Seamus Lane, 21, Glenelg FC
We had the photos done in August. It was the back end of summer and quite a nice day. It wasn’t too windy, despite the fact we were by the sea. It was a bit chilly. Luckily that’s not apparent in the photo.
I play for Glenelg and work as the rope man on the Glenelg-Skye ferry during the summer when I’m back home from university in Glasgow. The idea for the calendar was first presented to us by Rab Macaskill, who is the club manager, coach, and player. A few of us were having a meal in the pub and Rab came up to us and asked: “Do you fancy doing this?” Actually it was more like “this is what’s happening”. The local shinty team had done a similar shoot so maybe he took inspiration from them. Our involvement was encouraged to raise some funds for the club and have a laugh. Plus they offered us a pint which was a good incentive.
The photography team explained the idea to a group of us. They said how it was really casual, wasn’t a big deal and we said we’d get involved. I was kind of having second thoughts about it, but my pal Ewen went and did his that night. He walked straight out the pub and had photos done by a boat. Once he’d done it I thought, “Ah well!”. I’ve had my photo taken for the team, and other teams, but this was obviously different setting!
I chatted to the photographers about it and they said they could only do the next day, so I had the shoot done the next morning before I clocked on to work on the ferry. I told them it was in quite a nice setting and that I could lean against the lighthouse.
A couple of customers had turned up early for the first ferry crossing so I had to ask them to stand to one side for a second. Luckily I managed to get it done before the skipper showed up.
The photographers seemed to latch onto the humour of the situation, encouraging me to chuckle and have a good laugh. They provided the props (a football) so I just did what was natural.
I wanted to get it out of the way at nine as I was starting work at half past. My pal who had done it the night before came down and was egging me on but it was all over in five to 10 minutes. I was introduced to the photographer that morning, got it done, got dressed and carried on with my day.
I thought it’d be a bit more awkward standing there between shots, but they just set me up and took five or six photos. I thought it turned out quite well. I’ve not actually seen a full copy of the calendar though, as I’ve not been back home from university.
The whole calendar shoot was very friendly and they made sure I was comfortable with everything. Probably kit on in front of a hostile crowd would be worse than kit off in front of a lense, there’s actual ridicule involved there.
I play for my university team as well and when the word got out, my teammates started joking about doing it down here as well. They also made the usual jokes about I don’t want to see your ‘so and so’.
I think it’s of one of those once in a lifetime things isn’t it? You don’t really get the bug for it. It’s off the bucket list so, no, I probably wouldn’t do it again. I feel like I’ve done my stint.
The calendar is available from www.glenelgteam.com for £10 (plus postage), Waterstones, and from the Glenelg Inn. Proceeds will go to the Glenelg Football Team for kit, travel and transport.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here