November 2025

Cool Jazz

I love photographing musicians. They always give you ideas of how they want to be photographed. They have a style. One was saxophone player Gerard O’Neil who was one of the finalists in this years BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year. We took some pictures and were trying different ways of holding the sax. Sitting standing, playing we tried lots of different ideas. He was early you see so we had some extra time. When we were looking at the pictures he suggested the over the shoulder look. I thought it looked even cooler in black and white. It goes to show you should always listen to your subject.

Magical Music

Another super musical event  I photographed this month was the BBC’s Scottish Symphony Orchestra with pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason. It also marked the debut of SSO’s new Principal Guest Conductor, Delyana Lazarova. It was a lovey concert. What made it for me picture wise was the fabulous magenta dress Isata wore. She looked super cool at the City Halls in Glasgow that night.

Big Is Better

We used two have discussions in college about how the same picture could be better just by increasing its size. Then in the newspapers the same discussion would come up again. How the exact same picture could just look better by being bigger. I was definitely in the bigger is better camp when The High School of Glasgow used one of my pictures in a giant billboard on Crow Road in Glasgow. The detail scale of the picture just looked brilliant. The new Canon R cameras have so much detail in the sensor it is really impressive how big they can go.

Get You In Panto Town

I have not been on the Glasgow Underground since they upgraded the subway cars. So it was nice to get a look first hand with the great company of this years Panto stars Johnny Mac  from The Little Mermaid at The King’s Theatre , Stephen Purdon from Jock and the Beanstalk at The Pavilion Theatre and Catriona Faint from Gallus in Weegieland at The Tron Theatre. It was part of photocall as Glaswegians are being urged to embrace the unique spirit of the city’s pantomime with the launch of Get You in Panto Town, a celebration of the city’s beloved cultural phenomenon, marking a festive finale to the year-long Glasgow 850 programme. We did get a lot of looks from the commuters. I think it cheered them up and made their day.

Getting a Lift to Sport

At this time of the year I usually do a picture of a crowd of university sports students for the launch of this year Glasgow Taxi Cup which happens on the 25th of March.  The Cup has more than 700 student athletes from Glasgow Caledonian, Strathclyde, and Glasgow universities competing across over 17 sports in over 21 events, in the biggest one-day student inter-varsity competition across Scotland. My picture has last years winning sports president Anna Edvaldsson from theUniversity  of Strathclyde in the iconic Glasgow Taxi with some of the sports students. It was extra special this Tim as  The Glasgow Taxi Cup is in its 21st year.

Christmas Is Coming

I always like seeing the Christmas season coming closer. This was my first Santa picture this year. I was at The Glasgow Science Centre to promote their programme of merry-making events, festive films and special Starlight Screenings certain to get the whole family in the mood for the big day. The I Max always makes a good spot for a picture.