A Weekend of Photography and Art

This weekend is going to be rather busy.

Last year I teamed up with several other local, professional photographers to form the Galloway Photographic Collective. The idea is we are pooling knowledge, experience and resources to promote our businesses, photography, and this corner of Scotland.



It’s taken a few months and lots of debates and decision making, but we are officially launching this weekend.

On Saturday evening of March 31st, there will be a preview of our joint exhibition at The Catstrand, followed by a talk by internationally renowned photographer, Colin Prior.

The following day is an Open Studio Trail with 4 different venues where the public will be able to view photographs, talk to the photographers and sample their home baking.

It’s all looking to be quite an event.

Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to attend as I had already arranged to be at the Scottish Tattoo Convention in Edinburgh that weekend (see last post) taking photos of people with ink-adorned bodies.



However, my photos will be on display at the Catstrand and at the Lock Ken Gallery and Café, where Allan Wright has kindly given me some wall space for the Open Studio Trail.

And if all this wasn’t enough, the WASPS Studio buildings in Kirkcudbright, where my wife, Maggie, has her studio is also having an open weekend for the public to view and buy art direct from the artists.

So if you're any where near the South West of Scotland this weekend, there's a visual feast to be had.

If you'd like to keep up to date with developments and events from the Galloway Photographic Collective, then do visit and "Like" our Facebook page, which can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/gallowayphotocollective

Portrait and Tattoo Photography

Last year, invited by a guy I’d photographed singing in his punk band, I went up to Edinburgh for the Scottish Tattoo Convention. As a portrait photographer who loves faces, seeing all these people covered in piercings, tattoos and more than a few outlandish hairstyles, I felt like a kid in a cookie factory (click here for the post about it).

One of the things I came to realise afterwards, was there seems to be very little good tattoo photography about. There are millions of photos on the web, but most are very amateur. It seemed odd to me that people can pay hundreds of pounds, even thousands, for their tattoos, and yet the best photo they have of them was taken on a phone or a cheap camera in poor lighting.

In response to this revelation, this year I’ve taken out a stall at the Scottish Tattoo Convention (Sat March 31st & Sun April 1st) and will be setting up with camera, lights and a laptop. For a very reasonable rate I’ll take people's photos, edit them right there and email it to them so they can put on Facebook, print it out for their wall or send it to their granny.

So for the past couple of weeks I’ve been honing my skills by taking photos of anyone I can grab with a tattoo and have been discovering it’s quite a different kind of photography to my usual black and white portraiture. Not only am I having to think much more about colour, it can also be a tricky thing to strike a balance between a person’s face and their tattoo - because that’s mostly what I want to do – take portraits of people with their tattoos rather than just the tattoos on their own.

I’m in the process of getting a banner printed up to hang above the stall to attract attention. Ami, with her brightly coloured hair, piercings and back piece that runs from her neck to her derriere was an ideal choice.

 

For a few more photos of the colourful Ami, check my Facebook or Flickr pages.

I’ll be taking my son, Rogan, along with me - partly for the company, and partly to help deal with waiting customers when I’m busy.

However, I’ll be letting all the tattoo artists know he’s only 16 years old, and he will not be allowed to enter the Win-a-Free-Tattoo competition...