Justin Laidlaw Photography

Justin Laidlaw Photography An amateur photography page focused on capturing nature at its best, based in Edinburgh. Justin x

Hi there my name is Justin Laidlaw and I am a 25-year-old amateur photographer from Edinburgh so thanks for looking at my website. I got my first camera when I was 20 years old but it has only been in the last couple of years that I have become seriously obsessed with photography. I now find myself often daydreaming about photography, whether that is about me being out in nature trying to capture

a once-in-a-lifetime sunset or taking a portrait of someone and showing them how beautiful they are. As a young child, the outdoors always held a fascination for me - I was naturally drawn to BBC’s wildlife documentaries and also Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy - between both of these I started to fall in love with all of the different landscapes the world has to offer and this is what initially inspired me to start taking photographs. I spent a couple of years trying to capture landscape images that emulated the photographers I was inspired by but the photographs were nothing more than just snapshots on an iPhone and I slowly began to realise that, for me, they weren’t quite what I wanted to capture. After many hours of research and debate, I finally bought a camera and had so much fun going around taking photographs of anything I came across which I felt was beautiful. Four years later I have now gone through six cameras and several thousand images to get to where I am today. In terms of photographers, I am still an amateur but I would definitely call myself an enthusiast. I have a number of goals for my photography and a number of projects I am looking to start working on to continue to improve as a photographer so, if you can, follow me on social media and you can be part of my journey! Just to let you know that I also make occasional photography contributions to the Beautiful Edinburgh page on Facebook so please check out their page as well if you have the time. It may be the fact that I have Asperger Syndrome but I really enjoy explaining things to people so please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments, or suggestions.

Hello everyone, it has been a while!For my 30th I got myself a new lens, I have not had a zoom lens for a few years now ...
17/03/2026

Hello everyone, it has been a while!

For my 30th I got myself a new lens, I have not had a zoom lens for a few years now and have added a decent one to my bag, it is quite adaptable to all the styles of photography I want to use it for which is why I purchased it. I have not mentioned the house move as it had been put off, but I should be moving in a month if everything goes well and will be documenting the wildlife that is there going forward, as the property has some woodland, beehives and even deer that rest in the lower field at the far end of the property boundary so I should have some decent variety to show.

This will not be a complete shift in my photography, I am still very much focused on getting into the highlands and taking landscapes, but when I am stuck at home, I'll be able to do more photography on my doorstep. So you may see some more wildlife images from me going forward!

Chat soon xo

Follow my work:
https://justinlaidlaw.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/Justinlaidlawphotographer/
https://www.instagram.com/justin_laidlaw96/

Sorry for the lack of communication recently, I haven’t been able to get out much, I think I’ll get out at some point th...
03/03/2026

Sorry for the lack of communication recently, I haven’t been able to get out much, I think I’ll get out at some point this weekend for some photography. I just wanted to let you know it’s my birthday today… and I am no longer in my twenties. I’m a 30 year old now 😅

Polariser on vs Polariser off. One of the standard bits of landscape photographers kit is the polariser filter, it does ...
22/02/2026

Polariser on vs Polariser off.

One of the standard bits of landscape photographers kit is the polariser filter, it does quite a few things but the main thing it does is cuts out any reflections in an image and this can have a dramatic effect as you can see with these images, I have literally copied and pasted the edits from one image to the other image, the only change is the polariser filter at neutral and full effect, a twist of the wrist and it adds options for shots. This was taken at Glencoe Lochan, a branch of a spruce or fir tree frozen in the loch, I think I prefer the top image, but the patterns in the ice in the bottom image are nice too.

Which do you prefer?

This will be the last of the frozen lochan images for a while, back to the standard landscapes soon.

Follow my work:
https://justinlaidlaw.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/Justinlaidlawphotographer/
https://www.instagram.com/justin_laidlaw96/

Good evening everyone, I hope the start of the week has treated you well.Last Saturday, my third stop was to visit the v...
18/02/2026

Good evening everyone, I hope the start of the week has treated you well.

Last Saturday, my third stop was to visit the very famous Glencoe Lochan, a spectacular bit of scenery that's very accessible for most folk, this was my second visit to the location and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the lochan had frozen over completely as you can see in the first image. The second image is probably my favourite image taken on the day, it is a very unique image compared to the rest of my portfolio of images. I should have stayed longer and looked for more interesting scenes by the frozen lochan, I do have a couple more images from it that I will post here at a later date though!

Follow my work:
https://justinlaidlaw.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/Justinlaidlawphotographer/
https://www.instagram.com/justin_laidlaw96/

Good evening all, I hope you are doing well! Yesterday I had a complete day of Landscape photography. My first ever sunr...
15/02/2026

Good evening all, I hope you are doing well!

Yesterday I had a complete day of Landscape photography. My first ever sunrise to sunset of being out on location driving to and from places all over the west highlands, so far I have had micro adventures, going out for a sunrise here, or a sunset there etc. I have to say it was good in the morning and so-so in the afternoon.

I am in a phase of trying to improve my health and fitness, aiming to run three times a week, walking 20,000 steps a day on the days I am not running, intermittent fasting between 14-20 hours a day depending on the day. It just so happens Friday evening I hit my target of 20,000 steps and went for a run, I got to bed at around midnight and had to get up for 04:30am, to start the journey to get to Glencoe for sunrise, so my first big day out doing landscape photography I have to admit I was exhausted throughout the day.

I slept for 11 hours and still feel tired! I was supposed to go out today as well, but I've decided to stay home, hopefully this transitional period of exhausting from increasing my physical activity will subside soon.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the upcoming images and have a great week, chat soon!
xo

Follow my work:
https://justinlaidlaw.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/Justinlaidlawphotographer/
https://www.instagram.com/justin_laidlaw96/

14/02/2026

This is the most “Scottish” video I have ever created. It’s got Castles, it’s got Dreich weather, and it’s got buckfast.

This morning was a weird one. I had planned what I was going to photograph, what I was going to video, how I was going t...
08/02/2026

This morning was a weird one. I had planned what I was going to photograph, what I was going to video, how I was going to narrate during the video recording, only to realise the microphone wasn't switched on and everything turned out different from what the forecast told me.

My pre-conceived ideas for this morning were shattered once I turned up on location, I thought it was going to be moody which it was, I thought the sea was going to be calm, it was not. I thought the sun wasn't going to make an appearance, and it did!

A couple lessons to myself going forward, firstly, keep an open mind and be prepared for anything once you turn up on location, secondly, make sure the microphone is turned on before yapping to the camera for twenty minutes of footage which could have been used for reels 🤪

Have a good week everyone, stay safe, sane and healthy.

Follow my work:
https://justinlaidlaw.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/Justinlaidlawphotographer/
https://www.instagram.com/justin_laidlaw96/

Happy Friday everyone the weekend is finally here and I hope you are doing well. I do not know if you have seen these im...
06/02/2026

Happy Friday everyone the weekend is finally here and I hope you are doing well.

I do not know if you have seen these images. Last weekend I went out for a morning, scouting for future locations as the weather was terrible. I took some images and I took some video, I did post two reels on this page and Instagram and although it didn't do to well engagement wise, it did really well on views and being shown to non followers. I am not sure if that is something you are interested in hearing about, but I will be doing more video and posting it here and on Instagram going forward.

The locations were Loch Rusky and a waterfall near Aberfoyle. I liked both locations and will be back to explore them again, especially the woods around Aberfoyle for Autumn time later this year. I should be out again this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday morning, so expect more images and videos shortly.

Have a great weekend all!

Follow my work:
https://justinlaidlaw.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/Justinlaidlawphotographer/
https://www.instagram.com/justin_laidlaw96/

02/02/2026

I’m trying out different styles of videos, please let me know what you think!

01/02/2026

I knew today wasn’t going to be spectacular, so I decided to do something a little different with my scouting trip today, any constructive criticism welcome, i am very new to video, I know there is some rough cuts, and the generated captions has some mistakes too.
-

Address

Edinburgh

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 10pm
Tuesday 8am - 10pm
Wednesday 8am - 10pm
Thursday 8am - 10pm
Friday 8am - 10pm
Saturday 8am - 10pm
Sunday 8am - 10pm

Telephone

+447982427070

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Justin Laidlaw Photography posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category