JANUARY 2024 - My most viewed film I've made from start to finish to date.

This was fun film to make. I made it with Warren from Casio Watches. He had some ideas and was looking for a drone pilot here in Aviemore but after chatting for 30 minutes on the phone or so he decided that maybe we could make the film together.

So we came up with a storyboard and script. He mainly wrote the words as he knows the watch and will have to speak the words himself. I decided on locations and how we could shoot it and make a story out of an instructional film. Trying to keep the editing interesting and flowing.

Warren then arrived in Aviemore and we started filming the different bits which started with a walk up Sgor Gaoith (1118m) a munro nearby, The weather was nice and cloudy allowing us to film the navigation parts with the watch. But I desperately wanted a view too. It didn’t seem to be happening. Then we reached the top in the cloud doh. We were just starting a sandwich when the cloud started dropping down. Sandwiches stuffed away and a mad rush as we started getting our filming done in one of the most stunning days I’ve ever seen above the cloud in the Cairngorms. We got some great drone shots and speaking to drone shots too. A theme of this film. Means trying to match lines afterwards which is tricky but fortunately Warren repeated the words back exactly to the ground camera mic after. We got our bits and the cloud came back in and was gone. It gave us 30-40mins. I heard from friends who are Mountain and Ski guides that day that they unfortunately never saw a view so we were so lucky!!

The comments on Youtube here about all the crew that must be on the summit behind the camera is hilarious, worth a read lol. It was just me carrying the camera and drone and my winter kit and Warren carrying his winter kit and our lunches:)

We then headed down to film the next bits the day after. We had three locations for the cliff. The top of the cliff was Uath Lochains, the cliff was Farletter crag a couple of miles away and the frozen loch at the bottom of the cliff was Loch Morlich, 6 miles away haha. And yes Warren did actually throw the watch off the cliff from 10m up, a few times. And he had to post that watch to Milan for a high end budget advert (not watched as much as this one lol) straight after our shooting as only two in the world at that time.

Filming the mud fall was interesting only had one go at it and also had to try our best to stop it from looking totally cheesy which it had high potential for! I think we got away with mild cheese lol

The final bit was in front of the fire in my house. Pretty good to have all these varied locations on my doorstep.

Then I went at it editing it together and matching swipe pan edits etc. Then a colour grade and sounds added in and sent over to casio who were very pleased. Its got some nice views too, 1.6 million.

OCTOBER 2023 - Filming with Helly Hanson and Arrochar Mountain rescue

Today was filming a training day with Helly Hanson and AKA presented by Arrochar mountain Rescue team. Was all about breaking down the barriers in the outdoors. It was a fun day meeting all these people. Ed Smith was doing the photography on the day too, always good to work with Ed.

MAY 2023 - Filming with drone and camera in Argyll at the Taynish National Nature Reserve

Fun day filming with Ian Dow. Perfect sunny day filming for Tiny Ark a Dublin based film company who I last filmed several years ago for. The weather was lovely and sunny and had no idea these big Oak (plus many other trees) rain forest exists. They have a proper canopy and ferns growing out of the oak branches like you see in botanical gardens lol.

Had a bunch of large Landscape shots to show the position of the forest in relation to the surrounding mountains and Sea. Then got creative with far more fun shots flying under the canopy through the trees in lovely slow cinematic shots through this cool habitat.

Then we did an interview with Ian with our first midges of the year biting us as we stood still for 30mins. Then a bunch of Close up shots and slo-mo with the GH6 ground camera. A good day exploring and being creative with the forest.

Definitely worth a visit: https://www.nature.scot/enjoying-outdoors/visit-our-nature-reserves/taynish-national-nature-reserve

The canopy from above

Screen grab of forest

October 2022 - Filming the Zip Park at night near Aviemore

Fun night filming the zip park with G2 Outdoor for their new website. Hoping to film it again once there is snow as looks so much better!

Me filming with the GH5s for low light.

JUNE - JULY 2022 - Camera operator and aerial filming around Aviemore for a few days with G2 Outdoors

So continuing filming with G2 Outdoor for their new website. getting out Tubing, Zipping on both self guided and the big guided zip and also their Gorge which lies below the Zips. Was a fun few days always a great fun team at G2 and with good weather for the filming. So busy just now though be a while before I get to editing these together lol.

JUNE 2022 - Drone and Camera Operator and editor for Wolftrax films

Spent a few great days filming with several different people for Wolftrax as put together a few short films for their new website. Below to see:)

JUNE 2022 - Filming with G2 Outdoor for their new webpage

Fun day out today at Falls of Bruar canyon filming Joe, Roy and Jess as they took a group down the gorge 😁. One of many filming to complete.

FEBRUARY 2022 - Cameraman Filming Kayaking for Glenmore Lodge Instructional videos.

A day filming 3 films to make some Kayak rolling films as part of Glenmore lodges youtube channel. A channel which I have made over 100 films for and has several million views.

AUGUST 2021 - DECEMBER 2021 lots of work

So these months just got so busy I just couldn’t fill in my blog or take on anymore work. Which was great. This year became my busiest year yet even though it started slow after covid lockdowns. I think winning a BAFTA for Aerial Cinematography under factual Photography was the reason for this.

As I’ve been busy this year too I’ve decided just to skip the rest of 2021 and try and catch up with 2022 lol.

Heres a few pics from some jobs:)

Glasgow University standing tall:)

JULY 2021 - AERIAL FILMING IN TAIN AT GLENMORANGIE HOUSE

Here i was working with Trenchone Industries Ltd to do the drone work for a Glenmorangie advert up in Tain. Some great fun filming through the warehouse in long shots with lots of action and flying round the copper stills. A little exciting as the compass on the drone didn’t like all the metal.

Combine cutting the barley right next to Glenmorangie House for the whisky

JULY 2021 - Drone operator from a boat at Dundee

A day spent on a corporate film. Here I was flying a drone to catch some aerial shots of pipes which had been brought by tug boat from Norway to Dundee harbour. A fun days flying and fortunately a calm day for filming which makes a change:)

The wee drone today for the boat flying:)

JUNE 2021 - Cameraman in Cairngorms National Park for Cairngorm Youth Action Team

A fun couple of hours grabbing some interviews and a few shots for a bunch of social media shorts. A couple of the videos below

JUNE 2021 - Cameraman and Drone pilot in Edinburgh today for BBC Education

A trip round Edinburgh filming the sites for plates for animations. Bit of Geography/Geology for schools today with volcanic rocks and plugs. Headed a bit further south for other bits of rock formations and Bass Rock. Beautiful sunny day although very windy. The boat I had booked to Bass rock didn’t go, so a return journey needed one day:)

Edinburgh Castle

JUNE 2021 - Gleneagles making a short social media film

A rushed windy day here but fun all the same. Made a short mid summers day film and also filmed a few of the golf club holes and fishing.

The wee drone in the wind

JUNE 2021 - Cameraman in Cairngorms National Park for BBC Education

Been doing a few of these shoots over the summer for BBC education. It is an animated series but I shoot all the plates for it so they can animate over it. Fun shoot and I get a nice walk in the mountains while I do it:)

Loch Avon looking great:)

Taking a still for a walking through shot

DECEMBER 2020 - Industrial filming at Nigg, near Invergordon for Briggs Marine. Some lovely aerial filming.

A fun week seeing how a massive 10km fibre optic cable is taken off a ship and coiled onto a carousel ready to be coiled onto another ship. I was filming drone for aerial shots and ground camera for some more close up shots. Unusually here just filming and handing over the footage to be edited by the in-house media department at the company. Always interesting to see the lives of other people in different industries and the technology going into these things.

An inversion one morning:)

DECEMBER - Inshriach drinks advert released for Christmas

Had great fun making this advert with Walter and Ali. All filmed with Anamorphic lenses apart from the aerial shots. Also lots of lighting fun:) Hit Play to see the film below:)

Starring Ewan MockGregorand the postie.Filmed and edited by Kirk Watson of Perfect View Productions.Original Soundtrack by Alastair Caplin.Written and produc...

NOVEMBER 2020 - Filming a drinks Advert about a gin made in a Cairngorm / Speyside distillery.

A few days filming a Gin advert for Walter at Inshriach. We had some fun here making a drinks advert using the Anamorphic cinema lenses and a drone for our opening aerial scenes.

The natural ingredients all from within the national park look super nice and obviously taste good once made into the Gin.

We had a finishing film scene with the shot below. We were going for a festive vibe without any of the Christmas decorations, and an axe obviously? haha. Have to see the advert once I edit it to find out why that is in there. You can see the still in the the Distillery in the background.

Buy some Inshriach gin here: www.inshriachgin.com

OCTOBER 2020 - Filming tidal turbines and ships at Nigg, near Invergordon

Spent several day filming today turbines and the loading of a ship in Nigg Bay, near Invergordon, north of Inverness. Great to see these turbines being built in Scotland. Time and tide wait for no man, as they say so a guaranteed power source once in position. With Scotland having some amazing tides, probably the fastest and most extensive in Europe then its a good place to have them. this one is heading to Japan and is made by Atlantis (aptly named) and is being shipped using DShip:)

I was working for www.haraldhohenthal.com to get the footage for Harald to put the film together. Handy being close to these docks for this.

Pretty interesting to see how these 200+ tonne items get loaded on and how they balance the ship by pumping water into one side, as they lift on the other side to stop it tipping over.

The ship we were loading with some unrelated legs for wind turbines behind.

Nigg Bay and Invergordon in the background

The ship almost loaded from above

JULY 2020 - The Cairngorms National Park, responsible tourism.

The past week I have been working on a new set of films for The Cairngorms National Park ( https://cairngorms.co.uk ). These have been to welcome people back and also to hopefully in a positive way let people learn a bit about being a responsible visitor to this very special environment.

We have had a spate of irresponsible visitors all over Britain since the escape from lockdown. Basically like never seen before, some people (a small number but greater than I’ve ever seen) are destroying our wild places and I was super happy to get involved in a small way to help tackle this for the good of all of us:)

The Cairngorms National Park is for everyone to enjoy, a place rich in wildlife, culture and vibrant communities. Become part of the #CairngormsTogether comm...