I'm Sarah Morton and I was given my first camera when I was eight. I loved taking photographs and when I left broadcasting with the BBC in 2002, my husband encouraged me to return to it.

I studied at the Glasgow School of Art as an evening student while I was working for BBC Scotland in Glasgow.

I think it was a picture of my late mother cutting up tomatoes when we lived in Izmir in Turkey.

I now use a Nikon 850, but have used over the years a Ricoh, Pentax (various including a 67Medium format film camera), Hasselblad X-pan and when I finally moved to digital equipment I went with Nikon.

Goodness.... a big question! Do you know, I just want to continue to make pictures that people like and respond to. I love it when I sell an image to someone who wants to hang it in their house. That to me is success! Don't get me wrong- I love winning awards and having my work acknowledged by the industry experts - that is really special - but if I can keep selling my work then I'll be happy. Of course, I'd love a gallery to "discover" me and help me do that, but until that happens, I'll keep plugging away myself!

When my husband says "That's a good one". He really doesn't comment unless he really likes something - so when he does - that's my inspiration to keep going.

Well, I live in one of the most beautiful countries in the world - Scotland. Our weather isn't known for its balmy soft warmth... as anyone who's ever visited will agree...but we have a spectacular combination of mountains and seas, ever changing weather, amazing atmospherics and very, very few people....so for a landscape photographer it's perfect.

Artistic, individual and dynamic

It is such a wonderful surprise especially given how many categories and entrants there must have been. To be selected for a Gold Award is such a compliment. I am truly delighted. Thank you.

Well, I took a while to decide which image to enter. I have some great old film work from visits to New York in the 90's and I was really tempted to enter one of them, but then I thought what a great platform this competition would be to show off my home country. I loved the old boat and Ben Nevis images and thought the black and white version would work in competition. It's a very popular subject for photographs and I took a gamble that no one else had entered a similar image!

It all goes on the CV and I bore my social media followers for a few days with the news! But more importantly it gives me huge confidence to keep going. It's very tough being an artist these days - especially a photographer - because everyone has the means to take pictures now. So being singled out of the crowd for an award is a real boost.

Sir Don McCullin, Sebastiao Salgado, and Eve Arnold... but there are many more....

Don McCullin encouraged me to keep working as long as possible in film.... which I'm very glad I did. I didn't switch to digital until I was convinced that the print from a film negative and the print from a digital file could not be told apart!

Find a subject you love, don't be scared of putting your work out there for others to judge and be prepared to fail and fail and fail again... one day it will be a win!

Make pictures that you'd want to hang on your own walls and don't be tempted to follow too many trends...take your own path.

I'm a member of the BJP in the UK and Circle Arts Foundation in France and I subscribe to various photography organizations who publish magazines with new work. My social media follows are predominantly photography based or art based so I can see what people are doing. I'm also a member of the Argyll and Bute Open Studios organization Art Map which is a great platform for all the artists and makers on the western side of Scotland to come together and encourage each other.