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My mum in Largs recently. She has had a hard time recently with the loss of my dad and a number of other changes to her life. It struck me when my dad died that I had thought about photographing him a number of times before his death, but never got round to it. I thought I should form the habit now.
Last Friday I was heading back from a day in Tighnabruach in Argyll, there is a lovely viewpoint at the high point on the road between there and Glendaruel. There was a hazy, misty quality to the light so I stopped to take a few landscape snaps. They weren’t great, but I thought the Kyles and Loch Riddon were worth a bit of post processing in Lightroom.
You can just see the Colintraive to Rhubodach ferry in the centre of the picture. I believe it might just be the shortest ferry crossing in Scotland; I must check that out one day?
A wider angle shot of Loch Riddon and Loch Ruel with the Kyles in the top centre. (The Kyles are the narrows between the Cowal Peninsula and the Isle of Bute on the right).
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And a close-up of the Kyles in black and white. Rothesay is visible on the Isle of Bute in the upper right. The beautiful River Clyde beyond..jpg "IMG_0965")
Someone had left these carnations tied to the fence of the viewpoint. I don’t know why, but they were irresistible to this photographer.
If you haven’t visited Argyll, I recommend that you do at the first opportunity.
This is my friend Elizabeth from Inveraray. Elizabeth agreed after only the tiniest persuasion (about 18 months roughly) to have some portraits done. Elizabeth works with Richard, who was one of my portrait subjects some time ago. Basically Richard and I have nagged poor Elizabeth ever since; who says that persistence doesn’t pay off? Elizabeth chose this favourite spot by a bend in the river that runs by Inveraray Castle. Look at the amazing background texture provided by the rocks, look at Elizabeth’s amazing expression.
We loved the texture of these rocks so much that we just had to do something playful with them!
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Sometimes simple light really is the best thing for a good portrait.
Oddly this forest looks like an autumn scene, but it’s spring! Where are all those leaves coming from? The light on Elizabeth is fantastic here. (Actually it’s a Canon Speedlite through my trusty brolly held by helpful hubby Steven). The light on the tree is genuine sunlight! 
And finally a black and white showing Elizabeth doing what she does naturally all the time, smiling!
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I hope you like these Elizabeth?
In my last posting I shared my photo session with my friend Petrea’s tango band in Edinburgh. The bandoneon player from her band, Roberto, organised a weekend of workshops to learn from the expert bandoneon player Victor Villena (ex Gotan project and currently playing with Quintetto EL DESPUES). He was teaching about tango idiosyncrasies and techniques and how to play tango together as an orchestra. I was kindly invited to enjoy the rehearsal and take a few record shots of the get-together.
Photographically the lighting in the room was difficult for 2 reasons. It was low level, and it had a mixture of daylight from an overhead skylight and tungsten from a number of wall mounted sidelights. I have often had problems with that kind of mixed lighting giving an odd colour cast that can be impossible to fix. I’m afraid that I took the last refuge of a scoundrel and solved the colour cast in most of the pictures by using black and white conversion. Getting a decent shutter speed was a challenge too; my fast 50mm f1.4 gave me a speed of only 1/125th at f1.4 using ISO 1000. Anyway, light problems aside, the music was fabulous and I’m in serious danger of falling in love with tango music.
Double Bass: James Stewart – Edinburgh
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The strings:
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Piano: Marc Fallon – Greenock
Teacher: Victor Villena – Paris, and
Bandoneon: Marianne Vinther Olesen – Denmark
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And there they are in the gentile surroundings of the “Counting House” in Edinburgh. I wish you could have heard them.
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Cello: Maria Rodriguez Reina – Spanish – London
Violin: Suzanne Senior – Edinburgh
Bandoneon: Juanjo Passo – Sweden based
The organiser of this amazing event:
Bandoneon: Roberto Rabinovich – Edinburgh
Bandoneon: Victor Villena – Paris
When I was chatting with Victor and apologising for not knowing much about tango music, I explained that my only contact with it was my copy of the Gotan Project’s album. This is a real favourite of mine and I play it a lot. Imagine my shock when he told me that he was the bandoneon player on that album!
Flute: Sharon Dowsett – Edinburgh
Violin: Cathy Johnson
Violin: Petrea Cooney Edinburgh although very Irish, and I’m happy to say my friend.
Bandoneon: Marianne Vinther Olesen – Copenhagen (Denmark)
Thanks to everyone for entertaining me so beautifully while I got to do my favourite thing!
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This particularly great looking bunch of musicians spent some time with me on Sunday doing some photos for publicity. I had a great day with them and enjoyed Edinburgh on a beautiful bright February day. I loved photographing them and loved their willingness top trust me as I dragged them onto the monument at Calton Hill in their light shirts in the FREEZING afternoon. Thanks guys, I hope you love the pictures as much as I do. This would have made a fantastic day for me anyway, but to hear them play was really special; these guys are totally amazing. They play traditional style tango, and the sound of them, their soulfulness, their tightness makes your heart ache. They are brilliant.
Orquestra Atipica de Edimburgo’s Facebook page.
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These images were done with one flash and umbrella on a stand fixed and one handheld by my helper for the day, Gustavo. We were able to move that one quickly to balance the lighting without wasting time.
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One problem taking advantage of a band for photographs is that they tend to wander off all the time; with a little platform and a 30 foot drop on 3 sides they tend to stick together. Mwwwwaaaahahaaaaaaaa
An Edinburgh band need to have Edinburgh behind them. I love that city so much.
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Back now on terra firma. Those smiles are relief. I don’t care what the motivation was however, I’ll take advantage anyway:-) Note the tiny Princes Street behind them.
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And now, double bassist extraordinaire, James…
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How cool is James’s hair?
What poise, what a shirt!
One of my favourites, the lighting, background and pose are totally classic. This is in Gustavo’s wonderful cafe, looking out on Broughton street.
Every tango band needs someone in a red dress. None of the guys were up for it, so Petrea stepped up to the mark. No the background of Arthur’s Seat and the crags isn’t stuck on. She was way up high and keepin’ it real!
Here’s Petrea in the cafe later. I love the background and the catchlights in her eyes.
As a guitarist myself, the most humbling part of the day was hearing Mark making this astounding lightly built flamenco instrument sing and wail so perfectly.
Note the resemblance to the amazing David Gilmour Pink Floyd fans. The graffiti is a shame here. I wondered about cloning it out, I’m just not sure. It’s a love/hate thing..
And finally Roberto. Master of the bandoneon. If any instrument can be said to be hard-wired to the listeners soul, this is it. This man and his music will break your heart, and you’ll love it.
Check Roberto’s chiselled looks.
And then, in the cafe, Petrea sang and everyone turned to watch and listen, you have to, she’s that good. Don’t go to see this band if you don’t want to fall in love with Petrea’s singing.
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Just a few angles on the guys now:
And finally, helper-for-the-afternoon Gustavo and Petrea showed their skills dancing tango while the band played. Beautiful and amazing.
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Check them out.
Capri
A good lesson for us all, Matthew!! As well as audio recording conversations about the “good ole days” and other family stories. I neglected to do that recently with my father-in-law and regret it every time I think about it.