Photos I love: Merchant City, Glasgow, April 2012

It was forecast to be sunshine but on the day I took this, it was overcast.

The day in question, was Chris and Jon's wedding at the Old Fruitmarket at Candleriggs in Glasgow.

The photograph shows the blossoms on the tree, partly obscuring the view of the Ramshorn Theatre. It's not the ideal angle, looking up at the sky. I imagine a lot of people might have pointed the camera down a bit more, and squared off the angles and perspectives. But it's a photo that I liked in my collection.

There's no detail in the sky, but then, when it's overcast with white cloud, there never is.

I think I love this photograph because of all the gentle tones in it. The soft tint of pink in the blossoms, and the soft fawn colour of the Ramshorn Theatre sandstone, coupled with the white cloud. It's a quintessentially natural scene of a Scottish spring time, it is as it is - simple, uncomplicated, clean.

All this in the middle of a city, a bustling, thriving city shaking off the shackles of a mean reputation. I think this shows Glasgow as it really is - not as it's perceived to be through stereotypes and fear.

Springness

Ok, so here's the thing: as much as I love the winter, the thing I really love about it is snuggling down and keeping snug. The downside is that it doesn't really inspire me to do all the things I ought to do with my time. I read a lot, I get ideas, but motivation for going outside isn't one of my strong points when we're down to 5 hours of daylight and actually, its just above freezing outside.

So I am pretty darn happy about springtime being here. I'm not big on summer, but I do like transitional periods of the year, and spring pretty much does that.

This spring, I'm looking forward to a number of exciting portfolio based photoshoots. All on location, and my little head has started ticking away with ideas and things to do. The downside to the photoshoots is the organisation. It's not that I'm useless at organising (sometimes I even surprise myself at what I can produce) it's just that I never really relax about something until the end of the shoot, when it's all done and dusted. That's when I take a chance to reflect and enjoy what's happened.

I enjoy the portfolio shoots for the fact that I have a chance to exercise my skills. The way I see it, there's no point in putting down the camera between paid work. I need to keep doing things, and my portfolio is constantly a live project.

The thing I enjoy about this time of year is how I feel more naturally motivated to do something, probably to do with the clocks and the amount of daylight, and all the lovely fresh smells. This spring in particular is much milder than last year, which is good for making me want to spend a little more time outside.

Hopefully, at least one photoshoot will be complete this time next month, and I'll have something new to show you; the others I'm hoping can be done soon too. I think the big thing is how impatient I get to produce the idea sitting in my head into an image.