Just last weekend I spent some time in the beautiful Sandwood Bay in the highlands of Scotland. For those of you who don't know, I live in Scotland.

A four mile walk into a lovely remote bay with ample sand dunes, expansive beaches and even the story of a ghost, it was a must see on my list for some time.

Doing a lot of traveling, it's often easy to neglect your own country but I have to say that over the past eight years, I've become more and more appreciative of my home land. Nothing else seems to beat it (but I'm sure that's just my own patriotism coming into the equation).

Anyway, these were all taken with the 5D, some ND grads and a good tripod. The evening light on Saturday was really beautiful and we'd just got there, so it was hard to find a vantage point while the light was fading, so I ended up running around the bay like a madman for a couple of hours. I like to work quickly - that's where the excitement comes in.

But what are you trying to do with your photography? When you take an image, do you have a reason for doing so? i.e, what drives you forward?

For me, I think we go about our daily lives - living within a set of parameters that don't give us time to think beyond that. I love going out side those parameters - just being on a remote beach late at night gives a different sense of perspective to my life. Listening to the waves crash, feeling isolated on that beach, I find that I'm aware of being in a different existence. I'm no hippy, but there is something rather compelling about spending time on your own in a beautiful, remote place. I also like to produce images that are a departure from the everyday, and shooting late at night or during nocturnal hours can provide that. Look at the last image in particular, the moon is in the sky, the light is low and the tide is moving in fast. I don't often get to experience moments like this throughout my daily life, and that is why photography is so great. It gets you out there, not only to make pictures, but to experience an existence outside of the parameters of your normal daily life.