Sandy Young Photography Blog
scottish photographerOlympic swimmer Duncan Scott
Early start to shoot some portraits of Olympic swimmer Duncan Scott up at Stirling University just before he was competing in the British Championships this week.
Congratulations to Duncan Scott who has just qualified for his third Olympics…amazing achievement!
Bit of hanging around while he trained but at least it gave my cameras a chance to demist in the pool.
Legendry fashion designer Jeff Banks
Out and about this week photographing a true legend.
Commissioned to shoot the fashion designer Jeff Banks with his new range of glasses at Specsavers, Morningside.
Jeff was a pleasure to work with and a total gentleman with that old school demeanour.
*Image shot with a Nikon z7ii lens 24-70 f2.8 at 48mm iso 200, 400/f4*
Scotland’s apprentices
I had a great time up and down the country photographing some of Scotland’s apprentices from different industries.
Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day is back!
Quick job today at the Scottish Parliament, where all the party leaders came together to support Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day.
First Minister Humza Yousaf got in to the full swing of Christmas Jumper Day, donning a hat and jumper.
Followed by the rest of the Scottish party leaders…
Police Bravery Awards
It’s been an interesting time shooting all the nominees for the upcoming SPF Awards, which celebrates outstanding Police Officers for their acts of bravery, commitment and support thought Scotland.
Over the past five weeks I have been all over Scotland photographing the nominees for this year’s awards, with some amazing stories of bravery and great commitment to their communities it’s been an absolute pleasure.
So here are just a few of my favourites from the past five weeks.
http://www.scottishphotographer.com
Britney Spears…
Totally forgot I event took this picture, what a surprise for The New Yorker magazine to use it in an article on Britney Spears new book, The Woman In me.
Day trip to a wind farm…
Great day yesterday out in the North Sea, as they say in my line of work every day is different!
Early start to photograph the Seagreen wind farm 16 mile of the northeast coast of Scotland.
Calm (sort of) seas and a blue sky perfect for photographing Scotland’s largest wind farm which is now fully operational, generating clean and renewable energy.
The Old Manse of Blair
Always nice when you get to shoot some amazing food and get to eat it as well!
Wee trip up to the highlands to shoot at a five-star boutique hotel for one of my PR clients.
The Old Manse of Blair fantastic country house just outside Blair Atholl.
Can certainly recommend the food from the new head chef Iain Nicholson.
Scotland from the air
I love shooting aerial photography so when I got a call from a client to shoot renewable energy sites around Scotland I was delighted.
Five days up in a helicopter and a few thousand frames later…
Flying at first light to locations you just don’t realise how stunning Scotland is from the air.
I’ve put together some of my favourite’s images hope you like them as much as I enjoyed shooting them.
Aerial photography has it’s own set of challenges, from making sure all your kit is secured in the aircraft so nothing falls off mid-flight when you have your camera sticking out a window at over 100mph! Then there’s the technical issues of shooting from the air not to mention working in a survival suit…but I loved every minute of it.
I get asked a lot about the technical aspects of how I shoot, firstly get it right in camera and you won’t spend hours trying to fix your images later! The number of times I’ve heard “it’s ok I can always sort it later in photoshop”.
Firstly, I always shoot in RAW and only use manual, processed in lightroom then any final adjustments done in photoshop.
For aerial photography a high shutter speed is a must as your traveling at speed and with the vibration of the rotors anything over 1000 at f8 works well then it’s just a matter of concentrating on the image.
And of course a massive thanks to everyone at PDG Aviation who were amazing.
Mr Goose Resilience Festival
Nice trip down to Ayrshire last week to shoot the author and artist of the MR. Goose books for the upcoming Mr Goose Resilience Festival in June. Rained all the way down but as luck had it the clouds parted just as I arrived at the car park!
Pictured L-R Louise McBride, the artist behind the illustrations of Mr Goose, Grant Kennedy author of Mr Goose set on and around the River Doon and Craig Espie of Scottish band Skerryvore who has brought to life Mr Goose in musical form.
All the images were shot in the grounds of the Burns Cottage in Alloway.
Crufts 2022 in pictures
It’s been two years since I last covered Crufts or for that matter any large event, with over 28,000 dogs and 160,000 humans in attendance at this year’s show it is without a doubt the world’s greatest dog show.
As a dog lover I love covering Crufts not just for the dogs but it’s also a great event to photograph with so many photo opportunities over the four days at the NEC in Birmingham.
Walking over 25 miles during the event I certainly got my steps up!
Below are just some of my highlights from Crufts 2022 in pictures
succession season 3
This was one of my more unusual shoots…If you have ever watched Sky TV’s Succession you’ll know what’s going on!
Turns out in Succession Roman Roy bought Scottish football club Hearts to impress his father Logan (Scottish actor Brian Cox), only to discover that his billionaire dad is actually a fan of Hearts’ big cross-city rivals, Hibernian.
So the Hearts manager and players got in to the sprit of the show by wearing specially branded shirts with the the name of Roy family’s infamous company Waystar Royco added to the front of Heart’s shirts, as well as on branding within the club’s Tynecastle Park stadium for Roman Roy’s fictional takeover of the team.
Great day shooting with Robbie Neilson and the team at Heart’s who were all great sports…will now have to go and watch the show!
No flash portraits
Working with one of my clients who who are in the middle of a re-brand and wanted something a bit different for their staff images, something more youthful and engaging…think I managed to capture it perfectly for them!
Just a bit of window light and a reflector.
Arielle Free OVO Green Bikes launch
Great day shooting with Scottish Radio One DJ & Love Island podcaster Arielle Free around a sunny Glasgow for the launch of OVO Bikes sustainable cycling route round the City.
For once everything was perfect for my shoot with Arielle Free, the sun was out and I was shooting in Glasgow around different locations, started off at the Kelvingrove Gallery then on to Kelvin Way now closed to traffic which I cursed just the other week for not being able to cut through to Byres Rd…but I take it all back as it is now a great place to shoot without having to dodge cars!
Big thanks to The Hug and Pint on Great Western Rd for allowing us to shoot at their restaurant and for the amazing lunch, if you like food this is the place! Great vegan menu and very friendly staff.
OVO Energy reveals new nextbike scheme sponsorship in Glasgow
To celebrate the green OVO Bikes launch, OVO Energy has partnered with famous Scot and Radio 1 DJ, Arielle Free, to create a sustainable cycling route of the city, “OVO Bikes Green Route”
The city’s first ever ‘Green Route’ puts a spotlight on some of the sustainable Glaswegian businesses for bike riders to visit, awarding the chosen businesses with a ‘Green Plaque’ celebrating their sustainability credentials.
UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) …President
I was commissioned to shoot a visit by the COP26 UN climate change president Alok Sharma who was visiting Whitelees Wind Farm just outside Glasgow for the forthcoming COP21 – Glasgow Climate Change Conference.
I’ve been to Whitelees before and as you would expect for a wind farm is a baron wind swept wilderness even in May!
So decided to get there early and reccie potential locations, as usual you don’t get much time with your subject, and he was doing a live broadcast for C4.
So I set up at the edge of the car park so El Presidente didn’t need to walk to far for his picture…
Very happy with the shot I got and Mr Sharma was very accommodating.
For all those who keep asking for the tech details of my images here you go-
Nikon 4s 24-70mm f2.8 lens – one godoxAD600 flash to the left
ISO: 100,aperture: 7.1, Shutter: 1/250 lens at 24mm shot on raw.
And a big thanks to Whitelees Wind Farm Visitors Centre cafe for keeping us going with coffee and cake.
Glasgow Central Station tours
This shoot probably started way back at the end of 2019, when I went on the tour of Glasgow Central Station, fantastic tour by the very knowledgeable Paul Lyons.
So you can imaging my delight when I got a call from a magazine last week to go along and shoot a feature on Paul Lyons…couldn’t wait!
Just as I remembered, Paul was full of enthusiasm and his knowledge of the old Central Station is second to none tales of the Victorian times and when it was used during both world wars, you get to see lots of areas underneath not open to the public.
I would highly recommend going on the tour…when we all get back to normal.
My new website
Delighted to announce the launch of my redesigned website with a fresh new look, showcasing my skills as a professional photographer in providing a dedicated, high-quality service to all my clients.
The new site is now live and can be viewed at www.scottishphotographer.com I hope you enjoy it as much as I had building it!
Scottish Edge Awards
I’ve been photographing the Scottish Edge Awards now for over 10 years, photographing the whole day from the pitches to the judges, networking to all the award winners…this year was a bit different die to Covid-19 restrictions, with all the pitches done over video with no audience or award ceremony.
So I was commissioned to photograph a few of this year’s winner in their place of work.
Funded by the Hunter Foundation, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Scottish Enterprise the competition runs twice per year and has supported Scottish businesses with over £15m in award funding.
Scottish EDGE consists of three competition categories: Scottish EDGE, Young EDGE and Wild Card EDGE, a very worthwhile event supporting Scottish business’s over a a wide range of industries.
It’s always a pleasure to work with Evelyn and the rest of the Scottish Edge team…
Eerie Glasgow – Coronavirus
Glasgow during the COVID 19 lockdown.
I took a walk round Glasgow city centre and then up to the Charing Cross area, I found it a humbling experience, unusually quite no background chatter, peoples footsteps or the normal hum from the traffic. The eerie quietness of the empty streets brought it home, the impact the coronavirus is having on our daily lives.
When I started out I instantly thought of shooting this in black & white, looking at both the colour and b&w images side by side the later easily jumps out as the best image and with less in the image it adds more!
It was like a scene from The Walking Dead!
International Color Award nominee winner
Always nice when you get recognised for your work…
Nominated at the 13th Annual International Color Awards, from 73 countries and over 6000 photographers it’s a great honour to be a nominee for my image of Ludwik Jaszczur a WW2 Monte Cassino Polish veteran in the portrait category .
Comments off
Crufts 2020
I have a great client in London who I shoot all their Scottish photography for, so when I got a call asking me to be part of the press team for these years Crufts…as a dog lover I jumped at the chance.
I’ve put together a few of my favourite images from Crufts 20.
As a freelance photographer day to day you work on your own, shooting the press photography for worldwide press as part of a team was amazing!
Twenty thousand dogs, four photographers and three journalists and a picture editor on-site at the NEC…very rewarding experience.
Fantastic bunch to work with, long days and early starts for four days and picture of the day in The Guardian.
Hopefully will be back again next year!
WW2 Polish war veteran Ludwik Jaszczur
Yesterday on a completely different job, I spotted Ludwik a ww2 Polish war veteran, as I have a great passion for ww2 history I started chatting to Ludwik, turned out he fought at the battle of Monte Cassino.
I had a great chat with him and he was more than happy to pose for a picture.
let us not forget the great sacrifice made by all these men who fought at a very young age during ww2.
Now 93 Ludwik still runs his own shop in Edinburgh, repairing zips and locks for leather handbags.
Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day…
get your Christmas jumpers looked out for Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day.
Sports personality Judy Murray and celebrity chef Tom Kitchin donned their Christmas jumpers for the cause.
The Impossible Row!
As a professional photographer you get to meet and photograph some amazing people, yesterday was one of those days when I met Jamie Douglas-Hamilton who plans to row from Cape Horn in South America to mainland Antarctica across Drake Passage, considered the most dangerous ocean crossing in the world.
Noel Cowards Mad Dogs and Englishmen comes to mind!
The Impossible Row, no one has rowed this far South before and crossed the Drake Passage by human power alone. Not only can seas reach up to 80 foot in the Southern Ocean but the crew will be rowing against the current. Jamie is the only British member of a team of six who will row in 90-minute shifts around the clock, with little to no sleep for 24 hours a day for around three weeks in cold to freezing conditions.
And over Christmas so no roast potatoes for Jamie!
As Jamie said “should be fun” …All the best to him and the rest of the team.
The expedition is being recorded by the Discovery Channel, which is sending the aptly named Braveheart vessel to follow the journey, however the boat will offer no support or supplies to the athletes. The expedition can be followed online with updates on Twitter at @actiphwater and @discovery.
Ian Rankin in a phone box!
Quirky new tourist attraction in Edinburgh.
In my job you get to photograph lots of interesting things as well as some decently nice people, I’ve photographed Ian Rankin (him of Rebus fame) many time over the years and he’s one of the nicest chaps you could work with.
Great shoot for my client which made the front page of The Scotsman as well five other papers.
So on to “Gilbert” a refurbished phone box by bespoke tailors, Stewart Christie & Co on behalf of Save the Children…
What you do is you go in to Stewart Christie & Co ask for the key make a donation and then take a selfie in the phone box, kitted out as an old Victorian box with some lovely vintage touches.
All the donations got to Save the Children…have fun and contribute to a great charity all in one.
3D Art…
I’ve never photographer 3D art before, so I was very intrigued by it, as any I’ve seen look amazing.
And this one by created by 3D Joe & Max for Auchentoshan was fantastic, just a matter of the right lens and the right angle to get the best possible 3D effect (which you don’t really get with the naked eye).
The artwork can be seen at Edinburgh Airport for the next two weeks…
World’s Biggest Coffee Morning!
Quick job yesterday for a great cause, popped in to Macmillan Cancer Support, Glasgow for a few pictures of the support nurses taking part in the 29th World’s Biggest Coffee Morning.
Macmillan hope to raise over £2m in Scotland from the events, and almost £30m across the UK.
Last year the support line, open seven days a week, answered almost 4000 calls from people in Scotland.
The staff are on hand between 8am-8pm to offer emotional support, expert cancer information and benefits advice.
Moulin Rouge dancers
Moulin Rouge dancers help raise money at the annual Lunch with an Old Bag.
![Lunch with an Old Bag_Moulin Rouge dancers]({"aperture":"5.6","credit":"www.scottishphotographer.com","camera":"NIKON D4S","caption":"\u00a9 Sandy young Photography 07970 268944\rLunch with an Old Bag at Prestonfield House Hotel, Edinburgh.\rield.\r\r\rDancers from the Moulin Rouge joined \u00d4Old Bags\u00d5 at the sparkling annual ladies\u00d5 lunch which brings together many of Scotland\u00d5s most successful, stylish and generous ladies at a stunning invitation-only event at historic Prestonfield House Hotel. \r\rPerformers from London\u00d5s West End provided entertainment to over 400 guests at the celebratory Lunch with an Old Bag, who helped raise substantial funds to enable The Prince\u00d5s Trust Scotland to transform the lives of thousands of young people. \r\rSince it began in 2009, Lunch with an Old Bag has raised more than \u00a34.7m, which translates directly as help for over 4,700 young Scots.\r\rE: sandy@scottishphotographer.com\rW: www.scottishphotographer.com\r\r** credit should read scottishphotographer.com**","created_timestamp":"1567769778","copyright":"All images are \u00a9 of Sandy Young Photography\rWeb: www.scottishphotographer.com\rBlog: sandyyoungphotography.wordpress.com \rMail:","focal_length":"120","iso":"250","shutter_speed":"0.0025","title":"Lunch with an Old Bag_Moulin Rouge dancers","orientation":"1"})
All three Scottish dancers from London’s West End show Performed at the Prestonfield House Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh (an amazing venue).
I’ve been shooting this event now for 11 years now, over 300 well lubricated ladies get together to help raise funds for the The Prince’s Trust Scotland to transform the lives of thousands of young people.
Since the first Lunch with an Old Bag the event has raised more than £4.7m, which translates directly as help for over 4,700 young Scots.
Not my usual…Let Fanny Fly!
You get some weird jobs as a professional photographer!
Commissioned by a client for the ‘Let Fanny Fly’ campaign, early Sunday morning in the pouring rain…the irony was not lost on me!
A giant inflatable 19ft vagina-shaped blimp, banned from Edinburgh Fringe Festival started the “Let Fanny Fly” campaign.
All for a good cause the women’s wellness brand, Elvie.
4am start with Tom Daley!
4am start with Tom Daley, Nile Wilson and Denise Lewis…which really means up at 2am to drive the 70 miles to the location, the glamorous life of a freelance photographer!
But a great morning shooting with Tom, Nile and Denise who were on top form even at that time, I love an early start especially in the summer as you always get a great sunrise even in Scotland.
Shooting at that time of the morning has it’s benefits and challenges, on the plus side shooting a portrait outside with early morning light (golden hour) is fantastic but freezing the action of Tom jumping is a bit of a challenge, high iso and a fast shutter with shallow depth of field (for all you guys who keep asking what the tech is) the shot above was shot at iso 1250/500sec at f2.8 on a Nikon d4s with a 16-35mm lens.
Great also to work with Nile and Denise.
As always a great shoot is a team effort with a lovely client and big thanks to Haven who were hosting us all…and supplied us with coffee and a fantastic breakfast!
Best of June
It’s been a very busy month with lots of long days, stating early and finishing late…still editing at 2am so my clients have their images for first thing the next working day.
I wouldn’t change it for the world, as I sit here in my kitchen looking out on a lovely sunny morning listening to the radio working away.
Being self-employed is fantastic not for everyone but certainly for this photographer, still not bored and now in my 19th year as a freelancer!
A few images from June, I choose them for many different reasons, how good the light was on a specific shoot, the people oh and the people, working across so many diverse industries is such a pleasure and an insight.
meeting them all from apprentice electricians all the way up to the CEO and everyone in-between, I always enjoy a good chat with them before I start taking a picture.
National Selfie Day
Its National Selfie Day…yes really its a thing!
Love them or hate them their here to stay, I was recently asked to by a client to write a short brief on how to shoot the perfect selfie in a lift for #nationalselfieday.
With the help of model @iamrebeccadonaldson at @apexhotels who was a great sport and in typical selfie fashion I shot lots of pix to get the right one!
Capturing the perfect shot of yourself in a lift is big business there’s 400,000 tagged posts alone on Instagram, With #liftselfie, so the brief was to shoot in a lift @apexhotels.
Here’s my tips on how to elevate your selfie (#elevatorselfie ) …
1…Make sure your eyes are in focus, this makes such a difference when viewing your selfie, smile like you mean it!
2…hold your Smartphone above, (chin down camera up) this gives you a more flattering look and defines the jaw line, try lots of different poses and angles to find your best look…practice makes perfect!
3…Light is everything in photography! Try to shoot in diffused natural light, no direct as this will throw unflattering shadows on your face and don’t use the flash as this is to harsh for a nice selfie. The “golden hour” (during sunset and sunrise) is best for outdoors when the light is at it’s most beautiful.
4…Be mindful of your background, the best selfies have really interesting ones or a nice plain simple one and watch out for photo-bombers!
5…Get to know your camera, try using the self timer for a more professional looking portrait and find a good app like snapseed or lightroom and don’t over edit!!
Michael Gove PM?
I love my job, every day is different I get to see so many varied industries.
So when I was commissioned to photograph Michael Grove MP Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and prospective Prime Minister, on a visit round a factory that makes floorboards, it didn’t sound too exciting but it was very interesting learning how the process works.
Putting politics aside I found Michael Gove to be one of the politest well-mannered politicians I’ve photographed (the worst a former PM who didn’t last) and had a genuine interest on his visit.
All in all a good finish to the week!
Bo’Ness Revival
I’ve always fancied going to the Bo’Ness Revival, a classic car hill climb event revived in 2007 but for one reason or another usually due to work commitments I’ve never managed along so I finally made it this year…71 years after the fist British hill climb was held at Kinneil Estate in 1947!
One camera and one lens, none of the usual two cameras four lens a set of lights and a laptop I would usually turn up to on a shoot, well it was my day off!
I was hopping for a nice sunny day but the Scottish weather didn’t let me down…it rained, that small stuff that really gets you wet! But it didn’t deter me from enjoying my day, there was so many classic cars just in the car park (which was free,hats off to the organisers for this), I parked up next to a DeLorean, also spotted a really nice Alfa, a Jag and a few MG’s all before I got to the entrance!
What a great collection of classic and vintage cars, the best bit walking round the paddock seeing all the cars getting prepped for the hill climb.
Spotted this lovly old 1957 Audi Auto Union 1000.
What a great day despite the weather, hopefully I’ll be back next year. Defiantly worth a visit, more than just the usual classic car show – paddock access and racing make it just that wee bit more special.
Sandy Young Photography Blog 