January Recap

Reflecting

I couldn’t help myself so I decided I would make a wee edit from the 19th to the 31st encompassing the last part of my January Dawn Days.

Lots of people have asked if I’m sad to stop. I’m not stopping - in the sense that this is something that has become intrinsically part of me.

I’m going to be beavering away in the background working on some exciting projects related to Dawn Days.

I have found fantastic wee team of freelancers to help me achieve some of the goals I want to do for 2021 for Dawn Days and myself. Good pals with three different skill sets. In three different parts of the world

Collaborative work has always been possible online but I guess more than ever we’ve learnt how to deal or should I say develop this during the last year.

Excited to learn from @barrysduncan years of experience and have @millystevenson digitally at my side to help keep things ha ha well me on track and the mighty @honesttoast over in Norway with his immaculate eye for image choice.

Oh and I’ve got a film to share soon with you all.

@nickpumphreyphoto @warbey @gregwdennis @chrismcclean

Music by the dream team that is @barry__jackson @hun.gabornagy the boys have been on fire this Jan We are going to put together a band camp like we did last time so people can buy the tracks and the proceeds will all go to a mental health charity still to be decided. #dawndays #dawndaysofwinter #mentalhealthawareness

Day 31

31st January

Sea & Snow

There is no one that plays the piano like this human. Thanks for this nugget you sent last night. @jen_and_pen

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. I thought I always believed in that saying but I now don’t think I do.

I was reading a book, or should I say listening to Matthew McConaughey’s @officiallymcconaughey Greenlights autobiography. It highlighted a bunch of ways that he lives his life. The one that seems to resonate with me at the moment is this concept of when everything is singing you’re in the pocket. You’re in the flow, you’re trimming, and everything around you is just working. These are the times when it’s good to stop and look around. Don’t stop the flow but just see what you might be missing - a different turning, a different perspective, a friend or family member needing help.

A month of Dawn Days comes to an end. I’m definitely going to take a little break but, unlike last time, I can see myself going in regularly once I get my feet under the table with this next 8 week shoot.

There are so many differences to last May. Not only with myself but the time of the day the sun rises, the angles, the weather and the temperature. One of my favourite bits has been all of the random humans I’ve got to know who float around on their own little programme and who have allowed me to capture their moments and listen to their stories. I forget all your names but not your faces - you know who you are if I have missed you out.

@emilydaisygibb @fold_with_makiko @windmillstump @marjorielotfi @barry__jackson @jotennantphotographs @johnduncanfilmmaker @beingconscious1 @kdownie27 @scottishcakequeen @nickpumphreyphoto @warbey @gregwdennis @chrismcclean @christina.force @hun.gabornagy @millystevenson @visitscotland

Day 30

30th January

Brown soup top with peachy skies

I was chatting with @chrismcclean a couple of weeks ago and we were saying how when you’re standing on the beach the sea can look quite unappealing, brown and mushy on the east coast of Scotland and Northern England. But as soon as you get in you sink down to eye level and everything changes. Been really fun to see Chris he’s just south of me getting in every day as well amazing dedication pal.

I bumped into @susieolzenphotography in the water today and we had a little nerd out about water housings shooting in the water what I do why I do it and how I do it. She caught a little frame of me floating around enjoying the soup.

@nickpumphreyphoto @warbey @gregwdennis #dawndays #dawndaysofwinter I love #billyconnolly

Day 29

29th January

The Swan Song

There’s just something about @juliefowlis voice. Then add the beautiful melodic drone of a blissful harmonium. Totally floats my boat so it does.

I reached out to Julie as I had on the first lockdown and she passed me over a couple of tracks she’d been working on in response to watching my videos.

Every time I pick a track from Julie, it has a very watery vibe she tells me. This one is called the swansong. I don’t speak Gaelic, and I’m pretty bad at reading what music is about. But I do know I’m good at feeling when something resonates with me I literally can’t get out of my head and I’ll listen to it repeatedly.

Thank you so much, Julie.

Day 28

28th January

Sticky moon

The last 48 hours I’ve felt like I’m walking through a big pot of treacle. I got a message from @rachelsermanni saying remember Full Moon. Whether you believe it or not, I find myself more often than not coming up against certain things during that moon cycle. Sometimes merely the fact of remembering that or reminding myself of that helps me to become unstuck. Maybe today’s photos reflect that double self I feel at times trying to move from the past into the present moment.

Team awesome were out again not long now ladies. Three days to go. @emilydaisygibb @fold_with_makiko @windmillstump

#dawndays #dawndaysofwinter @nickpumphreyphoto @gregwdennis @warbey @chrismcclean @aquatech_imagingsolutions

Day 27

27th January

A Morning of exploration in the foggy blue. I’m guessing a lot of people walking along the beach wondering why some guy dressed in a camouflage west suit holding an overpriced Tupperware box with a camera in it was throwing a miniature fluorescent tub. Well if you’re one of those people, this is what I was up to 🥳🤣🤪 #dawndays #dawndaysofwinter #Losttheplot ? @nickpumphreyphoto @warbey @gregwdennis @chrismcclean @lumin.8

Day 26

26th January

I am feeling the love. A beautiful moment of pareidolia today. What is pareidolia you ask? It’s a type of apophenia, which is a more generalised term for seeing patterns in random data. Or in this case, nature.

As the end of month creeps closer and closer, a small part of me is excited to finish this daily practice and another part of me slightly sad. But as I realise last May going out and shoot at dawn is not just something I do once or twice a year it’s a regular practice for me and I’m sure it will be for the foreseeable future. Saying that when Monday morning rolls around, I’ll be starting work on an eight-week project.

Pretty excited to get stuck into something quite different while continuing to nurture this beautiful thing that is Dawn Days along with @nickpumphreyphoto @gregwdennis @warbey and the rest of you that have got involved. I’ll be starting to contact all of you in the coming weeks some exciting things afoot. #dawndays #dawndaysofwinter

Day 25

25th January

Rabbie Burns

Yes - this is the day in Scotland when we celebrate a man called Robert Burns. We fill our bellies full of a tasty meal called Haggis. The lining of a sheep’s stomach stuffed with all sorts of goodness and spices, creamy mashed potatoes and what we call ‘neeps’ aka turnips.

I reached out to my pal @colinmacleodofficial or more correctly gently badgered him for some music to accompany today’s video. Covering a song of Burns called Green Grow The Rashes and putting his own twist music to it. He’s got a dreamy old voice has our Colin Macleod. Enjoy 😊

I found this explanation of the poem on the BBC website by Donny O'Rourke.

“The piece selected for today, one regularly performed at Burns suppers, is a song in praise of women, a statement of besotted admiration sometimes cited by speakers asked to reply to the 'Toast to the Lassies'. Written in September, set in spring 'Green Grow the Rashes', is most often heard in January. Despite the slight note of masculine condescension, Burns seems straightforwardly to be setting out his ardent and respectful love of womankind as an improvement on the male prototype for the species, not merely the 'fairer' sex then, but the superior sex.”

I had not really listened to the lyrics until today but it struck me as I was editing that I have so much admiration for three ladies who swim each morning (independently I might add so as to follow the current rules) for a wonderful cause called @samhscotland . So this is for you and your dedication ladies.

Emily, Makiko and Adrienne are a fundraising trio skin swimming in the sea every day in January to raise money for SAMH (Scottish association for Mental Health)

They have 6 days to go! If anyone would like to support them in their final week, they can donate via the links in their bios and mine. 😘

@windmillstump
@emilydaisygibb
@fold_with_makiko

@aquatech_imagingsolutions

Day 23

23rd January

The ocean that exists inside us all

“Every day is a chance to drop into the ocean that exists inside us. To move within this intelligence is an exquisite dance, where stillness merges with movement and movement is grounded in awareness. A chance to oil, wash and awaken into a new day. Potential to let go of yesterday and dance with the divine. Connection within, enables us to connect; to the other, nature and the cosmos. Big love world…” Stu Lee, @beingconscious1

Stu is a friend, a teacher, a fellow watery soul. He’s some one who’s helped me over the last year and a half to navigate some of the darkest feelings and toughest times of my 40 years on this magnificent spinning ball of water fire called earth 🌎 he does it with love compassion and bags of humour. Nothing but love ❤️💙

This was a test shoot with the new @canonuk R5 I had the pleasure of testing out through my friends @broadscopestudios @ehphotographic @wexphotovideo It’s an unbelievable piece of kit I can definitely see myself migrating to this over the next year. No I will not be shooing 8k and no it did not over heat.

Day 22

Day 20

20th January

Snow, thick fog, but no wind . Almost as silky as yesterday. This morning it’s wobbly bokeh balls of joy a after seeing Captain @warbey Photos from yesterday. @nickpumphreyphoto @chrismcclean @warbey @gregwdennis #dawndays #dawndaysofwinter #smashtaghashtag #Tastydoughnuts #ocean #bluemind #mentalhealthmatters

Day 19

19th January

A silky morning floating about. It was like a mirror not something that happens very often at this time a year. #dawndays #dawndaysofwinter @warbey @nickpumphreyphoto @gregwdennis @chrismcclean #bluemind

Day 18

18th January

One of my favourite moments from this week a sliver of sun and a moon you can imagine someone sitting on with their fishing rod catching stars. Didn’t take many photos this day spent most the time just enjoying lying on my back staring at the stars spinning round and watching the Sun start to crack. No rules just turn up and open my eyes #dawn #dawndays #dawndaysofwinter @nickpumphreyphoto @warbey @gregwdennis

Day 17

17th January

Orange floats and popsicle votes

Quite a hilarious morning I got to the beach @jotennantphotographs appeared just as I was scratching my head trying to work out my camera didn’t work.

Classic overly excited I’ve left the house packed my camera in the housing with no battery wow this is a first.

The Sun is starting to creep up and it’s looking mesmerising. I run back sweating in my wet suit to grab a battery and then back to the beach just in time to Catch the golden light golden light. The morning is topped off with a bacon roll and a coffee and I wonder with producer and director @devasmith . As the first major lockdown ended Deva reached out to me as he had a project to be shot with one of Scotland’s top tidal energy companies @orbitalmarine. To come out of such a long period without work and to be the seal with a camera on that job was pretty fantastic and give me a real vision as to where I want to go within my work. I look forward to sharing some of those films with you when they released.

Till then sit back relax and listen to some classic @barry__jackson soothing synth vibes @aquatech_imagingsolutions #dawndays #dawndaysofwinter @gregwdennis @warbey @nickpumphreyphoto



Day 15

15th January

Half term report

I remember this last May this feeling as the rhythm starts this morning routine a sense of purpose. The pressure to create drops away and the ability to become present comes more naturally

I seem to find myself going to the same spot not moving not wavering, unlike May where I almost obsessively had to be somewhere different along the small beach I call home day after day after day

I guess it's kind of hard to convey in words what I get out of this. In its simplest form, the routine gives me calm. It allows me to create small moments that seem to resonate with people and allow them to take a minute or more to drift away on a platform designed to suck us deeper and deeper and deeper into the echo chambers that our are lives. I'm not here to forage for likes clicks and shares. I honestly just want to do something that could resonate with one person or many and show you how I see the world

Like last time everything is going up on my website, and it's almost ready again and the same on Vimeo so you can leave these platforms. My never-ending love-hate relationship what social media continues but instead of fretting about it, I find joy that I can have that conversation with myself with you whoever you might be and wherever you might be.

Mornings with minus temperatures sky so thick you can't see in front of hand. Every single time I go into the ocean, I see something new. I don't need to but invariably always do.

Yesterday seems like a day so many people struggled was it the weather and a low pressure was it the gravitational pull was it some collective anxiety or is it the stories in our heads as we judge ourselves.

The biggest lesson I learnt last May was each morning I would watch the Sun creep up sometimes for just a moment a little flash of light a little flash of hope but even on those mornings. If I don't see it I always know it's there, it will change a couple of seconds or minutes and a couple of degrees, but it's still there it's always moving. I think I remember that guy Andy from headspace saying in one of those meditations "remember there's always blue sky up there" ace to have my pal @jotennantphotographs in the 🌊#dawndays

Day 13

13th January

It’s all about the little things

We’ve had a little run of gorgeous sunrises. Today’s was mighty Bonnie.

My pal Alex read popped into my mind as I looked through some portraits I shot of her back in the summer. And She also sent me this Moody mellow Basie number. @alex.read__

We exchanged some texts today and then she decided to set up a band camp so that people could buy the track and the money would go to a course by the name of. @tinychanges

So what is tiny changes well in their words “ Tiny Changes is a community of tiny change makers, working together to help young minds feel better.”

It got me thinking how lucky I was to have friends the did tiny little things for me during certain parts of the year in 2020 where I was really struggling with the number of things. A wee text, a fun gif or a message just to let me know your there and if I needed anything, it made me feel a lot less lonely and know I had a support network.

I’m in a good place now and it’s been nice for me to return the favour to some those friends that helped me during this next lockdown Who need it.

The link for the band camp is in my bio if you feel like it no pressure at all just if the fancy takes you.

#bluemind #mentalhealthmatters @gregwdennis @nickpumphreyphoto @warbey