AUGUST 2024 - Drone operating in Orkney and Shetland for 'Jules and Greg's Wild Swimming' BBC Scotland

A superb few weeks up on these islands with wonderful locals, well worth a visit up here if you have not been yet. Season 2 of Jules and Greg’s Wild Swimming and this year it was Islands. I missed the first 2 weeks on the Western isles as I was is Norway on the Dana shoot for the same company the great Solus Productions.

We had the same team as last year with obviously Jules and Greg doing a super job of presenting and generally being lovely guys to hang out with for the few weeks. Then we have a brilliant and great fun team to work with. As last year Tony was at the helm directing again, Jim producing, Sean as DOP (main camera and gyros in water), also water safety, Colin on sound, Raonaid doing a bit of everything and myself filming the aerials and a little bit of second camera too:)

We swam in lots of different spots for the TV program with beautiful beaches, saunas, rum, vikings, shipwrecks, cliffs, waves, town swims etc and many swims on time off too:) So good being the only people on a lot of these beaches and we met some super characters along the way. A few pictures below to give you a flavour and it will be on BBC Scotland in January coming:)

JUNE 2024 - Jamaica filming with Rusty Lee and a Hurricane!

Brilliant fun week staying at a lovely Sandals resort in Jamaica. 5 Star resort and we all had 2 bath tubs and a swimming pool in our rooms. Pretty amazing. Obviously ITV doesn’t pay for this lol. Sandals sponsors it and gets it resort in the background on TV so everyone is happy:) Sandals staff are great.

Rusty Lee has an amazing amount of energy and was fantastic fun. We landed after our long flights and went straight into filming and even by 8pm in the evening Rusty was up singing to everyone in the hotel and dancing about with the hotel band as we filmed her singing ‘No Worries’. Great :)

This was a cooking show so we cooked many Caribbean dishes in different areas round resort then had a day out filming a coffee plantation and a farm. Both of which were brilliant and learned a lot. We even had a police escort to get though Kingstown in the morning rush hour lol.

We had a great team with Will directing, Rich on sound, Sara as Home Ecc, and Natalie as our Sandals fixer. We also had several folk from the resort helping especially Ian one of the managers.

We then had a last day of filming to do with a trip down a river and a trip to a local market. This got cancelled as a category 5 hurricane was heading our way and everyone on the island needed to batten down the hatches in preparation. So then started our briefings etc. I was quite excited until I heard actually what a category 5 hurricane is. It means an average wind speed of 180 mph gusting 260mph and it would destroy almost everything in its path!

So we then turned into a bit of a news crew as it came our way. But fortunately 2 hrs before hitting land (so unpredictable) it veered south and dropped to a Category 4. We were on the north of the island and maybe had 100mph winds so like a very bad UK storm. A few spots on the south of the island got a Category 3 hurricane. One town had 70% of its homes destroyed. So extremely glad the Cat 5 never hit the island as when we woke the next day it would have been to a destroyed island and probably many deaths. We probably would have been fine in our 5 star hotel as Sandals looked after everyone very well including their staff and we had big buildings that had survived a few hurricanes already. Anyway will be a trip to remember.

Rusty Lee cooking some Jerk Chicken

Sandals resort Jamaica

JUNE 2024 - Camera operator in Glasgow for an advert about advertising in bars.

Was fun this job as I was working with an old friend from ITV This Morning who runs his own company now called Opposite Land Productions. So was fun to catch up and see a few different pubs I hadn’t been in before. had a few randoms with morning and early afternoon drinking very keen to join in. I think they would have been unto have in there. Definitely characters for sure. one lady had only a few prominent teeth and very smily. I don’t think they were what was wanted for the advert but maybe a future one:)

MARCH 2024 - Interview with a Forensic Scientist for a crime documentary

An interesting day doing an interview with the countries leading expert on fibres. As in fibres from carpets clothes etc and matching them to other fibres. He was involved in a series killers case and created a large part of the evidence towards the killer. Pretty interesting although gruesome world to hear about. Tom the director was brilliant too and very well informed. Good having him there to ask the questions and as he is a camera operator too he could check the set up was the same as other interviews he had done surrounding this court case.

It was a three camera interview with very specific lighting and a window had to be in the back ground. But must also keep all the floweriness of these carpets and curtains out of shot as kind of didn’t fit our theme but was our only location lol.

Three camera interview

A Camera

B Camera

C Camera

FEBRUARY 2024 - Filming Beluga Lagoon Concert

Had a fun night filming Beluga Lagoon In Aviemore. There were 1100 tickets sold in 3 minutes!!! They also sold out the Barrowlands in 2 minutes.

Pretty fun to see behind the scenes of there first of a row of bigger concerts. As in previously they played to 250-350 audience so this was 4 times the size of crowd and Glasgow Barrowland will be 8 times the size I think.

Andrew is going to make a little documentary of this year as they do their gigs and asked if I’d film a bit of them BTS and on the stage as they played. Andrew had three songs he wanted recorded fully and the sound was being recorded on the decks at the back. Rupert Shanks a good mate who also lives in Aviemore was keen to help to. So Rupert was on a long lens at the back while I did wides on the gimbal from the stage and elsewhere.

The concert was brilliant and the whole band put on a great show:)

A chilled night as Andrew said to enjoy the night too. Hopefully myself and Rupert will be free to film the other venues throughout the year. Was a late finish as we all had a few beers after:)

Beluga Lagoon Band doing their thing:)

FEBRUARY 2024 - Filming instructional film with Dark Sky Media

A fun week filming Dave Macleod doing climbing coaching at his place in Roy Bridge. I was working for Chris Prescott here of Dark Sky Media ( www.darksky-media.com ) who does a lot of climbing filming. I was the second camera here and using his Sony kit. I have worked with Chris several times on a variety of projects so was fun to work with him again. The client was https://altitudeclimbing.com and the films we were making were for increasing your performance in rock climbing.

I’ve known Dave and Claire Macleod since university days so was good to catch up with them again. The last time I actually filmed Dave was in 1999 at Dunbarton rock on a Nick Tarmey film ‘Cutting Loose’ :)

Chris and myself had quite a bit of standing on crash mats not being able to move incase we wobble our tripods. Probably some form of torture standing still like this. Not sure how the Buckingham Palace guards manage it lol. But we battled through it. Hopefully be some great videos from the edit. Certainly Dave is massively knowledgeable and amazing at breaking down the tiniest bits of climbing to produce advancements for his students:)

Dave describing his different boots. Although one of the pairs he uses 90% of the time.

Chris Prescott and myself filming Dave doing his stuff.

JANUARY 2024 - My most viewed film I've made from start to finish to date.

This was fun film to make. I made it with Warren from Casio Watches. He had some ideas and was looking for a drone pilot here in Aviemore but after chatting for 30 minutes on the phone or so he decided that maybe we could make the film together.

So we came up with a storyboard and script. He mainly wrote the words as he knows the watch and will have to speak the words himself. I decided on locations and how we could shoot it and make a story out of an instructional film. Trying to keep the editing interesting and flowing.

Warren then arrived in Aviemore and we started filming the different bits which started with a walk up Sgor Gaoith (1118m) a munro nearby, The weather was nice and cloudy allowing us to film the navigation parts with the watch. But I desperately wanted a view too. It didn’t seem to be happening. Then we reached the top in the cloud doh. We were just starting a sandwich when the cloud started dropping down. Sandwiches stuffed away and a mad rush as we started getting our filming done in one of the most stunning days I’ve ever seen above the cloud in the Cairngorms. We got some great drone shots and speaking to drone shots too. A theme of this film. Means trying to match lines afterwards which is tricky but fortunately Warren repeated the words back exactly to the ground camera mic after. We got our bits and the cloud came back in and was gone. It gave us 30-40mins. I heard from friends who are Mountain and Ski guides that day that they unfortunately never saw a view so we were so lucky!!

The comments on Youtube here about all the crew that must be on the summit behind the camera is hilarious, worth a read lol. It was just me carrying the camera and drone and my winter kit and Warren carrying his winter kit and our lunches:)

We then headed down to film the next bits the day after. We had three locations for the cliff. The top of the cliff was Uath Lochains, the cliff was Farletter crag a couple of miles away and the frozen loch at the bottom of the cliff was Loch Morlich, 6 miles away haha. And yes Warren did actually throw the watch off the cliff from 10m up, a few times. And he had to post that watch to Milan for a high end budget advert (not watched as much as this one lol) straight after our shooting as only two in the world at that time.

Filming the mud fall was interesting only had one go at it and also had to try our best to stop it from looking totally cheesy which it had high potential for! I think we got away with mild cheese lol

The final bit was in front of the fire in my house. Pretty good to have all these varied locations on my doorstep.

Then I went at it editing it together and matching swipe pan edits etc. Then a colour grade and sounds added in and sent over to casio who were very pleased. Its got some nice views too, 1.6 million.

OCTOBER 2023 - Filming with Helly Hanson and Arrochar Mountain rescue

Today was filming a training day with Helly Hanson and AKA presented by Arrochar mountain Rescue team. Was all about breaking down the barriers in the outdoors. It was a fun day meeting all these people. Ed Smith was doing the photography on the day too, always good to work with Ed.

SEPTEMBER 2023 - A day out to ITV This Morning.

ITV This Morning is one of my best clients and a do a lot of location work in Scotland and luckily abroad for them. So as I was going to be in London I gave Will Thomas a shout (he is a PD I do a lot of work with and is the head of features). He said arrive when the show is still going live and he can give me a tour of the studios.

I had a great time meeting new folk and folk I have worked with before and seeing Alan Carr (Chatty Man) on the couch. I met John Torode as I went in the door who had been recording the voice over for our Australia films. He was on good form. Then I met Dr. Scott with Martin Harper in an edit. Will then had to get back to editing and Dom continued my tour.

I bumped into Julia doing the cooking prep for the live cooks and India in production and the head editor, Freddie, Amber, Abby and many more. When the show finished I chatted with Alison and Dermot and got a sneaky picture on the couch.

Marten Harper took me for lunch and then I joined for drinks with a leaving party for a lighting engineer leaving doo who had been there for 7 years so it was a good day to be visiting:)

Alison myself and Dermot on the Couch:)

Will (my tour guide), John Torode and myself:)

JULY 2023 - Camera operator in Barbados with ITV This Morning

This was a fun trip to get involved with. Possibly the sweatiest filming I’ve ever done but amazing to visit the Caribbean for my first time.

Here Harry the director had written a dating segment and we had 3 different couples out on dates to see how they got on. Laura was presenting and Nigel Francis was on sound and we had India from productions and Freddy as a researcher/helping with cameras there too. A brilliant team and we stayed at the lovely Sandles resort.

We even got a few hours off each day at lunchtime to enjoy a swim and relaxed lunch as we started early and finished late each day. With be on in the Autumn and you can see how the couples got on.

The fabulous film team:)

MAY 2023 - Filming with drone and camera in Argyll at the Taynish National Nature Reserve

Fun day filming with Ian Dow. Perfect sunny day filming for Tiny Ark a Dublin based film company who I last filmed several years ago for. The weather was lovely and sunny and had no idea these big Oak (plus many other trees) rain forest exists. They have a proper canopy and ferns growing out of the oak branches like you see in botanical gardens lol.

Had a bunch of large Landscape shots to show the position of the forest in relation to the surrounding mountains and Sea. Then got creative with far more fun shots flying under the canopy through the trees in lovely slow cinematic shots through this cool habitat.

Then we did an interview with Ian with our first midges of the year biting us as we stood still for 30mins. Then a bunch of Close up shots and slo-mo with the GH6 ground camera. A good day exploring and being creative with the forest.

Definitely worth a visit: https://www.nature.scot/enjoying-outdoors/visit-our-nature-reserves/taynish-national-nature-reserve

The canopy from above

Screen grab of forest

MAY 2023 - Australia camera and drone filming with ITV 'This Morning'.

What an awesome trip to be lucky enough to be asked to go on. A long trip for work but very worth it. I sorted an online drone licence to use my Mini 3 Pro drone and bought a second one so I had a backup for the trip.

We did a lot on this trip with John Torode doing activities and cooks at different spots in Western Australia. John is a superb presenter to work with on these programs and he had just done two weeks filming with his wife before we arrived.

Our team was Will Thomas directing and using one of my cameras on cooks wor interviews when required. Nigel Francis a brilliant fun sound was doing the sound. Alice was producing the food side of things and Jonah (Johns son) was along to help out. Malta from Western Australia was sorting locations etc on the way. We all got on very well which makes these busy trips so much easier:)

There are many highlights from the trip and the locations and the short films we make will all be very different. Here are a few pics to give you a flavour of what we got up too. The videos will be out in September on ITV This Morning:)

The whale sharks we filmed. Pic by Ash who was doing our underwater filming:)

A cook on a boat a first for me:)

April 2023 - Filming at Dumfries House with Camera and drone for ITV This Morning

A lovely day working with Will (director) and Daisy (presenter) at Dumfries House, one of the King’s properties where the Princes Trust does several activities. We were there to film in the Gardens, Farm, Chinese Bridge, and the lovely house.

Always good working with Will and lovely to meet Daisy who is brilliant and cheery:)

The Maze at Dumfries house

The Team Will, Daisy and myself:)

Daisy on the steps of Dumfries House

January 2023 - Camera and drone operator Aberdeen and Ballater for ITV 'This Morning' crime segment.

Did an interview with a murder detective and GV’s for this in December in Aberdeen city but today we were out in Ballater to film some more pieces and interview around the village. Pretty chilly day but nice sunshine and an interesting days but some gruesome facts and scary what humans can be like.

Isla was presenting this piece and Dom directing and using my second camera. With myself on ground camera drone and sound.

Ballater from the Air

My setup for the interview with the detective and Isla.

January 2023 - Camera and drone operator in Sardinia with Gino for ITV This Morning

Always great to head to Sardinia to shoot with the ever very funny Gino and the great ITV ‘This Morning’ crew. I was doing camera and drone here and Ashley Gadd from fresh audio was doing sound, Harry Bott was directing and Julia Alger was managing the food side of things for Gino.

Surprisingly for this time of year we only had one indoor cook and the rest was pretty sunny for January and we had a great time touring round different areas in the inner part of Sardinia. Mainly within 30mins oil Gino’s house.

Gino kept us entertained and ever professional and quick at what he does.

JUNE 2022 - Filming with G2 Outdoor for their new webpage

Fun day out today at Falls of Bruar canyon filming Joe, Roy and Jess as they took a group down the gorge 😁. One of many filming to complete.