Anna's mechanical engineering degree and exacting work offshore on seismic survey vessels in the North Sea for Schlumberger have evolved into a talent for creative, insightful portrayal of industrial and commercial subjects. She is currently studying the MSc in Petroleum Engineering at Heriot Watt University – she has already passed exams in drilling, geoscience and reservoir engineering. She is finding the subject fascinating and hopes it will enhance her oil & gas photography as the offshore environment is often too noisy, frantic and cosmopolitan for good dialogue.

Anna works from bases in Edinburgh and Aberdeen in Scotland. She undertakes a wide range of photoshoots for annual reports, advertising campaigns and PR. In 2011 she won the tender to supply photography to Forth Crossing Bridge Contractors (FCBC) and for Scottish Enterprise.

She particularly enjoys the drama of the offshore environment and is committed to safe working practices. Her offshore survival certificate - Basic Offshore Safety Induction & Emergency (BOSIET) and the OLF European module for Norway - and medical are current.

In 2007 she spent a month on board the "Edda Fonn", a Norwegian ROV survey vessel doing underwater photogrammetry and 3D video for Statoil. She also spent time on a Total oil platform in the North Sea, and Shell sent her to Holland to photograph Dutch installations and a crane barge from a helicopter. Schlumberger commissioned her to photograph the sea trials of a new seismic ship "Western Spirit".

For many years she held the Scottish Executive contract for the former Fisheries Research Services. This required photography on the fisheries research vessel "Scotia", and in the offices and laboratories around Scotland.

In the last few years she has photographed a platform decommissioning for Shell, and made various trips offshore in the North Sea, Greenland and Cameroon for Cairn Energy and Bowleven.

She values her early training as a journalist which has enabled her to combine a passion for words and photo-journalism. She has produced features for photography magazines including "Professional Photographer" and for skiing magazines such as "Daily Mail Ski and Snowboard". She was a regular feature writer and one of the "experts" answering readers' questions in the UK's leading photography monthly: "Practical Photography". This led to a commission to write a book on nude photography: "Camera Craft – Nudes", published by AVA.

She has won over 30 awards from the Master Photographers’ Association (Scotland). In March 2007 she was delighted to win the trophy for the "Open" award which is for commercial/industrial/PR/art and illustrative photography. She has won this prestigious award no less than three times in five years......And in March 2008 she was named "Monochrome Photographer of the Year".

In 2007 she was honoured with an award in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, the most prestigious wildlife photography competition in the world. The competition attracted 32,000 entries from photographers worldwide. Visitors to the exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London and website, voted her captivating picture of an Arctic fox into first place! The famous fox has been included in the permanent collection at the new National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

View the image here

She is most well known for images involving people, where she quickly puts them at ease, captures their personalities, and brings out the best in them. Often her subjects are busy people so the work has to be carried out quickly, but sensitively. Although she no longer photographs weddings, she was awarded "Reportage wedding photographer of the Year 2007" by the MPA Scotland!

She strives for strong images with pleasing composition and imaginative use of colour. She wants her images to contain a sense of interruption. Each image should freeze the subject’s energy, capturing the moment at precisely the right millisecond. Her images embody the atmosphere of what’s gone before, and ignite an interest in what’s about to happen.

She has embraced digital photography wholeheartedly and is thrilled with the quality of her top pro cameras like the Canon EOS 1DS Mark II and the Canon 5D Mark 2, which records broadcast quality video. A perfectionist, she either does her own printing so she can be in complete charge of the entire photography process for optimum quality control, or uses a pro lab. Studio work is now carried out in her large photographic studio.