BY DAY, Stephen Breslin is chief executive of the Glasgow Science Centre. But over the last decade he has spent his downtime honing his skills as a photographer in the wild places of Scotland.

Now his work is being showcased by conservation charity the John Muir Trust at its Wild Space visitor centre in Pitlochry. Running from March 1-April 30, the exhibition will feature stunning landscapes as well as spectacular wildlife shots.

At weekends and on holidays, Breslin says he will often rise in the early hours to travel from his home outside Glasgow to get to a mountaintop or viewpoint before dawn breaks, to capture the first rays of sun hitting the hillside.

He says: “I try to differentiate my images by looking for the perfect combination of location and light. This can mean a lot of preparation in all sorts of weather conditions, getting there before sunrise, and searching for places or viewpoints that are less often seen.

“I can be sitting on the hill for a couple of hours before the sun comes up, so you’ve got to enjoy being out in the wild. ... I have lists of places with compositions in mind and it can take multiple visits, often over a few years, to get the conditions for the shot I’ve envisaged.”

Buachaille Etive Mor at the entrance to Glencoe is one of Scotland’s most photographed mountains but Breslin has been going there for years looking for a defining winter shot. One of the centrepiece images in the exhibition is an image of The Bookle taken just before Christmas last year with the first morning sun splashing the summit.

“You just don’t know how the light is going to develop. Sometimes, it’s spectacular – other times, it just fades, and you don’t get the shot. But you are in the midst of nature, seeing dippers, deer, black grouse. ”

Stephen’s love of the outdoors was ignited by a camping trip to Glencoe when he was a teenager. “As a boy from North Lanarkshire, I didn’t know places like this existed. So, I’m really pleased that my photographs of Glencoe and Ben Nevis, where the John Muir Trust does such great work, are going to be at the heart of the exhibition.”

The exhibition came about after staff from the John Muir Trust, who work from a base in the Science Centre, commented on some of Breslin’s pictures in his office. Initially, he contributed images for the Trust’s Christmas cards.

He adds: “Ideally, I’m striving to capture what I feel about the landscape of Scotland in the image. I could spend the rest of my life just taking pictures of Scotland. I’ve no desire to take shots of the Alps or Yosemite, which are undoubtedly astoundingly beautiful, but ... it’s Scotland that I have a life-long passion and affinity for.”

Emma Castle-Smith, visitor engagement manager from The John Muir Trust said: “I first saw Stephen’s work back in June 2022 and I knew immediately that his gorgeous photographs, showing Scottish landscapes in a different light and at a time of day when many people don’t get to experience them, would be hugely popular in the gallery.

Stephen Breslin’s exhibition is at the Wild Space visitor centre, on the corner of Atholl Road and Station Road, in the centre of Pitlochry, opening times March 1 to October 31; Monday – Saturday 10:00-16:30, Closed Tuesday, Sunday 10:00-15:00.