The covid memorial photography and book (I remember; Scotland's covid memorial) that I have been working on over the past few months is now done and available to purchase. £7.50 plus p&p here: https://www.alecfinlay.com/books (29 b&w images + text). 

This was a collaboration with Alec Finlay who created the sculptures in Pollok Park, Glasgow. He was looking to find a photographer that would be in sympathy with the sculptures and produce a collection of images that would bring the project to an end and be a document for the future. He approached me having seen my Carse of Gowrie images, as well as seeing where my interests lie through various twitter posts, that are broadly similar to his own.

It was a good project to work on despite the short timescale, as it had to coincide with the memorial day on the 3 March 2024. The weather at the end of 2023 when I started was abysmal with only a few good days allowing me to travel down to Glasgow. I'm fine with a bright overcast day but dull and raining less so though I did have to deal with that on a couple of occasions.

I wanted to make images that not only showed the sculptures in context but would work on other levels and be work you could come back to and perhaps see and feel something else.

We selected what images I had and sequenced them as best we could with Alec doing the heavy lifting as far as the book was concerned, I corresponding with the designer on image matters and a few tweak suggestions.
There was not a lot of money for the publication and so certain restraints come into play but though small it turned out rather well, I'm very pleased with it, the bulk of the book being the photographs, preceded by an Introduction by Alec and an essay by Roxani Krystalli.

I've uploaded a selection that are not in the book but are some I'm very happy with, they just didn't fit the sequence etc. HERE

This (LINK opens in new tab) is a Google map I've put together showing the various archaeological sites I've found and recorded. There are a few that were previously recorded by other but in the mainit shows those I've recorded.

The initial area of sites centred around land that seeps down to Auchintaple loch (note difference in spelling), which is 19th century in creation. It almost certainly covers a fair amount of archaeology, like the boundary wall. Further sites added later in other areas in Angus and Perthshire.

Many of these while submitted to Discovery and Excavation Scotland (Historic and Environment Scotland) have yet to filter through to Canmore (??) or other regional data sets.

A new zoomy panorama of Glean Beag, that is just south of the Cairnwell and North of the Spittal of Glenshee on the A93, the road leading to Braemar. LINK

It shows a medieval / post medieval farmstead landscape on the south facing aspect of the glen. It was taken from the south side that also has a number of interesting farmstead dwellings as well as a nice standing stone setting (pic), probably once a 'four poster'.

The area is rich in history, reasonably fertile for such a mountainous glen but also for its main route north and also east to west. Cateran cattle thieves would take their spoil from Glen Isla and further east back via Gleann Beag and then eventually to the Lachaber region in the west.

Most of the website is done. New pictures will be added asap.

There is a very new section for Video that I don't do often but something that when ideas arise I enjoy working on. There is a couple of sound pieces, looking at the idea of rivers being liminal places, transitional places within the landscape.

The fourth video is a collaborative piece that was along with other artwork projected for a joint exhibition at Patriothall Gallery in Edinburgh.

I'm finally updating the website. Taken a while but these things occasionally just do.

There will be more emphasis on my own personal photography and also the handmade books I've been working on over the past few years.

I'll probably also be doing less actual photography as I have such a library of images still to work with. These will be forming the basis of my books and image series.

Of course if anyone still wants me to do some commissioned work then I'll certainly give it due consideration, never say never.

You can find me on twitter these days @57seoras I started doing Twitter but gave it up, then when I had an exhibition last year in Orkney that I needed to publicise started again. If you follow and tune to certain people and organisations etc. that interest you it can be very useful, you can hear about events that you normally wouldn't. Of course you have to ignore or block the rubbish that comes along and I make a point of not following or commenting on anything political. I also tend not to follow other photographers, I get enough images pass my way daily without adding more.

While I haven't disappeared completely I have been occupied with various projects and reworking older projects. One in particular is the series on the remnant orchards of the Carse of Gowrie (Link) combining those images with Boswell and Johnsons text from their Journey to the Western Isles. This is I've worked into a book form.
Their musing are not just about 'orchards' but a wider perspective on the landscape and change.

Link to the Gallery of images

A walk in from the Sma Glen and heading towards Auchnafree. Some snaps.
A good walk with the aim of visiting Clach Na Tiompan chambered cairn with accompanying remnant stone circle (pictured) and a small graveyard. A stunning day (Friday 17 May) in a wonderful glen. No walkers encountered but plenty of road traffic with mostly 4x4's coming and going. There are two main big house/ farm / estate areas; Conichan and further into the glen Auchnafree. A good area to explore further though the walk in (private estate road) can be a bit strenuous.

The corrugated building is lovely though uncertain as to its current use, looks as if it has been a chapel at some stage. The door was open and no one around but didn't seem right to be too nosey.
The roundal or stell is of a relatively recent construction though one stood there previously, there are others in the area though. They can be used to protect the sheep in the winter but also as a general corral. Just above the stell in the same field you can see the two remaining upright stones of a four poster stone circle.

Thats so long since I last added a post, rather than goodbye. I haven't been idle though these past months, I've recently finished a short Arts & Archaeology level 11 module at University of Highlands and Islands from Orkney. Really interesting and a worth while three months. Especially as I spend quite a lot of time these days working with archaeology in one form or another so to combine the two is just perfect. 

Getting into understanding the medium of photography in relation to archaeology has been fascinating and I've still lots of books to read through at a more leisurely pace now. It also relates on my landscape work that is moving in various directions. Still projects to finish and now the course is finished I can get back to looking for a publisher for my Orchards work.

One area I might look at for a future project is the now in ruin upland farms, an extension from my interest in pastoral farming, farming on the edge. These might have slightly more connectivity as some will have only been unoccupied in the past few decades. How quickly they wither.

Not sure of my approach just yet, various options to mull over.

I'm getting a studio built so that will help in producing work, a better more creative work space. Really looking forward to it being finished, roof just going on and base flooring being laid today.

A few images from yesterday at a farm called Rannagulzion below Drumderg wind farm. Images for me to ponder on more than anything.

The war might have ended, an armistice signed but for many the fighting continued.
These are images of a now unknown relative, I'm sure the same person. One image before signing up and the other taken while a resident post war(?) while admitted to Perth sanitorium. His uniform while there was pale blue. The photographer has retouched his side bald patch, evident in the before image and interesting that the hands have been shaded out. His 'thousand yard stare' is evidence of the trauma he has and continues to endure. It was this image that inspired my 'Foresight' series of images.

I've just uploaded a new gallery of images from my 'Foresight' series that was in part exhibited at Patriothall Gallery in Edinburgh last year.

Gallery: HERE

It is of the right eye, the eye that aims via a gun foresight, of soldiers in the Black Watch regiment who fought in the first world war.

A short walk down to the river where I live yesterday revealed that storm Ali had put an end to a much photographed mature beach tree that stood on the edge of a small gorge. How the storm had found the tree amongst so many others is a mystery, some other trees had a few branches snapped off. Such is life.

(right click images and 'open in new tab' to view slightly larger)

Way back in 2017 I made a photograph with the pupils from Crieff secondary school, part of Crieff Strathearn Campus. It had them line along the underlying archaeology of a Cursus (pdf) that crosses a neighbouring field and road then under the Campus. What must have been a spectacular monument at one time. The photograph is at the top of the panel for which it was intended.

The information (and educational) panel is located at the Campus for all to see. The whole project was masterminded by Ian Hamilton and whose perseverance made it happen. Based on archaeology by Dr Kenny Brophy.

The panel was formally launched on 24 May 2018 and got a good spread of publicity. More info HERE (same pics:() 

Three butterflies found in the garden and down by the wood recently. Painted Lady, Tortoiseshell and Comma.

I recently came across an old Christmas card that I sent out in 2002. It was my first encounter with folds (I kept calling them fanks for some time, until I learnt otherwise) associated with shieling grounds, in one of my favourite locations, Glen Taitneach. Though I knew nothing of their purpose, I assumed for sheep, even then could detect a certain resonance. I thought them curious and interesting. I definitely never realised how they would become an area of study and creation many years later.
I did have an interest in archaeology prior to this image, after I moved back to Perthshire from Skye. I sought out stone circles, that I recall making a good set of images from, also a good 'treasure hunt' in the countryside.
That circular enclosed space, how curious. So, Christmas card 2002 and 'the silence falls' 2018. Click on the images and 'view in new tab' to get a slightly larger view.