2nd June 2025
The boys are off school today for an Inset Day so it was a quick dash into town to get something for tea, and also to wrap up a quick outstanding job.
It is good to be back in the Highlands though!
4th June 2025
I have decided that for June... and possibly beyond... I am going to branch out of my comfort zone of architecture and property to bring you "Wild Wednesday"! I have no idea how this will go as a lot depends on time, weather and being somewhere suitable... but this is the plan!
Today we start off with a rook mooching about at the Playground in Drumnadrochit looking for discarded crisps. An easy start perhaps... but it counts!
I am not a wildlife photographer!
6th June 2025
A stormy squall runs up Loch Ness on a dramatic day… which has seen me suspend work for an agency.
8th June 2025
The River Coiltie running down into Drumnadrochit. Glen Coiltie is "The Wooded Glen" and an absolutely beautiful place, unfortunately a place which is now under threat as a Pumped Hydro scheme has been proposed behind Meal Fuar-mhonaidh. A scheme that will involve three vast 60 meter high dams to vastly increase the size of the natural loch behind the mountain damaging natural habitat significantly. This is before you take into account the 1000 person "workers village" high in the hills (which will be hell in winter), the massive sub surface works that will impact on the groundwater levels on the hill (potentially having vast impact on the water supplies to all residents).
Then there is the vast number of additional wagons they are going to be bringing in.
And that is before even thinking about the impacts on the loch itself.
More detail can be found on https://savelochness.co.uk/
1st June 2025
The reason I have been away for the weekend - to photograph a friends house in Fife for parents who can’t travel to see where they now live. Something a little different to the usual.
It has been nice to have a change of scenery for a couple of days, and also catching up with people I haven’t seen in a while is always good. Back to work now for the month though!
10th June 2025
Today's adventures took us to Gairloch (eventually... after a stop in Inverness and another in Invergordon). It was nice to spend a little time just exploring after the craziness of the workload was done with (because the car needed a wee top up!). Jen had the day off so came with me for a bit of a change of scenery.
I think she may be putting an offer in on the house we shot last though. I did ask if they fancied a swap with Drumnadrochit but they were pretty set on wanting actual money for it.
12th June 2025
This is a "work photo" from Glenleraig near An Nead right up on the north west coast of Scotland... and I think this must rate as one of my all time favourite work photos, despite the house being very "basic" in the eyes of pretty much everyone. This is the kind of place I love though, and when you throw in the absolutely stunning landscape of Assynt I am in absolute heaven!
I really have to come here when the NC lemmings have gone back to whence they came as I keep forgetting how much this region speaks to me.
14th June 2025
Today has been a little damp. Which is good as it has been so dry through spring that we need some more water, but it would be nice to see some good weather again soon!
Had a busy morning today - a fresh set of front tyres on the car as it was in desperate need (the brakes are next on the agenda... but getting them is proving a bit of a challenge... and the one quoted price so far was painful as they could only find uprated Brembo discs and pads to fit!). My phone crashed 4 times on the way into Inverness and since I had an email about a special offer through from EE I popped into the shop to run through it with them... and walked out with a new handset and my first new contract since the last one expired 4 years ago.
Anyway - it's looking suitably dramatic and a bit spooky outside this evening so I popped out for a quick shot. I can’t believe that this time next week we will be crossing over the mid point of the year with the Summer Solstice! And not long after that the boys will all be wrapping up another year of school, then heading straight off on summer camp for a week with Scouts to Belfast.
Looking ahead to next week and it’s already looking reasonable and that is before most of the big jobs come through on a 2 or 3 day turn around… I even have a rough skeleton of bookings in place for the week after so I could be looking at a strong finish to June!
3rd June 2025
A small clump of purple thrift caught my eye at South Kessock slipway this afternoon whilst turning around to head for home.
I need to start challenging myself a little more again to get some really interesting shots and build my work… so tomorrow I am going to attempt something a little different!
5th June 2025
The Monadhliath Mountains in the rain - it’s been one of those highly changable days today, but I managed to catch a little sunshine for each of the jobs I had on so I can’t complain too much!
Taking this got me a soaking mind!
In related news I am very, very close to calling it a day on agency work. It doesn’t pay well enough, the power is entirely in their hands making for a very unequal relationship and when things go wrong they are not acting quickly or fairly in setting it right.
7th June 2025
A productive kinda day today - garden centre, supermarket, B&Q and another garden centre... then a brewery. Finding grow bags was really rather tricky and required a victory purchase when we finally got some!
I have also ordered another 360 camera as I scratched the lens on my Ricoh X last week. It still works and I have another that is in a severe state of Frankenstein’s dabbling which I am now going to strip for parts (if I can) to try and replace the one scratched lens on my current workhorse. If I can manage to make it work then I will have two - a main camera and a spare. I then need to find some way to protect the lenses from further damage as this is getting expensive! When I was using the Z1 it was costing £2,000/year in replacements - now we are about a grand instead! I question whether it’s worth it….
In other news - still nothing back from FA so still blacklisting their jobs. Which is awkward as a lovely client of theirs is desperate for me to go to Gairloch but I may be fully booked up now with work that actually pays….
9th June 2025
It has been an odd kind of day today - the first of two jobs was a very, very odd old house in a very poor state that I was shooting for an auction house. Even stranger was that despite the power being off the radio on an old stereo randomly turned on down in the living room whilst I was upstairs! Radio 2 has never sounded so spooky... particularly as I am convinced it was too large to run off batteries - this was a big old unit!
Anyway. I left. Quite quickly
The second job was an aerial shoot but the weather was terrible by then - I took some shots and footage but having looked at it again I think I will return in a couple of days for another go at it.
On the way home I took this - at least all this rain has been good for the trees!
11th June 2025
In the second of my series of "I am no wildlife photographer, but lets give it a go" we have a Wagtail sitting on my roof. Mainly because it is the only wildlife I have seen today that has stayed still long enough for a quick frame!
13th June 2025
Friday 13th... I have been too exhausted to notice!
Today's main task was to get Roki in to the vet for his annual inoculations and health check - he is generally all good, but needs to loose some timber (much like me then!).
To celebrate his health status I thought I would do a doggy portrait for today!
I am feeling a little out of sorts today, or this evening anyway. I can’t put my finger on it… perhaps it is the lack of social life just making me feel a little lonely? It may just be that Jen has loads of friends but doesn’t realise it despite being out a fair bit, whilst I stay home in the evenings lost in my own thoughts. Who knows… probably doesn’t really matter in the greater scheme of things anyway.
I used to have a full social life, but that all fell by the wayside when I moved out of Stirling itself to Doune to a large extent and then completely evaporated in the Lake District. I don’t think I know how to do sociable anymore. Being self employed for the last 20 years has probably not made it any easier to meet people mind - and the RNLI hasn’t provided those connections that I was hoping it would, probably a reflection of my role as much as anything else as it doesn’t build the same bonds and, I think, we are largely forgotten and overlooked within the organisation as a whole which focuses on the more dramatic roles.
Will I do anything about it? Probably not.
