Sandy Young Photography Blog
scottish photographerArchive for sport
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.
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.
Best of September
It’s been a very busy month, with lots of early start and late nights sometimes on the same day…
I’ve put together a few of my favorite images from September, I’ve picked them for various reasons, for the technical challenges to weather, being in the right place and some just because I had a such a nice time on the shoot.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them…
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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.
Scottish Game Fair
One of my New Years resolutions was to post more on my blog, so this is my third post this year…not not sure if I should congratulate myself or not!
For the past three years I have covered the Scottish Game Fair at Scone, Perthshire a lovely part of the country. This year I was the sole official photographer tasked with getting all the press, PR and marketing photography over three days.
It’s long days and hard work (over the three days I walked 14.5 miles) but so rewarding, I love this event so many great picture opportunities to be had!
Judy Murray shoot
Great shoot with Judy Murray, and for those of you who have been hiding in a cave for the last five years…mother of Andy and Jamie Murray you know the two Scottish guys taking over the tennis world!
It was the opening of a new 10 million pound David Lloyd fitness club in Newton Mearns, Glasgow, really nice place and if I lived closer I would join!
Big thanks to Judy and the team at Lloyds for making it such a great shoot, oh and PR chums take note we all had a lovely lunch at the club while editing the images courtesy of Claire the really nice PR girl!
Deerstalking
I had a call from a magazine to do a feature on deerstalking with a top London chef.
This sounded exciting just the sort of feature a photographer lives for, with the potential to make for some stunning images.
4am start lots of hiking up hills and finally just as the sun came up we spotted a few deer, time for the chef to catch his lunch!
It was just such a beautiful morning perfect conditions for photography, first thing or last thing when the sun is at it’s lowest, the golden hour!
Great shoot (sorry about the pun) with a set of pictures I am really proud of, but think I will be sticking to buying my meat off the supermarket shelves!
Glasgow 2014 volunteer launch
Your chance to become part of the Glasgow 2014 commonwealth games!
Prospective volunteers have from today until 28 February to apply for a Games role which will not only see them be part of history – Glasgow 2014’s volunteers will be the biggest peace-time deployment of volunteers for a common cause Scotland has ever seen – but will also see them having the time for their lives.
Register online at – http://www.glasgow2014.com/volunteer 
Scotland’s Olympic and Commonwealth badminton star Susan Egelstaff launched the drive for Glasgow 2014 volunteers with the help form Olympic boxing Gold medalist – and the winner of BBC TV’s Superstars – Anthony Joshua.
Clyde the Glasgow 2014 commonwealth games official mascot gets a few boxing tips form Olympic boxing Gold medalist Anthony Joshua at Central Station this morning.
World Hickory Golf Open
I do a fair amount of golf pictures over the summer, most through my corporate clients.
I got a call from a new client a golf magazine to shoot the World Hickory Championship…..sounds good, men with wooden clubs, lets see how they get on without all the technology that goes in to golfing theses days! Actually there were some pretty impressive scores.
It was the end of the golf season, and weather had started to turn and it was raining that day so packed all my waterproofs in to the car.
When I arrived at Craigielaw in East Lothian the sun had just started to come out!
Felt as if I a was in a time warp, all the golfers in period plus fours and with the obligatory old canvas bags and wooden clubs.
I love days like this, amazing scenery walking round a golf course and enjoying my favourite hobby…oh and also getting paid for it!
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