Easter Can't Be Far Away.

I had a flying visit from Tas, the boss of Sutherland's Cakes yesterday.






"Can you get these photographed quickly"? he enquired.

That's how I know Easter isn't far off and he left me half a dozen of each. Sponge base with yummy cream top, they are delicious!

Where It All Started For Andrew Carnegie.

Andrew Carnegie's life started in a small attic room in Dunfermline in 1835 and a newly refurbished museum depicting his life story has just re opened in the town. I was photographing the new interior for my client Elmwood who specialise in this kind of work.

His life was so fascinating that you'll have to click the link and get it all for yourself.

I liked his philosophy though, spend the first third of your life acquiring all the knowledge you can, the second third making all the money you can and the final third giving it all away to worthy causes.

It makes a mockery of the old label that Scots are mean as calculations show that converted to today's terms, he gave away a staggering $380,000,000.

As "Oor Wullie" would have said, "Help ma Boab"!

(For all you overseas bloggers who want to find out more about Scotland's "Real National Hero", click the above link)

The Fix play Royal Exchange Square, Again.

The Fix went busking again, same spot, next to the famous Rogano's Oyster Bar on Saturday.

This time it was the full line up, Allan, Andrew, Connor and Callum, they were great.


A new addition to their repertoire was the mouth organ played by Andrew and the passing crowd seemed impressed as they got plenty of dosh, yet again.

Recycling At The Cutting Edge.

I'm sure that we are all in agreement that it is best to recycle as much as possible, well, last week I witnessed first hand, the mother of all recycling plants.

Environcom Ltd are completely updating their web site and I flew down to Grantham to get some new shots of the plant.

It was like a scene from a sci fi movie. I'll let the photos do the talking.













Some facts you may be interested in. In the UK every year, around 3,000,000 washing machines along with a similar number of fridges and televisions are thrown out, not to mention PC's, laptops, hoovers and countless other electrical items.


















The state of the art machines on site can process up to 100 units per hour and all of the constituent bits are recycled. It is a 24 hour operation with semi trailers arriving almost endlessly. They are quickly unloaded and it's on to the next one.

Watching the staff was like poetry in motion, everyone knew exactly what they were doing. They were ruthlessly efficient at work and I had a great laugh when I met up with them in the staff canteen.

I would not like to be a fridge in that place.

Area 51

I was out last week taking some "blue sky" photos for a client. There has been precious little of the blue stuff of late and I dropped in at Area 51 for a coffee on the way back.

When the weather is fair, there is always a fine display of fantastic Harley Davidson machines on show outside.

I am always intrigued by the detail on some of them and one I certainly had no problem with, yes, you guessed it the Rolling Stones logo.















Check out the £62,000 AC Cobra/Harley.

Local Hero.

I watched a programme on the TV recently about the making of the classic Bill Forsyth movie, Local Hero. Most of the movie was shot in the picturesque village of Pennan on the north east coast of Scotland. In the past, I was a regular visitor and it was a weird experience seeing it again as I haven't been back for many, many years.

The world famous signature tune, "Wild Theme", was written by the brilliant front man of Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler.

In 1983, I was working in Melbourne and remember going to the Aussie premier. That was also a weird experience. Here I was 14,000 miles away watching a very familiar place on a big screen starring Burt Lancaster and Fulton Mackay. Fulton was an old school friend of my late mother and I remember meeting him regularly when I was a wee boy.

These nice and grainy, 800 ASA rated B&W shots of Mark Knopfler were taken at a gig in Melbourne shortly after. I remember it well, his genius with a guitar had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.

Ye canny beat the old B&W for atmosphere!

The Magical Isle Of Arran.

Today's work took me to the famous Isle of Arran.

After a short fifty minute ferry trip from Ardrossan on a roll on, roll off Cal Mac Ferry
(which does a very nice roll and sausage) you are driving into Brodick.

The island has everything from cycling, hill walking, fishing, pony trekking, quad biking and other pastimes to numerous to mention.

For the ultimate in luxury, a stay at the Auchrannie Spa Hotel is a must. A short drive from the ferry and you are there. What a base to explore the island.

I was only there for a few hours but the views are breathtaking. Here are a couple of shots of Whiting Bay and The Holy Isle.

Get to Arran!

The Fix Do The Teak.

The Teak Bar in Helensburgh was packed to the rafters on Saturday night as The Fix played their first full set to a live audience.

The four lads, Callum Judge on drums, Allan Mundie on lead guitar, Connor Hull Rhythm bass and vocals and last but not least Andrew Cunningham also rhythm bass and vocals put on a belter of a show that had the audience baying for more.

I asked number two son Andrew after the gig what he thought of playing live. "Brilliant" he said.

For once I couldn't argue with him.

Full Moon Fever.

Driving back from Helensburgh tonight, I noticed this fantastic full moon in the sky above Clydebank.

It was quite spectacular and put me in the mind to listening to the truly amazing...... Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty.