Turning 51

At school, my birthday almost always fell during the October break, allowing me to escape the bumps, thumps to the arm and any other unpleasantness dreamed up by sadistic bullies. As an adult for most of my birthdays, outside of advance education, I was unemployed until I became self employed. The upshot of this is it's been very rare for me to actually have to work on the 25th of October.

A wonderful benefit to all this is on my birthday I'm able to completely let go of feeling I need to be doing something else. It is the only day of the year other than Christmas where all the voices in my head telling me of all the things I need to do, go quiet.

Over the years they have learned that on this day I am not going to work. This is my day, prioritised for me, and not for anyone else.

And I relax.

I genuinely, truly, unwind and lose any feelings of the burdens of responsibility.

It is wonderful.

And so rare.

Also, hitting 51 didn't seem anything like as scary as turning 50. So no big party like last year - just a gentle, relaxed day.

The sun made a rare appearance in the morning. I've been needing a new profile pic for my photography business so I took a shot of myself at the window with the sun behind me.


Needing a pic where I look friendly and approachable

Maggie made up a picnic and then we took Meg with us down to Carrick beach to lob stones into the sea.


Me and Meg on a windy beach

Then it was off to Cream o' Galloway for ice cream.

Later in the afternoon, Meg took me for the best mocha in 100 miles, at one of my favourite places, In House Chocolates.


Meg treats me to a coffee with thick chocolate in it.

My stepdaughter, Holly, came round for dinner, bringing my 4 month old grandson with her.


My grandson with the birthday card he made me (with help from his mum).

And Maggie made my favourite kind of birthday cake - one which is all filling and no cake. This year it was a chocolate biscuit base, with a thick layer of chocolate, smooth peanut butter and mascarpone cheese, topped with an equally thick layer of chocolate ganache.


Basically, a thick chocolate peanut butter cheesecake covered in thick chocolate

I was stuffed to bursting!

The evening was spent replying to birthday wishes on social media, and watching a movie in front of the fire.

It was a really lovely day.

Today, however, I can feel all the tensions of responsibility creeping back in...

The Lost Chronicles of Gallovidia

'We're running a project about the hidden histories of Dumfries and Galloway. This region is full of the most amazing characters! We’re currently focusing our efforts in Northwest Dumfries, and tying it in with things like "Vikings," "Outlander," and "Game of Thrones." Through various talks, hands-on workshops, re-enactments and live action role-playing we’re helping people gain a real interest and pride in their history. And we need you to help us take a photo that will embody what we’re up to!’

As we sat, slurping our hot chocolates at my favourite meeting place, Debz from Sleeping Giants told me about Warrior Training Bootcamp, banquets, and costume making workshops.

I didn’t need the hard sell to come on board.

Back in my early 20s I used to belong to a Dark Ages re-enactments society where we would dress up as Celts, Saxons and Vikings, hit each other with swords and spears, and get blind drunk at banquets. I also have a great love for historic fantasy – from “Lord of The Rings” to “Game of Thrones” to the legends of King Arthur.

Now would be a chance to create a photo in this genre – something I’ve been itching to do for years.

I went along to one of the launch evenings where among other things Fran Halpin, who is essentially the food designer on Game of Thrones, gave a talk. Every time the characters sit down to eat, the tables and food have to be styled to look authentic and in keeping with the place and characters. So the Lannisters would eat off gold plates, while the Boltons would use pewter. And pomegranates wouldn’t be in just anyone’s fruit bowl. It's one of those things that once said is obvious, but until Fran's talk it had never occurred to me there would be so much work involved in something most of us would be unlikely to consciously notice.

I was more excited than ever.

Characters were being created, costumes made and scenarios discussed, and eventually the plan became to shoot a scene with about 10 different people around a table, campaigning, plotting or eyeing each other up.

Originally we decided to do the shoot at Lincluden Abbey – a beautiful ruin in Northwest Dumfries – but the weather was so unreliable over the summer, we realised we needed an indoor setting. The new owners of Buittle Tower near Dalbeattie offered us the use of their vaulted cellar and we were set to go.

I had the most amazing group of people to photograph in a fantastic setting. Now all I had to do was not screw it up.

Anxiety levels rose when I realised the space was a lot smaller than I remembered. During our recce, there had only been 2 or 3 of us in the room, whereas now there were more than a dozen. With the side walls in shot, it was going to be far more difficult to get the interesting lighting I’d planned.

After several different approaches, eventually I settled on a light on the right with a yellow gel, which gave a candlelight cast, with a light on the left with a blue gel to feel like moonlight coming through the narrow window slit. I also placed a flash with an orange gel into the fireplace to look as if there was a glowing fire in there.

Fran was also on set (the helmeted, chain mail soldier on the right) and dressed the table for me, which was wonderful. She has an eye for detail like no other. For example, I love the curl of apple peal you can see hanging off a fruit bowl if you zoom in.



After I felt I had the photo I wanted, I then set about doing a series of individual portraits of the characters in the same setting, but making changes in the table layouts (again Fran was invaluable) and this time having them looking into the camera with attitude.

Here are a few of my favourites, although you can find the full set on my Facebook Photography page here:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/kimayresphotography/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1822209661127063


The Monk


The Bard


The Witch


The Priest

With such a great project and a fun set of photos, it was no surprise that it all ended up heavily featured in Dumfries and Galloway Life magazine.

Not only did they use one of the group images for the cover, but inside the main shot was given a double-page spread, while a few of the individual character portraits were used in the article.









I think this counts as quite possibly one of my favourite shoots of all time!

JD Keys

JD Keys in Castle Douglas is where you get your shoes repaired and keys cut. Unlike the various chain stores supplying this service in the majority of towns and cities, this one is completely independent. The JD is Joe Donohue – it’s his name above the door and his skills and customer service that have built his trusted brand over the past couple of decades.



About 3 years ago, on the run up to Christmas, I had the brilliant idea of offering gift vouchers people could buy to put towards a photo shoot. I was convinced this would bring me in tens of thousands of pounds of extra income.

It didn’t.

In fact, I only ever sold one voucher, and that was to Joe’s wife, Margaret, who bought it as a gift for Joe.

At our original meeting, Margaret and I had chatted about cool ideas, outfits, locations, storylines and the infinite possibilities of a staged narrative photo shoot. However, it turned out this just wasn’t Joe’s style, and it all got put on the back burner.

To be honest, I’d pretty much forgotten all about it but the shoot I did with my old friend Douglas in his shed doing screen-printing earlier this year (see - Handcooked) caught Joe’s attention. A man in his workplace appealed far more than dressing up and being a hero in an epic scene.

And so a couple of Sundays ago, Joe and I met in the shop and did a shoot that embodied the man in his environment.

Here are a couple more of my favourites.





While I do love doing the big epic shoots, it's also lovely to be reminded how much I enjoy the more intimate one-to-one photo sessions too.