Earlier this summer I did a slightly dangerous thing: I went on eBay “just to look” and somehow came away the owner of a second-hand Sony Alpha 7R V. Sixty-one megapixels of RAW stills, a proper photographer’s camera rather than a film workhorse, and exactly the sort of purchase you justify with phrases like investment and creative growth. Only afterwards did I discover it secretly shoots 8K as well, so if I ever need a third angle for filming a chef flambéing something heroic, I’m covered.

Most of my photos normally come from an iPhone, usually of mountains and clouds that look like Scotland is considering rain again. But this time I fancied doing things properly, though still amateurishly and very much in beginner mode. I often film Beluga Lagoon on stage at many of their concerts and I’m in the middle of making a film from those previous days at the moment, as in Floors Castle youtube concert film and also a documentary on the first year of Beluga Lagoon doing larger concerts so Aviemore, Stirling,Barrowlands, O2 Academy, but back to stills. I asked if I could tag along to their Oban concerts (I’m kind of one of the BL family anyway, or at least a piece of common always there furniture anyway) and try my hand at photography. They were playing the Corran Halls for two nights back-to-back, the first time they’d done that, and Andrew had created a cracking set with a real waterfall on stage and a lighting rig that beautifully backlit all the members of the band.

Jamie Coleman opened the evening in fine style. He even brought along a beautiful old film camera, the sort where you have to remember to wind on the lever after every shot to avoid double exposing an image. I took a handful of frames on that for him, then settled into my main mission: learning how to photograph a band without accidentally inventing new forms of modern art, or in truth, just bad photography by me.

Euan on the fiddle had his own wee spot light so we knew he was there:)

Filming is easy in comparison. You obey the 180-degree shutter rule, double the frame rate, and life stays calm. Photography under concert lights is more like wrestling an octopus made of neon. Different bulbs flickered at different speeds, so I was constantly chasing the shutter up and down trying to avoid those cursed horizontal bands. I fired off around 1,600 RAW images, some glorious, some looking as if the musicians were performing inside a barcode.

The surprise hero of the night was my budget 7Artisans 85mm f1.8. While the fancy cinema lenses sulked at f2.8, the cheaper glass drank in the light and produced the warmest, sharpest shots. I also used Lightroom properly for the first time, discovering that sliders are either magical or a gateway to three hours of “just one more tweak.”

By the end I had a handful of images I was genuinely chuffed with, and it was brilliant handing them to the band so they had something decent for posters, social media, and their dating profiles. There was another local photographer there too, Amanda MacEachen, known on Instagram brilliantly as @fotogramanda. She was great craic and clearly knows her craft inside out. Always nice to meet someone who can talk f-stops without their eyes glazing over.

As for the music, it was classic Beluga Lagoon again: joyful, emotional, inspiring, impossible to classify into a genre, and just amazing as always. Andrew leading the charge on vocals and of course playing several instruments depending on the song, swapping from a small harp thing, which I’m sure has a proper name, to a banjo, maybe a penny whistle, a squeeze box, piano and guitars. Betty adding harmonies and singing, and also keeping the crowd going with amazing dancing, she just exudes positivity on the stage. Gregor tearing about on lead guitar, he’ll be faster soon after he recovers from a hip replacement too. Fingers, or Ian, floating elegantly across the piano keys, looking laid-back as ever and sometimes on the squeeze-box too. Jimmy (Andrews Da on guitar loving every moment. Willie holding the fort on bass, Matt driving the drums and keeping the rhythm, and Euan giving the fiddle a proper workout.

Side of stage was a small village: Blaine the manager doing managerial things, he is a busy man, Craig the accountant basically just watching on and drinking a beer, I suppose not many sums during a performance, very helpful when it comes to things to pack, shift or for a chat:) Paul working hard keeping the sound perfect for everybody, Paul knows his job very well, Andrew’s family obviously there, Lindsay and the kids, sister Jen and Dave and kids, and Mary keeping a watchful mum’s eye on proceedings and a husband’s eye on Jimmy.

Two cracking nights, a few late finishes, plenty of laughs, and the chance to see old friends again. I arrived a nervous pretend-photographer and left with a memory card full of lessons, a new respect for fast lenses, and a reminder that live music in Scotland is a beautiful, slightly bonkers thing.

Below are some of the images that survived the Lightroom adventure. Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them.