Welcome to my photography website.
 

I have been interested in wildlife, including all things connected with nature, ever since I can remember and became interested in photography when I was at school, over 45 years ago. Even as a child I wanted a Kodak Instamatic camera where I could change the settings to create the image I was looking for rather than just point and shoot. Receiving Heather Angel’s book “The Book of Nature Photography” allowed me to combine the two passions. I purchased a Zenith 35mm SLR camera without TTL metering, a 200mm lens and a Benbo tripod (incidentally, I still have the Benbo). Of course in those days it was film and processing, which was expensive, so I changed to slides which made it more affordable as I could process them myself. Nevertheless, with buying only one film per month I could still only achieve a few good images out of the 36 available, digital changed all that. Just before I got married I bought my first Canon film camera, the AE1. A few years after that I bought the EOS 650, and within a year I upgraded to the EOS 600 as I felt it was more suited to wildlife photography (for latest equipment used see equipment list). I have always used Canon cameras because I can easily adapt my set up for each image, due to the lenses I have, and have never had an issue with the quality or performance.

In 2018 I retired and a year later I moved home to live within the New Forest in Hampshire, only a few miles away from where I used to live 20 years ago. Before that, in 2014, I moved to an area of the country that I have always wanted to live, Devon. I really enjoyed my time living within the Dartmoor National Park with its abundance of wildlife but found that it was too far from the rest of my family. Within the first year I had managed to enticed an enormous amount of birds to my garden including:- Blue tits, Great tits, Long-tailed tits, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Robin, Sparrow, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Jay, Buzzard, Wren, Dove, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Sparrowhawk, Goldcrest, Chiff Chaff, Dunnock, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Jackdaw, House Martin, Magpie, Crow and Tawny Owl.

Previously I lived on the Bedfordshire / Cambridgeshire border and was a member of St Neots and District Camera Club. Whilst being a member of this club the quality of my photography, with the assistance of it's members and my enthusiasm, leapt forward, resulting in me winning leagues in the internal competitions, obtaining top scores in external competitions and achieving a CPAGB award. Later I also achieved my DPAGB award and the panel is under the Photos tab for all to see. As a leaving present to the club I presented a free talk on “The Needs of a Wildlife Photographer” which was very warmly received and enjoyed. My style of photography is to include the habitat where the wildlife resides; this I feel gives the viewer of the image more of an insight into the life of the subject.
 

In my opinion, wildlife photography is all about photographing creatures that are in the wild and free. This requires good fieldcraft skills which includes having some knowledge of the subject's behaviour and habitat together with a great deal of patience, and of course a bit of luck. As a responsible wildlife photographer I will always put the wellbeing of the subject above any need to take a photograph. This in my opinion is the number one rule of Wildlife Photography and MUST always be adhered to. My second rule is that I NEVER use digital manipulation to change the authenticity in which I photograph the wildlife.
 

I am retired now but worked full time as an instructor and having achieved my CTLLS teaching certificate would like to use my skills to teach budding photographers. This will include photographing the wildlife in my garden and various sites of interest on the moor and beyond. My list of suitable locations is growing daily (For more information about this please read my blog). My aim would also include giving presentations at organisations interested in photography.
 

I hope you enjoy looking at my photographs as much as I did taking them.