(Research and Inspiration) Peter Patterson landscape photographer

Research and Inspiration

Scottish Landscape photographer Peter Paterson

I was told there was a very good Scottish Landscape photographer coming to my local camera club here in Burton for a photography seminar. His Name was Peter Patterson and his work and reputation are renown throughout the UK and the world

The event featured some of the countrys' best photographer's. There were four photographer's on the bill and Peter Patterson was second up on the bill. I went along to this seminar hoping I could gain some inspiration and tips on how to create some better landscape photography

Peter's landscape photography was absolutely outstanding and in my opinion 2nd to none.
He has captured most of the very scenic areas of Scotland showing the various seasons through his Landscape images,depicting snow,water,frost,ice etc

Living in the Scottish highlands gives him a distinct advantage over many other photographers having access to some of the worlds most beautiful scenery right on your doorstep.

I met Peter after his lecture and we talked for a while about his photography, he gave me some invaluable information on how to improve my landscape photography and advised me on some of places to places to visit in the highlands

The great Landscape photographer's prefer to use medium format cameras to achieve there best results and a 5X4 medium format camera seems to be the norm.However this photographer used various Nikon full framed cameras with gave incredible image definition and clarity. As you can see from his results above a medium format camera is not absolutely essential

I would say that this photographer had some distinct advantages to produce his photography the same way as the famous photographer Ansel Adams did . They both lived locally to an area of outstanding natural beauty. They could keep returning to the same spot of natural beauty everyday until the correct lighting and weather conditioned were achieved. The weather in both of the areas where they both lived have extremely harsh winters conditions which display an array of beautiful subject matter for the photographer

I can see some similarity in some of Peter's work compared to Ansel Adam's may be this was one of his influences I didn't get time to finish our conversation

I love the shot's peter has produced of the highlands in a hoar frost,something that we very rarely see nowadays living a lot further south than the highlands

I have tried some landscape photography before but never gone in to depth on the subject so this was an ideal chance to learn a little more about the subject

As we all know in photography, It's all about the golden hour or the definitive moment and this applies to landscape photography just the same. So to capture that illusive comp winner lighting has to be crucial which can only be captured at certain times of the day

Shown here is some of Peter's Seascapes

Winter in the highlands

An infrared shot a twist to his normal landscapes

Some of his work was taken in Iceland, he has a fascination of cloud formations which I also posses. These cloud formations are forever changing and creating a different photograph every few seconds. Shown here are some more of Peter's photo's

I have been studying Peter's works over the past couple of weeks and find his work enchanting. He balances composition with light and colour. His subject matter is outstanding and always has a prominent interesting focal point or feature in his photographs. His eye for detail is very sharp, adding form, texture, shape, colour etc which creates a fantastic ambiance in most of his work.


A lot of his work is taken in the Scottish highlands around the Trossachs national park and the Glencoe area. The only chance I would get to emulate this type of photography would be if i lived near to the regions frequented by this photographer

Because I live far away from these beautiful areas of natural beauty I have to take pot look on the weather and lighting conditions being correct when I take a holiday to these places which are not always ideal photographic conditions for the photographer