I’ve started the overhaul. Portfolio / web-photoblog… drop the blog– maybe ‘webjournal’ sounds better. maybe keep the messy combo.

Right, so I don’t know where I’m going but I’ve just deleted the Meta Comment template and starting from scratch. Don’t expect things to work in the coming weeks. Here comes Meta Comment v.4. What do you mean you don’t care.

See you on the other side. Thanks for tuning in, really. Your thoughts are welcome!

The folks who run The Skinny are game. A young crowd turned up to one of the most miserable Saturday’s I’ve spent outside– and to the Skinny’s “Boat Party” on Cruz (Leith’s nice but not homely floating restaurant, nightclub-bar combo) and it was barry. Yes, ‘barry’ is Leith for ‘pretty fekkin’ nice’. An all-day DJ set moving through hip-hop, jazz, soul and a little latin inspired thingy in the middle sums up most of the stuff i nodded along to… an ambitious idea i suppose; keep 400 (I’d say 150 max turned out) punters bouncing along all day and night- but it was a good laugh, and the free drink helped (it lasted… a short time) free BBQ too.

I had a kind of press-pass (involved saying to the door-men “yeah, i’m with the Leither… look there’s the editor across the road- ‘ave a word with him” –the editor promptly disappeared leaving me to wrangle myself in on the basis that I had a big camera and knew the owner of the boat) the orginisers were a pretty good laugh and the uncomfortable early moments of turning up sober to a gig where you know no-one passed quickly. met and had a laugh with the lee, photo editor for the skinny, and some fella named ian who’s an event manager and has an incredibly optimistic take on most things manufactured a waterproof ceiling for the promo girls from Kopparberg who stood in the pouring rain handing out free pear-cider.

There were pirates. Dead of course, and they did some stuff with fire which was nice, made for an interesting photo set; dj’s, rain and fire. On a boat, in Leith. Went home early after a great campari-esque cocktail, which I helped Esmeralda (possibly not her real name) the Cruz’s newest foxiest barmaid, invent. Doug showed up and we had a few drinks in an old man pub across the street where I complained about the mad-house we’d just left with the locals “aye, i said calm down ya loon– t’won of these pirate lads”. bloody pirates, eh.

So. this is my new attempt at keeping you a’breast. I’m no William Rennie but i really should start drafting these or taking this psudo-journalistic spree seriously, just a little. First stop: English for beginners. Stay with me! Photos are with The Leither- if you’ve found yourself here via my scribbled notes whoever you may be.

recently i helped out on the photography side of things for the Leither magazine. in this month’s issue you can see my snaps from the Leith Festival, a traditional / eclectic week of music, dance, arts and culture with its heart and soul in the east of edinburgh. photos here. felt like a successful event– the free food and drink resulting in what felt like longest hangover of my life was very much worth while. incredible group of passionate well-meaning folk running the festival which can only grow and grow. and i’m sticking around to see what happens, that week and the characters i encountered confirmed that leith is the place where i want to be, i’m staying-put in my current flat even planning a trip to ikea too. how sad.

So, the photos from Leith Festival are here and i’ve changed my email address too, add @gmail.com to callumalden. If you fancy any of those shots contact me or The Leither Magazine.