Scottish nature is something which is close to my heart so I was really pleased to get a call from Niall Irvine informing me that this photograph had been placed first in the Scottish Botanical Category of The Scottish Nature Photography awards. I've been a supporter of the awards since their launch in 2010 and, although previously placed and short listed in different categories, It is really satisfying to have a photograph recognised in this way.

I enjoy the challenges of intimate landscape photography. The intimate landscapes of Swedish photographer Hans Strand inspire me and, maybe more importantly, I like his ideas about finding locations close to home as most of my photographs are made no further than a few miles from my home in Lossiemouth with some just a five minute walk away.

Most of my photography takes place close to the sea but sometimes I move inland in order to get a different perspective on the landscape. On this particular venture into the country however I found myself looking at waves of moss and a lone bracken plant which seemed to bob on the surface of them! Thus the image title for the competition 'Cast Adrift'.

On location I recognised that the movement of the bracken in the breeze was going to be an issue and, to restrict that but still retain good depth of field, I settled for a higher ISO than I would normally use. The resulting 1/90 sec. was just sufficiently fast enough to freeze the movement and retain the detail of the bracken.

Camera: Nikon D800

Lens: Nikkor 24 – 70mm f2.8/G at 24mm

ISO: 400

Exposure: f16 1/90 sec.