Public sector workers take to the streets of Edinburgh yesterday to protest against changes to their pensions. And I photographed the estimated crowd of 10,000 on its’ progress down Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to the Scottish Parliament.

Pictures for the Times Educational Supplement Scotland and the NASUWT Scotland trade union.

Above: St Andrews Day at the Scottish Parliament is the backdrop for a rally of speeches by leading lights in the trade union movement, including Rodney Bickerstaff

Above:The 10,000 strong crowd gather to march along Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to the Scottish Parliament

Above: the crowd gathers for a rally of speeches at the Scottish Parliament

Above: veteran trade unionist Rodney Bickerstaff addresses the crowd at the Scottish Parliament

Above: the aftermath – scores of discarded banners

Breathing Easy: Linda McLeod, chair of the British Lung Foundation charity’s Clackmannanshire Breathe Easy local support group.

The BLF run regular profiles in its’ Breathe Easy newsletter and website, and were looking for positive upbeat portraits to illustrate an interview with Linda about living with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) – how her local BLF support
group in Clackmannanshire helps her live with the condition and what in means to her.

So I created three portraits with a more abstract and positive way of illustrating ‘air’ – playful bubbles and red balloons (nine, not 99 – a red balloon is the BLF’s logo). The ‘blowing bubbles’ picture especially appealed to the client. I created it with a child’s cheap ‘gazillion’ soap-bubble machine from a toyshop… and half a bottle of washing-up liquid.

www.lunguk.org

Robin Harper, the colourful former MSP and Scottish Green Party leader, plants oak seedlings at the National Trust for Scotland’s House of the Binns, near Linlithgow.

Famous for his iconic rainbow scarf and snappy ties, Robin is now on the board of the NTS, and has gifted one of the trust’s most iconic properties with a batch of oak tree seedlings and saplings. 

The House Of The Binns is managed by the NTS and is the ancestral home of the Rt Hon Sir Tam Dalyell, former MP for Linlithgow and Father of the House of Commons (pictured, above, with Robin).

 
Robin’s green credentials are impeccable, not least as he was Scotland’s first ever Green Party MSP. 

However, in private he has always practised what he preaches through his hobby growing trees from seed and offering them up for planting around the country.

Pictures for the National Trust for Scotland and published in The Herald, The Scotsman, Third Force News and the National Trust for Scotland news website.

My recent photography of Calum’s Road for the National Theatre of Scotland appears in the Scottish press and websites from this week, as the NTS production starts its’ tour around Scotland.

A delightful assignment with the lovely folk at the NTS, creating press pictures to promote David Harrower’s play about the remarkable real-life local hero Calum MacLeod. The determined Calum saved the community of his beloved northern Island of Raasay from dying by single-handedly building a road to the south of the isle. After loosing patience with the indifferent Inverness-shire council, Calum set to work with his pick and shovel and barrowloads of grit. His 20-year unpaid labour of love left behind a legacy carved into the landscape he loved.

Above: true grit – actor Iain Macrae plays the stoical and determined Calum MacLeod

My selection of pictures will appear in the national Scottish and local press over the next few months, starting with a nice big splash with my silhouette image in The Herald’s arts section on Tuesday [20th September].

Edinburgh’s Braid Hills were the backdrop for this shoot to represent the Isle of Raasay in the Inner Hebrides – with television masts, suburban houses and other urban clutter skillfully avoided in these images.

See more details of the show’s national tour here – which starts tomorrow at the North Edinburgh Arts Centre (Muirhouse), and shows in theatres in smaller communities including Arran and Drumnadrochit. And fittingly concludes it’s roadshow at Raasay Community Hall for its’ final performance on 26th November.

See my 2006 portrait of Calum’s Road playwright David Harrower in ‘reflective’ mood for Scotland on Sunday here.

A wonderful day combining my two favourite subjects – the arts and the countryside.
Atlas Arts commissioned me to photograph the Bonnie Boat arts radio project to publicise the one-day Bàta Brèagha festival on the majestic Isle of Skye.

 
Bonnie Boat [Bàta Brèagha], also known as the Celestial Radio yacht, beams radio mini-broadcasts of poetry, music and natural sound effects recorded on Skye to festival goers wearing listening devices at Portree harbour.

 
The boat, crewed by artists Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich is decorated in 60,000 mirrored tiles which give a beautiful iridescence, a challenge for any photographer to capture.

Published in the daily press and online, including The Times, The Herald, BBC Scotland Online and The Times Online. Also on the website of Creative Scotland, who have invested in Atlas Arts.

Walkers listen in to mini-broadcasts from the Celestial Radio yacht

Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and a principal speaker at the Turing Festival. Richard’s provocative and controversial views are guaranteed to enliven any event.

 
Key speeches and workshops at the second half of the first Turing Festival – a four day conference for entrepreneurs, developers, managers and creative thinkers in the digital world. I was delighted to be commissioned by Interactive Scotland / Edinburgh Science Triangle to be the festival’s Official Photographer.

Also known as the Edinburgh International Technology Festival, the event was at 3 showcase venues – Our Dynamic Earth, the Informatics Centre at the University of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons.

Colm Doyle, Facebook Platform Marketing senior engineer (top left), and Bob Thomson, founder of Storm Ideas (bottom left)

 
A gallery of pictures showing the colour and energy of the event appears here in technology website/magazine Wired:
www.wired.co.uk/news

 
And an interview with Richard Stallman in Wired with my picture of him:
www.wired.co.uk/stallman

 
See my pictures from Day 1 and Day 2 of the Turing Festival here

Above from left: Richard Stallman, Persuasion API co-founder Arjan Haring and Sita Popat, head of the school of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds.

 
The opening evening and first full day as Official Photographer at the first Turing Festival – a very special event for the movers and shakers in the digital world – entrepreneurs, developers, managers and creative thinkers came together to discuss and debate the future of the web and to raise international awareness of Scotland’s digital talent. Commissioned by Interactive Scotland / Edinburgh Science Triangle.

Above: Ade Oshineye, advocate developer at Google, a principal speaker at the Turing Festival 2011, pictured with the festival’s official QR code, cunningly inverted to create this unusual ‘squares’ portrait.

Pre-festival party at the Informatics Centre, University of Edinburgh

 
Also known as the Edinburgh International Technology Festival, the event was at 3 showcase venues – Our Dynamic Earth, the Informatics Centre at the University of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons. A gallery of pictures appears here in technology website/magazine Wired: www.wired.co.uk/news

 
Above from left are: Google developer advocate Ade Oshineye sparring with NS Design founder Gary Ennis; audience members e-participating through a live twitter feed from their laptops, tablets and smart phones; Albert Wenger, partner at Union Square Ventures.

 
Above from left are: Panel discussion; IT students let their hair down at the festival party at Our Dynamic Earth.

See my pictures from Day 3 and Day 4 of the Turing Festival here

Highlights of some of my assignments during Edinburgh’s festival season, including commissions for theatre companies and the press.

Above: “Dust”, a Fringe play about NUM president Arthur Scargill, a photocall pictured at the Scottish Mining Museum. See more details here

Above left: “A Conversation With Carmel”, a dance show featuring the 2011 Fringe’s youngest and oldest performers – renowned dancer Diana Payne-Myers, aged 83, and 13 month old Otis Gilmore. Pictures for Barrowlands Ballet. See more on this story here.
Above right: Cabaret artists from Fringe shows performing at The Pleasance Forth and the Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Above left: “Danny And The Deep Blue Sea”, commissioned by Theatre Ocho; and (above right) “Potted Potter”, a sell-out childrens’ show (pictures for Seabright Productions / Festival Highlights).

Above: Tangy the orangutan, part of the Jungle City sculpture collection in the Edinburgh Art Festival and sponsored by Paterson Arran Ltd. More details here

Left: Edinburgh International Book Festival childrens programme manager Janet Smyth, pictured for the Times Educational Supplement. See more on this story here.

Ade Oshineye, developer advocate at Google

Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation

Left and above: Portraits from my 4-day commission as Official Photographer of the first ever Turing Festival.

 
See more pictures about my Turing Festival assignment here and here.

Above: BBC Scotland Weather presenters on maternity leave with their babies – Gail McGrane with Eilidh, Judith Ralston with twins Max and Georgina, and Gillian Smart with Michael

The forecast is bright for BBC Scotland’s Weather team’s presenters – Gail McGrane, Judith Ralston and Gillian Smart show off their newborn babies after giving birth within just one month of each other.

Pictures for BBC Scotland and published in today’s daily newspapers and online, including the Daily Telegraph, The Scotsman, Daily Mail, Metro and BBC Scotland Online.

See my pictures for BBC Scotland from January of the new weather team – click here

“A Conversation With Carmel”, a dance show featuring the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s youngest and oldest performers – renowned dancer Diana Payne-Myers, aged 83, and 13 month old Otis Gilmore. Pictured with his mother and director Natasha Gilmore.

 
A delightful assignment, and a real pleasure working with two very special professional performers.

 
Pictures for Barrowlands Ballet and published in The Herald’s arts pages, the Glasgow Evening Times and STV Online.