Hi, let me introduce myself.

I’m Douglas Weir and I’m a landscape photographer based in Aberdeen on Scotland’s east coast. I’ve used cameras on and off all my life although I’d never categorised myself as a photographer during any of that time - I guess that means I fell into the same category as most people who can claim to own a camera.

My first memories of cameras were the ones that my parents used, recollections are vague but I suspect they were rangefinder style cameras from the late 70’s. My dad then bought a second hand Nikon SLR which we still have today.  I also remember a succession of compact style cameras that, while still being film, were slowly being automated with exposure settings and auto film winding mechanisms – one that I specifically recall was an Olympus compact that my mum had, one that I would borrow to experiment with (I now realise that it was experimenting, at the time it was messing around with a camera!)

That was the only association I ever had with film cameras beyond the simple point and shoot types that my sister and I would occasionally receive for birthdays. I never learned any dark room techniques – as my parents didn’t develop film for themselves I always thought films were processed in a lab rather than in a home darkroom.

When digital arrived I had numerous compact style cameras and a bridge camera over the years (2002 on) but I clearly remember always wanting one of the early Canon DSLRs – I believe they would have been the 350D - 400D – and, although I was by that point working after University, I could never afford to buy one. Fast forward a decade and finding myself interested in photography once again, I decided to buy a Canon G15 compact. After a bit of experimenting and finding that I was being sucked into photography beyond just purely owning a camera, I sold the G15 and invested in my first DSLR – a Canon 70D.

I’m an engineer by profession; I studied Naval Architecture at university as I always wanted to work with ships and boats. I’ve long had family associations with the sea, whether that’s island life or making a living from it, and I think this is where my interest and fascination of the world’s oceans and the things that float on it comes from.  I’ve been lucky enough in my career so far to have worked around the world and this has given me an appreciation of the country that I grew up in, the place I call home – Scotland.

I now live in Aberdeen with my wife and family, spending my spare time exploring the surrounding countryside with my camera. Scotland has lots to offer and it’s fantastic to be able to spend time outside in such wonderful surroundings. I tend to find myself to drawn to water - whether that’s the north sea on the local coastline, the wild Atlantic beaches of the west coast and Hebrides or the shores of Scotland’s many lochs – where my professional and photography worlds meet.