Scottish Botanical - Growing Wild - Cotton Grass, Isle of Lewis Natural Abstract - Aros Falls, Isle of Mull Scottish Landscape - The Land - Follow the Light, Loch Ba, Isle of Mull Environmental - Decay along the Shoreline I am delighted to learn that I have had images shortlisted in four separate categories of the Scottish Nature Photography Awards for 2021 which have just been announced.

I was honoured and absolutely thrilled to be awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society yesterday with a panel of work created during Lockdown. Due to the lockdown restraints limiting the distances that we were allowed to travel, I was determined to try to continue with my photography and embarked upon a project in Tiddesley Wood, an ancient woodland close to my home.

My submission was a collection of 21 prints taken on frosty winter days between November 2020 and February 2021, capturing those quiet, early morning moments when the mists and frost combine to create a timeless atmosphere of solitude and peacefulness.

I loved creating this body of work, and to succeed in achieving my greatest photographic ambition using images of a location that is so local and means so much to me, is just perfect!

I was delighted to find out that one of my images had been shortlisted in the above competition. "The Gate" was selected in The Scottish Landscape - The Land category of the recently announced 2020 competition results.  The photograph was taken a couple of years ago on a very frosty January morning as we were making our way north having had a brief overnight stop in Moffatt, a favourite town for us to break the journey in.  A quick plug for The Queensberry House b&b hosted by Caroline and Miles.  Highly recommended!  The photograph was taken as we drove north from Moffatt to join the motorway, to continue our journey up to the Isle of Mull.

The image was cropped quite heavily, but I loved the way all the fences and walls converged at the central point of The Gate and because of the frost and early morning light it rendered quite a soft, pastel scene.  This will be featured, along with the other winning and shortlisted entries, in the Scottish Nature Photographer Yearbook 2020, soon to be published and will be available for sale.