Picture perfect: BBC documentary shows top Scots photographer Colin Prior’s genius behind the lens

HE’S faced the some of the world’s most perilous mountains, risking deadly crevices and avalanches.

But Scots landscape photo- grapher Colin Prior has told of his deadliest moment – in a hotel loo in the capital of Pakistan.

Colin, whose amazing work is featured in a new BBC documentary next week, has been to the country countless times to capture classic images.

A 2014 trip saw him take to the mountains at a time of year when snow conditions meant tumbling down 3000ft crevices was a real risk. However, he hadn’t even reached the slopes before disaster struck.

“I went out for a meal when I landed in Islamabad and got food poisoning,” Colin, 59, told The Sunday Post.

“I was so ill that I stood up off the loo, fell unconscious and herniated a disc in my neck. People are always concerned about me getting back from trips in one piece, but here I was in the supposed safety of the hotel out cold on the floor.”

Colin was hospitalised for checks but then battled through the pain to push on to the slopes and get the shots he wanted.

“I’ve spent chunks of the last four years out there documenting the Karakorum mountains,” he said. “K2 is there and I find them the most inspiring mountains in the world. They are vertical and don’t hold much snow.

“Wherever you are in the world you usually just have two colours to work with, blue skies and white snow, but there you have the rocks and textures of the mountains.”

The new hour-long BBC Scotland documentary features Colin at work much closer to home.

It shows him taking to mountains An Teallach, A’Mhaighdean and Cul Mor.

Despite his decades of experience, Milngavie-born Colin says the photography he was after for the programme provided a unique challenge.

“It wasn’t too much snow, it was too little,” he confides. “I can’t remember it ever being so mild. We had a dump of snow in November and then that was just about it, but we got there in the end.”

Fruitless days trying to get the right shot are nothing new for Colin, whose work has been showcased all over the world.

It can take repeated trips to the most inaccessible locations at the top of mountains to get precisely the shot he wants.

“I can wait years just for that one second when you get the picture,” he confides.

“What people think of as being the best conditions, a nice day with blue sky and sunshine, are actually the worst possible.

“It’s all too bright, with deep shadows. The perfect conditions are around dawn or dusk with clear skies in one direction and a little cloud in the other.

“And if you don’t get the shot at just that time, it can mean waiting a full year to come back when everything, including the position of the sun, will be perfect again.”

Colin became famous for his wide-format photos shot on film. But in the past few years he has moved on to digital cameras, having felt he had captured all he wanted to do that way.

One shot, however, will always stick in his mind.

“It was the first photograph I took from Ben Starav in Glen Etive with that panoramic camera on November 3, 1990,” recalls Colin.

“When I left that summit, I realised what was trivial in photography and what was important.

“Most professional photographers don’t get to live their own dreams, they live everyone else’s dreams in what they have to do.

“But ever since that time, one of the greatest privileges is that I’ve been able to live my dreams.”

Colin, who has two children Alexandra, 25, and Laurence, 22, says wife Geraldine has always supported his adventures.

But he won’t even be at home for his milestone 60th birthday.

“I’m going to be working in Delhi then so I don’t think there will be any time for cake and putting my feet up,” he adds.

Colin Prior Mountain Man – North West Highlands, April 17, BBC Two Scotland, 8pm