One of the (many) upsides of having Laura visit is food. Laura works at a bakery in Nottingham and makes me appreciate what goes into the process of hand-making food.
We visited Cottonrake Bakery on Saturday. All the croissants were gone by the time we arrived, so I settled for a pear tart. I say settled, but it was delicious. I washed it down with a black coffee. I’m carb loading before participating in tomorrow’s Great Edinburgh Run! That’s my excuse anyway.
One of the most common frustrations I find amongst photographers is not having a subject to practice portrait photography with. Today was yet another Glasgow Photo Walk, and this time I hired a model, Iona, to pose for the class.
It was a tough gig; the sun – as nice as it is to see it – causes harsh light, and Botanic Gardens – the location of our shoot – was heaving with people (“taps aff”, as we say in Glasgow).
I hope the attendees enjoyed themselves, and I can’t wait to see their photos appearing on the Flickr group over the next few days. If anything, today made me aware of my own shooting style as I was …
Another classic car spotted in Ruthven Lane, although the model escapes me (I am not a car enthusiast, they are just pretty to photograph).
Today saw Glasgow Photo Walk team up with Yelp, taking 25 Yelpers on a 90 minute route around Glasgow’s West End. To say it was chilly was an understatement, so afterwards we warmed up at Hanoi Bike Shop with dumplings and Vietnamese coffee. The coffee with condensed milk was interesting; very sweet and eliminated the need for pudding. Mmm, pudding.
My sister’s fiancé, who is a footballer, was meeting with a Glasgow agent about football ‘hings, so it was the perfect opportunity for my sister to stop by the studio and chat about wedding ‘hings. I attend weddings all the time as a photographer, but I can’t wait to be a part of my sister’s wedding. To celebrate their relationship. To dance. To relax. It isn’t for a while yet, but my photographer perspective has already rubbed off on my sister, who has been sending me potential venues based on natural light (yes!).
James, David and Scott (the talent behind Simple as Milk) are spending a few days working from Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh. With them being less than an hour away, it was a given I had to meet them for lunch. We had burgers in lettuce buns from Ketchup (I can’t believe we had the willpower to substitute bread for lettuce), and then I had the daunting task of taking James – who is a coffee snob – for a decent cup of caffeine. We hit up Avenue G on Byres Road. He seemed pleased. I then introduced them to Indie while we strolled around Botanic Gardens, which – in their words – was the only pretty place they’d seen in Glasgow! I only get to see their faces when attending the odd conference, so it was nice to spend an afternoon with them.
On an unrelated note, I’m inching closer to 1000 ‘likes’ on Facebook. If you want to keep up to date with my photos via Facebook, give me a ‘like’!
Joanna and I met for lunch and cocktails at Kelvingrove Cafe, a fairly new addition to Argyll Street. There seem to be many new places popping up along Argyll Street, which is good for me as I live so close and like to eat. Anyway, back to Joanna…
Jo set up Toad’s Caravan – a collaborative work space in Ruthven Lane – which is where I now work and how we met. She’s talented, ambitious and very hard working – my kind of woman! It was fun to chat over our cocktails, which were served alongside a plate of sliders. I had a mac and cheese slider, which was kind of weird, but definitely in a good way.
After attending Young Rewired State, I met Mark Young – part of the GatherContent team – who spoke about marketing within a start-up. This interested me hugely as I’ve just built my first app (and rolled out the beta to select individuals). I badgered him into meeting me for a tea to talk some more. This was my first Tchai-Ovna experience, although we gave the shishas a miss, and I have to admit it was… weird. Not bad weird. Just weird.
We only had 30 minutes on the parking meter, so this was a hurried, casual but fun shoot on the grounds of Glasgow University. Glasgow Uni is a Hogwarts style building, which I think is a large part of its appeal for many students. I had seen other photographers use the Undercroft and decided – very last minute – I would scout it out and use it for myself. It just so happened Ayden was dressed a bit preppy at the time, so everything worked out quite nicely (I love it when a shoot comes together). However, after 20 minutes the heavens opened and we decided to settle for a burger instead. I’ll definitely be returning to this spot. I totally felt like Rory Gilmore.
