1st August 2025

A new month and a little socialising and watching movies. Loads in the pipeline for this month, but more about that as we get there!

2nd August 2025

Usually by August I am done with summer and starting to look forward to the changing hues of autumn, peak photography season! But not this year! For some reason, I am enjoying the summer for a change, even the deep greens of late summer haven’t dulled my enjoyment!

True, photography does wind down a bit over these weeks. But it just feels good for a change.

4th August 2025

Storm Floris is slowly starting to abate here, we are fine up on the hill with the only casualty we have spotted so far being the greenhouse! We need something more storm proof I think!

The roads are still pretty bad though so that is me for the evening now - hiding inside... and I have even popped the heating on for a bit since it is cold and damp! At least we managed to get into town and back before the worst hit to stock up on snacks and get Jen's car back!

I think it was the right call to reschedule today’s job, it would have been no fun being out on the roads driving to Keith and back today! Although the Moray Coast could have been rather spectacular!

6th August 2025

I finally picked up the courage to inspect my favourite tree today. I could see that it had been damaged by the storm on Monday but wanted to see just how bad it was.

I think it will survive - at least I hope so! A kind autumn and a quiet winter would certainly help matters… but this tree is a bit of a fighter, it’s main trunk lies at a quite alarming angle and the whole thing is held up by a bough growing against the ground and propping it up from otherwise certain doom!

In spring this is filled with blossom and bees… I hope it is next year.

8th August 2025

I thought this was a live rescue going off on the way back from town, and was wondering why we hadn’t been called out. When I got back I realised it was a training exercise with a “Dead Fred”! The conditions looked a little hairy though!

10th August 2025

Today it was a trip to Fort George with the family, and still carrying a lung full of lurgy that just won’t die! It was a good day out, as it was last year, and I am sure it seemed busier this time around too!

My old crew, The Glasgow Vikings, were present and on fine form. As we walked through the gates I heard a familiar voice over the PA system so we were straight over to watch the show and listen to Gail mock those on the field. Just like old times! I was really pleased to see that there were still a couple of familiar faces on the battlefield too, albeit somewhat older than when I was amongst their number (some 28 years ago!)

Photography wasn’t the day’s focus though, which was just as well… because being the numpty I am I had taken just a camera and lens… without checking how much battery was left (about 1/4) and without taking a spare. As a result I only managed a few frames before it went to sleep! I did have a Lomography Sprocket Rocket with me too and half a roll of film to finish so there may be something from that later. But I wouln’t hold your breath! I am still in the early learning phase with that one!

12th August 2025

We were blessed with a rather fantastic sky this evening as I started a HUGE edit of a lovely home. I went all in on this one so it has taken all evening (and it is now the early hours of the 13th as it uploads!), but sometimes it is worth it!

It’s not been a bad start to the week though, although I have nothing left on the books this side of Tuesday next! I am hoping that the second half of August shows some real signs of activity as I am way off the pace for the first time this month as it stands.

20th August 2025

Been busy today trying to get scans and printing working properly, so little in the way of actual photography! But we have success on both fronts now! The 617 scanned well yesterday but it was getting the 35mm right that was proving problematic.

The second task was to print on panoramic paper from my Epson, the first two failed to fill the paper just printing on the bottom quarter. I eventually got there (after installing the proper drivers) and it looks pretty good! Next stop frames and mounts!

28th August 2025

Today saw me travel all the way up to the very north coast to shoot a croft, not this one... but I did feel compelled to take a few personal project photographs on the way up, and the way back!

This old ruin has been teasing me for a while, but every time I have passed the light has been rubbish... today was my chance though!

30th August 2025

Oooh September is almost upon us. I have high hopes for next month… the change of pace as we move into autumn is something I always anticipate as the world starts to slow ready for winter.

Today is Hamish’s 13th birthday, not that you could tell as he is already well set on the teenager ways and has barely been seen all day - his presents are still unopened at almost 4pm! He will probably emerge soon, though!

I think the boys have become more like me in that they are not that fussed about celebrating birthdays. I had it beaten out of me many years ago to be honest and just don’t see the point as pretty much nobody else has ever been all that interested (other than my Mum, of course, but with her no longer with us there is even less need to recognise it!)

But that is something for next month!

3rd August 2025

Out for a walk today ahead of the storm inbound for tomorrow. Roki wasn’t complaining though!

I decided to head out with just one lens, a 105mm Macro, with the intention of shooting some close ups. It never worked out like that though and I regretted not bringing something normal instead!

Not to worry though!

Next week’s plans are currently subject to flux as I await the weather before committing to anything!

14th August 2025

It started hot today... way too hot. I am dressed like a hippy as a result, it's shocking! It was all too much to get on with what I had planned for the day though, so instead I set about trying to get a print on demand/drop shipping company to integrate into my new studio website. After much, much wrangling, I *think* I have it almost working! I just need to write some product descriptions and then publish the store... and then try to make it fit nicely into the website!

It *may* be possible to link it onto another sales platform too!

Anyway - I am starting with a selection of purely digitally created photographs as much to work out what I am doing! Once I have the basics worked out I can start getting a bit clever perhaps!

But the rain started this afternoon, with a little distant thunder, so I popped out with the pooch to cool down for a bit.

5th August 2025

Today I did a thing… I went along to meet the people at the Inverness Darkroom and have a look at what they have and what they are doing. Which is actually really wonderful!

So I joined.

The idea of going analogue has been floating around for a while, particularly as I look to expand my work from commercial to art photography - and for the latter analogue is just more appealing both as an art form and for potential buyers.

I am not quite sure where this is going yet… but I have a 6x17 camera on the way and just added a Lomography “Pocket Sprocket” to the arsenal to get me going with something a little more portable!

I am almost tempted to scour charity shops for other random cameras now!

7th August 2025

I have not been feeling 100% for the last week, and the last couple of days have been worse so I left RNLI training early tonight and grabbed a photo of the Ivy Bridge on the way home.

I am currently feeling unnaturally excited about the return to film and analogue photography… I didn’t think I would be that interested in working in mono, but I am starting to get excited by that too, so I think a mix of film stocks will be used. There are so many exciting emulsions out there now to try, way more so than last time I was working in film, and a lot of it is from boutique makers too, which adds a large degree of experimentation into the mix!

My Sprocket Rocket is due to arrive on Saturday along with my first two rolls of 35mm so I will get out and have a play with them. Just standard Ilford fare for the moment whilst I find my feet! The big DiYi monster is still a good week and a half away from landing, and then there will nodoubt be a rather savage tax bill attached to it.

16th August 2025

Today I have mostly been wrapping up the gallery sales section on the studio website, and also creating a new logo that combines element of photography and rock and roll! It borrows heavily on the album art of The Cult’s seminal release “Sonic Temple”… why you may ask?

One of the albums that I most love, and one that reminds me heavily of Neil, is Sonic Temple - and since I have taken his brand name and run with it I felt it fitting to link back in a way to his influence on my life, both in terms of where I am and where I am hoping to go. Neil was incredibly talented at pretty much anything - I think the only thing I could put my hand on heart and say I am definitely better at this happens to be photography! I even shot his wedding!

I have been in a rather reflective mood all day today though, and that probably spurred me on in my design, as well as today’s photograph that looks out over Eskart towards Drumnadrochit and Loch Ness beyond.

Check out the new logo at on Wayward Spirit Studio!

18th August 2025

I wasn’t expecting to be working today, but a call this morning came in asking for some aerial photographs up above Loch Meiklie just over the hill from home! And could I do it today as the weather was nice….

So off I went, and it was worth the change in plans - it was absolutely glorious out there!

Back to normal tomorrow with a couple of jobs on around the Inverness and Ardersier area, then hopefully the week will pick up from there!

9th August 2025

As rough as I am feeling today… I had to pop outside for half an hour and run a film through this new beast! A DaYi 6x17 panoramic camera. It is going to take some time to get really comfortable with using it… but once the new box arrives to take it out and about, I plan to load it in the car regularly on my travels as I step things up on the landscape photography front!

So far the biggest issue is that the film back likes to eject itself from the dark slide mount and expose the film to the light. Which is less than ideal. I am going to look into modifying it I think, either reshaping the problematic catch or adding a secondary system to secure it in place. Buying a new back may be an option further down the line, but I need to actually start getting results from it first!

It’s an interesting experience to shoot with it though as it is, to all intents and purposes, a large format system. So focussing is done on ground glass and the bulk of the operations are done on the lens itself (shutter, shutter speed and aperture). There is no light meter, I have a small hot-shoe mounted one but no hotshoe as yet to mount it onto so that also needs addressing next week.

It nearly ended me just going out to do this!

Oh… and then whilst I was out taking this photo my Lomography Sprocket Rocket arrived too. An insanely simple, lo-fi 35mm panoramic camera that is the very essence of plastic fantastic. A film is now loaded into that too and I will take some shots over the coming days on that as well - ready for my darkroom induction the week after next!

11th August 2025

Jen is down with her crew seasoning the stove in her hut. It still isn't where it needs to be, but the steps are on and she can use it there for the time being until we can get some heavy plant back up the road again!

Been out to work today, which was good as it has been very quiet of late! I have another okay day tomorrow but don’t expect to see a great deal more this week. Once the schools are back things will hopefully pick back up again.

More excitingly, the delivery driver dropped off a shiny new Epson Perfection V850 Pro scanner today. He is into photography himself it turns out and was wondering who it was going to… and was also hugely envious! I had planned to leave this purchase for a couple more months, but Epson ceased production of these stupendous scanners a few months ago due to supply issues with the CCD, there is no alternative on the market and stocks will run out soon of the last examples made so I was forced into it! They aren’t cheap… but they are a lot less expensive than the dedicated film scanners that would be the only alternative - and those aren’t big enough to scan my negatives in one go anyway!

13th August 2025

As sun set tonight a storm rolled though dropping the largest hail stones I think I have ever seen in the UK, they were about 10mm across! I popped up to Culnakirk to try and catch the last of the clouds rolling out eastwards with the sun returning behind, and found a new spot for my troubles, which I think could be really good with the panoramic camera!

15th August 2025

Today has been pretty quiet really - Jen is off away to visit friends and have a weekend off from kids and I went out to get some shopping… and came back with an old Nikon F401S too! Yes, for the princely sum of £39 I picked up the camera one up the range from that my big brother had, and which I “borrowed” many times to learn photography (much to his annoyance I must add!).

This is all part of my return to the darkroom. Yes, I have the big DaYi Panoramic BEAST and the plastic fantastic Lomo Sprocket Rocket which is more or less a toy camera but with some fun creative potential… what I really, really wanted was a nice rangefinder - but that quest will have to continue as the ones I like are megabucks! I have a lens that will mostly work with the F401 though so for £39 it gives me a little bit more access to creativity with 35mm film.

If things work out there are two objects of my desires - a nice rangefinder with a Leica M Mount (which may or may not be a Leica in itself - I just want access to that glass!) and either a Hassleblad XPan or the Fujifilm cousins (TX-1 or TX-2 I think). And possibly a 6x9 of some sort too….

17th August 2025

Macro photography is not my thing… I mean… I love looking at it, but my success rate is very low! So imagine my dismay when I opened up this months magazine and saw that the challenge for the month is… yep… macro. So off I popped into the woods (Roki needed a walk anyway) looking for something interesting. There were a few things, none of which came out at all well! I need to shift my mental process into a different place for macro, my shutter speeds were too slow and the images had too much camera shake as a result.

But this one… this one I like! A shaft of light broke through the canopy above to illuminate this mushroom beautifully for me, and the camera shake was kept under control too!

It’s been a pretty quiet weekend, the boys have tomorrow of as their last day before returning on Tuesday and I get to, hopefully, fall back into a busy routine! I am hoping to get to the dark room tomorrow to get my induction out of the way so that I can start really getting to grips with the film processes and really becoming serious about my fine art career (that isn’t actually anything close to being a career as yet!).

I have finally found ambition again, it has been absent from my life for so long that it is nice to have it back again!

19th August 2025

This photo wasn't entirely taken today... but it was created today, and so it counts. Let me explain that one a bit! The photograph was taken on Ilford Pan F film a couple of days ago on a DaYi 617 Panoramic camera. Today I developed my first film in 30 years by hand... this one. This was the only frame that came out, 2 I forgot to remove the darkslide for and one was massively over exposed. So this is it! The scan was done today though, which is a photograph in itself, and it represents photographic work from today!

The subject is my house and the track beside it. Nothing earth shattering, but I am still learning how to both use this beast of a camera, develop the film and (the next stage) hand printing the final images!

Oh yes - this scan, at 300 dpi, would be almost 2 meters long!

22nd August 2025

Today is the first day that I have really been anticipating the start of autumn, the change in seasons always reinvigorates my photography, and autumn does so stronger than the others! It doesn’t help that work has been slower than of late this month, probably because of the huge demand through July distorting the market a little… but the weather has just been a little flat too other than the passing storm of a couple of weeks ago.

There is still hope that this month is going to pull something out the bag work wise, at the moment it is looking very “average”, which is not what I would expect in August! The schools are back though and hopefully next week will see things really starting to bounce back again (it’s not just me suffering the doldrums, I was chatting to a surveyor this week and they were saying much the same and suggesting that next week may be when everything kicks up a gear again… no sign yet though!)

Anyway, I am now done with summer. The tourists have just kept coming and in greater numbers every week to the point that the village is now over their presence. It’s been an odd summer really - a lot of very entitled visitors impacting the daily life of the Highlands, more so than in previous years. Combined with poor weather… it’s just been a little wearing.

But the holidays in England will be over in a fortnight and sanity will hopefully start to return. We usually see a surge of retirees after schools go back, but with the weather this year perhaps it will die down quickly. I am just hoping for some light and some colours!

21st August 2025

Urquhart Bay take on the big 617 camera and develeoped today whilst "flying solo" for the first time in decades! I booked out the darkroom for the morning in Inverness to do some processing of film and develop a couple of photos too. It was mostly just an excuse to explore the facilities and have a bit of a play rather than attempt to do anything serious!

24th August 2025

Tonight’s plan all went a wee bit wrong.... I took the big pano camera out to get a sunset scene that I have been planning for a few days - shot an entire roll of 120 film... and then realised that a) I hadn't removed the darkslide so the whole thing was blank and b) even if I had removed the dark slide, I had rolled the film onto the take up spool wrong, so the film was entirely exposed to the light rather than being covered in the backing paper.

So that was that.

The midges were eating me alive so I decided that it was time to give up and go home rather than spend ages attempting to load another film whilst being drained of all my fluids, so I took one frame with the Nikon Z7II and 14-24 just so I didn't leave entirely empty handed and then bid a hasty retreat whilst there was still some blood in my body.

Note to self... put a sticker on the back of the camera saying "remove dark slide", add an arrow to the wind on knob to remind me which way to turn it... and probably wear a midge proof layer rather than a t shirt. Maybe tomorrow I will try again. I want to get this before the heather is done!

26th August 2025

I have been waiting in most of the day for a delivery that couldn't be left... which, considering it was a very, very cheap lens for a very old camera, was a little irritating! Anyway - it arrived... and I have tested it to make sure it works on the F401 (which is what I want to use it with primarily) and also on the Z7II just to see how it performs on something much, much more demanding.

The results of both were successful, and my film is now finished and ready to process next time I am in the darkroom, which may be this week or next, depending on whether I am off to Tongue on Thursday or not!

Part of my test was this shot of the old window in our ruins because it is a bit of a challenge with all those textures. It was also a good challenge for my ability to manually focus! If anyone is interested, it is a Nikon 20mm f2.8 AF-D. Did I mention it was incredibly cheap? Like... less than £80 cheap!

23rd August 2025

Today has been carnage with plans abandoned. Jen was stuck out in Dornie after a big accident at Cluanie this morning so is slowly heading back for the night via the north road, which takes an age… she left at midday and will probably be finally home at 6pm. I was going to go to the Highland Games once she was back to shoot some photos - but that failed… and to be honest when I popped down to the shop it was absolute hell down there anyway!

So today I bring you a view down the glen from the relative tranquility of home! Maybe I will go somewhere tomorrow… if not then next week I really do need to get out of the area a little! I have been planning some trips on the maps today and am sure there are many more! I just need to find a way to carry the big camera on the mountain bike now! Perhaps one of my old camera backpacks would work….

25th August 2025

After yesterday’s disasters today was a much more straightforward affair. In to Inverness for a job this morning, and where I took this photograph down the River Ness, then lunch in Kyle of Lochalsh before heading home.

In a fit of seeming less like a hermit I have signed up for a Photo Walk in Inverness at the end of September too! I am now having a dialemma as to what camera(s) to take though… I REALLY want a medium format rangefinder… specifically… I REALLY want a Fujifilm GSW 6x9 as I think that would really suit a lot of my work. Or a weird Plubiel model that is kind of similar in concept, but I think has a slightly wider lens and a shift function that would be great for architecture.

I can also then get a mask for the internals that give me an XPAN like crop but without the expenditure!

There is also an idea of getting an ASO devloping system as it can cope with colour negatives on 35mm and 120 film which could be really handy!

27th August 2025

Today I found myself working at the very mysterious Meikle Ferry - or as it was once known - The Ness of Portnaculter. The Ness was formed by glacial deposits that jut out into the Dornoch Firth near Tain, which formed a narrow stretch ideal for operating a short ferry from Sutherland to Easter Ross.

The ferry is first recorded as operating through a charter in 1560 to reduce the travel time significantly between Dornoch and Tain. By the 19th Century, the boat was big enough to transport cattle, carts, horses, and passengers across the firth, although it was preferred if the cattle swam across!

On the 16th August 1809, there was a lot of activity on the crossing as people and animals made their way across to the fair in Tain. The boats operating the crossing were in a poor state of repair, according to accounts at that time, but still, more than 100 people boarded the ferry, urged on by the Sheriff of Dornoch and without resistance from the apparently drunk oarsmen who struggled to operate the craft under such conditions. Nevertheless, the boat departed from the Sutherland side of the firth, sitting low in the water. When it hit the main current, a wave swamped the craft, and in the ensuing panic, the whole thing capsized. There were 111 people aboard, 12 of whom were rescued, and the remaining were all lost, with bodies being recovered for some time after the disaster.

I didn't know what the structure standing on the shoreline today was, obviously long since abandoned from use and it looked to me to be a World War 2 era structure. Just down the road are a set of what appear to be wartime bunkers/accommodation structures. When I got home, I looked up the history of the building and found that it was an Air/Sea search and rescue base which operated through the Second World War.

29th August 2025

Another weekend is upon us, and it has been a quiet week again. Hopefully September will see everything wake up after summer!

This is me and my Da Yi panoramic camera which I am slowly… very slowly… getting to grips with! It makes me laugh everytime I see an advert for an “Everyone is a photographer until “M” “ merchandise as I wonder how long a self-congratulatory “manual photography” proponent would last shooting with a rudimentary film system such as this. You need to be part artist, part technician and part engineer to live alongside such a camera! I haven’t fully mastered it yet, but each time I feel like I am making small steps forward!

I should have a few colour films to send off for processing in the next few days, and then for next month I think my entire stock of film is monochrome so I will be processing it myself by hand. I bought a 3 pack of Lomoraphy “Earl Grey” which looks pretty interesting and a 3 pack of Monster 120 film which is a real horror movie-esque series of emulsions that I am super excited to try!

I also picked up 2 Kentmere 200s and 2 Kentmere 400s in 35mm and a Flic Film Elektra which is a bit of an out-there colour emulsion, also in 35mm.

This should be more than enough to see me to the end of September! At least I hope it is! My rough theory is to have 1 roll of 120 and 1 roll of 35mm per week as a baseline and see how I go with that as I start getting back into art photography!

31st August 2025

So that is another month finished and with it the summer slips away (so far as the Metoffice is concerned, I still hold to the old ways and say that the equinox marks the transition in another 3 weeks or so!).

Today has been pretty productive though. I had a portrait shoot this morning for a family on holiday from Colorado via AirB&B Experiences. This is a revenue stream I am looking to grow into next year - I have tested the water with a couple of shoots but I want to add some other services into the mix, which will probably include mini-workshops and day excursions around the Highlands. But these things need thought through so they will launch for the 2026 season sometime over the next few months.

Anyway, today’s shoot went well I think and it made a nice change to be photographing people rather than buildings!

I also got my feedback through from the BIPP for my panel - I have a little tweaking to do on some of the photographs I am going to submit over the next few days and then I need to arrange some very, very high quality printing and mounting ready for October. The digital submissions need to be in before very long too so I need to get my written submisions all ready ahead of that deadline (I have just looked, I have 3 weeks!). If I succeed in being awarded I am looking at using that to act as previous experience to embark on a degree at the Open College of Arts, which in turn may open up some doors to me as well as allowing me to explore post-grad options.

So it looks like I am going to be busy over September, which is good… keeps my mind of the gremlins that would otherwise be bothering me!