2nd March 2025

I have been neglecting this of late... and today is no exception. But I did do an FTP test with predictably embarrassing results! We have just switched sides to Rouvy from Zwift though to see how that is (and because admiring real scenery may take the sting out of the session!)

1st March 2025

March is here - the month that starts to bring the anticipation of the warmer weather to come! Spring should arrive at some stage… but this is also the month of often savage snow fall so we aren’t out of the woods yet in terms of winter!

But the anticipation of the better weather brings a lift in spirits and a determination to really make this year the best yet. I am signed up now with another agency that may put my work in front of more people and open up more industries to me, but I also need to put some legwork in to getting a broader client base. I don’t need much more as I look to grow the existing clients to offer ever more.

I have a few ideas running at the moment, including a wider client base, offering more video services and simply growing what I already have. Then, once we have the huts in situ, it will be time to build on the workshops idea!

Today though, today was all about gokarts in Inverness!

6th March 2025

Today has been a strange kind of day. Busy enough, but I am pushing some techniques at the moment (work wise) to try and really up the ante in terms of what I am able to produce. Adobe software is proving really uncooprative in this regard though so I am experimenting with some alternative solutions, and some of those are not playing nice with the stalwart that is Lightroom.

Then I had news about one of the agents that supplies me with a lot of work… or has in the past… seems they have moved on to pastures new, which leaves me in that quandary position of “what happens now?”. He was trying to move the clientelle more up market, and succeeding quite well, which was good news for me - but if the focus shifts towards hoovering up the lower segments of the market that could prove tricky (simply because there isn’t the money per unit to pay me… which means I don’t get the work… which is not good). So I am going to have some thinking to do over the weekend.

Anyway - I did find the old mill lade for Holm Mills in Inverness today whilst having a short constitutional… so that is something!

14th March 2025

I have been a bit tardy with keeping my galleries up to date, which is remiss, particularly as work has remained slow but steady so far this year! Things may start to ramp up next week though, so far I have 2 jobs booked in - one of which is a double appointment as it happens to be on the north coast, so as it stands it is looking a fairly quiet one to come.

But that could change. Hopefully along with some exciting news early next week!

Anyway, for tonight we have a Scarlet Elf Cup spotted from the car as I headed for home this afternoon.

8th March 2025

It feels like I haven’t left Temple Pier this week, another day and another visit to the RNLI Station! This time just for a meeting though!

As I came out the view was glorious though - serene and calm with wonderful evening light!

12th March 2025

Today has been a pretty good day. This morning’s job went off well, although I did miss a shout due to a meeting in town.

The meeting though was very fruitful and it looks like another client will be joining my roster in the coming weeks… and it’s a pretty big one too!

In my excitement I wanted to tell someone of this news when I got home… Jen is at work so I thought for a brief moment that I would phone my Mum… which then absolutely floored me as she has been gone for over 10 years now. You kind of forget that grief just lingers under the surface for such a long time and occasionally catches you completely unprepared. It has been my brother, Neil, more often than not over the last 7 years (almost). I had to give myself a few moments as a result just to get my head straight again.

18th March 2025

Today I found myself so far north that I ran out of Scotland. This is Sandside Harbour on Sandside Bay next to the village of Reay, more commonly associated with the decommissioned nuclear reactor at Dounreay. The smudge on the horizon is Hoy, one of the southerly islands in Orkney and probably the only place I ever truly feel at one with myself. Mainland runs a close second...

I wanted to look out over the Pentland Firth today as it was the anniversary of the Longhope Lifeboat Disaster yesterday so it felt fitting to go and pay some respects to those brave souls from Hoy who were lost that night in 1969.

I am not editing any of today’s photographs tonight as I am just too tired! I will catch up with everything tomorrow… hopefully!

20th March 2025

That is spring officially here, and whilst it has been lovely outside… life has been a bit shitty again for a whole variety of reasons. But tomorrow is another day and hopefully everything can be set to rights then.

Not had a chance for a proper update so will try and do so tomorrow.

28th March 2025

Today I have something a little different - from a day of shooting some slightly different work! It's been fun... still got a load of stills editing to do but I am going to come back to those later I think!

Here is Inverness! You don't really appreciate how small the city centre is until you see if from this angle and realise that it is held within that central block entirely!

30th March 2025

Another weekend over, been a pretty good one all in all - and with the clocks now rolled forward we will have more evening light to play with.

This last week has been really productive and I am working on some new plans to build on where we are so far - with some movement in the new direction starting to come on stream (I need to get a bit more kit sorted tomorrow before the end of the financial year)

Onwards and upwards!

22nd March 2025

Springtime is starting to come to Loch Ness and the RNLI Station.

24th March 2025

Today did not go to plan. My relaxing day to do some of the things I wanted to do... and get some productivity in too... went right out the window as a job from last week kept repeating on me. Done now, hopefully... but it has been 1 1/2 days work for very, very little reward.

On the plus side this week is looking strong with two absolutely flat out days and one with just a single job on to space them out! I keep saying I like to be busy....

Anyway, given I haven't had chance to do anything today, here is Loch Ness at Night from the RNLI as I came out a meeting!

Also - my website went a bit nuts, hence the front page looking a bit odd! I have patched it up and will need to revamp the landing page when I get a moment!

16th March 2025

Another day… another animal. This time our cockerel, Gordon, named after a gothic rockstar of our acquaintance (or I should probably say… our very good friend).

Next week is one of those odd, scary, exciting kind of weeks. So many thoughts and emotions tumbling into one another, and that is combining with a huge day out on Tuesday to go and photograph a property in the (very) north. Beyond that there is a load of potential for some good news, and equally the same potential for some disapointment! If luck is on my side then it is going to be awesome and set me up for a strong 25/26… if things don’t pan out as hoped then it will be back to the drawing board and back to some solid pavement pounding and trying to get myself and my work infront of the right people!

This weeks big achievement though was finally booking a slot for my BIPP qualifications, which is a MASSIVE deal. I debated going for the April slot but, on reflection, decided to push it back until October instead as I have a feeling that I may get some great work under my belt between now and then!

4th March 2025

It has been utterly miserable today. I did have an idea of getting down to the river bank and working some compositions close in to the Coiltie - having been admiring many a Highland river of late! Unfortunately the floods from Hogmanay have decimated the bank here too making it near impossible to climb down where I have previously gained access, and the woodland itself has a saturated floor making it a bog bash to get through to explore for access further up.

I think a new investigation will occur once everything dries out a bit! There is something about a good river though, they are always entwined with folklore and legend - particularly in the Highlands. Their importance to communities throughout history lends itself to some kind of project in the future too….

On the plus side - I did manage to get well ahead of myself with some work towards establishing myself in new areas. And played some guitar. And did some indoor cycling too!

3rd March 2025

The scenic route home today, Gleann Liath and the Pass of Inverfarigaig give that real feeling of being in a remote Highland location whilst only being 20 minutes out of Inverness. I need to explore the southerly side of Loch Ness a lot more as there are a lot of interesting places and a really varied landscape!

Off to a reasonable start to March, but I have just completed onboarding with another organisation so who knows how things will be looking in a week or two’s time!

5th March 2025

What a day! Started with a shout as I was getting the boys ready for school, so I had to abandon that task to Jen and hotfoot it down to the lifeboat station. Boat launched, the weather was rough… but all was fine. Then my car was ready to collect, so off into Inverness to do that and have a chat with the salesman (no, I don’t want or need a replacement yet… but I am very curious about the new battery tech coming on stream over the next few years!)

Home via Tesco, then decided to put in a quick indoor cycling session before lunch, because if I didn’t do it then I wouldn’t today. Which was great, and I thought with a light session yesterday it would be fine… but I forgot that I did an FTP test the day before that so I am now utterly done for!

Quick photo on the way to pick the boys back up from school, then booking in a few jobs to make this week kinda okay and start seeing how next week is looking… and that is kinda it!

7th March 2025

Today has been very different to yesterday. It started off with a job out to the east, which was a pretty big one in itself… and one that may help open up some doors to other work too. Which is great in itself. Then there was an enquiry for some local work which I have popped a text reply back for but need to chase up over the next day or two really… and then there is a meeting to have a chat about photography needs too.

So from where I was at yesterday the panic is changing to something else. I think next week will be crucial, and there is potential for some more good news in the coming weeks too.

Sometimes I need a bit of a crisis for motivation!

10th March 2025

After a good weekend it was back to work with a bang today. Last week was okay… this week looks much the same right now, but things are afoot to really ramp up business this year. More on that hopefully later in the week though.

Today I had a couple of jobs, the first - despite being in the village I live in - proved to be somewhat challenging to actually find! We got there eventually though and it was a lovely wee place! As a bonus the sun came out as I was finishing so I managed to get some naturally brighter shots in, which I hadn’t anticipated!

Anyway, tonight is Angus and Magnus!

9th March 2025

Strange as it may seem… I have never actually stopped off at Eilean Donnan castle. That is, until today. Angus wanted to go to a castle, Jen wanted a day out by the sea - the two combined for a lovely adventure at this old (or not so old) fort!

The cafe served up a stupendous Ghillie Pie that has to be recommended and the castle itself was nice to look around whilst being compact enough that Angus didn’t get bored. It helped that this has been the first good weekend of weather in a long time, but the tourists haven’t woken up yet so we more or less had the place to ourselves!

11th March 2025

Today has been a day of trying to catch up with myself… and then getting derailed a little as some work for next week came in that wasn’t quite what I was expecting… or more importantly… wasn’t quite where I was expecting it to be! So I have had to hastilly make arrangements for it all! Another possible job was starting to talk about April too, and my schedule doesn’t extend into the 24-25 financial year yet (I work off a big spreadsheet to keep myself organised, and hadn’t created the next years one yet - it has been on my “to do” list for a few weeks!) Anyway - the spread sheet is now ready to start populating with work, and I have already marked off the holidays (both the school ones and our family adventure this year) so I can feel like I have accomplished something today. Other than cleaning chicken coops!

Loads brewing away at the moment in all sorts of areas but nothing is yet ready to reveal.

On the way back from the school run I stopped to photograph a young heilan’ coo that was moochin’ in the field below the house.

13th March 2025

An old bothy just outside Inverness I found this morning after realising I was 2 hours early for a job!

15th March 2025

We spent all day on the kitchen declutter, cleaning and generally putting back togetherness today. Still a bit more to do tomorrow, and we may get the hallway done as well with a little luck... or motivation. The plan is to work through the house and just get it all back in order again after a long winter of ignoring everything!

Anyway, this lovely coo was standing by the roadside on the way back from getting tea at The Angry Seagull tonight - their burgers are outstanding, just incase you were wondering... their fish is too (from Scrabster) but we were on a burger mission tonight!

17th March 2025

A bit dissapointing today - one of the potential new streams of work hasn’t come through as I had hoped, but there may still be something to come of it, just a lesser set of services… but getting in the door is always the hardest part and perhaps there is an opportunity to upsell further down the line. So fingers are still crossed!

The second possibility hasn’t really come back to me as yet, so that is still a live enquiry (from me) but I am now holding out much hope on that.

Then there is a third option that is very, very unlikely to come off - one of the hardest doors to open at the very upper end of the market.

Anyway, I stopped off to have a poke about on the River Moriston today to try and do something atmospheric. This is the result. Tomorrow is a big day as I head for the far north so I best get some rest now!

19th March 2025

It amazes me the history that this place has been witness to... and now it is just a posh hotel!

Anyway - I have caught up with myself now, and realised I am actually working every day this week… it’s been a while since that happened!

I also have an idea to build on… so back to the pavement pounding next week I think!

21st March 2025

Today.... today has been challenging. This morning's "wee" agency job has taken me all day, literally... started just after 9am and finished just before 5pm. The actual on-site part took all morning, then there has just been an uberfaff to get everything working on the 360 whilst also battling Elon Musk's slooooooow uploads on Starlink.

We are there now though, and it is the weekend. And I am on duty. So no beer!

Anyway, this morning's job was so close to home that I could actually see home from the front garden over the other side of the glen. Which was just as well as I realised I had left my 360 camera plugged in to charge this morning.

There is a LOT of haze around due to the wild fire just south of Inverness so this has been photoshopped to buggery!

26th March 2025

It wasn't supposed to be a busy day today, not after yesterday... and not with tomorrow's absolute insanity to come. But busy it was! Partially as I am working on a new level of service and took it for a test spin on today's job!

Anyway, here is Pickles tonight!

23rd March 2025

Spring has made it to the ruinous clearance village of Eskart with Daffodil Cottage showing how it got it’s name once again. I am sure there are less daffodils each year though, perhaps I should get up there someday and clear the bracken so that they can re-establish!

Next week is starting to take shape nicely. I have nothing on Monday, so I am going to have a rare “me” day I think, then I am currently fully booked for Tuesday and Thursday. Another couple of jobs in would be nice for Wednesday, but as it stands it is okay.

I have some admin stuff to clear tomorrow and then on to some planning! I am working on a big new idea to take me in a slightly different but associated direction - well a couple of ideas really. One of which I need to have a chat to some very important people about for some advice (it’s nice having some connections to industry bigwigs!), the other is building on something I already offer commercially - but lighting a rocket under it and really going for it big time!

25th March 2025

I spotted this old abandoned house today whilst driving up Strathnairn... followed by another four which all look fantastic! I feel a trip out just to shoot these sometime!

Lovely day for a lap of the loch too!

27th March 2025

Today has been quite a day. Magnus, however, doesn't agree... he was watching The Lion King with Angus and has ideas above his station.....

29th March 2025

Just Haggis tonight after a busy day involving fantastic burgers at the Inverness institution that is Coyotes with a travelling Gerry up from Birmingham enroute to Thurso.

31st March 2025

The romantic ruins of Redcastle sit just a short distance from Inverness on the northern side of the Beauly Firth. Up until the 1950s this was the oldest constantly inhabited building in Scotland, having been built in 1179 (at that time called Edirdovar) and occupied up until that time (albeit with constant modification and remodelling).

The war did for this magnificent place as it did with so many of the grand houses through out the British Isles as it was requisitioned by the military and after the war was eventually abandoned and stripped in the 1950s, criminally left then to fall into ruin taking a great chunk of Highland history with it.