Fund raising night for Maggies at Malmaison

After being at Deeside Golf Club, Colin was going to Malmaison on Queens Road for a champagne and canapé evening to promote the Maggies appeal. The evening hosted by BBC sports commentator, Rob McLean heard Colin Montgomerie and Colin Welsh (Chairman of the appeal committee)  explain why a Maggies centre is so important for Aberdeen. Click here to see how much their centres can help suffers and their families, and click here for more information on Monty’s Maggie’s appeal.

The committee had kindly invited Sandra and I as guests. When I got my invitation, I noticed that there were 10 raffle prizes of a photograph of Colin with the Ryder cup. I accepted the invitation and emailed asking if they had arranged the photography and offered to do this free of charge, and my offer was accepted. Malmaison Set up a room for the photography and all the prize winners came up and got their photograph taken and they will get a print sent to them. The photograph above is of Colin and Andy Roger, the General Manager of Malmaison in Aberdeen. Malmaison and Andy have been great supporters of the appeal and last year Andy and a team of  Mal staff walked 164 miles covering both the West Highland Way and the Great Glen Way. Click here to read more.
 

Sandra was with me, and took the opportunity to get her photograph with Colin and the Ryder cup.

Click here to see all the prize winners and shots of the famous Ryder Cup.

Colin Montgomerie forum for Deeside junior members

Last Thursday, Colin Montgomeris was back at Deeside Golf Club with the Ryder Cup. He had kindly agreed to have a question and answer session for the junior members at Deeside Golf club. Colin established a relationship with Deeside last year when there was a special tournament at Deeside with Colin to raise funds for the Maggies appeal. Click here to find out about the event and the appeal.

The junior members had some great questions and Colin is very articulate and gave them a great insight into his amazing golfing career. Doug Watson, the club captain, made a very good job of hosting the session and finished up with a rapid fire series of either or questions so all the juniors and members present could find out more about "Colin, the man, as well as the golfer"

After the Q and A session, all the children and a few of the members there lined up to have their photograph taken with Colin and the Ryder Cup. When Lucinda, his assistant saw the number in the queue, she said it would be impossible as he was on a tight schedule but we started and went very quickly and took 64 photographs in well under 10 minutes. Colin was very complementary about how quickly it was done and although I would have liked longer, at least everyone got their photograph taken. I had a background set up which was only big enough for a tight shot of 2 people so Lukas had a lot of Photoshop work to do to "add background" where required. I have already had some very positive comments about the images (see below) which we are selling on-line with 50% of the sales going to the Maggies appeal.

Click here to view all the images.

Good Morning Neil,

The photos from the Colin Montgomery Juniors session at Deeside GC are superb.
……
Would you let me know sizes and prices please? I’ll probably go for standard sizes for all of them apart from the threeshot (NWG2816) which we’d like enlarged – it’s brilliant.

Many thanks, Kirstin

Kirstin Gove, Communications & Media Training Manager
AVC Media Enterprises

Simply Red Swansong

On Sunday night, Sandra and I along with friends Angela and Alister Sinclair and their son Don, went to Edinburgh Castle to see the incredible Mick Hucknall and Simply Red in what is going the their last year of touring.

Although a relatively short performance of just over 90 minutes , Mick played a very upbeat set full of energy, and the huge crowd spent most of the concert on their feet singing along with one of the best voices in the music business.

Sandra and I saw him in Glasgow last year when he played much more ballads and used backing singers which was very different to Sunday night but his voice was as impressive as ever.

We had seats relatively close to the font and using my favourite 70-200VR11 lens on the D3s, it was easy to get some good shots. The 80-400 would have given me more flexibility to get a range of shots as almost everything was taken at 200mm, but at the expense of the f2.8 aperture and the super sharp images of the nano coated VR11. After the concert, we went for a late dinner and I downloaded a few images from the compact flash card to my iPad and had a short slideshow complete with Mick singing to show my fellow diners in 15 minutes. The images on this post were sent from my Ipad so are exactly as they were taken with no adjustments or any enhancement.

Click here to see more images uploaded to gallery. The rest of this post (click on more below) includes a slideshow of images set to Mick singing live.

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Claire and Stephen at Pittodrie House Hotel

The beautiful setting of Pittodrie House was the venue for the wedding of Claire and Stephen. It was a beautiful sunny day but was quite breezy which made it more pleasant for the guests but wind and sun are not a photographer's best friends but at Pittodrie House, it is always possible to get good photographs. Click here to see the formal shots and click here for the informals taken by David.

The service was outside and with Benachie in the background, it is hard to think of a better and more scenic and traditional setting. Quite a lot of the guests were from the Glasgow area and were all captivated by the setting. There is nothing much more "Scottish" than a Piper in front of Benachie and the beautiful setting. Norman Fiddes of Pipe March Ltd. always wears the full highland outfit which looks fantastic.

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Colin Montgomerie at Deeside Golf Club

On Wednesday this week (12th May, 2010), Deeside Golf Club hosted the Colin Montgomerie Ryder Cup celebration. This event was organised to raise money for the Elizabeth Montgomerie Foundation to fund the building of a Maggie’s Caring Centre in Aberdeen. Colin started the foundation in memory of his Mum who died of lung cancer in 1991.

A Maggie’s Centre is a place to turn to for help with any of the problems, small or large, associated with cancer. Click here to see how much their centres can help suffers and their families. Having lost my Dad to cancer at 51 (my age), and having to support my Mum through this, I realise how much a Maggie’s Centre could have helped. I was therefore delighted to provide our services and a photograph for every team member as a contribution to such a good cause. Click here to view the photographs of the golf and here for a few shots taken at the dinner.

Colin gives a clinic at the Deeside golf club driving range

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Tito and Nicole Jackson and Gladys Knight at the AECC, 20th October, 2009

Last night (Tuesday 20th October), Sandra and I went to see Gladys Knight at the AECC. The support act was Tito Jackson. Tito’s set included Blues, Motown, and a tribute to the Jacksons where he enlisted the assistance of 3 great female singers including Nicole Jackson, a cousin of the famous brothers. This opening was so good and entertaining that I was not sure if Gladys could match them.

I should not have worried – from the time she stepped on the stage to the closing number – Midnight Train to Georgia, she was amazing. Her voice is incredible and the audience was in awe of her talent. She was also a great entertainer, and had a superb 19 piece Vegas band backing her. Her brother Merald “Bubba” Knight was a special guest and he joined in a great medley of Motown tracks. She sang all her hits – including Help me make it through the Night, Thats What Friends are For, The Way We Were, and the Bond movie theme – License to Kill. more…

Chancellor Alistair Darling with Catriona McPhee-Smith, Chief Executive of Inspire

Last Friday (16th October), Chancellor Alistair Darling was in Aberdeen and visited Inspire at the Beach Boulevard. We were asked to take photographs but were sworn to secrecy for security reasons. Greig took a series of photographs of the Chancellor while he was there – click here to see the images. These images are for Inspire to use in promotional material and their website.

Inspire is a charity that aims to offer opportunities for an excellent quality of life to people with learning disabilities in North East Scotland. The Chancellor met with the team at Inspire’s new multi-resource centre on the Beach Boulevard, Aberdeen. Included at the new centre is Café Coast, a social enterprise operating under Inspire Ventures Ltd. They provide training and employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities within Café Coast and its partner enterprise, Inspire Conferences.

Click here to visit the Inspire website.

The Chancellor is no stranger to Aberdeen. He was educated in Kircaldy and the private Loretto School in Musselburgh , then attended the University of Aberdeen where he was awarded a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B). He became the head of Aberdeen University Students Union. He entered Parliament at the 1987 General Election in Edinburgh Central defeating the sitting Conservative MP Sir Alexander Fletcher by 2,262 votes, and has remained an MP since.

In June 2007, the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, appointed Darling Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Wikipedia entry for Alistair Darling here.