July: The Camera Roll Chronicles
July: The Camera Roll Chronicles.
Here is a monthly round-up of what July had to offer.
It was a mixed bag of shooting formal ceremonies and corporate photography involving electrical engineers to sports photography.
Of course, on top of that, there's the Federation of Small Businesses activity and my own personal life - so it's been busy.
Here goes.
Event Photography in Glasgow
It was an pleasure as always to shoot the Honorary Graduates and Alumni at the University of Strathclyde. They have invariably created something inspirational but have their feet firmly on the ground - one piece of advice that keeps coming up in their speeches is "get comfortable being uncomfortable". This shot below was taken in natural light (no flash at all) - so the skill is in knowing where to "see" light and work with it.
Miguel Stilwell d'Andrade is the University of Strathclyde Alumnus of the Year 2026. He serves as the CEO of major energy companies EDP and EDP Renewables.
And, below, how the set of images was used.
Plenty of Linkedin interaction on that post which is great for the client.
If you wish to see the Event Galleries at the website follow this link.
Sports Photography in Glasgow
It wasn't all formal events though. I had a tremendous day putting my off-camera flash gear to good use for a sports campaign - I am a keen squash player and (eh, intermittent) Gym go-er so love all things sports and fitness - I was shooting people and products to help promote Sports and here is one of the results.
I converted it to black and white as I just think it suited it.
And here you can see the set up I had for some products and abstract people shots.
Industrial Photography in Ayrshire
I had a last-minute booking in mid July in Ayrshire at a chemical site - as is normal with these large sites a pre-arrival Health and Safety brief has to take place and PPE etc. has to be worn. There is usually a fairly strict rule in place as to what can be shot and where shots can take place - it was a photoshoot and video shoot - the directors of the video were in Australia so they issued directions and feedback via a zoom call to help achieve what they were after.
Here is a shot of Behind the Scenes as the video clips are being discussed. Hard hats and high vis....
And another view of the video being shot
And an abstract shot below whilst I was waiting on shooting portraits.
Clients often like a few extra images thrown in that they might not have thought of but might be able to use in the future. Here I added a blue gel (colour filter) in the background light and no gel in the key light (the one hitting the item) to keep that one "daylight" balance. To also add contrast and a cool, industrial feel.
If you would like to see some more science/technology/industrial photography check out the gallery here.
Uncorked. Unfiltered. Unplugged!
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" as they say so it was with great pleasure I accepted an invitation to take part in a Podcast based around.....wine.... yes please.
Wine expert Jonathan Mitchell from the Wine Cru and Wendy Harris from Konpasu kindly invited me on as their first ever guest on their soon-to-be relased Podcast Series "A Conversation over Wine". Had a last and a very enjoyable end to a week that was, indeed. Recommended we make it a weekly fixture 😂.
I have to say when I embarked on my self employed journey in 2008 I never would have imagined that being kindly given a free bottle of specially chosen vino and having a Friday afternoon chat with two friends would count as "work" 😂.
Less Colour. More.
Was also asked to shoot an inaugural event for their marketing materials at which I had to produce a number of portraits against a white background - the idea was to leave space for marketing, messages, branding etc - called "Quiet Space". You can see what I've done here. This shot I took of Astrid is using two lights - one lighting her, but with enough character in the light to produce a shadow on her face; and the second to even out the background (so it doesn't go grey).
If you fancy seeing some more Black and White portraits check them out here. Or with a darker background the photos can be seen in this gallery.
Celebrating Success with Old Friends.
And in the same vein it was a pleasure and an honour to be invited to the tenth birthday bash of MJC Law Saturday 18th - Matthew Coffield and I attended the University of Strathclyde together studying law in the 90s. He stuck with it. I didn't....😂. I've had the pleasure of photographing the troops at MJC Law (triggered initially by their successful entry into the Herald Law Awards) and have been in touch since, also appearing on Paisley Radio as one of Matthew's Guests. It was first and foremost a family night so a real pleasure to be included in that - thanks Matthew.
Matthew and Me.
Skydiving Ambitions - Chasing 27.
One a personal level I had a couple of great weekends skydiving, as a team of over thirty skydivers, who have links to Skydive Northwest, are training to hopefully beat the current club record of a 26 way formation skydive. The main issue has been getting the tail end jumpers out of the (one of two) aircraft as fast as they can (there's a big bar in the way over which the last three jumpers have to step). So it's taken some work figuring out the "base" and so on. All good apart from a few bruises collected on arms and legs on exit....
Here's a nice shot of a training jump, shot by Duncan who has 1000s of jumps, is a competition skydiver, camera flyer club skydive pilot and a commercial pilot I believe flying 757s. He likes the sky....
I'm on left hand side as you look at the pic with the sun just above my left shoulder.
Finally in terms of personal stuff I tool part in a 24 hour Squash-athon at Townend Squash Club in Irvine - I took part during the day (I had the aforementioned 10th Birthday party to attend in the evening) but we managed to quadruple the target of £1000 for the Ayrshire Hospice - fantastic effort all round. Here is a pic with some of the many participants with two professional squash players (Scotland Caps) who were there to do some coaching.
Seagull Rage
Finally no month is complete without winding up a bird.... I was intent on having a my packed lunch in my car when a seagull clearly had other thoughts on the matter. It thumped on my car bonnet and, as I had my lunch, "eye -balled" me throughout..
'Ragy Glasgow Seagull"
As my daughter said, I picked on the wrong seagull to "ragebait". 😂.
Well thats more or less it as a wee snapshot of the month. I hope you, too, had a great July and hope August brings you all you wish for.
Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment.
And you know where I am for your photography. Email is best.
Cheers.
Guy
Comments
And you're never going to be bored as you continue to use and hone your skills to capture the very best results.
I loved the sky diving photo, the illuminated Alumnus, and the cheeky seagull. Just fab shots.
Can't wait to see what happens in the next blog as new opportunites crop up in your professional and social life!
Enjoy every moment.