Recording

We're being asked to supply as much 'additional content' for our productions for the webpage as possible. This means taking photos, recording interviews with actors or the writer, etc, etc. The budgets aren't any bigger, of course, nor is more time being allocated to the productions. And not everyone likes taking photos or, for that matter, has a camera that can take high enough quality pictures. So a colleague asked me to take some photos of her leading actors in a drama being recorded in Glasgow today for broadcast on BBC Radio 4 early in the New Year.

"Secure" is written by Audrey Gillan and stars the really brilliant young Scottish actors Sharon Rooney (right) and Jasmine Riggans. Sharon was the lead in Channel 4's My Mad Fat Diary, Jasmine was one of the stars of Ken Loach's film Angel's Share.

I find portrait photography really quite daunting. You only have a short amount of time to get your shots and if they don't turn out then you can't go back and re-do them. Lighting is always a trial (especially in the radio studio itself) and the post processing can take ages. Yikes. The experience gives me new respect for press photographers who have to make a living from this sort of thing. Good fun when it works out, though!