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Duduk and guitar

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Armen Grigoryan, one of Armenia’s contemporary masters of the duduk, has been kind enough to take one of my guitar compositions (recorded a decade ago on Lowden’s one-of-a-kind S25J nylon string jazz guitar) and record a duduk solo over the guitar.

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He has done this with a different ear for the music than most Western European players would use; the duduk does not follow the tune, but floats over the tune with a motif entirely of its own, like two songs being sung together, or a countermelody. The guitar never deviates from a conventional Dm-based theme with a brief excursion to the major (which Armen pushes into the background as it’s the least sympathetic passage to the soulful, plaintive sound of the duduk). The Armenian double-reed woodwind lives in a world of free pitch and expression, as flexible as the human voice or a violin.

– David

 

Facilities and skills

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

If you are looking for editorial or corporate photography in the south of Scotland (including Edinburgh and Glasgow) or northern England, I’m ideally placed and generally able to respond quickly.

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I provide digital files from a digital camera systems ranging from 20 to 61 megapixels with the ability to create 240 megapixel high resolution raw masters, or to deliver small files for social media and web uses. I have a permanent studio for small products, it’s not ideal for personal visitor (portraits) and in any case I’m not a studio portrait person and have always produced environmental portraiture for newspapers, magazines, and corporate uses. I have a full portable flash gear but, again, tend to make little use of it and prefer natural light where possible.

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I’ve been publishing magazines now since 1988 when we moved to Scotland and commissioned photography is an occasional rather than daily thing. Prior to that, I freelanced for publications including the Sunday Times (social-environmental pages and business news), Guardian, New Scientist, Times Educational Supplement, Illustrated London News, Observer, Telegraph, and many national magazines. In the 1980s I owned two studios specialising in catalogue and advertising photography with employed photographers.

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If you are looking for a complete PR/journalism and photographic package, that’s how I started back in 1975 after the strikes of 1974 and the acrimony shown towards an NUJ journalist who dared to take pictures. I left my newspaper and became a freelance editor, designer, writer, map-maker, exhibition builder and anything else I could do to earn money. In 1979 I qualified as a photographer with the IIP, but I was already well enough known for pictures by that time.

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Today, I don’t do much commercial work in semi-retirement but still publish Cameracraft magazine and shoot stock. Most of my photography is ‘internal’ or travel and pictorial/street shooting which probably relates more to the amateur enthusiast than the professional world. But, I’m still around and can still walk into a room, meet someone who’s got one minute to spare, make three exposures and come out with the best news portrait they’ve had. I do not do hammed up PR stunt local newspaper shots, and if you ask me to shoot a grip-and-grin presentation it will be just as boring as it deserves to be. I do like meeting people and making pictures which tell stories.

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You can reach me on mobile 0797 125 0786.

– David