Rain Falls on Highland Games in Dufftown

Gallery Opening Tonight

If you happen to be in the Highlands of Scotland tonight, stop by the opening and say hi! There will be food and drink!

Double Sided Tape

Eight hours, over two days and 836 pieces of double stick tape later, my show is hung and ready for the opening on Friday. In addition to the 209 photographs I have three flat screen monitors showing time lapse videos I've shot here in Scotland.

Up Sky Down

Preparing Installation for the Show

P.P.E. (Personal Protection Equipment)

I have to wear my P.P.E. in certain buildings on the distillery grounds in order to gain access to the more industrial activities including the bottling and cooperage buildings. The gear includes steel toe boots, ear plugs, safety glasses and a hi viz vest.

Roe Deer

I was shooting a time lapse video outside my window and I captured this image of a roe deer, the smallest species of deer in the UK, it could not be more than 3 feet tall. It was a flat, very early morning light and I think it looks so fake, like I pasted it in. And it looks like she can see or hear the camera and is looking up directly at the lens in my window. Click to see a larger version of the photo.

Grilling Faces

H is for Helicopter!

Teaser: Tomorrow's Activity Starts With an H

Kitchen Window Still Life With Fairy Soap

Current Reading Material

Andy's Lawn Tag

Biblical Garden in Elgin

Greenmarket in Elgin

Blue Paper

Long May Your Lummie Reek

I built a fire last night and made a big pot of soup to ward off the chilly rain. The phrase "long may your lummie reek" is said when you make a toast to someone over a glass of something. Lummie means chimney and reek is smoke, so to wish this to someone is to offer hope of prosperity because in older times when a house had smoke coming out of the chimney it meant the occupants had fuel and presumably food and were doing alright.

Auchindoun Castle

"In November 1571 Sir Adam Gordon rode out from Auchindoun to Corgarff Castle seeking to capture Forbes of Towie. Forbes was away, but his wife was home and refused them entry. Infuriated, Adam set fire to the house, murdering everybody inside, including several children. For this act he became known as Herod of the North.

Auchindoun was itself burnt by a certain William Macintosh in retaliation. In 1592, trying to atone for this deed, William went to Adam Gordon's castle at Gight. Adam's wife, Henrietta, told William that her husband would behead him, but in his absence she, being more merciful, would spare him. William responded by feigning willingness to suffer that humiliation and laid his head on a block used to butcher bullocks. Unable to resist the temptation, the countess had her cook part William's head from his body."

-Text from wall placard at Auchindoun castle 

 

Duty Free Warehouse #8

Reading Material

Spain Wins

The Balvenie Rose

This climbing rose growing right outside my door was named in honour of Balvenie Whisky's "The Balvenie Rose", created to celebrate the long history of Balvenie Castle, the annual rent of which was fixed at a single red rose in 1460.

Cèilidh

Last night I went to my first Cèilidh (pronounced ‘cay-lee’) here in Dufftown. They are held every thursday evening in the summer. Originally a traditional Scottish social gathering with music and dancing from the days before nightclubs and discos. The crowd includes everyone from young children (two young girls did a dance performance in their kilts) to senior citizens.

Giant Rhubarb Plant in My Front Yard

Beware of the Wood Ticks on the Path to Craigellachie

Spirit Supply

So, after more than two weeks of settling in to living in Scotland for a little while, touring around the area, doing some test shoots and getting my pre-production in order, I did my first official shoot today. Since I'm living on the grounds of a whisky distillery and have full access to all aspects of the production, part of my project while I'm here will be to shoot all those details. Today in my PPE (personal protection equipment of steel toed boots and a high viz vest, along with a gas meter to measure the oxygen as to not start a fire with any possible electronic spark of my camera) I signed in on a work permit and got on the floor of the spirit supply. This is the place where the whisky is either put into the casks or when it is finished aging, it is removed for bottling. The air hangs with a heady mist and here is an image of the casks being filled.

Findlater Castle

Originally built in the thirteenth century, Findlater Castle sits on a peninsula in the Moray Firth inlet of the North Sea with sheer drops of over fifty feet to the rocks and sea below.

Portsoy on the North Sea

Portsoy is a small fishing village on the Moray Coast of the North Sea in northern Scotland. It's hard to imagine the rough and dark winter days here when looking at the sea on a beautiful summer day.

The 1000th Anniversary of the Battle of Mortlach

One thousand years ago today, the Scots led by King Malcolm II fought back against the invading Viking Danes and won. To celebrate the battle, Dufftown threw a parade and did a battle reenactment on the school football pitch not far from where the original battle took place.

Lossiemouth

The Cabrach