Morag Livingstone

Morag Livingstone is a freelance photojournalist primarily working with young people in the areas of low income, poverty and mental health. Creating, on behalf of not-for-profit and medical organizations, campaign, fundraising and training tools her work has been credited as influencing government policy in Scotland and in the release of political prisoners abroad.

After 14 years in the corporate sector Morag left to complete her Masters Degree in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at London University of the Arts in 2005. Published internationally in over 250 publications including The Guardian, BBC, CNN, IPS Terraviva, Morag is also CEO of Livingstone Media, the award winning production and publishing company which documents and communicates socially responsible actions in the development and corporate sectors.

Morag participated in the December 2008 MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop. She had the following to say about her experience:

Truly the best investment I have made this year. The workshop comprises not just of valuable information on practicalities, improving process efficiency, advanced Final Cut, timesaving techniques but the dedicated MediaStorm team also provides wide ranging in the field guidance, including how to shoot stills and video for multimedia - which is different!

Taking this time out to totally focus on multimedia, discuss and debate topics, receive advice on story structure, themes and totally focusing on bringing myself to the next level has already helped me in my day-to-day life as a freelancer.

Learning from the MediaStorm team, I now truly appreciate the meaning of never accepting anything less than the highest standards either from others or myself. This opportunity is second to none, and I am very happy to have worked with the MediaStorm team, who go above and beyond, even working with us throughout the night, to impart their knowledge and to support us in developing new practical and creative approaches every minute of the Workshop. The workshop pushes your personal boundaries and while challenging at times, it's also a lot of fun!

Livingstone's thoughts 18 months after the workshop:

Every week in the past 18 months I appreciate the value of the MediaStorm advanced multimedia workshop - perhaps because of an editing shortcut Eric showed us, or hearing Brian advising on story structure and standards.

There are many examples, but the main business benefit of this workshop is that it immediately allowed me to become more efficient – and such efficiencies have resulted in our increasing profitability and competitiveness at both Livingstone’s Photos and Nutmeg Communications.

I am less stressed when shooting and editing, not least because the MediaStorm team provided, well, a masterclass in multimedia methodology that included all the processes and technical know how of Final Cut Pro, shooting for the edit and anything multimedia that they could teach, or you could ask, in the timescale.

There is no doubt in my mind that creative and technical abilities took a leap up and, from a business perspective, I still see the course as a great investment, it has paid for itself – not just once, but many times over.