After a career on jack-up vessels installing offshore wind farms and maintaining gas platforms, Ashley Linford swapped tools for cameras to document history in the making.

As one of the first four trainees of jack-up specialist Seajacks (now Cadeler), Ashley learned deckhand skills from the bottom up.

He spent more than eight years on the mighty Kraken, installing offshore wind turbines. As much as he enjoyed his work, a “creative urge I needed to scratch” led him to find a way to apply his passion for filmmaking and photography to tell the growing story of offshore wind.

His energy frontline knowledge and expertise is evident in his films and images that encapsulate the industry, its people, careers and how the sector is developing.

“It makes perfect sense to use that experience to help create the best communications possible,” said Ashley. “I have lived and worked on these vessels and know how big developer sites work. I know how not to be a hindrance to operations too, which is reassuring for the client and the crews onboard.”

The Seajacks cadet training scheme was a big diversion from his early career dream to be a furniture maker, completing carpentry, joinery and advanced courses.

But he was lured offshore where his first job was in the SNS Dutch sector on Kraken, where he enjoyed the “real family feeling” on the vessels, especially the relationship he had with his “offshore dad”, a crane operator called Dave.

He left after nearly a decade.

“I always had this creative urge, enjoyed taking photos........

© Eastern Daily Press