Latest P&J photos

This photo from the Commercial Inn, Balintore was what you might call a last-minute thing. I was just heading off to bed when I got a call from George (the guy on the left) asking me to come and take some photos at the pub, which had closed a few years ago but he had re-opened at his own expense for one last night. Originally I was going to get a picture of all the invited guests for one of the local papers but it became clear that that wasn't going to happen, so I grabbed this quick shot for the Press & Journal. By mistake it ran in the Inverness edition of the paper so most people in the village never saw it.

The official opening of the new facilities at Balintore football club required a photo of the funders, which we did outside, and then I took this one of a smaller representative group in the showers. The P&J did a story off the back of the photo but the photo itself didn't run.

This next photo marked the point when it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, I'll one day be as good at this job as I want to be. I arrived about 40 minutes early to get this photo of some graduates at the Highland Theological College, but what with one thing and another I ended up with about 5 minutes to get the shot. The background wasn't great but it was the best I could find, and the layered composition made for an interesting photo with some depth, helped of course by the gowns. Someone has since pointed out to me that there's a pole growing out of the woman's head, which is usually something that would ruin a photo for me, but on this occasion I never even noticed it. Overall I was very pleased with the way I handled this job, and the photo I produced.

By the time I was doing this photo at a Kempo seminar I was getting quite confident with layered compositions so I thought I'd go for broke and try three layers instead of the usual two. I kept the two people at the back close together but at different angles to separate them, and then brought the guy at the front much further forward. I don't think you can push the layering technique as far as four layers, but this pic shows that three layers can work well if you get the angles right to maintain the leading lines and a connection between the subjects.