Tag Archives: vintage

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Nicola Daley as Hedda Gabler

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Nicola Daley as Hedda Gabler

Had the pleasure of shooting Nicola at Hedda Gabler in the studio the other day. The production will run at Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre. 

It makes such a huge difference when you have a team on a project like this. I love it when the actors turn up with a hair and makeup person as well as with just the right costume. It means I can spend my time on the lighting and feel of the shot and not be running about looking for safety pins and hairspray! And having a talented actor helps of course. Nicola had no problem getting the intensity of the character across. The students on placement seemed to enjoy standing in for Nicola too, bunch of posers!

Actor Nicola Daley as Hedda Gabler for the Lyceum theatre
Nicola Daley as Hedda Gabler
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cuba!

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Havanacuba!

Been shooting for Havana Club in Cuba. Huge amount of fun, lots of work though and tough in the heat. This is Havana from one one precious day off. There’s not much in the shot to tell you it’s not still 1959!

Between the crippling USA trade embargo and still being communist, the country is in a pretty desperately poor state. Beautiful though, especially the people.

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Fraser – in sailor mode

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Naval Gazer – Fraser in sailor mode

Fraser’s a friend of mine who worked for many years as an officer in the merchant navy aboard some of the world’s biggest tankers. He took his sextant into the studio and tried to explain to myself and my assistant Greg how to use it. I think we nodded and frowned at the right moments and I liked the bit about the moon and stars but frankly he lost me at azimuth.

I’ve had this sailor outfit for a while and figured Fraser was the right man to don it. This isn’t for a specific project but just for the sheer joy of creating an image.

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The Hare II

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The Hare II

This was a shoot from my time up in the North East of Scotland. A beautiful morning spent at the decidedly creepy disused Lido in Banff. The weather was spectacular and the location lent itself perfectly to the mood I was looking to create in the shots. These are part of my ongoing Mythologos project. The mask itself came from a tiny craftsman’s cellar workshop  in a beautiful village in Tuscanny. I liked that the man I bought it from didn’t speak a word of English. There was much waving of hands.

I liked that the location reflected my interest in things we have left behind. The arrival of cheap flights to ‘The Continent’ cast the death knell of this lido and countless others like it. As a child I spent summers playing in the waters along the coast at Findhorn. With the gulf steam curling round to this unlikely coast the water was surprisingly bearable. Still,  the Mediterranean it is not.

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otto flies!

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Otto flies! – from my MythosLogos series

From a shoot up on the banks of Loch Ness in Autumn of 2013. Again we had two hour window on a job and myself and my good friend Iain sneaked away first thing to shoot these. I can’t explain how much I enjoy the preparation and build up to these kind of projects. The shoots themselves are usually a bit more fraught. I’ve always felt a bit unsettled by that but having watched a number video clips of other photographers shooting I don’t seem to be alone in this.

I made the wings over a week in a cottage on the beautiful isle of Lewis last new year. I loved seeing my sketches convert into the full size real thing.  I now know the ins and outs of Krista’s sewing machine.

In case you wondered the name Otto is in homage to the legendary Otto Lilienthal a true pioneer of early flight. In keeping with dedicated slightly over enthusiastic innovators he died on one of his flights. I’d love to see a film of his life.