Just received this email – it’s great when Clients take the time to write.
“Hi Angus,
Hope you’re well. I just wanted to say a massive thanks to you for all the seriously hard work you put in over the past few weeks! We’re really really pleased with the photography – it was well worth the stress I think (easy for me to say when I was only there a day!).
Hopefully catch up with you again sometime.
Best wishes,
Stu.”
On Sunday past I (and Caroline) were in Glenskirlie House for the Wedding of Claire and Gordon from Stirling. It was cold and threatening rain. Glenskirlie is a lovely place to get married, very high standards of accommodation and food. The bridal suite is something else, larger than some houses with exquisite decoration. We found Claire there getting ready.
First off I photographed her dress which was lovely. 
For this shot, Caroline was standing in the shower (which is to the right) holding my flash and softbox. You’ve reached the high life now Caroline!
By this time we were very late, and I was sure Gordon would be panicking.
I found Gordon and His best man in the room waiting, we had a few seconds for some shots before he had to run back. We had to do more after the service. 
After the service we went outside to do the few group shots that Claire had asked for then I took Claire and Gordon off round the grounds for some shots and finally we ended up back at the room.
Claire and Gordon, you were a delight to work with and I hope that you are happy with the images. I am just waiting on the proofs then they will be with you in a few days.
I’m a little behind, 2 weeks ago I was at Piper Dam again for Susan and Colins Wedding. It was nice but a little chilly – not so chilly that the service could not be held outside, but I am glad I was not in a dress!
As usual the day started at Susans house where loads of people were milling around, Susan was quite relaxed. 
Once Susan was decent we took a few shots of her in the house and garden, I am not using the royal “We” here, Caroline was helping me again at this Wedding.
A quick drive to Piper Dam where Colin was waiting patiently for them.
We took loads of shots of the service.
The ducks are getting to know me quite well now, when they see me wandering over they come running. 
I had to throw (sorry ask nicely) 2 kids to get off the swing, they were happy to help
Colin is just a big kid at heart
Susan managed the climbing frame well
Last week was a busy one, I spent most of the week working for one of my education clients on their new web site photography. It was a long hard week but really enjoyable. Photographically it is challenging, loads of different scenarios in a short space of time and trying to come up with something different at each location and sometimes not a lot to work with.
Also, this week I won a nice contract with one of Scotlands Local Authorities to work on the photography for the new corporate plan.
I am forbidden from mentioning who it is or any other details and I wont be able to publish any of the shots on my site or blog - sorry!
Yesterday I was the subject of a spam attack, well I say yesterday but it is still on going. It appears that someone has decided to use my email address and pretend to be me whilst they go about sending out millions of emails at random to any email address they can find. It started on Friday mid afternoon when I noticed a few undeliverable emails landing in my in box, suddenly it got much much worse and for 2 hours I was getting around 150 emails every minute, I simply could not delete them as fast as they were arriving.
Thankfully Danny at Aerovision IT was on the case quickly and it appears to be on the way to being resolved.
I awoke this morning to only 1100 junk emails and they have settled down to about 10 every minute – still a pain but better!
If you sent me an email during Friday then the chances are it was deleted in with all the spam – please resend it.
As for punishment, I’d gladly poke these peoples eyes out with cocktail sticks then make them walk across the busiest motorway in the world.
One of my highland estate clients is having a new web site designed so they need to refresh the photography. First up is to photograph 2 of the 3 main holiday let accommodations that they have. The previous photographer just took basic snap shots of empty rooms, with a holiday home that has no personal stuff around like photographs or paintings this looks dull and dreary so I decided to try and create a desirable lifestyle around the properties. We dragged in some models to add a sense of dimension to the properties.
The first home is quite a large one that is often rented out by large groups, catering is provided by an on site cook so we planned a dinner party.
I started off in the sitting room, we got the fire going, got the models to pretend to be playing games and relaxing. The idea is to make this desirable and make potential clients relate to the people and picture themselves in the houses, rather than just photographs of empty rooms.
It was a lovely large room and the temptation was to get the wide angle lens out and make it look even better but creating stage sets was definitely the right thing to do.
Again, this photograph could be taken anywhere but I wanted to create a sense of place, you can just imagine a long day in the hills coming back to this roaring fire and chocolate cake.
And, just to give the web designer a choice, a different point of focus.
After that we moved to the dining room, this is a huge room and can seat 12 round a table, it’s a lovely room and decorated like a real highland mansion but the colours are the worst to photograph, GREEN!!!! So, once again we set a lifestyle shot with the models we had available and we served dinner. The soup was cold and the rolls frozen!
I wanted to create a sense of movement here so got the dinner guests to sit still and got the waitress to move fast – easy. The lighting was difficult, very directional light from the window, the sun was out and shining right in. I had to balance the sun with a Bowens flash head to the camera left but that gave me an issue with the movement I was creating so this is actually rear curtain sync – if you ‘re interested.
To create a a sense of night time we just closed the curtains!
We finished off here then moved on the the other property, this one was much smaller, more of a gamekeepers cottage with a view to die for, pity the sky was dark, I’ll have to return for that shot. This was a bland property so again I went down the lifestyle route and we got the sofas pulled round the fire and found a lovely dog to pose for us.
The 1st of a 3 day job, I love these jobs, out and about in the countryside – what could be better.
Last Friday I was back at Piper Dam (boy I am getting to know that place well) for the Wedding of Dawn and Fraser. The day started at Dawns parents farm near Abernyte for a few “getting ready” shots before I headed off to Piper Dam to meet up with Fraser and his Best Woman (also his sister) Sara. Fraser was very nervous, probably the most nervous I have ever seen a groom, he’d started on the hard stuff already to steady his nerves.
We took a few shots of the 2 of them round the grounds, it was a little cold and windy but we managed to find a couple of sheltered areas.
After a bit we headed inside for the service and to await the arrival of Dawn. Fraser looked anxious as he sneaked little peeks back up the aisle to see if she was coming.
The service was conducted by Maureen from Angus Council in Forfar, we’ve met before and I suspect we’ll meet next Saturday for another Wedding in Piper Dam!
Afterwards I took some group shots before we headed over to the playpark, Dawn and Fraser had always seemed like good fun and I suspected they would not be too keen on traditional shots. We started off with feeding the ducks
Then I persuaded them to climb on the playpark swings and climbing frames, I was silently praying that nothing got broken – perhaps this was a stupid idea but they seemed to be having fun.
After that we headed back to the warmth of the rooms and they were just being called for dinner.
I had roped in Alan, Dawns brother to be my assistant and carry my softbox, it is possible to do this alone but it acts like a sail so it is easy to lose it to the wind, especially when using a long heavy lens.
Thanks Alan for your help, you were great
I’ll tell you, life is not bad when you get to photograph a Miss Scotland finalist. Gemma sadly only made it to the top 50 but out of many thousands that was a pretty good achievement. Earlier this week we had commissioned her for one of my PR clients to be in the photographs for Farmfoods. We travelled to Grangemouth Store for the shoot. I do this job regularly and it is not a bad job, same shots, different model, different background – easy peasy!
From a technical point of view the only issue (apart from customers) is the very bad tungsten light, obviously made to be bright and welcoming but a nightmare to photograph under as it makes skin look green. This is easy to resolve in Photoshop but as I was using a portable softbox to give Gemma some decent soft light what tends to happen is that the model (lit by the flash) is nice and well lit but the background goes even more green. The solution is to put a green gel on the flash so that both model and background are green then bring the whole shot back in Photoshop.
It’s been a busy week, last Friday saw me in Meigle at the Belmont Arms Hotel for the Wedding of Pam and John. This was the second marriage for both of them and as such was a fairly low key affair with only around 50 guests. From a photography point of view it was quite easy, they had said they wanted straightforward photographs, nothing too arty. I see my job as a photographer to understand what my clients want and then deliver it. Occasionally I’ll get asked for purely traditional photography and thats what I deliver.
There was nothing stuffy about the day, it was all very relaxed and even the sun came out just in time for the photography. Pam and John had spent a lot of time in the function room, decking it out ready for the day and they had made a fantastic job of it.
This was my first Humanist service and it was conducted by Gary Smith, I wasn;t sure what to expect but it was not unlike a registrar service but with, perhaps , a little more humour. They did a ring warming service where the rings are passed round the guests and they each hold them for a few seconds before handing them on to the next person. This was another first for me – a Wedding of firsts!
We went to the garden for a few shots, thankfully it was dry and reasonably bright, there was a bit of time for photography before the meal.
When I left it was warming up to be a great day. John and Pam are currently in the Dominican Republic – wonder if they are reading this, I’ll check the stats for visitors from there. It was a great day and I am sure that Pam and John will be as delighted with the photographs as I am .
Just to help any Brides or Grooms to be that stumble across the site and are looking for a venue in Scotland, this is a list of my favourite local venues. If you want my unbiased opinions on any of then then please give me a call.
Piperdam Resort
Woodlands Hotel
Invercarse Hotel
Apex Hotel Dundee
Mains Castle
Forbes of Kingennie
Dundee United Football Club
Fingask Castle
Inchture Hotel
The Links Hotel, Montrose
The Park Hotel, Montrose
House of Dun
RRS Discovery
Crieff Hydro
The Royal Scots Club
Gleneagles
Ballathie House Hotel
Huntingtower Hotel
The New Country Hotel
Royal George Hotel
Tayside Hotel
Grampian Hotel, Perth
Altamount House Hotel
Red House Hotel
Angus Hotel, Blaigowrie
Royal Hotel, Blairgowrie
Atholl Arms Hotel
Atholl Palace, Pitlochry
Balbirnie House Hotel
Scone Palace
Balgeddie House Hotel
Balgonie Castle
Keavil House Hotel
Carnegie Conference Centre
Craigsanquhar
Dalmunzie Castle
St Andrews Bay
The Green Hotel
Guthrie Castle
Dunkeld Hilton
The Kenmore Hotel
Murthly Castle
Old Course Hotel
I have just spent 2 days working for an education client on the photography for their new web site. The web designer sneaked this photograph of me at work, it doesn't happen often!
The good news is that they are delighted with the images and have booked me for another 2 days for another section of the site.
If you are looking to have a fairytale Castle Wedding in Scotland then you cant get much better than Castle Menzies near Aberfeldy. Just a few weeks back I photographed Jo and Phil there, it was ideal even in bad weather as there are lots of rooms to use for different photographs.
Firstly, I am sorry that the blog is running behind schedule, I have been so busy recently that the blog is taking second place to clients work - obviously that has to be the case and I am sure you understand.
Last week I was back in Arbroath to photograph a new bed and breakfast establishment that is due to open very soon. Now, those of you that know Arbroath will likely say that it is a dump of a place - well having spent some time there recently I can say that you are wrong. There has been a lot of money put into the area recently and it is actually a nice place now. A great dock area and lovely coastal walks. My memories of Arbroath stem from Venture Scout Discos in the Portcullus bar, a real dive of a place but thankfully now reduced to rubble.
Anyway, Brucefield House is to be a Boutique Bed and Breakfast. I was very impressed, it is lovely and the owners have put a load of cash into the decoration, furniture and general feel of the place. It is very welcoming. Thankfully last Thursday was the best weather we have seen this year, clear blue sky and very warm. The only thing missing was a little colour in the garden which will come when it is more established. I'd have absolutely no problems with staying here - a great place for a weekend away.
So, here are a small selection of the 140 images presented to the client after the shoot.
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