OCTOBER 2020 - Aerial Filming the Autumn colours from the air with Channel 5

A few days aerial filming on a series called ‘The worlds great rivers’ this one being the Spey. Handy being on my doorstep.

The first day was filming with Dave Craig and Jerry Craig, two local canoeists. Lots of tracking shots from the air. Andy Robbins was directing this and was shooting ground camera. The following day I was off on my own to capture different parts of the river including Spey Bay and many Distilleries. Few pics below.

Craigellachie

Cragganmore Distilery

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

OCTOBER 2020 - Filming for Autumn Watch

A day by myself filming lots of aerial shots to be used in amongst the live broadcast of Autumn watch. I was filming at Tentsmuir near St Andrews. Lovely place and saw a few red squirrels (not while flying just while walking) and some seals far out on the tidal flats.

The wee drone out for some flying, 9 batteries of filming:)

SEPTEMBER 2020 - Western Isles with GCN and some Aerial Filming

Headed off on my fourth job with the Global Cycling Network this summer to film a documentary about the Outer Hebrides and presented by Jenny Graham (fastest women round the world on a bicycle). We were a team of four with Hugh Farrow directing, Jenny presenting, Jason driving the follow truck, setup up specifically for following cyclists. Then myself as 2nd camera and doing the aerial cinematography.

The Islands were amazing and we travelled to 7 different ones and met many locals with interesting stories. Jenny did a great job presenting with her outgoing and very positive approach to life. We started in shorts and t-shirts getting a tan then finished with the horizontal rain trying to give us a skin exfoliation:)

SEPTEMBER 2020 - With the Beluga Lagoon team for a BBC Documentary down at the Borders.

As always great fun working with Andrew and Mark from Beluga Lagoon films as we make another episode of their ‘Roaming in the Wild’ for BBC. This time to the borders and with hiking and stand up boards involved. I was filming them on there journey with camera and drone. Andrew would be getting wildlife shots with his big lenses as we went. Do enjoy this work a lot when you get to take part in the trip (behind the camera) with the team. Carrying camping stuff, stove, tent, sleeping bag, and Camera, tripod, drone and all the batteries makes for a heavy load but good bit of exercise:)

AUGUST 2020 - Recreation of Highland Cyclist Battalion with Mark Beaumont

The second GCN Job (Global cycling network) this summer again working with Stephan as director (morrocomedia). Myself as 2nd camera and Drone extraordinaire:) A fun day in the Kingdom of Fife with these guys and learning about this WW1 military unit. Mark also found a bike from a friend from this era which was great.

AUGUST 2020 - Douglas Roulston Artist Film

Been working with Douglas Roulston ( www.douglasroulston.com ), an artist from Dundee on a film about his art. This has been great fun and we have been around a fair bit. I’ll keep most of it a secret for when we get the film out. Couple of shots below. Little bit of filming in July, August and September. I am shooting it on Anamorphic lenses and aerial shots are just drone camera that will be cropped to match the anamorphic lens:)

Douglas painting on Suilven

Me

Studio filming in Dundee

AUGUST 2020 - Biking in the Cairngorms with GCN

Spent four days drone filming and ground camera while riding an e bike round and over a lot of the Cairngorms over a four day period for a Documentary for GCN (Global Cycling Network). This was pretty full on and my bum had some pretty big bruising from carrying all the kit and doing 70-110 km per day and often over mountains. plus the pair that Stephan (From Morocco media who was directing and 1st camera) and myself had to keep up with weren’t exactly slow, being the two fastest people round the world on a bicycle.

Jenny and Mark

AUGUST 2020 - ITV 'This Morning' with Nigel Havers

Had a few days with Nigel Havers from ‘Chariots of fire’ as we filmed in Edinburgh and St Andrews for a few days. We even gave a wee visit to the Chariots of Fire beach. It was good banter with Nigel and Phoebe (The director/producer). Lots of good stories from Nigel.

I was doing the main camera, sound and drone. Had to fly in a military zone which is always different as need to unlock your drone, get a police incident number and get permission from the RAF and let their air traffic control know when you are flying and when you’re finished:)

Phoebe, Nigel and myself on West Beach St Andrews.

AUGUST 2020 - 3rd episode of 'Don't be like Barry'

The 3rd film of Barry this time tackling doing Jobbies in the wild. Some popular spots are pretty horrible now with poo and toilet paper everywhere, doh. Something that has appeared all over the news of late.

Hoping to still make the next two films which will look at Camping and campfires as we always planned for a 5 episode mini series:) Scott from the Pine Marten bar plays Barry. Hope you enjoy:)

JULY 2020 - ITV 'This Morning' Caledonian Canal

Great week working on the Caledonian Canal. My first ITV job since lockdown so great to be back out there. What a fun crew too, all new to me.

Josie Gibson was the presenter with a great West Country accent, she was great fun. Sam Palmano as the producer/writer who was also great and laughed and looked like Mike Myers:)

Then we had Brian driving the boat and Rachel from Le Boat who were also awesome and great fun. So all and all a great trip. I shot with the GH5 and the Magic drone. Always fun flying from the boat:)

JULY 2020 - 'Don't be like Barry' film series

Well I got a new lens for my camera, an Anamorphic one, Sirui 50mm. Basically wide screen cinema type lens, the cheapest one ever made and it is great. So looking for some test projects, I decided that I should try and help educate the litterers and dirty campers that have emerged since lockdown. Obviously I have been making some official films on responsible travel, but I wanted a bit more edge to it and possible comedy. I think the idea stemmed from some Aussie or kiwi hard hitting adverts I’d seen in the past.

Anyway I wrote a few scripts and then tried to find a person willing to be Barry which took a bit of thought. Scott from the Pine Marten Bar at loch Morlich was keen though after several nights of picking up litter from the beach. 9 bags his first night!

Anyway here are the first two and 3 more to follow:) Hopefully it helps a little, worth trying something anyway. As of today the first one has 92K views on facebook and the 2nd one has 54K. A few less on youtube which is always the way:)

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...

JULY 2020 - Visit Cairngorms welcome back film

Well it seems apt that my first few days of work since the 16th of March on “The Crown” is a promotional film called “ We miss you!! We are preparing to welcome you back” all about welcoming people back to the Cairngorms National Park, where I live:)

The film was organised by www.visitcairngorms.com and I had two days to shoot it and get round 18 businesses spread over the large park. I came up with a script giving each business one line to say from the message Visit Cairngorms had. This would allow me hopefully quicker filming at each place as I wanted some action shots with the drone also. Mark at Visit Cairngorms luckily did all the logistics and timings on a spread sheet so I could just travel round to people who knew I was coming and knew their line:) We wanted to keep the message positive with a brief mention of COVID as everyone gets plenty of the rules through the media and press to educate everyone on the best practices, and it keeps changing depending on where the country is at while fighting it.

Enjoy:)

We can't wait to share the place we are so proud to call home with you again soon. #CairngormsTogether 💜Get planning ➡️ https://www.visitcairngorms.com/ Like...

APRIL 2020 - The Great Mountain Sheep Gather

Tonight at 7pm on BBC 4, Easter Monday. Well there has been no filming or work for 5 weeks now due to the Virus for me. But tonight I have some footage on TV at least. 100 minutes of filming of sheep being gathered in from Englands highest peak. This was an awesome job to be involved in. Perfect for me being a mountain instructor and a drone pilot. 6 drone crews were involved which was what made it so special for me working with so many people and learning bits from everyone at some point.

Normally filming as a drone pilot you are looking for a 10-15 second long shots. But the format of this show by Windfall Films is known as slow television and tries to film things real time with no presenter etc. So we were asked to get as long a shot as possible for each shot. That doesn’t mean hold the same framing for ages. It meant getting a shot framed and filmed and in a nice way move into a re-framing and new shot then do this again and again as long as you can without messing up your framing or flying hahaha. I was using the DJI Inspire 2 with X7 camera on wide angle, solo operator. We all got long shots but I was lucky and got the longest shot of the program that made the cut with 7mins 30seconds in there:)

Can’t wait to do some more jobs like this in the future.

The Shepherd Andrew and a helper and the all important dogs. 4:30am walking up the hill. Man he walks fast even when rolling a cigarette!

MARCH 2020 - Plantlife Scotland film

Had a great time in the summer filming this film for Plantlife Scotland about the plants in the Cairngorms and especially the endangered ones. I love the fact with filmmaking you keep meeting knew people and learning lots about new things. As a Mountain Instructor I know a fair bit about the mountain plants but I learned so much more out with these guys:)

Filmed over three days with my ground cameras, steady cam and drone and then added too with my aerial archive and a few wildlife shots from Beluga Lagoon Films and also some music from Beluga Lagoon Band:)

FEBRUARY 2020 - Albania with a friends film company, Ground Level Up

Headed out filming with Ground Level Up ( www.groundlevelup.com check out their site ) a great film production company from Glasgow. I was lucky that their own drone operators were busy so I got the opportunity to head to a new country for me, Albania. A great country and a beautiful place to film. We had a lot of fun filming here over several days and met some great folk in a remote area of the country.

The Inspire 2 with X7 Camera doing its thing:)

FEBRUARY 2020 - A new drone showreel of places abroad:)

I live in Scotland and film a lot here.  Every so often I head abroad on a job to film in exotic places.  So I thought I should stick together a short montage of some of the work abroad I have been involved with.

We start in Antarctica with some mates climbing while working as a polar guide for British Antarctic Survey.  

Then to Sweden with Flying for Freedom who train injured and wounded service people how to fly microlights and get them to organise expeditions.  This was training for an Antarctic trip.

Next is Sardinia and filming Gino with ITV This Morning.  This was great fun as Gino is a right laugh and we were in the Mediterranean filming haha.  I was filming on the ground as DOP here also as we made a cooking show.

The Lake District next in England filming maybe not as exotic but pretty cool place with 4 other drone crews to capture the sheep being taken in from Scafell pike.  We had some interesting weather here too and took many long shots my longest shot was 14mins.  This was what they wanted for slow television.  Quite interesting keeping a shot continuously visually attractive for that length of time:)

Faroe Islands is next on a job with NHK Japan, we had pretty mixed weather as you'd expect with somewhere further north than Scotland with sea completely surrounding it. Also went to Guernsey and Sark Island in the Channel Islands on the same job which was much sunnier.  Had to fly from Georges boat on Sark as the government had only given us permission to fly over water and not on the island itself.  This made for interesting taking off and hand catching with the Inspire 2 with X7 camera.

Mallorca is next where I filmed with Dickson Minto during a road biking event.  A stunning place to go road cycling and lovely weather:)

South Africa next where I filmed some of Table mountain, a friends wedding out on western Cape (I was just filming for fun not doing a wedding video) then to Clint and Ruth's farm near Durban where I filmed the Lemon harvest and took a bunch of pictures of the fields from the air to see the quality of the orchard.  pretty cool to see what is involved in getting Lemons over to us.

Nepal and the village of Reipe, a very special place and my first time to Asia.  Here I was filming ground and air with Gerry of Thunderdragon fund on a documentary.  I also filmed in Scotland for this same documentary.  Check out https://thunderdragonfund.org for updates on this documentary coming out or to see the first in the trilogy.

Then back to Antarctica one of my favourite places, so features twice.   Here I film a bit with Scott driving the Tucker snow-cat and also climbing a mountain called Stork while we were out recording Snow petrel nests with a scientist in the area.

Hope you enjoy, I certainly loved filming it all:)

JANUARY 2020 - New drone showreel for the start of the year:)

Been a while since I have done a little showreel, as last year was so busy I never got time. But as it’s January I have a bit of time.

So here is a selection of aerial filming from jobs this past year in Scotland:) With Ocean Swift the self built catamaran at the start into kayaking, Kelpies, Springwatch, fly fishing, surf kayaking championships, Cairngorms trees, Devils Pulpit, steam train, Astin Martin, helicopters, VW camper, Cawdor Castle, maze, Kenmore and Beluga Lagoon team in Doug's boat.
Filmed with the DJI Inspire 2 with X7 Camera and the DJI Mavic 2 pro.
Enjoy watching:)

JANUARY 2020 - Thunderdragon kickstarter project hits goal

Gerry and Pia Moffat of the Thunderdragon fund who I worked for in Scotland, Nepal and Bhutan last year started a fundraiser for the 11th step film and it hit its target of $25000 plus a few extra thousand which is great. Now the project and hundreds of hours of footage from myself and a few other DOP’s (Ben Figueiredo and Tyler Allyn) will go into post production to produce a finished film for around easter time, where it has its opening night at a festival near New York.

To follow how the film is going goto: https://thunderdragonfund.org

Trailer for the upcoming film is below, with music from Beluga Lagoon:)