I was in Perth last weekend capturing the goings-on at the Scottish Youth Film Festival and came away smiling broadly and feeling revitalised. As a photographer at any event my job is to compose images that tell the story, and to do that well I think you really need to tune in to the vibe, listen to the conversations and feel a connection with the audience and the speakers as well as the team running things….but I didn’t expect to get quite so enthralled.

A bit of a dude was CPS. He was responsible for the One o'Clock Gun, and the Time Ball on the Nelson Monument, took some of the earliest photographs in Scotland, produced the world's first ever Stereo Photography book, and pioneeered the use of high altitude astronomy. That's just for starters, and fails to mention his talented wife Jessie.

It felt almost like a film set at times. Throbbing drums, dancing flames and writhing, shrieking, naked painted bodies. The Beltane Fire Festival celebrates the beginning of Summer, and is held on top of Calton Hill in the middle of the city. With its half-built acropolis, and open hillside park, it’s the perfect venue to stage a roving, multi-cheeked moonie at stuffy Edinburgh society. Three hundred (and more) enthusuastic volunteers wearing lovingly prepared costumes, summon the spirits of their ancestors, spark up hundreds of small and large flames, and get down to the serious business of welcoming Summer.