Amanda & Matt Post Wedding Shoot

Before leaving Skye and it's unfriendly wildlife behind I had a post wedding shoot with Amanda and Matt. It was a great day again albeit a bit cold for going in the water!

Highland Coo Update

Thanks To David Simm of the SWPP for this latest image of my friend...

Highland Coo

(That's Highland Cow to non-Scottish folk)

On my way back to my hotel after Amanda and Matt's wedding and came round a corner to confront a giant black Highland Coo right in the middle of the road! Swerved to avoid it but lost my passenger side wing mirror and ended up off the road. Could have been much worse though. There were 3 or 4 of them wandering about and this one was just standing right there in the road on a bend. Very dangerous! My poor new car has now managed to clock up almost 13,000 miles in twelve weeks and has been attacked my this monster.

11th October Skye

I travelled over to Skye for this wedding at the Duisdale House Hotel near Sleat. Beautiful venue and very nice people working there - definitely worth a vist - I'll be going back! Food was beautiful too!

Getting married were Amanda Kemp originally from Banff and Matt Hale-Smith. I was worried about the weather having done summer weddings in Skye! Apart from a few showers of rain it was a stunning day and allowed us to get almost all the photography done outdoors, which was a real bonus. The evening ended with a really great firework display. I had a fantastic day and it was a load of fun.

Taste Of Caithness & Sutherland Event

Mackay's Hotel in Wick was the venue for the Taste Of Caithness & Sutherland Event recently. I had the job of photographing all the suppliers for the brochure and marketing materials which was great fun.

On the day the event went well - totally astonished by the cooking demo by Tom Kitchen though, who shocked most people present by making a meal from the insides (and ears) of a pigs head. I found it quite disgusting to be honest and have no idea why anyone would pay top money to eat leftovers which should be in the bin! I guess he is trying to use controversy and shock factor to attract people to his restaurant but I won't be going!!

Don't click these thumbnails if you are an animal lover!

NEW TELEPHONE NUMBER

Apologies to anyone who has been trying to call my office phone recently - BT problem with the changeover at the business centre. I now have a new telephone number and the good news is you can call FREE now!

New number for all enquiries is 08000 69 91 69

Sorry for any inconvenience recently.

More Telephone Problems

My office number is out of use again if anyone is trying to call me. Something to do with the changeover of Naver's phone system to BT. Hopefully I will have my number back up and running soon, or I may actually have to have a new number. Watch this space for details. In the meantime please call my mobile 07789 557586 or email me with any enquiries. Sorry for the inconvenience!!

Kirsty and Chris

Yesterday I had the wedding of Kirsty Bisset and Chris Forde, who stay in Dundee. Kirsty is from the Inverness area, and the wedding was at Killearnan Church, Muir of Ord, with the reception at the lovely Achnagairn House, Kirkhill, near Inverness. Kirsty got ready at her parents lovely house at North Kessock, where we got some pictures of the preparations before leaving (pretty late Kirsty tut tut) for church. It wasa horrendous morning but when we got out of church it was nice although a bit cold (so I'm told anyway) so we were fortunate enough to get outside for some pictures which I didn't expect earlier!! Achnagairn is a great venue and has no many opportunities for photography. Really enjoyed myself so thanks to Kirsty and Chris for being such good fun.

SWPP Competition

Overall a poorer month this month, although some of the scores were a bit strange I feel.

I did get one gold, from Sunday's shoot in fact - Isla's second appearance here!! No spade this time though!

Isla and Arron (and family) shoot the dress

Yesterday I had a really cool shoot with Isla (and some extras) at Fearn. Isla was great fun, although Arron was a bit of a girl and didn't want to get dirty haha!!! Anyway we shot at the old airfield where we were on the wedding day and then went to Nigg where we shot some stuff on the shore.

Post Wedding Shoot 21st September

I had a cool shoot the dress session with Alison last Sunday at Westerdale. Word of warning though - wedding dresses fill up with water and get very heavy when brides go in deep water despite being told not to :-)

Photographing a Photographer

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be asked to photograph the wedding of Scott and Joy. Scott (Hogg) is a wedding photographer himself so although it sort of added a little bit more pressure, it was very flattering to be asked. I just treated it as much as possible like any other wedding and tried to forget that he might be wondering what the hell I was doing!!! It was a funny experience I guess, setting pictures up and trying not to think "I bet he's thinking he'd have done it differently" but I bet it was even more strange for Scott to be the other side of the camera though!!

Anyway, it was a very relaxed and nice wedding in the sunshine at Innes House near Elgin. I was absolutely knackered by 7pm!! Hopefully they had some fun and we got some cool images. Thanks to Joy and Scott for asking me to do this one, I hope I did you proud!! A few quick edits I did this morning:

Lynne & Angus

19th September, back on the road again! Lynne McFee and Angus Mackay were getting married at Evanton Church, with reception at the lovely Storehouse at Foulis Ferry. It was a beautiful day, after a day of heavy rain the day before. Lynne got ready at home in Inverness so I started there, before heading further North to the church. The setting for the reception was beautiful, right on the edge of the Cromarty Firth. Stayed on for the reception as well so another late night arriving home about midnight, but a great day!

Amy and Tom

Another marathon journey, this time down to Morton Castle near Dumfries. Canadian couple Amy Dumont and Tom McMaster were over in Scotland for their wedding and Amy had chosen this lovely ruined castle as her venue. It was abit dull and wet on Tuesday but we got what we could before returning on Wednesday for a post wedding shoot in much better conditions!

Thanks to Dawn the wedding planner from High Heels and Cocktails for her help.

Chelsea and Brian Part Two

Well, what a trip! Went to Glasgow on Wednesday to meet up with my mate Oz Kharawala who was running a seminar there. Then realised that I'd left the battery my canon camera on charge....in Thurso! So first disaster - had to buy another one from Calumet, then eventually ended up at the SNS offices in Glasgow city centre getting them to charge my battery for me! Thanks to the girls in the office there who were very helpful!

Got to Marseilles on Thursday morning, arrived at hotel...and promptly left. It was a pigsty! So, got taxi to the city and a very helpful driver found me a room in a hotel on the phone, then took 50 euros off me and dropped me at the wrong hotel. Eventually 3 hotels later I found a room which was okay and got checked in. Then I chipped my tooth opening a bottle. Then realised my phone charger was in my car. So eventually spoke to Brian on the phone and arranged to meet up Friday morning. They had car trouble so we never got together until late in the day and we drove to Nimes for the shoot. What an amazing place it is! Lovely old ampitheatre and Roman temple and many other great places to visit. Next disaster was me falling from the top of the steps at the Roman Temple, clutching my camera above my head as I skidded down the steps, luckily coming to rest about 8 from the top with a very sore ankle! It was a long way down so I was very relieved! Do you get the idea this trip was jinxed?

Anyway the shoot went really well, although it did start to get dark fairly quickly but we shot a load of night shots as well, which turned out well.

Quite an adventure and I was pretty glad to get home in one piece!

A few images:

6th September Carbisdale Castle

Today I had a wedding at Carbisdale Castle, which is a lovely location near Ardgay in the Highlands. Chelsea and Brian Mackenzie were over from Seattle for their wedding and I was very lucky to be chosen to do their photography. Brian is originally from the Highlands, and they met when Chelsea was over here 5 years ago. It was a great day, and loads of fun, and I can't wait for the post wedding shoot next week, which is in the South of France!!!