I rather grudgingly admit to being a semi-professional photographer, in that photography doesn't put food on the table, however I sometimes do it in the course of work, and do get paid for it occasionally.

I say rather grudgingly, as photography is an endless learning process, both in terms of technique, and in discovering the amazing world waiting to be captured on camera, and just because I sometimes earn money from photography doesn't mean I know everything by a long way.

I've had an interest in photography since 15 years old when I was given a Cosina (Pentax clone) SLR for my birthday. I subsequently replaced this with a Pentax P50 SLR which I still have and use occasionally.

I started out in digital with a 3Mpixel Kodak DX6340 which lasted me from December 2003 till mid 2006. At that point I upgraded to a Fujifilm S5600. 5Mpixel. As of October 2009 I upgraded to a Fujifilm S200EXR 12/6 Mpixel. (The S200EXR uses a unique sensor that allows to choose between high resolution or increased DR or reduced noise at half resolution, hence it doesn't always work out to be a 12Mpixel camera.)

In July 2012 I acquired a Pentax K-x DSLR which I still use occasionally, but upgraded to a K-50 in April 2015, and in July 2019 to a K-70.

Mostly I tend to photograph landscapes, and natural history, as I'm sometimes a bit shy, but a great portrait is really satisfying when I do get around to doing them.

A personal project over the last 20 years has been visually documenting the Marlborough area of New Zealand where I live. You can find a lot of my images on my website Marlborough Online.

Sadly I've had to start adding watermarks on my photos as although Flickr has a very clear copyright policy that allows photographers to clearly specify what can and can't be done with photos, some people don't respect this. I don't like to spoil a nice photo with a watermark, but unfortunately some people think anything on Flickr is fair game for commercial use.

If "anyone can take a photo" is strictly true, then there's no need to steal, as you can just go and capture your own version of a scene you like. If you can't do it yourself, then you should be prepared to pay, or at least ask nicely. My photos are strictly to enjoy here, not to steal for other uses, however I will consider polite requests. Generally for commercial use I'll expect payment, but for non-profits, I may be prepared to grant a license at no charge depending on the circumstances, (although if you're a 'non-profit' who pays a CEO a big salary and then pleads poverty, you'll probably still have to pay).