SEPTEMBER 2023 - A day out to ITV This Morning.

ITV This Morning is one of my best clients and a do a lot of location work in Scotland and luckily abroad for them. So as I was going to be in London I gave Will Thomas a shout (he is a PD I do a lot of work with and is the head of features). He said arrive when the show is still going live and he can give me a tour of the studios.

I had a great time meeting new folk and folk I have worked with before and seeing Alan Carr (Chatty Man) on the couch. I met John Torode as I went in the door who had been recording the voice over for our Australia films. He was on good form. Then I met Dr. Scott with Martin Harper in an edit. Will then had to get back to editing and Dom continued my tour.

I bumped into Julia doing the cooking prep for the live cooks and India in production and the head editor, Freddie, Amber, Abby and many more. When the show finished I chatted with Alison and Dermot and got a sneaky picture on the couch.

Marten Harper took me for lunch and then I joined for drinks with a leaving party for a lighting engineer leaving doo who had been there for 7 years so it was a good day to be visiting:)

Alison myself and Dermot on the Couch:)

Will (my tour guide), John Torode and myself:)

SEPTEMBER 2023 - Aerial filming in Tuscany, Italy with GCN

Awesome time as drone pilot out in Tuscany with GCN. A lot less full on than my Swiss trip last month with GCN:)

Had a great time filming a gravel race called Grinduro in the lovely Tuscany area in Italy. Hank was the very enthusiastic presenter and Stefan the equally enthusiastic director. We made a few films here and the main event was filming the race itself which involved driving round and grabbing shots of Hank as we went. Hank also Gopro’d much of the race as we could not follow a lot of it down closed off gravel roads.

The race feel itself was very chilled and fun and we stayed on a campsite by the beach in 33 degree heat each day so it was lovely:)

The start line was pretty hectic with 3 other drones in the air lol. But we managed to work around each other. I used the Mavic 3 pro CINE where I could and the Mini 3 pro in places near people and buildings:) a few pics below….

Final evening Tuscany filming sunset on the beach for a sequence with Hank.

A Tuscan village and church

AUGUST 2023 - Aerial filming in Scotland for Jules and Greg Wild Swimming for BBC

So a large part of my August was taken up as the Drone pilot for this TV show produced by Solus Productions with Tony directing, Jim Producing, Sean as DOP, Colin on sound, Rowen as production, and Kitty and Niamh in trainee positions. It will be released later this year or the start of next year:)

Then Jules (the teacher in Balamorey) and Greg (Victor in Still Game) were our talent who travelled round Scotland filming with different cold water swimmers to find out why they all do it. We were in Fife, Aberfeldy, Kenmore, Aviemore, Loch Ness, Skye, Mull and Iona:)

Was such a brilliant crew and made for a very fun job. Jules and Greg are superb fun too. Plus we all got in swimming in a lot of the places as we went too. A few pictures of some of the BTS.

Aerial Filming the Boat swim day:)

The awesome Solus Productions crew:)

Loch Ness

AUGUST 2023 - House makeover with Banjo Beale and ITV This Morning.

A fun couple of days doing a makeover for the first time. Funny things to film as big rush at the start then steady filming all day then a mad rush of filming the painting etc etc at the end. Good bunch of people here which made for a fun day and Margaret the person who was getting the makeover on the budget of a £100. Is hopefully happy but you’ll need to watch in the autumn to see:)

Callum, Banjo, Rhian and Me out filming the intros at the Kelpies nearby while the work continues in the house.

Before

AUGUST 2023 - Some of my Aerial Filming in the new GCN Doc

The short documentary of the Tour Des Staions Ultimate 1000 that Oli raced in, is out today. Such an amazing effort Oli did cycling this, he had only ever cycled a race up to 380km previously.

Beautifully edited by Stefan Darque who was also directing and main camera, driving was Steve of Elmy Cycles who did a brilliant job staying awake for it. It has turned into a great little film and I believe a longer version is coming. Lots of shots from the air here from myself:) Have a watch in the link below.

AUGUST 2023 - Aerial filming in the Swiss Alps for GCN

This was a pretty fun yet crazy filming job making this documentary. Fun because we were in the Swiss alps and with a great team of people. Stefan as director and first camera, Oli racing his bike, Steve driving the van, James riding the motorbike and myself doing the aerial filming.

The crazy bit was we did a 37 hr shift on day one of the race filming, and driving for Steve then we got about 3 hrs sleep the next night and 3 hrs the following night. (James stuck to his legally insured 10hrs a day driving:) So there really should have been two crews covering this! But GCN does like getting free overtime out of everyone lol! But we just got on with it in a very happy way as we were there and needed to film it and support Oli and everyone. Hopefully it all looks good when it comes out tomorrow on the GCN channel:)

I also got to see the North Face of the Eiger which I’d always wanted to do and Oli got an amazing position in the race for it being his first Ultra race.

The race was the Tour Des Stations 1000 Ultimate. Meaning 40 racers would do 1000 km and climb 26000m in the race! Oil did it in 72 hrs which is incredible! Need to watch it to see how he did:) A few pics of the lovely Swiss alps below.

Some hairpins

The hotel from Goldfinger

The North Face of the Eiger

AUGUST 2023 - Aerial filming for 'Scotlands home of the Year'

Fun day popping round a few houses in the North east of Scotland to get drone shots for Scotlands home of the year. Nice to meet the owners and see these places. One was near my parents house and one was near my house lol.

I had free rain just to be creative with my drone for an hour or so at each location. looking forward to seeing the show:) Unfortunately I can’t show the houses until after.

JULY 2023 - Drone operator on the Fife coastline swimming in the tidal pools.

Lovely job here on the first episode of Jules’ and Greg’s Wild Swim with Solus Productions who I normally shoot the drone on Dana for.

Was a fantastic team here and lovely to see these tidal pools along the Fife coast. Was very pleased that Greg is super sound and so is his wife as I am a big ‘Still Game’ and ‘Chewing the Fat’ fan:)

I was tasked with catching footage of the pair swimming in these tidal pools with others. Also getting some driving shots and shots crossing the queensferry crossing. More to come on the next episodes.

JULY 2023 - Camera operator in Barbados with ITV This Morning

This was a fun trip to get involved with. Possibly the sweatiest filming I’ve ever done but amazing to visit the Caribbean for my first time.

Here Harry the director had written a dating segment and we had 3 different couples out on dates to see how they got on. Laura was presenting and Nigel Francis was on sound and we had India from productions and Freddy as a researcher/helping with cameras there too. A brilliant team and we stayed at the lovely Sandles resort.

We even got a few hours off each day at lunchtime to enjoy a swim and relaxed lunch as we started early and finished late each day. With be on in the Autumn and you can see how the couples got on.

The fabulous film team:)

JULY 2023 - Drone Pilot on Skye and Rona for Ben Fogle Sacred Isles

Great fun working with this team from the central belt with Tern TV. Craig Directing and Seamus MacCrackin as DOP. I was doing the aerial filming as we did several different activities on the Isle of Skye and Rona. the Mavic 3 Pro was put to test as at times it was too windy for my Inspire 2 with X7 Camera. Gusting 45mph on the Quirking and still held a stable image just had to do the landing in the lee of the hill.

I think it comes out in the autumn.

The team on the boat to Rona

JUNE 2023 - Drone pilot Shetland for the final episode of Dana.

Compared to my last time in Shetland we had amazing weather this week here. The Dana team headed to Shetland by boat and plane.

Hamish Directing as usual and first camera, Kenny presenting with Owen alongside, Rich and milky on safety and my self doing the aerial filming. Produced by Solus Productions for BBC ALBA.

We climbed on some spectacular sea cliffs and even did a first accent in one of the UK’s most Northerly spots:)

Kenny leading up an E3 at Esha Ness

Esha Ness Lighthouse

Shetland team

JUNE 2023 - Aerial filming Cairngorms for Dana BBC ALBA

A great few days in the Cairngorm mountains filming with an awesome team with Hamish Directing and camera, Kenny presenting with his mate Jenna and Rich on safety with his wife Gillian doing a bit of portering.

We headed in to climb the scramble up onto Angels Peak after staying in the Garbh Corrie Bothy for the night. Well most of us in tents. then we climbing up Ben Macdui and onto Craggan Coire Etchancan to camp just above it. the team then climbed Talisman and we walked out in pouring rain:) Fortunately the weather stayed reasonable for the rest of the trip but just involved very early starts to avoid the worst of the rain each day.

Angels Peak

Coire Etchachan

JUNE 2023 - Drone pilot in Morayshire for 'This Farming Life' at Thorabella Farm open day near Dallas.

Fun day filming with Nicky and Ollie at Thorabella Farm open day. Hundreds of people turned up to look round the farm and see the animals. Weather was perfect too. I spent most of the day with a ground camera but also several drone flights during the day to see the farm from the air:)

The farm as people start arriving:)

JUNE 2023 - Myself as a drone pilot in the papers for advertising the new National Geographic series 'Europe from Above'

Appeared in a few papers over the weekend to advertise the National Geographic series called Europe from above. I shot a few of the UK parts of it mainly in Scotland with Barra airport, Up Hella Ya in Shetland, an Archeological dig on Holy Island where a few. Great to be involved in this and the second series for me. Below arte a few paper articles and seemingly it ran in around 100 regional papers too. Nice phot of me in the Sun lol.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22629778/brits-never-heard-traditional-events/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12178487/UKs-ancient-traditions-leave-modern-day-Brits-baffled.html

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/uk-news/top-unknown-traditional-uk-events-30193275

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/top-unknown-traditional-uk-events-30193038

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1779034/top-traditional-uk-events-competitions-cheese-rolling

Me and my Inspire 2 drone with the X7 camera that I use to shoot the series.

MAY 2023 - Aerial Filming Cairngorms and Moray with BBC 'This Farming Life'

Great day out doing the spring aerial filming for ‘This Farming Life’. I visited two farms with my Inspire 2 with the prime lenses and cycled through my set of 16 batteries 2.5 times haha. A lot of footage.

The last time filming with these guys was in the autumn and now back for a different weather season. We started up in Dallas at a farm with Water Buffalo, goats, rabbits, bees, pigs and more with Ollie and Nikki filming several Spring shots. Emma and Alison from BBC keeping me right on what they needed out of the day.

Then we headed to Newtonmore with Robert and Jenni to film Alpacas and spring lambs. Great bunch of people and good fun content to create for the program.

In between being a drone pilot getting kissed by an Alpaca, not my type but a nice gesture:)

Drone filming the sheep in Newtonmore and Robert driving to check the lambs:)

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

MAY 2023 - Australia camera and drone filming with ITV 'This Morning'.

What an awesome trip to be lucky enough to be asked to go on. A long trip for work but very worth it. I sorted an online drone licence to use my Mini 3 Pro drone and bought a second one so I had a backup for the trip.

We did a lot on this trip with John Torode doing activities and cooks at different spots in Western Australia. John is a superb presenter to work with on these programs and he had just done two weeks filming with his wife before we arrived.

Our team was Will Thomas directing and using one of my cameras on cooks wor interviews when required. Nigel Francis a brilliant fun sound was doing the sound. Alice was producing the food side of things and Jonah (Johns son) was along to help out. Malta from Western Australia was sorting locations etc on the way. We all got on very well which makes these busy trips so much easier:)

There are many highlights from the trip and the locations and the short films we make will all be very different. Here are a few pics to give you a flavour of what we got up too. The videos will be out in September on ITV This Morning:)

The whale sharks we filmed. Pic by Ash who was doing our underwater filming:)

A cook on a boat a first for me:)

MAY 2023 - Drone showreel show some of my filming work as a drone operator, drone pilot while aerial filming in Scotland during the winter months:)

Had a few days spare so thought I’d edit up a wee drone showreel of the past few winters for you to see. Summer one coming later:)

Drone showreel of aerial filming in Scotland during the winter months:)

'Winter in the Scottish highlands' is a drone showreel from the past winter seasons around Scotland filming.

This was filmed mainly on the Mavic 2 pro DJI Drone and sometimes the DJI Inspire 2 drone with X7 Camera.  All filmed by myself Kirk Watson.  I am a qualified drone pilot, drone operator or aerial cinematographer living in the Scottish Highlands.

Music is from https://www.belugalagoon.com the track is called 'King of the Cold'

Dana on BBC ALBA is available on iplayer (at times) season 3 out in autumn

Roaming in the Wild BBC Scotland is available on iplayer (at times) or Amazon prime

Ephemeral with Guy Robertson, Greg Boswell and Hamish Frost climbing is available at: https://filmfestivalflix.com/product/brit-rock-iv-purchase/#tab-description

Here's the clips if you are wondering where they are taken:)

1: Caledonian pine forest Cairngorms National Park

2: Caledonian pine forest Cairngorms National Park

3: Glen Tilt and yes a fox appeared in my shot which was beautiful

4: River tilt and Atholl Highlander Sandy Ried's car

5: River tilt and Atholl Highlander Sandy Ried's car

6: River tilt and Atholl Highlander Sandy Ried's car

7: River tilt and Atholl Highlander Sandy Ried stood on bridge

8: Glen tilt

9: Red deer at Blair atoll castle

10: Sgùrr nan Gillean, Skye

11: Looking towards Sgurr a' Bhastier, I think:)

12: Coinneach MacFhraing (Kenny Rankin) and Matt Glenn heading up Sgurr nan Gillean, Skye.

13: Coinneach MacFhraing (Kenny Rankin) and Matt Glenn heading up Sgurr nan Gillean, Skye. For TV show Dana

14: Coinneach MacFhraing (Kenny Rankin) and Matt Glenn heading up Sgurr nan Gillean, Skye. For TV show Dana

15: Coinneach MacFhraing (Kenny Rankin) and Matt Glenn heading up Am Basteir, Skye. For TV show Dana

16: Coinneach MacFhraing (Kenny Rankin) and Matt Glenn heading up Am Basteir, Skye. For TV show Dana

17: Coinneach MacFhraing (Kenny Rankin) and Matt Glenn stood on summit of Am Basteir, Skye. For TV show Dana

18: Coinneach MacFhraing (Kenny Rankin) and Matt Glenn stood on the Basteir tooth, Skye. For TV show Dana

19: The Campsies in December at sunrise. For Roaming in the Wild BBC Scotland.

20: Andrew O'Donnell and Mark Taylor rafting the Glazert river. For Roaming in the Wild BBC Scotland.

21: Andrew O'Donnell and Mark Taylor rafting the River Kelvin. For Roaming in the Wild BBC Scotland.

22: Andrew O'Donnell and Mark Taylor rafting the River Kelvin. For Roaming in the Wild BBC Scotland.

23: Guy Robertson and Hamish Frost walk into An Teallach for a new route. For award wining film Ephemeral by Alastair Lee of Posing productions link above to purchase from Britrock film tours.

24: Guy Robertson and Hamish Frost walk into An Teallach for a new route.

25-27: Guy Robertson climbing on An Teallach.

28: View into Loch Avon in the Cairngorms

29: Coire an Lochain, Cairngorms National Park.

30: Coire an t-Sneachda, Cairngorms National Park.

31: Beinn Eighe with Coinneach MacFhraing (Kenny Rankin) and Rori Hawthorn teaser of Dana season 3 on BBC ALBA out in Autumn.

32: Beinn Eighe with Coinneach MacFhraing (Kenny Rankin) and Rori Hawthorn teaser of Dana season 3 on BBC ALBA out in Autumn.

33: Ben Nevis North Face

34: Guy Robertson soloing an ice route on the Ben.

35-37: Greg Boswell on a first ascent of some hanging ice on Ben Nevis.  Hamish Frost and Guy Robertson are below belaying.  Alastair Lee filming from above.  Full film available on link at top, Brit Rock.

38-42:  Cairngorm Plateau with Andrew O'Donnell and Mark Taylor of Beluga Lagoon ski mountaineering and I am in a few shots flying and skiing.  This was the Cairngorms episode of Roaming in the Wild.  Can see on Amazon Prime.

APRIL 2023 - Drone pilot in Orkney and some camera work for Stramash Films Ltd

Great few days filming with Deva Smith from Stramash films as we film with Orbital a company leading the way with tidal power. Super interesting to see what they do. Also very interesting flying my drone from a moving boat that can’t stop for me as it’s towing a 700 ton turbine. usually have the option of getting the boat to slow down or stop completely as I land. deva was catching the drone and did a great job at it as he has done it many times before.

Had to set up NOTAMS with Kirkwall airport for this as the final position was within the FRZ . Lovely being out on a boat round Orkney and it was a great sunny day:)

APRIL 2023 - Drone pilot in Scotland heads to Malta :)

Headed to Malta for a great film job with ITV This Morning. Here we are filming a piece about film locations and Malta has been used for many: Gladiator, Game of Thrones, Troy and many more. Joe for Gavin and Stacey is the presenter here. Such a lovely lady and very good fun to work with. Dom is the director from ITV This Morning and his dad is from Malta who we met along with several other family members hahaha. Handy having a director who knows all the places in Malta and having a Maltese second name helps too:)

Here I was doing the main camera work. Mostly on the Gimbal. I was also doing the sound as budget was tight. Then the drone work on top too.

Was interesting doing the drone permits for here but fortunately I have been registered here for years. Every flight must be authorised by their civil aviation authority so there is a lot of online paperwork to set up a job. But straight forward after you do the first few and get used to the system.

The tourism board helped us lots and sorted our permits and an amazing hotel to stay in. A bit better than normal being the number 1 hotel there:)

Our 5 star hotel ‘The Phoenicia Malta’ such an amazing place and lovely people.

The outdoor pool and the end of a few hundred meters of lovely gardens:)

Our film team with Mario the guide (with encyclopaedic knowledge of the island) Dom in the back and Joe the presenter up front.