Living, Working & Exploring in the Heart of Argyll
Marc Pickering
Landscape Photographer & Works Supervisor with Forestry and Land Scotland.
HOATA: Your passion for photography shines through your work, but it’s not your ‘day job’, what do you do for a living?
MP: No photography isn’t my full time job, I want to keep my love for it by not relying on it for income, so my day to day job is as a works supervisor for Forestry and Land Scotland! It’s the ideal job for me as I get to spend my days working in the forests and landscapes of Argyll.
HOATA: You obviously love the outdoors, has that always been the case? What’s the best thing that you’ve seen in the Heart of Argyll.
MP: Yes I’ve always loved the outdoors! I grew up on the east coast until I was 10, most of my time was spent playing on the beaches, walking along the cliffs or fishing with my dad and uncle! Moving to the west coast and Argyll meant even more time spent outdoors, cycling and hill walking! I’m lucky through my forestry work to have seen some amazing things, notably climbing to osprey and eagle nests, which is just an amazing experience! [NB: Marc is qualified to do this with FLS]
On one occasion I was lucky enough to get this amazing scene from a hill above Loch Awe looking north! We have some incredible scenery here, but no two days are ever the same and as a landscape photographer, it’s what helps to keep the passion for photography alive
I think the best things I have ever seen in the Heart of Argyll, apart from the northern lights, has to be either a stunning cloud inversion over Loch Awe or my first time photographing a barn owl hunting!
A lot of my photography trips involve very early starts, 3am at times to get to the top of a hill before sunrise!
