19th October Lochinver

I was away up in Lochinver, shooting images for the Inver Lodge Hotel's new website. What an amazing place, hidden away in such a remote spot. I was surprised at the scale of the place, it's a lot bigger than I imagined. If you fancy a weekend away to relax and treat yourselves, I strongly recommend this place. It's so peaceful, picturesque and the food is AMAZING!!!!

I shot some moody images in a spare hour in the afternoon, just before a heavy downpour. Must go back in the spring or summer to see the scenery in better light.

14th October

Today was the wedding of Elizabeth Walker and Donald Mackay, who live in Perth now, but were formerly in Thurso. Elizabeth got ready at her parents home, in Forss Road, Thurso before heading to the West Church for the wedding courtesy of Dunnetts cars. Meanwhile, Donald was making a more spectacular arrival, in Dan and Dolina Macleod's massive truck. It is available for special occasions - call Dan on 01847 851717 - and certainly gets you noticed!

The couple then headed out to Thurso Castle for some photographs, before heading to the Portland Arms in Lybster for their reception. Whisky were providing the evenings entertainment.

12th October

Megan Owens and Jeff O' Brien came all the way from California to get married at Urquhart Castle. They were staying at Kerrow House, Cannich and when I arrived there it was raining. However it cleared up and the sun was shining when we got to the venue. We spent some time shooting pictures around the castle before heading back to the reception at Dunain Park Hotel, Inverness.

Toy Camera

A couple of months ago I bought a Holga medium format camera after reading about them. Just for a bit of fun really. They are very, very cheap chinese made cameras, which look and feel like toys. In fact, to be honest, people expect them to squirt water at them when I hold it up. I went for an expensive up-market model with built in flash at £30, but the basic one is available for £20. You really have to go back to basics, and know your metering etc. NOTHING is automatic on it, you have to do it all in your head. Anyway, I just got my first roll of film back from it. I knew I had screwed up when I was unloading the film and had lost some shots, but what was on there was pretty good really. Here are four of the six images which survived. I am going to be playing about with this some more and will post some more pics when I have them.

7th October

Today's wedding was in Oban, so I drove to Fort William overnight, and travelled to Oban in the morning. The wedding today was of Linsay McBain and Carl Baverstock, who both live in Bedfordshire, but the bride is from Taynuilt, just outside Oban. Linsay got ready at her parents home in Taynuilt, before being driven to the Esplande Church by a vintage car. A day of constant rain put a stop to any plans of picturesque scenes for the photography. We were confined to doing shots in the church and the hotel again, which was fine as both were very nice. Reception venue was the Caledonian Hotel, Oban.

6th October 2006

Today was the wedding of Melanie Harper and David Greig, who both live at Pennyland Drive, Thurso. Melanie got ready out at her parents home in John O' Groats, before leaving for Thurso. She arrived in a car by Dunnett's, eventually making it to St Peter's and St Andrew's church after a lengthy delay due to the wonderful bit of planning by some people laying new gas pipes. They decided that Friday afternoon would be a clever time to close the main bridge into Thurso, causing delays of up to an hour. They kindly decided not to make any public announcements, so the 2.30pm wedding took place at 3.15. They were married by Rev. Bill Wallace, before heading to the Weigh Inn for the recpetion. No outside photographs were possible as it was pouring rain, but we got some nice stuff in the church and hotel. Again video was by Video Viewpoint

30th September

Wedding of Sonya Sutherland and Donald Henderson, both of Main St Lybster. Donald owns Caithness Prestige Cars, so has done loads of weddings with me. Sonya got ready at home with her 3 bridesmaids, before heading to the Portland Arms Hotel for the wedding. The sun was shining - too brightly at times - so it was down to Lybster harbour for some nice shots before heading back to the hotel for the reception. Video was by Colin of Video Viewpoint.

23rd September

As this was my only weekend between May and November that I had no wedding, I decided to have a relaxing change from the usual saturday, by er... doing some fashion style shots of a bride!! Ami and myself were keen to get some more shots of her dress, which was a stunning creation by Sharon Bower of Couture studio

We went up to Dunbeath Strath and shot some stuff, which was certainly a bit different from the norm and lots of fun. Great flowers by Amanda's Flower Shop in Wick added to the occasion.