Peter has been a freelance nature and conservation photographer since 2000 and is a founding director of The Wild Media Foundation, the Social Enterprise behind projects such as Tooth & Claw, Highland Tiger and 2020VISION. He was a co-founder and Business Director of the pan-European photography initiative Wild Wonders of Europe and in 2015 he founded SCOTLAND:The Big Picture. As part of a dedicated team, he produces compelling visual media that amplifies the case for a wilder Scotland.

He’s never considered himself a proper photographer, not really. Now don’t get him wrong, he loves working in wild places and he loves close encounters with wild animals, but photography itself - all the geeky stuff – it leaves him a bit cold. What he’s really passionate about is what photography can do. And what it can do is make you think and make you feel. It's that potential for informing and inspiring people about the role of wild nature in our lives, through visual storytelling, that gets him out of bed in the morning.

He lives in the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands. A friend once told him: Work hard. Have fun. Do good. He tries to do all three.

Here’s a link to Peter’s website: https://www.petercairnsphotography.com/Home .

Dougie is the author of the book “Photographing Scotland” (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0992905176/ref=pe_3187911_185740111_TE_item_... ) which is a guide to photography across the breadth of Scotland. He is a renowned landscape photographer but can turn his hand to virtually any kind of photography including weddings and commercial work. He contributes regularly to the likes of The Great Outdoors Magazine and had a total of five covers for them last year including a bookazine on Scottish Walking. He believes that at a fundamental level photography is about storytelling and each discipline brings him a new set of skills that he can draw from on any given job.

Here’s a link to Dougie’s website: https://www.leadinglines.net/ .

Here is the plan for this year’s LCC Buddy Scheme.

Members who wished to participate put their name forward agreeing where they want support from another member or to support another user. From this a list of ‘Buddies’ was drawn at random. The pairs then work together as and when they could over the winter months, the subject matter and the skills exchange completely at their discretion. The purpose being to pass on skills, assistance or advice and to offer a more in-depth welcome to the club and foster some positive relationships.

The output will be that each pair will produce a set of four images (2 from each in the pair) that will evidence their personal journeys and skills exchange. Billy Stuart (who set up the Buddy Scheme) and our Competitions Secretary, Jim Flynn, will judge these sets of images. There will be a small prize for the set Jim and Billy think is the best.

Some of the pairs will be invited to give a short presentation on how they found their experience. Submission date for the competition will be 25 February and results presented on 11 March.