Portfolio Spring 2022, by Colin McLean Photography

front cover: Burrell Collection

Burrell Collection

Zen Beauty and Skin Clinic

Forest harvesting Runciman Murals

Portfolio spring 2022

After a relatively quiet 2020 and 2021, 2022 has had a healthy start, with a number of commissions from a range of sources, both new clients and returning. The range of work has been varied, including gallery interiors, 18th century church murals, a historic building, river catchment management, forest planting and harvesting and, last but by no means least, photographing and filming for a beauty salon.

As well as my usual diet of tripod-mounted stills, this series has also deployed the drone and video.

Contents:

p 4-5 66-68 High Street, Dunbar

6-7 Eddleston Water Catchment

8-9 Burrell Collection

10-11 Zen Beauty and Skin Clinic

12-13 Black Meldon Plantation

14-15 Runciman Murals

16-19 Rewilding

20-21 Forest Harvesting

Do you need photography to promote your business or project? Get in touch for an informal chat.

73 Whitehaugh Park, Peebles EH45 9DB, Scotland 07980 750301

colinmclean100@icloud.com

www.colinmcleanphotography.com

Project 66-68 High Street

Location Dunbar, East Lothian

Client The Ridge SCIO www.the-ridge.org.uk

Dunbar based charity The Ridge is restoring a listed building comprising a shop and upper floors in Dunbar Conservation Area. The ceiling of the shop had been raised in the mid 20th century, at which point access to the upper floors had been cut off, though it seems likely they had not been used for much longer - I found a newspaper from 1906 in the old kitchen.

I was glad I’d had the foresight to purchase a boiler suit the day before the shoot, as the interior was dark and very, very dirty, with more than its fair share of dead pigeons. I worked with a portable LED light panel mounted on a tripod, as was the camera. Addyman Archaeology had explored the building and written a conservation report with Simpson & Brown, and my role was to record the interior before clearance began. The artefacts will be recorded and retained for possible future display in the town.

Project Eddleston Water Catchment

Location North of Peebles

Client Tweed Forum www.tweedforum.org

TheEddleston Water has long been a contributing factor to periodic flooding in Peebles. Partly because the river was straightened out in earlier centuries, first to accommodate the toll road to Edinburgh, and later to accommodate the railway. This canalisation has speeded up the river flow, meaning that in times of heavy rain the water flows very quickly into the Tweed near Peebles town centre.

This ten year project has sought to slow down the flow of the river, by tree planting in the upper reaches of the catchment, peatland restoration to improve the peat’s ability to act as a sponge, soaking up rainwater then releasing it more slowly. The river course has also been re-meandered; also to slow down water flow, and flood ponds have been introduced, for the same reason. All this has had the added benefit of improving the river’s water quality, the environment and habitats.

Project Burrell Collection

Location Glasgow

Client Beck Interiors www.beckinteriors.com

TheBurrell Collection, in Glasgow’s Pollok Park, first opened in 1983. I recall visiting it shortly after with my family and us being very impressed by the “oldest thing we’d ever seen”; a little figure from c2000 BC, if my memory serves me right. When I worked at the Heritage Lottery Fund, I attended early meetings to discuss outline proposals for a major refurbishment of the building, which by then was in poor condition, with the roof leaking in several places. The gallery closed in 2016 and I photographed it just before closure for John McAslan + Partners, the project architects, and again in 2019 during construction - clouds of dust, as I recall.

Beck Interiors were the project fit out company and I had provided images for them of the Museum of Scotland c2016. For the Burrell re-opening on March 29th 2022, Beck commissioned me to provide a set of interior photographs. Beck’s role was a very specific one, and the brief, agreed during a prior walk round, was equally so. They arranged access three days before opening, when just about everything was finally in place and looking great. It was a long and intense day’s shoot, with entertainment provided by Glaswegians peering in through the glass as I worked, and I’m certain it was not me they were looking at or for!

Project Zen Beauty and Skin Clinic

Location Edinburgh

Client Zen Lifestyle www.zen-lifestyle.com

Zen Lifestyle, owners of a multi award-winning beauty salon, needed images and video for a new web site. I should mention right away that my younger daughter has an interest in this company and is the Operations Director.

A Sunday was identified for the shoot, with staff and models all looking their glamorous best. I felt distinctly casual, scruffy even. We walked through shots, moved furniture around, adjusted flowers and lights, and everyone performed impeccably. It was also great fun with a lot of laughter, and a new addition to the CMP portfolio.

Project Black Meldon Plantation

Location NE of Peebles

Client Forest Carbon www.forestcarbon.com

Black Meldon is known locally as a hill to the east of the Meldon Burn, opposite its counterpart, White Meldon. Both hills have a fort on top, but this was not the destination for this shoot, but recent tree planting for a Forest Carbon client. Forest Carbon was established to create woodlands across the UK for carbon capture. It works with landowners and with corporate partners to bring them together for mutual benefit.

In this case the landowner was Wemyss & March Estates. Planting a mix of Scots Pine, Spruce and native broadleaves, this plantation will create a richer and more diverse habitat.

This was one of four projects to be photographed for Forest Carbon, and for which having the drone was a tremendous asset.

Project The Runciman Murals

Location St Patrick’s Church, Edinburgh

Client The Runciman Apse Trust www.runcimanapsetrust.org

I first photographed for the Trust in 2016, taking early shots of the four pendant wall paintings by Alexander Runciman of 1767, when the church was first built. He also painted The Ascension on the hemispherical ceiling of the apse. The church changed hands twice and when the United Secession Church acquired it in 1818, it deemed Runciman’s Ascension mural idolatrous and over-painted it. The four pendants were left alone, but time has soiled them, as seen in the darker areas of the left hand photograph; hence the Trust’s conservation project.

The first stage was the conservation of the two paintings on the left hand side of the apse: Christ and the Woman of Samaria and Elijah. The conservators were working from high-level scaffold platforms and I was commissioned to photograph the work before, during and after conservation.

Project Rewilding

Location The Borders and Dumfries & Galloway

Client Borders Forest Trust (pro bono)

www.bordersforesttrust.org

BFT

is the one charity that I support with my photography. I have been doing so since around 2015 and I became a Trustee in 2020. The Trust owns three main properties: Carrifran; Corehead & the Devil’s Beeftub; and Talla & Gameshope. It has been tempting to only photograph what looks attractive - and I have done plenty of that - but there is a serious recording job to be done, providing photographic evidence of change across the estates, and a record of activities, by staff and by the very many volunteers who have been the mainstay of the Trust’s work.

Photographing BFT’s large estates led me to acquiring a drone. Not only does it allow me to capture these extensive landscapes, but it is also much more efficient - the drone travels a lot faster than I do. I have done so much photography on BFT’s properties that it merits more than just two pages.

Project Woll Plantation

Location by Ashkirk, Scottish Borders

Client Forest Direct www.forestdirectltd.co.uk

Forest Direct provides a range of forestry management services across the South of Scotland and the North of England. The consultancy helps clients devise plans for new woodlands, implement harvesting schemes and manage timber sales. The commission was to photograph harvesting of this plantation, both clear-felling and selective thinning to promote new regeneration. Using the drone among the trees to film the contractors was an interesting experience, but a new challenge is always welcome.

Cowane’s Hospital in historic Stirling