My Story
Photo by Iris and Light
I have been hooked on travel and nature ever since I was a young child and grew up on a staple diet of David Attenborough programmes. I would spend my time day dreaming about seeing polar bears in the Arctic or standing on the shoulders of giant mountains. 20 years on, not much has changed. My husband Donald and I call Scotland our home and we're very fond of it. With a shared passion for travel and exploring, we're at our happiest out in the wilds, camping and walking the hills or taking in the sights and sounds of a new rustic town. Watching the light change is a favourite pastime and photographing it has become something of an obsession.
My passion lies in travel and landscape photography; in Scotland’s stunning mountains; in worldwide culture and cities. Inspired by photographers like David Noton, I bought a semi-pro digital camera and a round the world air ticket. Donald and I packed a single bag between us and left for Hong Kong. That 2 year trip changed everything, including my entire outlook on what I wanted from life. We travelled through 9 countries, lived and worked in both Australia and New Zealand and fell in love with the spirit of freedom and adventure, documenting the whole trip on camera and in various journals. I used a lot of movement in my images to show the bustle of the towns and cities I was experiencing. A completely self taught photographer, I’ve learnt everything as I’ve gone along and honed my skills in the moment, out in the field.
That adventurous spirit led me to start photographing Scotland’s landscape, capturing the mood and changeable conditions. Trips to places like Italy and Iceland have fed the wanderlust that I constantly feel. I take photographs for myself first and foremost, because I want to capture and remember what I’m seeing in the places I visit. When I look at a scene, I see lines and shapes and colours and how they interact with each other. My style is often bold and colourful, capturing fleeting moments of light with layers and textures.
A lot of my photography is planned, with research on an area done long before we get there and even a reccie or 2 first. Once we get there and my camera is in my hand, everything is in the moment. It becomes an instinctual act of adapting to the changing scene in front of me. I quite often come home with totally unexpected shots that I’m so glad I hadn’t planned.
Life is all about moments, quiet minutes with your coffee watching the sun rise, shared adventures, time spent out in the wild. Exploring and coming home with memories in the form of photographs and hand written journals is intrinsic to a happy life. It feeds my soul. I aim to create artwork that tells a story the viewer resonates with, so that every time they look at it on their wall, it draws them in and moves them, creating quiet reflection.
