Those who follow the Islay Natural History Trust blog have probably noticed some outstanding photography lately by the hand of Niall Colthart. The first pictures were published in December 2011 and they immediately caught my eye, especially the ones of Soldiers Rock were quite impressive and so were the later night photographs which reminded me of James Deane. Curious as I am I sent Niall an email to ask his permission to publish a few pics here on my blog and to find out more about him:

Niall: "I have lived in Port Ellen all my life and have worked in the Airport Fire Service at Islay Airport for the last sixteen years. I have always been a keen hill walker and in the last few years have combined this love of the out doors with my favourite pass time of fly fishing reqularly fishing hill lochs that don't see another fisherman from one year to the next.

"I started last year to take a point and shoot camera into the hills to photograph my catches as I release all of my fish, by way of proof that I was actually catching anything. With the camera in the bag I found that I was taking more pictures of my surroundings than I was of the fish and it snowballed from there. I bought an SLR in November and have been mucking about with that since then trying to learn how it works and trying to keep it on the manual settings as much as possible. I have been very lucky that local photographer James Deane has been offering me advice and tips any time I get stuck which has been invaluable."

Laphroaig Distillery at night

I would like to include a link to Niall's website but he doesn't have one at the moment although I hope that it will change soon. So for now I'll have to send you to his Facebook profile and you can connect with Niall there. I look forward to seeing much more of his work soon. The first image in this post is taken in Port Ellen and shows the war memorial.

Tag: niall colthart james deane photography