YoungMedia :: Latest news

Wet Wet Wet.....

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:47:00 +0000

As part of an NHS anti-homophobia campaign I've been shooting pictures of celebrities who are taking a stand against that intolerance. Today I met up with Wet Wet Wet star Graeme Clark to shoot his portrait. Graeme is making a comeback as a solo artist and was back in Glasgow to play an intimate gig at King Tuts as part of a country-wide tour. He's a lovely guy, very humble, very talented and very generous with his time. Could have stayed and listened to him playing all night. After all the success he had in the 1990's with the Wet's I hope he does as well as a solo artist. Check out his website here: Graeme Clark

It's all smiles for Carol.....

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:07:00 +0000

I've been working on a project with the lovely people at Glasgow 2014 - the Commonwealth Games team. We have been working on taking a series of portraits of celebrities who are backing their "Sport Your Trainers' campaign. First to be published is the wonderful and ever youthful Carole Smillie, who I first photographed over 25 years ago, and is still looking fantastic. What's it down too? Well it's not the gym as Carol says she hates going there - she's doing something right though!

A newspaper man.....

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 22:03:00 +0100

Newspapers are a dying breed according to some commentators and perhaps they are right. More and more people are turning to the internet to get their news whilst on the move. I spent over 25 years working in newspapers, starting at the Helensburgh Advertiser, which back in the early 1980's still used 'hot metal' to make up the pages, and the press they used was so old that it went to a museum in Germany when printing was centralised in 1995. The joy in seeing your pictures in print is still a pleasure that I can't explain - and it's also one I don't want to lose. So I for one hope that printed newspapers will be around for a long time yet. Charles McGhee is a newspaper man, cut a vein and I wouldn't be surprised if ink flowed out rather than blood. I first met Charles when he became the editor of the Glasgow Evening Times. A small man, with a big presence, Charles quickly made sweeping changes and modernised the Evening Times. He has the reputation of being a hard task master, but I was once told that all editors are 'monsters', it seems to come with the territory! The Charles I now know is quite different from Charles the editor. He cares deeply about journalism and is an Honorary Professor in Journalism and Media at Glasgow Caledonian University. He also was a VSO volunteer in Papua New Guinea, managing a major literacy project for two years, and is currently a member of the West of Scotland board of Maggie's Cancer Care Centres. Behind that hard outer armour he wears is a caring and charming man of many talents. I was delighted when Charles asked me to take a series of portraits of him to illustrate future online and in print products. This picture here shows the famous McGhee stare, which many a poorly prepared news editor or picture editor will be familiar with. I'm pleased to say that many of the portraits we took that day also show him smiling, which is more the man I now know.

Paparazzi party.....

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 23:25:00 +0100

Michelle Mone is an old friend of mine who has done ridiculously well for herself since her days as a lowly young model. Now she's one of the UK's top female entrepreneurs and owner of the lingerie company ULTIMO

It's been a while.....

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 23:08:00 +0100

At times some aspects of your life have to take a back seat for a while, this has been the case for my news blog. The week after my last post my father in-law took ill and was subsequently diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer which is caused by exposure to asbestos. Having worked most of his life as a joiner in John Browns shipyard this was almost inevitable. It is a nasty illness for which there is no cure, all that the doctor's could offer was treatment to try and prolong his life a little longer, but In our heart of hearts we knew Dad's remaining time was likely to be short. So our summer was filled with spending as much time as we could with Dad, taking him to and from hospital appointments, and chemotherapy treatments. However in between times we were determined to help Dad live his life to the full with his family, so anytime he felt up to it we would take him out in the car and have a fun day. We drove him to St Andrews on the 9th of July, which was also his birthday, we lunched in the town and Dad was fascinated by the work going on to prepare the 'Auld Grey Town' for the Open Championship which was happening a week later. We ended that day by driving to Anstruther and having fish supper at the famous Fish & Chip shop and then sat on the harbour wall and had an ice-cream - happy times.

The day I met John Knox.....

Mon, 24 May 2010 08:46:06 +0100

I was back at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland yesterday where they were holding a special service to mark the 450th Anniverary of the Scottish Reformation. This coincided with the hottest day of the year so far, 77F, and wall-to-wall sunshine. Edinburgh was mobbed with tourists, marathon runners and Assembly attenders so I chose to leave the car and let the train take the strain - remember that advert?. Anyway, the Assembly Hall was also packed and hot however it was a really interesting service. The readings and speakers gave life and light to a part of our country's history that we all now take for granted. The Reformation was the beginning of the huge sea of change in our country and lead to the period of our history called The Scottish Enlightenment, when Scots were among the most literate citizens of Europe, with an estimated 75% level of literacy. This change all began with ordinary men, like John Knox, who stood against the might of the Roman Church. At the service yesterday actor John Shedden played the part of John Knox and spoke his words about the new confession of faith. It was very moving and helped to service to connect with those brave reformers of 450 years ago. Afterwards I took the Right Rev John Christie, Moderator of the General Assembly, and actor John Shedden down into the quadrangle to have their pictures taken with the famous statue of Knox in the background. It was a historic picture in more ways then one.

Pomp and circumstance.....

Thu, 20 May 2010 23:59:19 +0100

Proving, once again, that no two days are alike in this job, I spent today at the opening session of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh. The opening day is quite an occasion, a kind of cross between a Royal Garden Party and a Kirk Session meeting. Basically it's attended by a lot of ladies in fancy hats, which are only out done by their men folk who done suits regaled in coats of arms and wear cock feathered bunnets for the day. Steeped in history the Assembly building is a dramatic and imposing structure which will take your breath away, supposing that you still have a breath in you after the steep climb up The Mound carrying heavy camera equipment! Once through the gates you have to cross a courtyard watched by the imposing figure of John Knox then it's up a set of stone stairs designed with the penitent sinner in mind. I love the pomp and circumstance, it's a great excuse to dress up for a party and the colour adds to the whole sense of occasion and is, of course, great for pictures. However the General Assembly is not a frivolous talking shop for dandies, the Assembly decides the acts and regulations of the church and this year it has a difficult and potentially divisive issue to tackle. The ordination of homosexual Ministers is proving, once again, to be an issue that won't go away and one that seemingly can't be resolved to the satisfaction of all. In the end it comes down to each individuals conscience, and although it might sound corny, Kirk members would do well to ask themselves the age-old question: what would Jesus do?

Tiny Dancer.....

Sun, 16 May 2010 21:15:14 +0100

Years ago when I worked for the local paper in Helensburgh one of the highlights of the year was the BATD Annual Stage Dance Festival in the Victoria Halls. Over the space of a week hundreds of kids from all over Scotland would come to the seaside town to take part in the competition. The picture potential was always good and you were virtually guaranteed a spread of your pictures and a byline in the next weeks paper, so I loved covering the Festival. I say 'love' and in fact that's where I found 'love'. The organiser of the event was a particularly attractive young woman (with a great pair of legs) called Kirstine Cameron. The first time we met we didn't actually see eye to eye, if fact our first conversation was more of an argument really. As she was the event organiser I had to ask her permission to take pictures and we had a bit of a disagreement about where and when and how that was going to happen. The main stumbling point seemed to be about using flash photography, try as I may to convince her that I didn't want to use a flash anyway as it would kill the atmosphere, she didn't seem to trust me! Well readers this story has a happy ending, I got my pictures in the end and, in spite of our first meeting starting with an argument, this July will see us celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary! Kirstine doesn't teach dance anymore but our daughter Kimberley is a talented dancer and this week she was taking part in the Margaret Rose School of Dancing's annual display. So for the first time in many year I was back in the very same halls where I met my wife and where I took many a good picture. 25 years on I'm please to say that the photo opportunities are still as good, although using a Nikon D3 makes it a lot easier to capture those magic moments than when using a battered old FM2 and a roll of HP5. This picture made me laugh as I took it. I had set up a small studio back stage to photograph some of the kids in their costumes during the dress rehearsal. The 'babies' are always the best for pictures as they just do what they want to do, sometimes that's 'I'll do the dance and look cute', sometimes it's 'I'm gonna stand here and wave to my Mum in the audience' and sometimes it's 'NO - I'm not doing the dance and that's that'! Anyway, whatever they do they always steal the show!

Now where's the vinegar.....

Mon, 10 May 2010 22:31:42 +0100

With the summer just round the corner it’s all too easy to forget that only just a few months ago the whole of the country had ground to a halt in the ‘Big Freeze’. You will remember that almost every council in the UK had run out of salt for gritting the roads. Well last week I spent a fascinating day at the headquarters of Peacock Salt in Ayr. They were at the vanguard of meeting the demands of councils desperate to keep their road open during the record cold weather. They import raw salt from all over the world. We were there to photograph managing director Angus Craig and what a great guy he is. He was very patient and understanding as we rigged up multiple lights and softboxes trying to make an interesting picture out of this enormous pile of white salt in a huge, dark, storage hanger.

Water babies.....

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:47:33 +0100

These days a Saturday morning in our household is all about a long lie, breakfast in bed and watching the Saturday Kitchen on the telly. So this Saturday was a bit of a wake-up call as there I was setting up studio lights poolside at Scotstoun Leisure Centre at the ungodly hour of 8am! I had been tasked to get some nice pictures of babies learning to swim as part of our contract to provide images for the new NHS Scotland Photo Library. Why 8am you ask? Well we had been given access to the small swimming pool by Glasgow City Council at the only time of the day when we could assure them that we wouldn't get any other kids in the background - such is the politically correct world these days. Anyway, armed with our battery powered Elinchrom studio lights and softboxes, we were set up beside the pool by 8.30am. Our models for the day were the Baxter family from Knightswood, who very kindly agreed to help us out. Star of the show was their one-year-old son Owen who is a natural water baby and splashed about the water quite happily with his Mum Karen while we took our pictures.

Cherry Blossom.....

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:14:56 +0100

After some time off over Easter it was back to work again this week, and what a busy but pleasant week it turned out to be. While shooting some portraits for one of our clients at Kelvingrove in Glasgow I took advantage of the nice weather to go for a walk through the park yesterday. Kelvingrove park is especially beautiful at this time of the year and, after the long and harsh winter, the trees are finally starting to bloom. None more so that the flowering cherry trees which are stunning and provide a carpet of petals that would grace any wedding photograph. It was a stunning day and the park was full of families enjoying the spring sunshine and later that evening we had a very vivid sunset courtesy of the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud. The airports may be closed but, with weather and scenery like this, who wants to go anywhere else?

YoungMedia in the news.....

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:40:08 +0100

'YoungMedia' features on the front and centre page spread of SN Magazine this month. The magazine has a big feature about the new NHS Photo Library which YoungMedia has been closely involved in. We have shot nearly 2000 documentary images for the library so far, traveling all over Scotland, and we are about to embark on more photo shoots this spring. The Photo Library will be officially launched at the NHS Scotland National Event this June in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. There will be an exhibition of our pictures there and John Young will be giving a talk on both days about the importance of photography as a visual tool to get your message across.

Real Sport Relief Stars......

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:51:17 +0000

Hours and hours of television and many column inches of newsprint have documented what various TV personalities have done to raise money for this years Sport Relief. Blue Peter Presenter Helen Skelton paddled 2,000 mile along the length of the Amazon in her kayak while Fred MacAulay and Dougie Vipond kind of did the same thing but in a less glamourous location, namely the Caledonian Canal, but in temperatures there dropped to minus 16. And who can forget the tv footage of Christine Bleakley being dragged across the 21 miles of the English Channel on water-skis. But surely nothing can compare to the superhuman effort of Eddie Izzard who ran an astonishing 43 marathons in 51 days across the UK. And yet, while it’s right to praise the efforts of these celebrities, we shouldn’t forget that it’s the members of the general public that actually raise the money. Last Friday I spent the night at the GHA customer service centre in the Gorbals, where over a 150 members of GHA staff had volunteered to man the phone lines to receive donation calls. As one of the 80 call centers across the UK they played a vital part in collecting the donations which this year topped £29 miliion. Guys you may not have paddled the Amazon, waterskied the channel or ran marathons but your efforts are appreciated every bit as much - well done, each one of you are stars.

Comedy kisses.....

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:00:51 +0000

Some guy's have all the luck, or so it seems! Popular comedian Des Clarke was the object of affection from the Magners PR girls as they helped launch this years Glasgow International Comedy Festival. According to a recent survey Glaswegians are most attracted to a good sense of humour after admitting they would choose laughs over looks (**Note to self: brush up on your jokes.**) and judging by this picture it was obviously working for Des, not that I'm calling him ugly you understand! With an astonishing 380 performances taking place over the next 18 days, Glasgow will be transformed into a hotbed of laughter as the festival, now in its eighth year, brings together the best of Scottish comedy with an impressive bill of international acts. There are some 'not to be missed' acts performing again this year such as: Jimmy Carr, Frankie Boyle, Dara O Briain & Paul Merton, but personally I am hoping to see the 'ABC of Comedy show' starring my former college at the Evening Times Barry McDonald. Barry is a very funny guy so if you fancy exercising your chuckle muscles you can catch his show here: http://www.glasgowcomedyfestival.com/shows/listdetail.aspx?ID=277#

Anniversaries and awards.....

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:53:58 +0000

It has been a great week; Prime Ministers to photograph, parties to attend and awards to pick up! More importantly though I'm please to say that it has been a great year. I can hardly believe it, but this week marks the first birthday of YoungMedia. The last 12 months have been among the happiest and most creative in my life and I am really enjoying the challenge of running and growing my own business. Looking back over the last year there has been much success to celebrate, in fact, last Friday saw two of YoungMedia’s clients picked up major awards for their company publications. The CiB Scotland Awards for 2009 are run by the British Association of Communicators in Business and were held in the Radisson Hotel in Glasgow. NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde won 2 out of the 3 categories that they were nominated in; the Best Employee Newsletter for their SN Magazine and Best Campaign of the Year for it’s Tackling Health Inequalities campaign. The GHA (Glasgow Housing Association) also won 2 major awards including Best New Corporate ID / Rebrand and Best Stakeholder Newsletter for it’s excellent KEY magazine. I am please to report that all these award-winning publications heavily feature YoungMedia photography as key elements of their content and design.

An itch you just have to scratch......

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:53:40 +0000

I have struggled in the past, when giving lectures, to describe what it is like to be a professional photographer. The best I have been able to verbalise is that it's like having itch you just have to scratch. The many times I have been late home because I just 'had to stop' to take the picture is a source of constant frustration to my wife and the rest of the family. I have however just read an entry on Joe McNally's blog which describes our 'addiction' perfectly. McNally is an inspirational photographer who still get's that buzz for picking up his cameras even after a lifetime of photo opportunities all around the world for National Geographic magazine. He is still in great demand and it's easy to see why. His pictures, and especially his lighting, are beautifully lit and composed. He does what all great photographers do; he sees the invisible and makes it visible to the reader.

Enter the Dragon

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:26:10 +0000

It's not every day that you meet a real-life Dragon but I did yesterday. Self-made millionaire Shaf Rasul is one of Scotland’s most successful entrepreneurs and the latest dragon in the online version of Dragons’ Den. The Aston Martin driving entrepreneur has an extensive portfolio of businesses focusing on property and technology investments. His main company, E-Net Computers, which distributes blank DVDs, is one of the largest media storage distributors in Europe. He ranks 1,152 in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, and is estimated to be worth £48m. All this and they guy hasn't even turned 40!

Open wide!

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:01:28 +0000

One of the privileges of being a photographer (and I honestly believe that it is a privilege) is that you get to see some unusual sights. Case in point was last week when I spent the day at the Dundee Dental Hospital & School. Now I must profess I'm not a very good patient when it come to visiting the dentist, in fact, if she wasn't one of our best friends I doubt I would go voluntary to my own dentist. There is just something about the high pitch whine of the drill and the way you have to submit yourself totally to their will - on reflection maybe it's a physiologist I need to see!

Born in the USA - well his future is anyway

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:32:34 +0000

I'm posting this blog from Elkins, West Virginia, US of A. My son Christopher plays golf and wants to be a professional in the future, however we also want him to finishing his education and get a degree behind him as well. So when he was offered an athletics scholarship to study and play golf for a University in the USA he jumped at the chance. He was offered a choice of a few Universities but finally decided on Davis & Elkins College in West Virginia as they have a very good and inspirational coach in Scott Goddard and they play in the NCAA Collegiate league.

Simply the Vest - Rab C Nesbitt

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:58:22 +0000

A brand new series of the iconic TV show, Rab C Nesbitt, returns to our screens next week after ten long years. Actor Gregor Fisher will once again don that famous grubby vest and headband, brandish a rolled up paper and, in his own words, he'll say - "I will tell you this boy, I will tell you this.....” This all brings back happy memories of a picture I took years ago.