New York or Ayr?

I've worked with Martin Bone a few times in my career. He's always been a great photographer and a great friend of mine. So when I heard he was filming a music video I had my doubts, not because I didn't believe he could do it, but because I can sometimes be a bit hesitant of seeing people cross over into new things. Martin is an established photographer and one of the best around, a quick glance through some of his work can show you that. Music video wise I was a bit doubtful, I had watched his video for The Risk and quite enjoyed it, but now he was going to work with Scott Nicol, a musician who has so much energy, I wondered whether it would be possible to capture it on video.

"New York City Summers Day" was a Scott Nicol song that I was not very familiar with, and so I had to go and listen to the song, and get an image of what I imagined the video would be like. That's nothing bad, it's just that if you don't have expectations with these things, then you tend to not be able to give a real opinion.

I saw the preview, I was lucky enough to see a quick preview and during that I instantly had a few negative comments to say. Not in a nasty way, but in a constructive criticism sort of way which myself and Martin spoke about.

So anyway, a couple of weeks pass, and the video launch comes. I sit eagerly at my computer waiting for the link so I could see the finished product. I got the link, I clicked the link, I cranked the headphone volume up and I sat back.

My first though, was that it had that annoying photo at the start of the video, I hate that but do you know what that's a personal opinion.

Lets get past that for a moment and look at the rest, a bouncing crowd in what is clearly Ayrshire's favourite small venue Su Casa, it captures Scott's energy perfectly, the camera angles give it the feel that you're not sitting at home watching this on a screen, but that you're actually there taking part. The outside shots are superbly shot, no flaws in the lighting. It captures you in those first 30 seconds, and any doubts I had about this video are long gone. Cut over to New York city and there's Scott bouncing about Times Square like a playful child with a guitar. The video is tight, it captures everything about the artist that you want to see in a video. I'm going to firmly slap myself in the face and warn myself to never doubt this man again. I didn't watch the video because it was Scott Nicol, I watched it because it was Martin Bone, a man who does so much for the music industry but gets so little recognition. Take a look at the video, take a look at his photographs, take a look at what he puts in and what he gets out. If the time ever comes when he's out of here, making millions, I'm sure a few people will say "oh he used to photograph me, but I never done anything for him" whereas I hope I can still say......"Oh aye, Martin Bone? Aye he's my photographer, has been since the start"