My interest in wildlife began at school when a friend in the soccer team introduced me to the pleasures of bird watching. However, taking field notes was never going to be enough and, when I was fifteen, I persuaded my father to buy me an Exa 1 SLR camera for Christmas. It was an expensive present and it must have cost him a week’s wages. Perhaps he realised that it would be the start of a hobby that would last me a lifetime.
A few years later, I was exploring nearby woods, following what I thought was a badger track, when I stumbled across a hide, suspended 35ft above the ground, across four conifer trees. I eventually found its creator, Roy Blewitt, who was a great help and inspiration to me in my early years of wildlife photography.
I have also learned a great deal from being a member of two very successful photographic societies for the last 50 years, Amersham and Smethwick. As a result my photographic interests have become quite wide-ranging. I was awarded my ARPS in 1975 for a panel of nature transparencies, my FRPS in 1991 for a panel of colour landscape prints, and my MFIAP in 2014 for a panel of monochrome environmental portrait prints. I am also very enthusiastic about sending my pictures to international exhibitions and I reached the EFIAP diamond 2 level in 2017.
I try to put something back into photography by giving talks and helping fellow photographers with RPS, PAGB, and FIAP qualifications, and I am often asked to help select for regional, national, and international exhibitions.