Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Starbucks Drive-Thru to roll out across the Country

Starbucks Coffee U.K. recently announced its intent to create thousands of new jobs as it significantly steps up its drive-thru program following three years of development and strong customer response to the convenience of Starbucks coffee on-the-go.

The move will see 200 new drive-thru stores opened over the next five years and will establish Starbucks as the market leader in this area. Combined with openings of conventional stores over the same period, the company expects to create 5,000 new jobs.

I was commissioned to travel down to Manchester to shoot press images to accompany the release.

Portrait of the Artist

A £3.5m scheme by social enterprise Wasps Studios has regenerated a Merchant City warehouse as a new arts and creative industries hub for Glasgow.
The groundbreaking South Block studio complex, which will be shared by artists and creative businesses, is predicted to contribute multi-million pound benefits
to the local economy and jobs to an area which has been through tough times.

Some amazing amounts of creativity going on there.

Giant Pandas Arrive at Edinburgh Zoo

Chinese Pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang, the eight-year-old pair of giant pandas, arrived at Edinburgh Zoo yesterday afternoon and will be the first to live in the UK for 17 years. Edinburgh Zoo are hopeful that the pandas will give birth to cubs during their 10 year stay in Scotland.

Hundreds of people lined the streets around the zoo to welcome the pandas to Scotland.

I was commissioned by Weber Shandwick in behalf of Edinburgh Zoo to cover the arrival and was the only photographer to capture the first photograph of the pandas inside their new enclosure.

A selection of UK press coverage can be found here.

Artist in Residence at Stirling Castle

A new art exhibition opened on Friday 2nd December, at Stirling Castle to celebrate the works of Iona Leishman, its first ever artist-in-residence.

The exhibition, ‘Sense of Place’, features around 80 paintings by local artist Iona Leishman and will run until 31st December. Her works range from lush naturalistic impressions of the castle to dreamy washes of colour haunted by ethereal figures, all inspired by the history, iconic landscape and Kings and Queens who lived at the Castle.

It was a real joy to photograph Iona and I was immediately taken with her evocative art work.

The middle photograph is a portrait of Iona reflected in her painting 'Horses at Midnight'.

If you do get the chance to see the exhibition, you won't be disappointed. More info here.