A newspaper man.....

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.

It's been a while.....

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.....

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.....

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.....

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!