pals in the next village along from me.
My god daughter was getting married at the end of July. I have added this into the August blog as I did not get the album edited until the middle of August. It was a super day in Paisley Abbey. 
Making me feel even older than I am, I photographed her mum and dad’s wedding, 37 years ago. For that I used an old Mamiya 645 roll film camera and Metz flashgun. I say old, it was probably quite new then.
I remember back in 1986 the Abbey only allowed 3 photographs to be taken, as the cameras were very noisy with a loud clunk as the shutter went off. I thought having my new Canon mirrorless cameras with silent shutters would have changed all that and I would be able to take a few more photographs… sadly I wasn’t able to.
However they were so lovely and said you can come back into the church after the service and take as many as you want. That was so much better. We got some lovely shots of the bride and groom, with mums and dads and family members.

I loved having a few of the shots in black and white too. This shot was the one I remember form all these years back in 1986. I photographed Eilidh’s mum in this very spot waiting to go into the church and I had it in my mind when she said she was getting married there. 

Brookside Fan Club

I used to watch Brookside way back when, so I was pleased to meet star Jennifer Ellison ( she played Emily Shadwick from Brookside) and also the cast members from The Official Take That Musical Greatest Days. We took the photograph outside The King’s Theatre front doors. The show started that night, so we decided to photograph them on some stage equipment. Jennifer was really up for the picture as long as we put the brakes on the flight case.

Shapes & Colours

I met the talented designer, Elsie Hill, with her colourful paintings and prints at the Briggait in Glasgow. I was covering the Wasps summer market. This time they received a record number of visitors. These markets are really getting lots of attention and no wonder with some of the beautiful things that are being made right here in Glasgow. My eye was drawn straight away to Elsie’s bright colours.

Country & Western

I am quite a fan of country music and the sounds of Absolute Country can often be heard coming form my radio. I got a call to go in to photograph the Bad Boys (and girls) of Country. The full name is Nashville Bad Boys of Country. They were doing a concert at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow. They had seen my work with the theatre before and asked for me to come in for a session. It was fab. They definitely love their jobs. They were great fun to photograph for their new posters. I did some shots of them in concert too, which I think really worked well. The super lights in the theatre always look brill. I think Doug the singer had a bit of Paul Rodgers of Free and Bad Company in his veins. I’ll keep you posted on the blog when they are coming back.

Top Marks at Glasgow Kelvin College

I have always loved the shape of Glasgow Kelvin College. The end of the building looks like a ships bow. The front is a wall of glass. 
I had the pleasure of meeting students Malar Jayhindaran and her son Shawn Nicholas Fernandez, who arrived in Scotland with few belongings and were allocated temporary accommodation near to Springburn. Later they enrolled as mature students not only on the same course, but also in the same class. They were so proud of their awards. Malar’ award was as a finalist in the Health & Education category of 2019 CEMVO Scotland and Shawn’s work to protect older people against cyber crime earned him the SCVO Volunteer of the Year award. It was a lovely story which came from The Story Shop and featured in the Daily Record.

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