AUGUST 2021 - Aerial filming Glencoe for a National Geographic program

In Glencoe filming ‘Europe from Above’ well the Scottish section which I’ll be doing several pieces on throughout the summer with ‘Windfall Films’ who are making it for National Geographic. I met Brian Wilson here thatching the reconstruction of an old Glencoe house with Mark who was also thatching with him. Brian ha s written a few sea kayak books that I have read. We got badly rained off so I headed home and returned another day the following week and took my two sea kayak books to get signed haha. We ended up with much nicer footage and I will return to see it a further time and see it finished. Few pics below of the house and also shots from around the area I got for the intro to the area.

Thatching going on before the rain

Lovely light for my shots on the Buichaille Etive More:)

AUGUST 2021 - Drone filming trains in Northern Scotland for Great British Railway Journeys on BBC 2

Always exciting filming trains as you never quite know when they will arrive in your shot and the drone only has so long in the air before the batteries change. Much easier near London but in the far North of Scotland they are not quite as frequent so you can’t retry your shot 5 minutes later. Raildar helps but only when you have internet lol. Anyway got some good shots in different spots from Inverness to Helmsdale.

Invershin Bridge and a Castle:)

JULY 2021 - Cameraman Drone pilot on Loch Ness for 'Roaming in the Wild'

Another great week with Andrew and Mark, although not in quite the same weather as the previous week lol. This week was going to be a pedalo along Loch ness but it changed a bit and you’ll need to watch it on BBC player to see what happened or on BBC Scotland if you catch it going out. Great crack again on this trip:)

The pedalo and team

Fort Augustas, the beginning of our journey

JULY 2021 - Filming the Beluga Lagoon Team as Drone pilot and Cameraman and sound on their BBC TV Show. This episode on West Coast of Scotland

I have the pleasure of filming on all 6 episodes of ‘Roaming in the Wild’ Andrew and Marks TV show that is now on prime time 8pm slot on BBC Scotland. Great fun working on these episodes and this one takes us sea kayaking down Loch Sheil from the Harry Potter viaduct down onto the sea and round to Arisaig. We start in the mist and midges and finish in calm 25 degree sunny weather. Was a superb trip and lots of lovely filming. Andrew films all the wildlife in these episodes and often chat between the guys if I am away getting ahead to set up a drone shot or the likes. I look forward to these trips each time.

Sunset on the second night near Eilean Shona

Me and the guys. Carrying all our kit for 5 days in our Sea Kayaks:)

JULY 2021 - Cameraman for ITV competitions in Edinburgh

A few days filming in lovely weather in Edinburgh and Portebello for ITV Competitions. these are for pre recorded pieces to go out on Lorraine and ITV ‘This Morning’. Our presenter was Craig Doyle, super nice guy and used to play for ireland at Rugby. Adam Young directing and Matt Sharp on sound.

The team on the Royal Mile interviewing a Queen:)

Edinburgh from Holyrood Park

JULY 2021 - Isle of Lewis as a drone pilot on Dana

So our final episode of Dana of 6 episodes brings us to the Isle of Lewis for some hiking and climbing. I hadn’t realised the mountains were so big and rocky on Lewis. Had my first trip on an airplane for a few years and made it over to catch the rest of the team, Hamish, Kenny and Rowan on the Island. We filmed and camped and had a lovely time bar the horrendous midges at times!! out in the autumn and on player after.

Kenny packing at camp

JUNE 2021 - Drone pilot Western Isles, Uist and Mingulay. For Scotland from the Air

A great fun few days in slightly challenging weather for Scotland from the Air. A great team and enjoyed flying the DJI Inspire 2 with X7 camera on this shoot with some shots taking off and landing on the boat to Mingulay too, which is always good for keeping you on your toes.

Mingulay is an amazing place with a great feel about it and the Puffin colony was spectacular too.

Drone on Mingulay

JUNE 2021 - Drone pilot and cameraman in Glencoe for BBC ALBA

A couple of great days in Glencoe on our Dana Tv series with the great team from SOLUS Productions. Myself on Drone and long lens again with Hamish on main camera and directing. Kenny starring and Matt along for the ride. Rowan in production with us and Andy Nelson doing Hamish’s safety on the rock route while I scrambled up curved ridge myself on the first day to get good angles for filming the team on Agags groove a V.Diff climb. The following day we filmed some running on the Devils Staircase.

Agags Groove on the Buichaile Etive Mor

JUNE 2021 - Drone filming near Fort William in Glen Nevis and a bit of long lens too.

Back from Rum and after a few days off we start filming another episode of Dana. This time purely rock climbing and in Glen nevis. the sun is out again too and after a midge start they all run away from the sun thankfully. Episode out in the Autumn.

Kenny on Storm in Glen nevis. Picture from the Mavic 2 pro drone

Storm in Glen nevis. Kenny’s climbing partner climbing here.

MAY 2021 - Cameraman and aerial filming on Springwatch

Had a fun few days filming with a lovely crew. Iolo Williams presenting, Ruth directing and Raymond on the long lens. Lots of people involved with this show around the UK and we were at Alladale Nature Reserve in Scotland. Highlight was hearing and seeing the Black Grouse Lek even though it involved getting up at 00:30 and sitting in a cold hide on a mountain for 5 hrs hahaha.

APRIL 2021 - Cameraman and Drone Pilot Tongue Spaceport with BBC Countryfile

My second job filming with Countryfile. A few jobs recently I have ended up doing camera, sound and drone on jobs like this due to the cover restrictions on numbers. Makes for a busy but fun day. Here I was working with Tom Heap who thankfully for me took on the organising and going through the script for me while I just ran around with cameras as we met all the different contributors.

The show was about the possible new spaceport that may get built here and also the other ones around Britain. Was pretty interesting as I actually didn’t know anything about these lol. Tom was great to work with also.

APRIL 2021 - Drone pilot and cameraman in Glasgow for ITV 'This Morning'

Had a fun few days filming with one of my best clients ITV ‘This Morning’. Here we were filming part of a series that tours round Britain looking into top spots for Indian food with Nisha Katona. This episode we were in Glasgow for the birth place of Chicken Tikka Masala and an amazing family run Pakora takeaway caravan. Pheobe directing on the right in photo:)

Totally unrelated but with cover hotels are pretty empty giving them a slight spooky feel. So the corridor in the bottom picture here has a definite ‘The Shining’ vibe about it eeeek!?!

Amazing tasting Pakora here:)

Definitely a bit of ‘The Shining’ vibe here!?!

FEBRUARY 2021 - Filming and aerial filming in the Cairngorms with Beluga Lagoon for a new documentary episode of 'Roaming in the Wild'

Here we headed into the wild with humungous rucksacks to go snow holing for several days in what would be (very lucky for Beluga Lagoon filming) four of the best weather days in the Cairngorms this winter, and there have been a few!!

It took a while getting landowner permissions and general covid go ahead etc so most of the lower snow had gone but luckily there is so much snow up top it didn’t matter.

The guys, Andrew and Mark would dig and live in a snow hole for three nights while I stayed in my tent as they are a shared household (Mark does a good bit of baby sitting in the O’Donnell household). I have to say it was absolutely amazing to be out of my house for longer than a day trip and with zero wind and sun each day life was great.

Here we would document our time up high and even I had to pop in front of the screen as snow holing is not the best activity to do without some guidance as depending on the conditions it can be a bit dangerous. Plus there are avalanches, weather, navigation, route choice etc to add to the winter experience. So luckily being a cameraman and MIC (now called WMCI) (Highest national qualification in summer/winter walking, climbing and mountaineering) and having spent many winters working and training people in the Cairngorms it was useful for this trip.

We got in some lengthy ski tours once we dumped the big bags at our base camp/hole. I leave those stories for when the episode airs though.

A few pics from the trip below.

Andrew returns from a toilet break:)

The snow hole and tent area from the drone:)

FEBRUARY 2021 - BBC Country file, directing filming and aerial filming in the Cairngorms

So in the past I have sold aerial footage to Country file but as yet I hadn’t filmed for them. So was great to get a call to film two segments for them. We got the first one done but the Reindeer still await the snow to return as we just missed the best snow.

So this days filming was with Alice Goodridge who runs a wild swimming company and runs the Scottish winter swimming championships and other things. She also swims everyday of the year. And this day it was -4 and blowing 20mph and the Loch was frozen over.

Usually for TV things there is often a director and sometimes a sound person, and maybe others but with this pandemic the country file team can’t get out of Bristol so are trying to use local folk, where they can, and also small teams. Which they would do camera wise anyway but usually have a director sent. So I did all the parts and had a fun day with Alice and Alistair her husband on Loch Insh. Alice swimming and getting straight in as spin drift blows over her just in a swim suit is pretty impressive. I was even persuaded to get in after a 7hr shoot day with already numb fingers and toes lol. It was very refreshing and I did indeed (as Alice says) feel much more alive after. (Although maybe not so much while in the water, more trying to stay live I think.

Fun when you can film with normal cameras, underwater and from the air. The producer Helen when she got the footage from me and was in the edit suite sent me a text. It started “you are a wonderful man. There are so many wonderful shots”. So good to hear when shooting for a new TV program and even though I have been making films for a while I still get weirdly nervous until things are in the edit suite:)

A few pics below.

JANUARY 2021 - Filming Carol Smillie for ITV

A fun day meeting and filming Carol Smillie and working with Adam from ITV. We were filming for their competitions and were very lucky to get a lovely day for it.

DECEMBER 2020 - Filming with the Great Beluga Lagoon lot for a new episode of Roaming in the wild.

Spent four days with these guys filming and camping in the snow. Different times filming but still great fun. Had to have separate vehicles and tents although tents is easy and gives better sleep. Most of my filming was remote from the guys as they bobbed or swished past on a raft on the Kelvin River:) They filmed themselves in the raft:) A few more episodes to do yet for their BBC series:)

A winter Camp:)

SEPTEMBER 2020 - With the Beluga Lagoon team for a BBC Documentary down at the Borders.

As always great fun working with Andrew and Mark from Beluga Lagoon films as we make another episode of their ‘Roaming in the Wild’ for BBC. This time to the borders and with hiking and stand up boards involved. I was filming them on there journey with camera and drone. Andrew would be getting wildlife shots with his big lenses as we went. Do enjoy this work a lot when you get to take part in the trip (behind the camera) with the team. Carrying camping stuff, stove, tent, sleeping bag, and Camera, tripod, drone and all the batteries makes for a heavy load but good bit of exercise:)

AUGUST 2020 - ITV 'This Morning' with Nigel Havers

Had a few days with Nigel Havers from ‘Chariots of fire’ as we filmed in Edinburgh and St Andrews for a few days. We even gave a wee visit to the Chariots of Fire beach. It was good banter with Nigel and Phoebe (The director/producer). Lots of good stories from Nigel.

I was doing the main camera, sound and drone. Had to fly in a military zone which is always different as need to unlock your drone, get a police incident number and get permission from the RAF and let their air traffic control know when you are flying and when you’re finished:)

Phoebe, Nigel and myself on West Beach St Andrews.

JULY 2020 - ITV 'This Morning' Caledonian Canal

Great week working on the Caledonian Canal. My first ITV job since lockdown so great to be back out there. What a fun crew too, all new to me.

Josie Gibson was the presenter with a great West Country accent, she was great fun. Sam Palmano as the producer/writer who was also great and laughed and looked like Mike Myers:)

Then we had Brian driving the boat and Rachel from Le Boat who were also awesome and great fun. So all and all a great trip. I shot with the GH5 and the Magic drone. Always fun flying from the boat:)