Thursday 19 October

Here are some photos from last Saturday's Balintore vs Golspie game, which saw Balintore get through to the Port Services Cup final against Alness. The celebration shot of James Skinner is in the North Star. I haven't seen any other papers yet so I don't know if they're running any of them.

You should notice that these pictures are much more lifelike and vivid than usual. I'm learning some new colour correction techniques (LAB for anyone who's interested) and these are the first pictures I've processed using the new techniques. Really pleased with the results...

Friday 13 October

Just a quick update today to post some photos from last week's Balintore vs Alness match. One of the action pics was in the Ross-shire Journal and I've just heard that there should have been one in the North Star as well but there was a technical hiccup and a few things were left out this week. I think the team photo is going in the RSJ at some point but I don't know when that will be.

Balintore is at home for the next two weeks (playing Golspie both times, one league and one cup game) so look out for pics from those matches. I'll try to get all of my other recent pics posted soon.

Thursday 7 September

Local artist Paul Taggart (web site) has a charity exhibition of his work coming up at Inver hall this weekend, raising money for the hall and a kidney charity. Here are some portraits I did for an article in the North Star. This was a difficult shoot as I seemed to be having a mental block and none of my planned shots worked as well as I would have liked. But we did get some good ones. Huge thanks to Paul for his patience, and for being such a great subject!

I've also posted 80+ pics from last week's Balintore vs Halkirk match. Since switching to the 300mm prime I've struggled to get more than a dozen decent pics per match, so it's good to finally be getting back to the sort of numbers I got when I used a zoom.

Sunday 3 September

I finally did something this weekend that should have been done years ago, namely adding the option to order prints through the web site. Secure online payments are handled by PayPal but I do all of the processing and printing myself so you can be sure of getting top quality prints, safely delivered in a sturdy envelope. There's no minimum order and no delivery charge. There are a small number of photos that aren't available for order but most are. Just click the link under any photo to order a print in the required size.

If I get time later in the week then I'm going to post loads of photos from Saturday's football match between Balintore and Halkirk, but here are the seven that I've sent off to the papers. I shot the match on spec so I don't know if any of these pics will be used.

Thursday 28 August

Well well well, where to begin? It's been an eventful month since the last update! Let me fill you in...

I've been doing photography part-time for a couple of years now but for all that time I was also running a little business on the Internet which was my main source of income. Something else I've wanted to have a go at for ages was working in a restaurant, so back in mid-June I pulled the shutters on the Internet business and set about finding a restaurant job. I landed a pretty good one towards the end of July but for "various reasons" (grumble grumble) it only lasted a little over a week.

And to cut a long story short, that was the push I needed to finally commit to doing photography full-time, and that brings us up to date. Scary eh? The thing I'd been doing on the net made decent money so it didn't matter how much I earned from photography, but now I need to earn a living taking pictures!

Hopefully I'll get to do more work for the newspapers from now on, but I'm also going to start doing more private work. So if you need a photographer for anything then you know where to find me!

Now... pictures. Quite a few of them in fact, 124 to be precise, from last Saturday's fun day at Balintore Harbour. Normally when I cover an event I do the set-ups I need for the papers and then shoot everything else just for fun and practice, then the pics get burned off to DVD and get filed away, never to be seen again. Seems an awful waste so I thought I'd make the effort to post more of those pics from now on. The majority of the fun day pics are from the pillow fight and greasy pole competitions, but there are a few others from throughout the day. I picked out a few favourites but you're probably best just starting at the beginning and clicking your way through...

Click here to view the gallery

Wednesday 19 July

Here are some pictures from this week's North Star along with a few extra ones that didn't make it in.

The one on the right is a shot to illustrate the story about Tain Tennis Club raffling a racket donated by Glasgow-born star player Andy Murray, to raise money for the under-10s coaching.

The pics below are all from last Friday's events around Invergordon, organised to coincide with the maiden visit of the cruise ship Golden Princess.

I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Captain Iain Dunderdale, port security officer Tom Macleod, Murray Macleod who organises the dancers and musicians for the cruise ships, and the ship's head of security Chris, who between them got me clearance to go on board the ship. (Even after the Princess press office had failed to do so with three days notice.) I was determined that if we were going to do a pic of the dancers and musicians then it should be done in the ship's theatre where they were performing, and with a lot of help from those four guys we finally got it sorted!

Thursday 13 July

Just two pictures today...

The landscape photo was taken right outside my house a few nights ago when we had a glorious bit of sunlight poking through a gap in the otherwise overcast sky. I intended this picture to be black and white and that's how I processed it, but when I looked at it again in colour the next day I realied that I preferred it that way, so that's how it stayed.

The picture of the dance class is in this week's North Star with the most bizarre crop I've ever seen, leaving loads of space at one side. Goodness knows what happened there but as you can see it certainly wasn't shot that way!

The cruise ship Golden Princess makes her maiden visit to Invergordon tomorrow and there's a day of live music, craft sales and other attractions. (Click here for more information) I'll be mooching around in the afternoon getting pics for the paper so any local artists, musicians, dancers, performers, people in fancy dress, etc, give me a shout if you spot me. Also if any local people are meeting up with friends or relatives from the ship (passengers or crew) then let me know and I'll get a picture of you all together.

Tuesday 4 July

Here are a few recent newspaper pics. First up we've got the winners from the schools fun run at Inver, then some of the winners from Inver Primary's own sports day, and finally the kids from Hilton Primary along at the Hilton of Cadboll Stone at the launch of the Moray Firth Trail.

And here are the only pics I did at this year's Tain Gala, all on the opening night. I have to say that I was really disappointed with the picture of the kids in fancy dress costumes. Rather than doing an easy shot with only a few of the kids, I wanted to make sure they all got to see themselves in the paper. So I spent about 10 mins rounding-up all of the kids and parents, and another couple of minutes getting all of the kids into position. Then right at the last second (literally) a woman marched into the shot and pulled her kid away, complaining that it was taking too long. I didn't dare take any longer to reposition the two kids on the left to fill in the gap so I had to just take the shot and that was that, an otherwise decent shot but with one kid missing.

Friday 9 June

I've posted some photos from last night's performance in Dornoch Cathedral by the Ross-shire Schools Concert Band. I did mostly wide-angle shots and I think that's the way to go with orchestras from now on, especially when they're performing in such a beautiful location.

Tuesday 6 June

Time for a quick round-up of some recent photos...

We'll start with a few pics from football events. This one shows the manager of Balintore football club with (left) Player of the Year John William Skinner and (right) Under-21 Player of the Year Ally Macdonald.

The next two are from the North Caledonian Football League dinner in Golspie. The first one shows, left to right: Balintore's Ally Macdonald (Keith Corbett Memorial Trophy Under-21 Player of the Year), Thurso's Phil Makhouli (joint Top Goal Scorer with 12 goals), Balintore's John William Skinner (Macrae Travel Player of the Year), and Halkirk's Michael Bremner (joint Top Goal Scorer). The second pic shows a group of ex-Invergordon players, most of which I think now live in Balintore.

Two group shots from the annual Kempo Gathering in Dingwall leisure centre. The first one is by far the biggest group shot I've ever set up and I think I did pretty well. (I did a bigger group at the Tain Academy senior dance last year but that was set up by a teacher.) The second one taught me a valuable lesson: Don't position groups in front of a symmetrical background!

The next picture was commissioned by Barry Grove who carved the Hilton of Cadboll Stone. People are often surprised by how much processing can be done on digital photos, but it's usually limited to simple stuff like replacing someone's face with a better expression from a different frame, or removing a distraction from the background. I thought this picture of the stone would serve as a good example of how more advanced processing is an important part of modern photography.

The brief for the job was to show the stone in context, but of course that requires having the sky and landscape visible when the lighting only comes on at night. In theory there are two ways to achieve the desired effect: Firstly, take one shot in daylight and another shot at night, then combine them. That's easy but the results look fake. Or secondly, take a picture when there's still a tiny bit of ambient light, but not enough to overpower the artificial light on the stone, then manipulate the image. The first picture is what came out of the camera, the second is the finished version after a few hours of Photoshop.

Pictures from a fun day organised by Inver primary school...

Click here to view the Inver fun day gallery

And here's a picture I took today showing Kenny Forest who, after ten years at Fearn Drome Garage, handed the business over to new owner Malcolm Talbot.

Friday 2 June

Eek, look at that, over a month since the last the last update. Lots going on and lots of pictures to post, it's just a matter of finding the time to do it!

For now though here are some pictures from last night's performance by Gizzen Briggs and the Tain Royal Academy Jazz Band.

Last time I shot a concert in the Academy it was a struggle to get any decent colours, but this time I used the Expodisc and the resulting colours were pretty faithful, producing some nice vibrant pictures.

More of a challenge last night was finding good angles. I had great access all around the performers but they were arranged in such a way that nearly everyone had someone's head or instrument obscuring them! So I ended up with hundreds of pictures of the same people over and over again. The easy solution is to get up really high and shoot down, but I don't like the way those pictures look. I did try that a few times with the guitarists but I haven't posted any of the pictures as the angle looks forced and awkward. Definitely need to work on that, although I'm not sure there's any good solution.

I'm also going to try going to rehearsals for any concerts I shoot in future as there were several good shots that I missed last night due to being in the wrong place because I didn't know the running order.

So anyway, a measly 15 pictures is all I've posted for now. I might go back and look through them again later to see if I can pick out any more, but I think these are the best ones. As usual the wide-angle shots showing the whole orchestra at the end of the performance are the best in my opinion.

Thursday 27 April

Back in February I photographed the 12th Fiddlers Rally for Tain Royal Academy. I used the photos to produce a 12-page booklet about the day, but for various reasons it never went into production.

All was not lost, though, as the Academy wanted a display about Gizzen Briggs for a recent prize-giving event, so I created six posters using the pictures from the Fiddlers Rally and a separate performance from last year.

Keep in mind that these were designed to be printed large and viewed from a few feet away, so the layouts may look a little strange on a computer screen.

Wednesday 26 April

I was asked to produce a poster for Halkirk's victory in the Port Services Cup final earlier this year, so here it is. Note also that I've made a few improvements to the Jock Mackay Memorial Cup poster, listed in the previous update.

Sunday 16 April

A couple of weeks ago when Balintore football club came top of the North Caledonian League, I put together a poster with the team photo and some shots from the match. They sold quite well so I thought maybe this is something that other clubs and their supporters would like.

I've done one for Halkirk's victory in the Jock Mackay Memorial Cup yesterday afternoon. As you can see when you look at the full size version it includes the team photo, some action and goal celebration shots from the game, team captain Colin Munro being presented with the cup by Jock Mackay's daughter Andrea, and a couple of other shots taken after the match.

I don't know if many people from Halkirk read this site so if you know anyone who might be interested in these posters then could you do me a favour and give them the web site address? Thanks!

Prices are:

£10 for LARGE (approx 17"x12")
£5 for MEDIUM (approx 12"x8")
£3 for SMALL (approx 7"x5")

Plus £1 per order for packing & postage.

All sizes will be supplied on premium quality gloss photo paper.

I'm not set-up for taking orders over the Internet yet so if you'd like to place an order then please send a note of what you want, along with a cheque or postal order made payable to Andrew Smith, to:

PO Box 5907, Tain, Ross-shire, IV20 1YX

Remember to include your address! (You'd be amazed how often people order prints and forget to tell me their address.)

If you need to contact me in advance for any reason then please drop me a line by e-mail. My address is: andy@meejahor.com

If these posters prove to be popular then I'll start doing them for cup finals in future. Of course we've reached the end of the main season now but I'll probably do them from the summer games too.

Tuesday 11 April

Photos from the Highland Hospice fundraising dinner at the Seaboard Memorial Hall last Saturday. The group shot was for the North Star. I sent the cheque presentation pic to the Ross-shire Journal but I don't know if they'll use it.

Click here to view the gallery

Tuesday 4 April

I think this picture of three young musicians is the best "people picture" I've ever done. My group shots are consistently bad, partly because I'm just not very good at them but also because (a) they're usually rushed, and (b) the people don't really want to be in them in the first place. But on this occasion we had about 10 minutes and the three lads were really patient, and the shot worked. I always remember the film director David Fincher saying that you should know exactly what you want and aim to achieve it, and if you get within 15% either way then it will still work. Well in this picture the lad on the left was meant to be holding the head of the guitar up towards the middle of the picture, and even though he didn't (my fault) the picture still works because everything else was how it was meant to be. The picture was in the North Star a couple of weeks ago. The gallery includes a few more pictures from the Irish Night at the Seaboard Memorial Hall.

Click here to view the gallery

Friday 31 March

I know, months without any updates, and now two in one day.

This photo is from tonight's lighting ceremony at the Hilton of Cadboll Stone. Hand-held and flash-lit at night, it was never going to be a masterpiece, but it turned out okay. I took a few safe shots, then quickly lay down on the ground to get a more dramatic angle and I'm glad I did because the safe shots were rubbish. This picture should be in the North Star next week. Oh and that reminds me, the Garrick Singers "Orpheus" pics should be in next week too as there wasn't enough space this week.

Friday 31 March

Here's a quick round-up of my favourite landscape photos from the last few months, starting with some from my first couple of visits to Loch Eye. I think the one with the field in the foreground and the loch in the distance is probably my best landscape photo to date. It was a really simple shot too (hand-held at f/5.6) but the light was right and everything just fell into place.

One dramatic panorama of the Cromarty Firth taken from the bridge, and a snowy scene on a different day from a little further round on the Inverness side.

Nobody else likes this next one but I do. After taking this shot I went right out onto the rocks to try another angle and the tide came in behind me, but thankfully it washed out again so I could escape.

And the last one, a tranquil view of Portmahomack from the harbour.

Tuesday 28 March

Here's a photo of the Hilton of Cadboll Stone, giving a preview of the lighting that will be officially unveiled on Friday evening. The lighting goes through a sequence of colours, not just green. I think some of the other colours look better but green will best show off the details of the Stone in newsprint. The photo was done at the request of the Seaboard Initiative for a story in the Press & Journal.

Wednesday 22 March

Okay I really need to update this site before it gets away from me entirely. Apologies for nearly three months without any updates but I've been really busy lately (yay!) and every time I had something new to post I left it until I had time to post the other stuff I hadn't posted, and pretty soon it snowballed and I've now got hundreds of pictures waiting to be posted! I'll try to get around to posting them all eventually.

For now, though, we've got three new galleries of pictures taken over the last few days, starting with Balintore's 1-0 win against Halkirk on Saturday. This result took Balintore to the top of the North Caledonian League for the first time in 15 years so as you can imagine there were some happy faces at Seaboard Park that afternoon! Some of these pictures should be in the North Star and some in the Ross-shire Journal.

Click here to view the gallery

I've recently bought a lot of studio lighting gear as I'm getting into portrait photography, but with Neil Turner as my inspiration I'm now lighting location shoots whenever possible. This next photo shows Stephen Hayward, a local artist who was recently commissioned to carve a 10-foot replica of one of the Lewis chess pieces. I had a rough idea of what to expect from the shed where the piece had been carved and I thought it would be a good idea to add a little extra something to the picture with some coloured lighting. For anyone who is interested, this picture was lit with three strobes: Bowens 1000DX with softbox behind me to the left, Bowens 1000DX with silver brolly to the right at 90 degrees off camera axis, and a Bowens Exprit Gemini 500 with standard reflector and coloured film positioned behind the chess piece. With hindsight I should have stuck another 500 over in the far left to put a bit of trim around Stephen's dark clothes but I think it just about works without. The picture was taken for the village newsletter but I think it's going in the North Star as well.

Click here to view the gallery

And finally today, some pictures from the dress rehearsal of Orpheus by the Garrick Singers at the Duthac Centre in Tain. These are hot off the press from Tuesday night! This was a fun shoot. I love shooting any theatre stuff, but the Duthac Centre has really good lights so you can put some thought into composition instead of just concentrating on holding the camera steady. Plus there was no audience so I could walk around as much as I wanted to get different angles, although in the end I spent most of the time up a ladder in the middle of the hall. Again these were done for the North Star.

Click here to view the gallery

Monday 2 January

Happy New Year! Here's my first landscape photo of 2006, taken this morning down on Hilton beach just outside my house, and I'm pleased to say that it's the first of my sunrise photos that I'm actually satisfied with. Previous ones have always been popular with friends, relatives and other photographers on the Internet but I've found them to be either too busy or too empty. I think this one has just enough content to be interesting but not so much that it becomes overpowering. I hope you like it too!

Monday 12 December

Here are some more pictures from my QE2 adventure back in July / August of this year. This time we've got some views of Invergordon, taken on the approach and as we were turning to dock. There are two panoramas to show the fabrication yard, the port and the main stretch of the town...

And two shots focussing on the port...

I'm amazed I got any good pictures as we travelled along the Cromarty Firth. It was way too early, I'd had about two hours sleep and I was freezing cold so I just found a warm place to stand and kept dashing around to the front of the ship, grabbing a few shots and then going back to shelter. I think the shots I've posted today and yesterday look okay on the computer screen but they look much better printed out.

While searching the web to find out what the Invergordon fabrication yard was called I found a site run by a guy called Ian Boyle who was on the same cruise, except he didn't have to get off after two days! He's posted a review of the cruise and loads of pictures of the ship and destinations, and if you have a look around the rest of his site then you'll find some other QE2 goodies. Probably boring if you're not into cruising but QE2 geeks like myself will love it!

Sunday 11 December

Back in July this year I went on the QE2 for a couple of weeks. At the end of the cruise we were due to debark in Southampton but the first port on the next cruise was Invergordon on the 1st of August so we stayed on board for an extra couple of days to get a lift home! Cruising along the Cromarty Firth provided a great opportunity to take photographs of Nigg and Invergordon, but I've only just got around to sorting through them. Many times I've stood on the beach at Nigg to watch cruise ships go past, and these two panoramic pictures show what the view is like from the other perspective.

Friday 25 November

Winter arrived in the north of Scotland yesterday with bitterly cold conditions and the first snow of the year. Today wasn't as cold and there hasn't been any more snow, but the wind really picked up and whipped the ocean into a frenzy. I went out to take pictures of the tremendous waves that have been racing towards the shore all day, but my favourite picture is this more subdued view of the rocks with the waves in the distance. I hope you like it too.

I've also posted some pictures from the Ross County vs Dundee match at Victoria Park last Saturday. County won 3-0 with John Rankin scoring all three goals. Needless to say I'm still not getting commissioned by any newspapers to shoot football. And worse, I found out last week that another photographer has been complaining about me even showing my pictures to editors so they can see how I'm progressing! As if this business isn't tough enough to break into, it doesn't help to have an established pro stabbing you in the back.

Click here to view the gallery

Finally today, a few pictures taken at last week's Christmas Fayre in the Seaboard Memorial Hall. Thanks to everyone who let me take their picture, even if I had to follow some of you around a few stalls before you gave in!

Click here to view the gallery

Saturday 19 November

My favourite subject to shoot has always been football but I'm becoming more and more interested in covering theatre and other live performances. So last night I went along to a performance by Gizzen Briggs, Tain Academy's traditional Scottish music group. I expected it to be relatively easy to get lots of good shots but it turned out to be very challenging, due to the way the musicians were arranged and the uneven lighting in the hall. I did get a few pictures that are okay, but only one that I'm really pleased with.

I've been looking at some other orchestra photos this morning and based on what I've seen so far it looks like I did a good job, all things considered. But now I want to work out better ways to photograph an event like this, and then I'll give it another go as soon as I get chance.

Here's the best picture in my opinion. It's from a remote camera set-up right in front of the performers. I think I'll see about setting up two remotes next time, one to get the 'safety' shots like this one, and another set-up either really high or really low to get a more dramatic perspective.

Sunday 13 November

I got over to see the new Hilton of Cadboll stone this morning, for the first time since its unveiling. Here's a photo taken just after sunrise.

Update: Here's an edited version. I've made some subtle adjustments to improve the balance between the stone and the background. I've also digitally cleaned-up the foreground to disguise the fact that the grass around the stone is newly-laid strips of turf. I'm going to display this picture in the Memorial Hall and I think it works better with the grass looking how it should be, rather than how it currently is.

Click here to read about the stone reconstruction project.

Friday 11 November

As you'll see I haven't had many photos to show you recently but I thought I'd better update the site before everyone starts thinking I've given up on it!

There's one new landscape photo today, showing a view of the Dornoch Firth from Portmahomack. If you're a local then you might recognise some of the pictures that are starting to appear in the Memorial Hall. I've only put two in there at the moment but I'm working on others.

Next up are pictures from the Port Services Cup final between Balintore and Halkirk. These were used in the John O'Groat Journal last week. I think everyone was surprised that Balintore lost after how well they're been playing this season, but congratulations to Halkirk for a well-earned win and their first cup in twelve years.

And here are some pictures showing the aftermath of a road accident near Ken's Garage in Kildary, a collision between a Stagecoach bus and a Scottish Water van. This was my first time photographing any sort of 'emergency' situation so all I was really hoping for was a bit of experience and lots of photos so I could see which angles and perspectives worked and which didn't. But I think I did pretty well! And it didn't feel like beginner's luck either, I actually felt like I knew what I was doing. And thankfully, my understanding from speaking to the police at the scene is that nobody was seriously hurt.

Friday 30 September

Well I've had an awful toothache for most of this month so I'm busy busy busy trying to catch up on everything I couldn't be bothered doing between visits to the dentist. (Two weeks of NHS treatment, anti-biotics and painkillers did absolutely nothing. One visit to a private dentist got it fixed. Go figure.) I've actually posted several new pictures and galleries over the last couple of weeks so you might have seen them already if you've been mooching around the site, but I'll list them here anyway.

First up there's one sort-of landscape photo, a nice shot of a float/buoy on the beach at Cadboll Point, right at the break of sunrise. There were several other objects washed-up on the beach that morning, including a large anchor and loads of rope, but I think this shot of the float was the most interesting.

My photos from the Balintore harbour fun day eventually found a place in the North Star a couple of weeks ago, although only two of them were used. It isn't difficult to cover events like the fun day, but it is time-consuming because you have to take photos of every participant to make sure you have good pictures of the winners. (Unless you're willing to settle for boring grip-n-grin shots during the prize-giving, which I'm not.) Then when you collate all the pictures for the paper you need to get everyone's names which can take a lot of time, and before you know it you're talking about a 12-hour day. So needless to say it's more than a little disheartening when only two of the pictures run in the paper! I was surprised they didn't print any from the clay pigeon competition that was timed to coincide with the harbour events, but I must admit to being relieved that they didn't use the ones of the sandcastle competition, as I wasn't happy with them. I'm sure there's a way to take good photos of kids with sandcastles but I haven't figured it out yet!

David Kratz posted some general views of the fun day over on Northern Sights. You can even see me prowling around in some of them. Click here!

The next two pictures won't be in the paper because the story has been dropped, but it was a local-interest piece about the council not collecting an amount of rubbish that had been left for three weeks in a residential area. I was really pleased with the job I did here. One important skill for a newspaper photographer, and it's especially important if you're working for the locals, is to be able to create an interesting picture from a non-interesting subject, while still conveying the story and keeping the photo honest. I had a plan for how to take these photos, and I'd even sketched out some ideas, but when I arrived the scene was nothing like I expected so I had to quickly come up with different ideas. Plus the light had gone by the time we were ready to get the shots so I was down to something like 1/15s at f2.8 ISO 800. And I had to hand-hold the flash as high as possible to avoid over-exposing the foreground! Okay so these are only pictures of people standing near a pile of rubbish, no big deal, but this was a challenging job and I think I did well, so yay me!

And finally today, six photos from the match between Ross County and Brechin City at Victoria Park on the 17th of September. I think these are all decent football shots but none of them were used in the paper and I'm saying nothing about the one they did run!

Tuesday 6 September

Last night's Blas Festival performance at the Memorial Hall was a pleasant surprise as there was much better lighting than usual. I also had another go at using a remote camera, set-up at the back of the stage, and it produced one picture that I liked, so I've sent that off to the paper along with a few regular shots of the performers. I hope they use the remote shot as it's something a bit different, but I really like the other group shot so I won't be too disappointed if they use that one instead. See what you think...

Thursday 1 September

For any local people who have been wondering why my pictures from the Balintore harbour fun day haven't been in the North Star yet, it's because they went missing somewhere between here and the newspaper office. I thought the editor had them, she didn't know anything about them, and we only found out today. I've sent them in again this afternoon so they should be in next week's paper. As usual I'll hold off putting them online until after the paper's had chance to use them, it's only fair as they're paying me!

So just one set of newspaper photos today, the ones of John Shepherd-Barron receiving his O.B.E. at the Memorial Hall in Balintore last Saturday. The paper ran the one of John with his family, but I was especially pleased with the presentation shots and the portraits that I also took. If you've ever tried to take a photo in the Memorial Hall then you'll know how difficult it can be to light properly, but I think I did a decent job of these. Practice is paying off! I must say thanks to John for his co-operation on the day. It was a big occasion for him, what with his O.B.E. presentation, celebrating his 80th birthday and his wedding anniversary, but still he took time out to discuss the shots with me in advance so we could get everything perfect. He couldn't have been more helpful!

I've also posted a couple of new landscape photos. There's a basic shot of Hilton Bay and one taken along at Cadboll Point that is much more dramatic. I've now got four really strong landscape photos so I think maybe that's enough to set-up a display in the café at the Memorial Hall.

Saturday 13 August

There are several new pictures and galleries online today.

After happy-snapping my way around Europe for a couple of weeks it was nice to put the cameras away for a few days, but it couldn't last so I ended up down on the beach again at 5am yesterday. The shot on the right was an experiment and although it didn't turn out exactly how I intended I think it's quite nice. The first two pictures were taken back at the end of June.

I've also posted two galleries of holiday photos from Florence and Rome. If you like traditional tourist shots then you'll be disappointed but if you like pictures of people and walls then you should find something of interest! The pictures from Rome are much better than the ones from Florence. All of these pictures were taken with digital cameras but I processed many of them to look like film. Although this was done primarily to deal with the high-contrast of the midday sun, I think the look really suits the subjects.

This year was my first time covering Tain Gala. The only other photographer there was Bobby Nelson and when I saw his pictures in the Ross-shire Journal I realised just how much I have to learn. The guy's in a different league! Amazing work, absolutely amazing. So I haven't posted any of my people pictures but there are some shots of the monster truck "Big Pete" that aren't too bad, along with a couple of the bagpipe band.

Inver Primary school had a World War II event at the end of June. This was the first event I came away from feeling that I had done a solid, competent job. Not the sort of pictures that are going to win any awards, that's for sure, but I had four specific pictures to get and I got all of them, and they were quite good.

Unfortunately the coverage of this event in the local papers was less than thorough so few people will know what the Inver pupils accomplished with their year-long project to publish a book about the role played by Inver in the war. And my photos were commissioned by the North Star so by the time I knew which one they were running it was too late to send the rest to other papers. But hopefully people will now see them here, and personally I think the Inver pupils should be really proud of what they achieved.

Monday 8 August

I'm finally getting back to some sort of routine after a two-week holiday so I'll be posting new pictures again regularly, starting with some from Ross County's 3-1 victory over Clyde at Victoria Park on Saturday. I sent these pictures to the Daily Record but none of them were used. The Record seems to like celebration shots so I'll concentrate on those in future.

You'll notice that these pictures include the captions which is something I'll be doing more often from now on, as I think it gives them more long-term interest. And I have to write the captions anyway, whether the pictures are published or not, so I'd might as well put them to some use!

Click here to view the gallery.

Remember those QM2 photos that none of the papers used? Well I'm pleased to say that the one on the left found a home in an official Cunard magazine, although it's not the best picture and it was printed very small. They wanted to print it larger but they couldn't get hold of the hi-res version as I didn't get home until after their deadline. Frustrating!

Thursday 7 July

This morning I went out on a half-day tour with Photo4x4, a local tour organiser that specialises in going off the beaten track in an ex-military 4-wheel drive Land Rover to explore the parts of Scotland that many locals don't even know about. It was a great adventure and I'll be going again as soon as I can. Today we saw the most northerly canal in Britain, an iron-age fortress and "dun", and a very scenic beach and lighthouse just a few miles from where I live. I've posted six photos, but although we had good weather the sun was high so the light was quite harsh.

Click here to view the gallery.
Click here to visit the Photo4x4 web site.

Friday 1 July

For the second year running I couldn't get to the display by the Red Arrows at Tain Gala. This year I was shooting an event in Inver, but luckily I wasn't needed for about 45 minutes at the same time as the Red Arrows display was happening a few miles away. I had my 300mm lens with me but no teleconverters so instead of doing close-ups I had to rely 100% on composition. I think I got some nice pictures, albeit a bit different from the usual aerial display shots.

Click here to view the gallery.

Sunday 26 June

Here are two pictures of Aldie Burn taken late yesterday afternoon. Boring light but I grabbed a couple of shots anyway and they turned out okay.

Saturday 25 June

It doesn't look like my Queen Mary 2 photos are ever going to see the light of day. I sent some to the Ross-shire Journal but they didn't use any of them, and it's too late now to send them to any other papers. Oh well, it was a fun day and at least I got some nice pictures of the ship, even if the only people who ever get to see them are visitors to this site!

I've posted two more pictures today, one close-up of the ship as she was docking and one taken from Nigg as she was leaving. I think the gallery is now complete, unless I decide to go back and process some more of the close-ups.

Tuesday 21 June

Here are some more pictures of the Queen Mary 2 taken during her visit to Invergordon on Sunday. I think we're pretty much done with the best of the arrival and docking shots but I haven't even started going through the departure shots yet.

Monday 20 June

Well if you've seen the Daily Record today then you'll have noticed that they used someone else's picture of the QM2. Not sure why, seeing as the picture they've used was taken from the wrong side of the Cromarty Firth and from behind the ship! All I can think of is that they decided to use a picture with a closer view. What's annoying is that I had a closer view too, I just didn't submit it because the photo editor said he was going to use the wide view. Never mind.

Sunday 19 June

The world's largest cruise liner, Cunard's Queen Mary 2, visited Invergordon today, the only port in Scotland deep enough to accommodate her. I had the pleasure of covering the visit for a newspaper so I had access to the dock, including a great vantage point on top of a building. Here are two photos, one of the ship navigating the Cromarty Firth and one of her turning alongside the dock. I'll have lots more to post later this week. The first of these pictures should be in the Daily Record tomorrow if you want to look out for it.

Thursday 16 June

Here are pictures of two cruise ships that went past this evening on their way out of Invergordon. The first one, "Albatros" was large and quite close so I got a decent shot at 300mm. The second one, "Seabourn Pride" was much smaller and further away so I had to use both a 1.4x and 2x teleconverter to get up to 840mm. I wasn't expecting much in the way of quality with all that extra glass in the way but I was pleasantly surprised by how well the shot turned out. Shame the ship was heading off to one side so I couldn't get it fully side-on.

Tuesday 14 June

It looked like we were going to have a good sunrise this morning so I headed along to Cadboll Point at 4am and stood there in the rain waiting for it to happen. But it didn't. So I fell back on my familiar subject of rocks and water studies and here's what I came up with.

Monday 13 June

Welcome to the new version of my humble little web site. It was taking way too long to update the previous version, and if you've checked recently then you'll know that it hadn't been updated for over a month. So it's time to get back to basics! This new version of the site is very simple and easy to update so expect to see new photos every two or three days. I'll re-post the older pics whenever I get chance, but to kick things off we've got...

A dozen photos in the Landscapes gallery, taken around Hilton and Balintore over the last couple of weeks. I'm intending to display some of these pictures in the Seaboard Memorial Hall soon, so if there are any that you particularly like then let me know (click here to send an e-mail) and I'll see about displaying those ones first.

Tain Choral Group performing in the Duthac Centre in Tain on the 23rd of April. Two of these pictures, including the one on the left, were used in the Ross-shire Journal.

The Ukrainian group Kolos performing in the Duthac Centre in Tain on the 7th of May. I liked the picture of Alasdair Rhind conducting the group, and the North Star took several of the pictures, but for some reason they didn't use any of them.

One photo of Tain Pipe Band which was used in last week's North Star, and a portrait of new member Ross Fraser which was used in the Ross-shire Journal. We're going to do the group shot again because there was one member missing when we did this one.

Sam Summersbee of Network Refrigeration sponsors Balintore FC welfare team. Both of the pictures from the Ross-shire Journal -- one of Sam with team manager Allan Stainke, and one of the whole team.

And finally today, photos of Hilton Primary School children releasing balloons as part of a fund-raising initiative by the Parents Association. This photo was used in the Ross-shire Journal although sadly they printed it in black & white.