I was born in Inverness, Scotland in 1958 and lived for the first 18 years of my life in the village of Dunnet in Scotland’s most northerly county of Caithness.

Both my parents were Art teachers and eventually I decided to follow in their footsteps. In 1978 I began studying jewellery design at Gray’s School of Art and Design in Aberdeen where I spent 5 happy years.

I then spent 3 years in Edinburgh serving my jewellery making apprenticeship with J.R.Drever Jewellers.

In 1988 I moved back to Aberdeen where I set up my own jewellery design and manufacture business and since then have gradually grown the business to include a retail shop, online shop and jewellery manufacture workshop.

Around 4 years ago I became interested in digital photography and have been hooked on Photoshop et al ever since. Recently I have developed a passion for black and white landscape photography and I am particularly interested in some of the more remote and unspoilt areas of Scotland, including my homeland of Caithness, with it’s rugged coastline, empty beaches and BIG sky.

Although I work digitally using a Canon 5D SLR, and therefore in colour, I prefer the structures, textures and drama that become more apparent when colour is removed from the equation.

I shoot all my images in RAW format and process them initially using Rawshooter Premium to correct any exposure problems and any necessary cropping needed. These processed files are then brought into Photoshop CS as TIFF files, converted to mono using lab colour, all dust marks cloned out, basic levels and curves adjustments and dodging and burning for greater contrast.

I have been greatly influenced by the minimalist works of Michael Kenna, Rolf Horne and of course Ansell Adams, but, at the end of the day I think that the images I create are a natural response to the intrinsic beauty of Scotland’s unspoilt terrain and amazing light.

I hope you enjoy these images as much as I have enjoyed photographing them.

Sandy.