This photograph was taken on a trip to Finland, having pitched the idea to Scotland on Sunday for their Spectrum supplement’s travel pages. I was the writer and photographer and as I had a firm commission the Finnish tourist office made the arrangements for me.
It was -30 when I arrived and officially the Arctic ‘day’ only lasted just over one hour. In fact, with clear skies, there was light in the sky for another couple of hours each side of sunrise and sunset. Two days into the trip, the sky clouded over and the temperature went up to -10, which felt noticeably better.
The igloo shown here has warm glass to heat it and stop the snow settling over it, so you can watch the stars and northern lights (if you’re lucky) while lying in bed. I normally do city breaks so it was a good change to do some countryside pictures. That said, making compositions out of just trees and snow proved a challenge and I realised afterwards that I’d put buildings or people into most of my shots.
Anna had loved photography since the age of sixteen and following a decade in book publishing, went to college to study colour and lighting. Looking for new photographers, a holiday company visited the college and Anna was one of three student photographers they ‘tried out’. She was successful and continued to receive regular commissions from this company, which steered her towards the citybreak market that has remained her main focus.
Anna now writes too, which enables her to obtain commissions upfront and hence sponsored trips to locations. She can use the images for stock afterwards, which is building up into a regular income. She has very few commissions that are purely photographic and most of her work is sold upon her return.
Her work has appeared on the travel pages of all the UK national papers and in magazines ranging from the Economist to Conde Nast Traveller. She also did all the location shots for a book called Real Italian Food and sells images both directly and through Corbis and Axiom.
Photographer since 2001, EPUK member since 2004.
See more work by Anna Watson