The thing I love most about this job, and I think most photographers would agree with me, is that you get to go places and do things that you'd never normally be allowed to do. Today I had great fun going on board the cruise ship Arielle during her visit to Invergordon.

Cruise ship entertainers
Originally the plan was to get a photo of all the local musicians and dancers who went on board to entertain the passengers. Above the stage there were hundreds of little orange lights hanging down and I thought they would make a great "showbiz" background, but only for a small group. I decided to do the picture with the three youngsters: Two dancers and a piper.

I had to take the picture from a low angle to get the lights in the background, which meant holding my flash up as high as I could to distribute the light evenly across the three subjects.

Technically everything came together very well. Artistically I think the composition could have been better. But as I've said before, I think it's important to always push ahead and try something a bit different. I'm more satisfied with this picture than I would have been with an easy shot that was better executed.

Keep in mind that we were doing this photo at the front of the stage with a theatre full of several hundred passengers!