Each week, Celtic Life International invites readers to go behind the scenes and meet those who make our magazine possible. This week we take shots with our award-winning photojournalist Tom Langlands.

NAME: Tom Langlands

AGE: 65

HOMETOWN: Annan, Scotland although I’m originally from Dundee

CELTIC CONNECTION: Scottish through and through. As a keen genealogist I have traced my family back to the mid 1700s where the various branches were all located on the east coast of Scotland.

HOBBIES: Writing, photography, fly-fishing, playing guitar, listening to music, theatre, visiting art galleries (pretty much anything to do with the arts really), travel and meeting interesting people.

HEROES: Donald Dewar, Jane Haining, Neil Armstrong and anyone who fights against injustice.

BEST CHARACTER ASSET: I’m a perfectionist – I come up with ideas, make things happen and persevere until the end result is achieved.

WORST CHARACTER DEFECT: According to my wife it’s intolerance (but she’s wrong), impatience (it took her forever to mention that) and road rage!

PET PEEVE: BREXIT!!! Rude people, bad manners and poor customer service. Large corporations that rip-off vulnerable people and press and politicians who misrepresent the truth.

FAVE FOOD(S): Seafood, Indian and haggis. I love indulging in local food and wine when I travel.

FAVE MUSICAL ARTIST(S): I’m a big prog rock fan so love bands such as Pink Floyd, Yes, Focus and Led Zeppelin. I find so little depth of meaning in modern music and for that reason I remain a big fan of the ‘poets of song’ such as Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. I love jazz – Tommy Smith and Brian Kellock. As a Scot I have to include The Proclaimers.

FAVE MOVIES(S): 2001 A Space Odyssey, Inception, Inglorious Bastards, Woman in Gold, Life of Pi, In Bruges and The Men Who Stare at Goats.

FAVE TV SHOW(S): I’m very selective about what I watch on TV and don’t really watch TV shows as such. However, I have watched every episode of The Big Bang Theory.

FAVE BOOK(S): Anything by Haruki Murakami – especially Kafka on the Shore, The Wind up Bird Chronicle and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Mobius Dick and Sputnik Caledonia by Andrew Crumey. I enjoy philosophy so I have to include The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton and The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder.

FAVE PLACE(S) TO TRAVEL: Scotland – especially the west coast and the Outer Hebrides, Galicia, Italy, Germany, the WWI battlefields of Belgium and France, yachting around the Greek islands. Favourite cities include Berlin (Germany), Tallin (Estonia) and Graz (Austria).

TRAVEL BUCKET LIST: Ireland, the Basque country of northern Spain and Japan – watch this space for future travel pieces.

GUILTY PLEASURE(S): My favourite supper is oatcakes with blue cheese and malt whisky – that’s when I most love listening to poets of song!

BEEN WITH CELTIC LIFE SINCE: 2009

BEST PART OF THE JOB: Getting to do what I love most – travel, meeting people, writing, photography and learning new things.

WORST PART OF THE JOB: There isn’t one.

BEST ADVICE RECEIVED: When the day job gets in the way of what you’d rather be doing its time to give it up. (I did – 6 years ago when I retired from the architecture practice that I co-founded 25 years earlier – and have never looked back!).