Shifting light, changing skies and sudden vistas

On the 11th June 2014 I received the above message from Alexander McCall Smith. You can perhaps imagine how this affected me.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland. One of my oldest patients helped in the embroidery of one of the panels. I subsequently made this film about visiting the tapestry in Stirling castle with my family:

The Great Tapestry of Scotland [to catch the watcher’s eye]:

Alexander McCall Smith kindly invited me to meet with him and wrote this in my grandfather’s old invoice book for his orchard:

Alexander McCall Smith has imagination alongside a natural sense of fun. McCall Smith’s laughter is infectiously healthy! I met Augustus Basil. This was a day that I will not forget.

The following sentence comes from ‘Chance Developments’ by Alexander McCall Smith (from the signed copy that he kindly gave me):

[‘The future lies in the past’ might be one way of considering my films]

How silly it may be, but I sometimes imagine myself as the Antiquary and often stamp this (in water soluble ink) on places from the “past” that I have visited today. They are generally lost places:

I was born in Edinburgh in 1967. After studying Medicine in Aberdeen I studied Landscape Architecture with the University of Edinburgh gaining distinction in every subject and the Scottish Chapter prize.

Alexander McCall Smith describes Edinburgh in terms of the light. The very light that was  appreciated by James Clerk Maxwell:

“This is a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again.”

Alexander McCall Smith has brought light to so many (quotes from Chance Developments):

Alexander McCall Smith has a most wonderful PA. Thank you Lesley for understanding my wide-eyed self. Edinburgh’s shifting light, changing skies and sudden vistas.

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Short films made for Alexander McCall Smith [please click on each image to play a different film]

Built on the Clyde:

Silver Darlings [original]:

Silver Darlings [black & white]:

We are going to have great fun today [Dandie Dinmont]:

Ninian’s Gift [Friendship itself]:

Talking about light: Alexander McCall Smith: