About

Hi — I’m Peter. This website, Western PA Photos, is a one-person shop: just me, out on the trails and back roads of western Pennsylvania with a camera.

I was born in Western PA, but I spent most of my life elsewhere. When I finally came back to Appalachia, I saw the place with fresh eyes — fog settling into river valleys, water working its way over old stone, ridgelines going copper in October. The photos began as a way to hold onto what I was seeing on hikes through the Laurel Highlands, and the greater Appalachia. I’m self-taught, and for a long time this was purely a hobby. Enough people asked whether they could get a print that I eventually decided to make them available. This site is the result.

Most of what you’ll find here is western Pennsylvania — the Laurel Highlands above all. I do get out beyond the ridgelines now and then, and the Beyond Western PA collection gathers favorites from those trips.

Every image is printed to order by a professional fine-art lab, framed or stretched, and shipped directly to you. Nothing sits in a warehouse; your print is made when you order it. If one of these photos brings a little of this landscape into your home, that’s the whole point.

— Peter