Becoming a photographer
A brief introduction as to how I found myself on this career path.
2005, an 18 year old enrols in, then, Glasgow College of Building and Printing, to study Product Design.
I had no clue what I wanted to do after leaving school and was fairly average academically, I suppose not from lack of ability, just lack of inspiration. School had built up, in me at least, a kind of intense pressure into believing I had to pick one thing and stick to it when you eventually had to leave. A horrible dread to have when you are young, feeling like it was all over before it started. I have always been a more practical, hands on person and struggled to find much of a practical use for what I was being taught but to be fair to my younger self I took a fairly broad range of subjects to hedge my bets. So when I left after holding out for as long as I could, I decided to just do what I felt like I wanted to do rather than what my grades suggested, the first adult decision I think I made.
Applying to college required a personal statement, I was told later by my lecturer that I had got into college solely based on my enthusiasm for visualisation and the descriptive way I explained I look at the world, think Haynes Manual exploded diagrams, you'll get the idea! For me, it read, "daydreaming class, apply within!", "think of stuff and make them into tangible objects", a bit like 3D printing for your mind, it was enticing stuff! Realising, I had this fairly vibrant visualisation skill the whole time, it was just the ridged structure of school curriculum that wasn't nurturing it. College provided the base that allowed me to explore and encourage visual creativity in a constructive way and from it, there wasn't a day I left the house without a camera since.
Taking pictures with these fascinating gadgets (products) every day led to shooting my first wedding in 2010 and the rest they say is history!
Christmas 1994, I got my first camera, a Kodak 'Crayola' 110 film camera. I took this with it while visiting family in Plano, Texas.
Hot air balloons over Plano, Texas, December 1994. Shot through the windscreen of my aunts car.
A Beach Wedding on Lewis
An overview of one of the most spectacular Lewis weddings of 2017
Careen & John Laird - Dail Mor beach, Isle of Lewis
A wedding of many firsts!
Shooting John & Careen’s wedding was a real joy, from the moment we sat down for our first meeting I could tell this was a wedding I absolutely had to shoot. Not many couples are brave enough to have a beach wedding here on the Isle of Lewis given the unpredictability year round for harsh weather but as they further explained that they were both keen surfers, the idea of a surfers wedding was too good of an opportunity to miss. Luckily, our beaches unlike our weather here are absolutely world class and they had settled on the stunning beach of Dalmore (Dail Mòr in Gàidhlig) on the West side of Lewis, featuring dramatic cliffs that flank the spectacular beach view across the North Atlantic.
It was everything a wedding should be, it surprised and delighted on more than one occasion (I had never seen guests get changed into wetsuits to go surfing straight after a ceremony till then!). Their day was both fun and deeply personal, from the many hand made decorations such as giant ‘love’ sign and surf board table names made by John, to the bridal party all running into the sea it, made my job of capturing it a truly refreshing experience.
An interesting side story was one that could have almost ended the couples hopes of their favourite beach wedding when, shortly after our booking meeting where we had discussed how to plan for the unexpected, for things such as inclement weather and back up spots for photos, well absolutely nothing prepared either of us for what happened a few weeks later. A terrible accident at sea during a fierce Atlantic storm cast adrift an oil rig being towed due for scrap called the Transocean Winner making news headlines when it ran aground, on of all places, on our beautiful Dail Mòr beach! Thankfully salvage teams from all over the world pitched in and safely removed it without leaving a trace allowing John & Careen’s wedding to go ahead as planned. A reminder if ever there was one, to always plan for the unexpected!
As I said, a wedding of many firsts!
Turning 30...
Chatting about getting old and what I plan to do about it... sort of!
So its been a productive week, delivering another wedding with one more to go by the end of next week. As my attention starts to wander towards October and the adventures/camping I have planned before my birthday! My wife says this is just my way of dealing with turning 30! She's (always) right. Of course planning such escapades requires a fair deal of online delinquency or as I prefer to call it, research! I have decided to drop the idea of making this an Amazon adventure (already) after realising quite quickly that I was essentially turning an adventure into a dreary shopping exercise and what ever way you cut it, that's no fun. As I have always been someone that thrives on working with what you've got, I am now focussing more on where I am going, as really all I needed to purchase was a sleeping bag, decent sized rucksack and perhaps a lightweight cheap tent so thats what I have just gone and done. After a fluke of googling I got a nice Berghaus freeflow 40 Litre back with attachments for £66 (normally £115), a -5C rated sleeping bag for £50 on eBay and the bargain of the week was a used North Face Stormbreak 1 tent weighing in at a svelte 1.5Kg for £60. So that challenge is done and well under budget of the £200 I had set.
Now the distractions are out the way Lets get looking into places to travel to!
1. Isle of Scarp
Top of the list, the uninhabited isle off the west coast of Harris, just behind Huisinis. A friend of mine took a boat out there a few summers ago and waxed lyrical upon it. From what I gather you can hear dolphins and whales come in to shore at night and make themselves at home. I have always had a great interest in abandoned spaces as invariably they carry with them troves of stories and secrets. However the issue I have is transport to the island, as desperately as I want to spend the night here, my former kayak instructors words echo in my mind 'never go out with less than a party of 3' and that just wont do as I want to experience the absolute isolation that only Scarp can offer. This one might need to sit on the back burner for a while till I can source a decent safe boat to take me across.
2. Old Man of Storr (Isle of Skye)
The Old Man of Storr - Isle of Skye
Visited once before fleetingly but was somewhat spoiled by the endless trail of litter bug tourists, hopefully the less than desirable Autumnal weather of Skye will drive most of them away enough for me to get a decent photo this time! I have a fondness for Skye as for me it was like the gateway to the Outer Hebrides before I moved to Lewis and it bothered me I never had the time to mooch around there. I had taken a good solid day in May this year to explore Talisker's Distillery and the famous, now infamous, fairy pools. Infamous for the tourists being more numerous than the midges!
3. The Bonnie Bonnie Banks (Loch Lomond)
The Summit of Ben Lomond - Loch Lomond and the islands in background
My home district, believe it or not, I have never really camped out here, mainly because, well, I lived there! I always went camping away to places like Loch Earnhead or Loch Awe. Camping for me is about getting away from everyone and everything, as obvious that seems, many campers often just cant bare to be too far away from creature comforts and civilisation. I plan on leaving civilisation and filling every inch of my shiny new rucksack with creature comforts, such as whisky! (perhaps I may bestow some of my limited knowledge of whisky on the way?) I placed this last as it's almost as though the time has passed for me to go camping at home given the local authority have essentially all but imposed a camping ban by introducing new by-laws prohibiting wild camping in most of the national park, which is a bit disappointing for me as a local boy. On the other hand from a few videos I have seen on youtube, it almost borders on irrelevant because it doesn't appear anyone is enforcing it and if anything the very behaviour it was intended to deter has only continued. A video by Youtuber Andy Park shows other campers acting somewhat irresponsibly. It has to be done though, I can't turn 30 having never woken up to my Loch!
(I have but not in a tent, FYI)
Amazon Adventure Kit List
WARNING - This one is quite wordy!
After agonising over what kit I need versus want for my mini photography adventures across the Hebrides I have now compiled a list of equipment I have managed to narrow it down to a core of products I have all found on Amazon (and 1 on ebay).
To start with I will list off what I already own which is the very basic boots, jacket, trousers & waterproofs. It's worth noting that I am a huge fan of our local outdoor wear shops such as the Crofters and the fisherman's co-op in town so if and where I can I will be checking these places first however, nowhere in Stornoway sells the type of back packing tents I am after so this is where this wee Amazon only challenge began and of course, anyone who uses Amazon to shop will know, its very hard to stop!
1. Gaiters! (Budget £20) - Often overlooked piece of walking equipment, was given a pair to try by my friend Duncan while hiking through Eishken in South Lochs, who knew such a simple piece of kit would make such a difference! Found a pair of Berghaus Gore tex Gaiters for £16.20 Normally £45, Bargain!
2. Backpack (Budget £50) - from my research I should be looking at a 35+ Litre bag and I don't want to go super huge 60 Litre so 35-40L would be ideal. I really like these Jack Wolfskin ACS 38L Bags found an Amazon Warehouse deal at £48 Normally £90-100 (think there might be a mistake in this as it looks like a 26L) and Berghaus Remote 35 at £48 (Normally £75). Above this Berghause Freeflow 35 at the upper limit of my budget at £61.52. I've found this is one of 2 areas (the other being sleeping bags) I am not willing to compromise on for comfort reasons hence the big name brands (not something I normally care about). But having used some of these brands before I know I should be comfortable on my hikes.
3. Sleeping Bag (Budget £60) - Not messing around here, it can get seriously cold here especially when you throw in the infamous Hebridean 'breeze'. To keep things simple I am sticking to one brand, Vango, they seem to be top of the searches and I trust their ratings are more accurate than cheap Chinese brands, they are a Scottish company too which is nice! The Vango Latitude 300 at £40 is one of the best price to warmth ratio I've found unfortunately there is a weight penalty coming in at 1.8Kg.
4. Tent (Budget £50-100) - This has been an absolute nightmare of a thing to research trying desperately to figure out needs/wants. Weight and shape have been the hardest things to balance. For windy conditions I have found one tent on ebay used Sitting at £39 + £6.99 postage its a sort of no name brand by Gelert 'Beyond by Gelert Meteor 2', rolls off the tongue doesn't it? I like this one for its semi-geodesic shape and 5000mm Hydrostatic head rating 2.7Kg it's a wee bit pudgy but for the price/performance it claims to offer I cant go wrong really, almost no info online about it though. Amazon has a few answers up its sleeve in the form of Chinese copy tents by Naturehike/WolfWise/Geertop. All the features of expensive tents but at a third of the cost! Different names but appear to be the same tents. The cheapest coming in at £54 WolfWise 1 person tent, claiming to be silicone coated nylon is only 1.8Kg! Up from this is a compromise of both the above from Naturehike the Cirrus 2 coming in at £120 its a bit high in cost but it offers that magic compromise. Nature hike have a few options all under 2Kg from around £70-120, the question is, would I trust it? Reviews are good and are actually copies of expensive MSR & Big Agnes Tents. Jury is out! The Vango Banshee 200 seems to be the most popular tent on the market and in budget but I'm just not too keen on the tunnel design, I can imagine it feeling like being buried alive. I need to sit up to eat so its a bit of a non starter for me.
5. Luxuries (Budget £TBC) - Vango self inflating mat £16 under 1Kg so I can live with that. Ground Sheet, I have read a space blanket makes a good multi-tool. Vango Inflating Pillow £6
So thats enough of that for one week! Next week the orders will go in!
Planning an Amazon micro adventure
For some time now I have been wanting to delve into the world of micro adventures, that is, wild camping trips that usually take 24hrs or so that can be done over the weekends/days off. What took me by surprise was just how popular this hobby is, I thought I had just come up with it while sitting in a tent a while back!
Typing in tents or camping into ebay or amazon and you get hit with tens of thousands of products, no doubt mostly inadequate for this purpose. So the question arose, where do I start? I grew up living for summer camping trips as a kid so I thought I had it sussed, get a tent, nice sleeping bag and away I will go. How wrong was I!? Having spent the best part of this week frantically researching backpacking tents and sleeping bags and figuring out what brands are worth looking at, I now know I know nothing. So I decided to make this a challenge, I would be flat out broke if I just went and bought what I thought I needed and would end up having to live in my £800 Hilleberg tent eating from an empty tin of cold beans.
So now my Edmund Hillary self embodied image is shattered, time to get rational. Essential objectives are;
- find nice places to camp to take awesome photographs
- have a decent form of shelter that wont collapse at the first breath of Hebridean fury
- source a backpack that will accommodate all of my required equipment
- a sleeping bag that is warm enough but not too heavy
- avoid carrying utterly useless gear i.e. Rambo knife, 4 burner gas stove etc... in other words keep the pack as light as possible.
Unfortunately, I am massively obsessive over everything, (I once spent 3 weeks researching the taps I wanted for the house) I don't plan on deliberately ending up in a survival situation so obsessing over which tent has the best hydrostatic head rating (waterproof-ness) or the sleeping bag that goes to -40C has been a bit of a waste of time again so my focus has shifted to cost and what brands are worth looking at given how much junk there is out there and this is where Amazon had the answer! Amazon warehouse deals, I buy lots of stuff from this part of their site to great success, However, this could become be a little restrictive so for the challenge I will allow myself use of ebay also. Finally my expectations versus reality has come back into balance.
Budget set at £200!
Walking off into the sunset
Lamenting the virtues of not having that much to do.
It's a question I often get asked by my mainlander friends, so what is there to do up there?
Well, to tell you the truth the answer is more often than not, "not much!". However, since converting to a full time Hebridean (and occasional 'maw') I have started to see that I would come to this this dilemma from the perspective of, 'what is there I can spend money on in the quest to cure boredom' and thankfully the answer remains, not much.
It really didn't take long for me to find new and far more engaging ways to keep myself occupied in down time, inherent lack of distractions let me to take up far more practical and interesting pursuits such as fixing things, mainly knackered old cars! Above all, I rediscovered my photography and my fascination of the outdoors. Yes, it offers freezing cold winds, driving rain and a healthy dose of self-contempt for ever making such a decision but prepare yourself properly, get a nice rain jacket, good pair of boots and a flask full of tea, you might get it. Probably not on your first outing though!
(Nightlife) Photography in the city was a chore at times, often working till 3 or 4 am arguing with bouncers even though their boss was paying me to be there, is pretty much all I remember doing and feeling like I should probably give up pursuing photography because of it. Coming to Lewis changed that completely, bringing with it a whole different set of challenges but also shaking up the drive to shoot more and actually enjoy it!
Sunset from Cross shoreline, Ness - Isle of Lewis
OK, so the sun might not shine on us very often, we have to pay for our sunshine in harsh, unforgiving winters but get that chance to really look at the Hebridean landscape that sits beneath those treacly grey skies and sit atop the coastal cliffs in awe of its vastness, isolation, 4000 miles of Atlantic horizon and a warm cup of Assam (milk & sugar please) you might start to see how incredibly lucky we are to live, work and play on what probably is one of the last un-spoiled corners of the British isles. So in truth, this is what there is to do in the Hebrides and that is more than enough.
New Years Fireworks
Discontent was expressed on social media on the run up to the new year celebrations in Stornoway, revellers were disappointed at the lack of the traditional fireworks display over Bayhead this year,. Fortunately, mother nature had a plan B in store as the town was lit in the green glow of an amber aurora alert!
Aurora over Lady Matheson's Statue, Stornoway
Vikings Come to Stornoway
Friday 11th, December 2015
It's that time of year again for the Christmas lights switch on in Stornoway. This year we were treated to a visit from the Vikings (of Shetland) and a fantastic fireworks display thanks to the Stornoway Amenity trust and the Stornoway Port Authority. The Vikings and the the Leodhasachs braved the cold and the rain for the march through the town to the eventual switch on of the lights.
Viking in Perceval Square surrounded by flaming torches. 2015 paulmcginley.co.uk ©
Following the parade, families and neighbours of the town were treated to a fantastic fireworks display over Cuddy Point and the harbour. In fact its was actually more like two fireworks displays! Following a short pause after the first barrage of brilliant fireworks lighting up the harbour you could have been forgiven for thinking it was all over, as many did. Then a few more minutes ensued, much to the delight of the children and of course the big children! A technical glitch perhaps? None the less, it added a little something to the show. Happy accident?
Small person atop their grown up for the best seat in the house. paulmcginley.co.uk ©
For some more images from the switch on of the lights, check out the gallery bellow.
