This turned out to be a super long one with loads of images! Sorry (not sorry) ;)
Somewhere around 4/5 years ago a photographer based in Scotland got in touch and we very briefly discussed shooting together, for one reason or another it never quite got arranged before I took a 2 year break. When I returned, it just so happened that we started speaking again and this time I actually started planning and gauging interest. Originally I thought if I could find 3 people that wanted to shoot with me whilst I was there it would be worth doing a mini tour - after contacting a few people and putting out castings I soon had around 20+ people come back to me all wanting to shoot which really surprised me and made me start to plan things properly! Of course you just can't suit everyone so once I got dates and locations a bit more organised the number dropped but I still found myself busy with 2 or 3 shoots most days for the 8 day tour!
I went through a bit of a roller coaster of emotions during the planning stages, it was certainly the biggest tour I had ever planned with the most travelling involved which required a lot of time on google maps trying to figure out how to get from one place to the next and where to stay each night etc. Emails pinging back and forth every waking moment over several weeks/months meant emotions went from excited to massively stressed and everything in between on a very regular basis!
Something most people didn't know was that the last time I was in Scotland was actually for the funeral of my partner a few years ago. I hadn't been to Scotland since and was really worried i'd spend the whole week in tears but I convinced myself that if I could make it a fun and creative trip I'd possibly consider going back again in future and maybe it would help close that chapter of my life.
After all the planning and a few cancellations (as expected when trying to organise so many people you've never met) I finally found myself on the only northbound train heading for Aberdeen (all other trains that day got cancelled so there were 5 train loads of people all crammed onto one train - it most certainly wasn't my favourite experience of the trip!) The first weekend was spent staying and shooting with Howard (PhotoClassic) - more about this can be read *here* in my previous post. I also modelled for Howard's "introduction to Art Nude" Workshop followed by a Model day at Studio Dee on the Sunday. The studio day was a lot of fun and I worked with a whole variety of photographers, especially on the workshop! Thankfully everyone that attended was absolutely lovely and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend anyone I worked with that day!
A few of the results of the workshop/day can be seen here (full references can be seen on each person's Purpleport page - I've linked them through for ease!):
Donald Sutherland - Donald has also uploaded loads of the images he took to Purpleport which can be seen *here* or *here*
Rick was kind enough to attend both the workshop and book a few hours on my model day separately too! He was super easy to work with and made the whole time very enjoyable, though I was rather mean and made him work right through despite his supposed lack of ideas towards the end (a cup of tea and me leaping around with loads of ideas seemed to help - or at least i'd bullied him into continuing to shoot) :P Either way, I think he got some great shots! (click to enlarge the images)
Roy is the studio owner for studio-dee and he's also been uploading loads of images to purpleport on both his personal account and his studio account! Roy booked some time with me on the model day and here are just a few of the results (more of these to come!)
All in all it turned out to be a very productive day and a wonderful start to my tour!
From here I shot again in Aberdeen (on a different beach) with CSD - this will come as a separate post at a later date! And then had a guided tour/drive down to Dundee! I shot with Gary on yet another beach in the evening before a lovely evening stop off at Derek's!
A little travel blog style picture catch up (i.e. behind the scenes selfies slideshow) of the journey so far:
On Tuesday I then headed over to Leuchars to shoot with Simon and then to Dunfermline to shoot with Marcus and his partner! A busy few days but an evening of good company, tasty food and an open fire certainly relaxed me ready for a full day with Brian & Derek (full post to come!)
From here I spent the last few days in Edinburgh working with more wonderful and creative people including Here's Jonny (photograph to the right)
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who also showed me the castle - we very nearly caught the gun firing on video as we sat in the rain to watch it but somehow both missed it! I think this was the only shoot where it rained so hard there was just no way of shooting outside as planned but thankfully we had a back up plan and managed to use a near-by studio!
So, after a very stressful few months of organising, the actual tour flowed so much better than I ever could have hoped! All that pre-arranging paid off and it was such an enjoyable week! I met so many amazing, creative and inspiring people that what I thought would be a one off tour certainly isn't going to stay that way!!
In fact it was so successful that i'm already planning my second Scottish tour next year! I've had several people already show their interest so if you'd like to catch me whilst i'm around next July (exact dates TBC) do drop me an email and i'll add you to my list: MissScarlotRose@hotmail.com
Finally, (because there are clearly not enough images in this post already) here are the rest of the behind the scenes/travel pictures!
