Doug Peters
New Zealand based music photographer

doug@ambientlightblog.com
+6427 353 5761

  • Over 20 years experience shooting live music and low light events
  • Experienced shooting both film and digital files
  • Capable of fast turnaround at the highest quality
  • Available for individual shows through to full tours
  • Is capable of working to a brief as well as independently
AWARDS / HONOURS:

2021: Aotearoa Music Photographer Of The Year 2021 – Runner Up
2007: NZIPP Professional Photography Awards – 1 Silver Award, 7 Bronze awards in assorted categories.
2004: Adv. Dip. Professional Photographic Techniques – UCOL Palmerston North
2003: NZIPP Professional Photography Awards – Bronze award in the student category.
2002: Kodak Photographic Scholarship for skills in Digital Retouching
2001: Leica Photographic Scholarship for Photographic Excellence
2001: NZIPP Professional Photography Awards – Silver award in the Black and White category, hand printed using traditional wet darkroom techniques.

PORTFOLIO

(Please click on images to enlarge)

BIOGRAPHY:

Doug Peters has a long history with photography, from growing up documenting family events and holidays with his trusty Kodak point and shoot with the broken plastic lens, through to eventually gaining an advanced degree in photography, concentrating in film photography, studio lighting and advanced darkroom techniques.

Doug then worked as a retoucher for a prominent portrait photographer by day, while skulking around in dimly lit clubs in Wellington and Palmerston North photographing bands by night. The music photography bug had well and truly sunk its teeth deep into his soul.

Taking a few years off to raise his son, Doug had a short-lived career as a wedding and portrait photographer in a small town in central NZ, but pined for his days shooting musicians – live gigs being few and far between.

 A move to Auckland gave him the opportunity to once again immerse himself in the live music scene at night (the all important day job still a very necessary evil for a NZ based music photographer).

He began shooting live shows for numerous music media outlets – the caliber of artists increasing with every show. Being able to photograph Gary Numan performing one of his favourite albums live as one of his first gigs in Auckland was a particularly important moment for Doug, and just a taste of what was to come. 

Eventually, wanting to give back to the industry and to help other up and coming music photographers gain experience shooting gigs, Doug formed Ambient Light – a website covering anything music related. He slowly put together a team of talented photographers and writers that he now considers family. Because of Ambient Light, he has been able to photograph some of the biggest names in music, including Elton John, U2, Billie Eilish, Iron Maiden, Coldplay, KISS, Grace Jones and the Foo Fighters to name but a few.

Doug has been shooting live music for over twenty years now, and has been the editor as well as sometimes photographer of Ambient Light for the past four years. By day, he works in the television industry, and in his spare time dabbles in fashion photography, shooting for the website thisismeagankerr.com. Doug is a staunch Canon DSLR user with various lenses for all his live music photography, and has recently invested in the Leica medium format digital system for his portrait and fashion work.