Brandon McPhee – Musician

Caithness musician Brandon McPhee is making waves on the Scottish and Country music scene(s) and is an incredibly talented young man. He’s constantly reaching new levels, and has now been signed up by a new agent.
Part of the remit was some new images. To update his look. To appeal to younger audiences I guess. He has also lost a tonne of weight (not an actual tonne y’know) and looks very different to the guy I last photographed a few years ago.

So what better place to photograph the young man than Castletown, where he is from. Where it all began I suppose. The only slight problem being – it was February, and The Beast From The East was due to strike in the next day or two. So it was COLD. However, always look on the bright side and all that – it was a stunning day. Not a cloud in the sky and apart from a Siberian wind, it was pretty much ideal conditions.

I have to say, I have used the Quantum T5d-R flash head for years, probably close to a decade. It is amazing and so reliable when used with the Pocket Wizard Plus 3 units. However….and I can’t believe I am saying this….. I have found a better one. The Godox 360 is a fantastic piece of kit. Well priced, sturdy, and reliable. It really needs to be metered for the best results, but that isn’t a problem as I always use a meter on these shoots.

I used filters as well on these as it was so bright, and I wanted to bring the sky to life. It was so cold there was no time to hang about, so we had to keep things flowing quickly. I tried to capture a music magazine/ album cover type look, the kind of thing which the amazing Andy Earl inspired me with several years ago. Casual, cool, moody, and capturing the personality.

Considering the temperature, I’m really pleased with the range and variety of looks we captured in a short time.

Here are just a small selection of the images.