Check this magnificent new entrance, Mike in the background playing my guitar.

And a closer picture after stepping through the door.

Good to see the maker looking satisfied with his craftsmanship; it was a pleasure hearing him playing it.

Anyway, I took some shots of work in progress for Mike, this is a pair of necks for classical instruments in early gluing.

Mike preparing his plane blade for book-matching and gluing some tables. This was the process that Mike thought would interest me, done in the traditional way.

Mike takes blade sharpness really seriously.

Mike beginning to prepare the edges for sticking together.

And here Mike is checking that the two edges meet perfectly and mate properly along the whole length.

This bit is so interesting, Mike uses traditional animal glue, which needs to be warmed briefly to ensure good penetration. After using traditional string and wedges to bring the two faces together, Mike plays a torch over the joint to help the glue to do it’s job.

Mike was keen for me to photograph the process, but I wanted to photograph Mike; I love this close-up of Mike while he focuses on the new joint. I have said this in previous posts, but what a striking man Mike is.

I couldn’t resist these sound-hole inlays, all handmade by Mike; I love these and wish I could have a guitar to go with each of these!

Finally, a workshop detail for fun.

This set of pictures was all taken with my Canon 5dMk2 and my Sigma 24-70 f2.8. Mike was working really quickly and so I wanted to frame him working while staying safely out of his way. I bought this lens for my recent wedding shoot and have been really happy with it. It takes great portraits and delivers that look of gorgeous bokeh that I am addicted to. I hadn’t expected to like it this much, being a prime lens addict, but it is really special and will be heavily used in wedding shoots.

And again, just giving a sense of setting. Somehow Mike just fits these surroundings, he doesn’t just work with wood, he is utterly passionate about it; where else could he be but here.

A closer picture of Mike here, but critically folks, just for a change ignore the relaxed expression with the nice graduated light across the face, that’s the headstock of my new guitar.

And here it is, Indian Rosewood, Sitka Spruce and Mahogany, all assembled by Mike’s expert paws. I’m so excited!

Mike isn’t just a learn it and get in a rut luthier. He has made it his business to spend time in Spain studying with the spanish and flamenco guitar builders, and he has adapted many of their traditional techniques for use here in Scotland. Note the use of string and wedges where many might expect metal clamps. It’s a joy to watch this work happening.

And finally a detail of one of Mike’s near complete Classical instruments. Look at the hand finished detail round the soundhole. This is a pre-polished and finished guitar. Some lucky person will own this soon.

Mike’s workshop is pretty dark and presents a difficult photographic environment. I used a little offboard flash on occasion, and a couple with natural light only. The picture of mike holding my guitar neck was ISO 2000, and the picture of my guitar nearing completion was ISO 2500. No noise reduction was applied in Lightroom 3. You couldn’t say the Canon 7d has no noise, it has plenty at these settings, but it is surprisingly unobtrusive in real use.

There will be more pictures of Mike’s band posted soon, once I can process the next batch of challenging, low light pictures I took.

John Miller Gray, 1850 – 1894. Art critic and first curator of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery1885

Born in Edinburgh Scotland in 1854, Patrick William Adam once said that he “was inspired to paint by the lush emerald landscapes of his homeland. The son of a well-known lawyer, Patrick chose a career in the arts rather than follow in his father’s footsteps. Accepted to the Royal Scottish Academy, he mastered his technique under the tutorial of G.P. Chalmers and W. McTaggart.

Originally, he began honing his craft as a portraitist before specializing in landscape painting. He is best known for his genre painting of interior scenes, created with his light and airy brushwork in an impressionist style. He exhibited his works, which were well received at the Royal Scottish Academy, as well as the Royal Academy, and won the acclaimed Maclaine Watters medal in 1878. Patrick Adam died in North Berwick in 1929. (From Global Art Gallery: www.globalgallery.com)

My response:

This portrait doesn’t seem typical of the paintings that I have found online by Patrick William Adam. The pictures that seem to have endured are the rather “mannered” and impersonal paintings of Edinburgh breakfast rooms with light flooding in to their people-free spaces. This one that Gerry has chosen has the subject essentially not interacting with Adam at all. The portrait is intimate mainly because the view it offers us of John Gray has some of his personal possessions around him and is relaxing by reading, again indicating that we are voyeurs here. The paintings in the background tell the story of Gray’s profession, but his face, tells us little.

I thought immediately of our local picture framer and artist, William Masson. William kindly agreed to sit for this portrait in which he has some personal posessions and the tools of his trade around him, telling his story for him. William is reading his book and, critically, not engaging with me. I tried to keep the picture totally impersonal, but looking at the scene through the viewfinder, I softened the scene a little by asking William to look up from his book to allow us to see a little more of his face, perhaps that’s a little of my portraitist’s desire to explore faces asserting itself. The picture was enjoyable to do, and I certainly feel I explored a different style of portrait.

“William Masson”

OK, so what’s all this about? Since my “100 Portraits” project I haven’t been stretching myself as much as I would like to, and while I am still regularly taking photographs I feel that I need something to make me learn some new approaches. I have always wanted to try to learn more about some interesting artists and try to take some inspiration or even provocation from their work into my photography.

I have asked a small group of friends to select a single painting by an artist that they don’t know anything about. The twist is that I want to work my way around the alphabet from A to Z! My friend Gerry, who discussed the idea with me originally, has given my my first challenge; the picture you see above. Not only will I learn about an artist, but hopefully the friend making the choice will also enjoy learning about the artist’s work.

Watch this space for B!

This is Mike Ritchie. Mike is a Luthier (guitar maker if you must). This was taken yesterday in his workshop. Mike made my acoustic guitar 6 years ago and it is the most wonderful sounding guitar I have ever owned. Mike puts real passion and love into his guitars, and the results are really special. He does everything by hand and has incorporated new methods into his building process as he has learned from other builders. (He recently had 2 years in Spain learning from their builders). It is a total pleasure to chat with Mike and watch him at work. He just happens to be a really likeable man who is a pleasure to chat with as well. I ‘m grateful that he was happy to let me do a portrait and I look forward to more in the near future.

Mike’s Website

Technically the light was low in the workshop, so I bumped up to ISO 200. The side lighting was coming from the window behind Mike, but it was too much of a range at certain angles so it took a few positions to prevent the near side of Mike’s face being too dark. Of course with my desire to include a little of Mike’s working environment it just had to be my beloved Sigma 28 1.8