Hi Mark,I get the feeling that photography was one of Mr.Bells early occupations and one he probably abandoned.The card back is simply a stamp rather than printed so he was working on a tight buget.
I don't know if there is any connection but a Helen McFarlane,wife of James McFarlane was living in Liff at the time,if this as China says was taken late 1870s,say 1879 she would have been 60.