Flickr ...

I've been on Flickr for many years and it has really given me the opportunity to share my world, and also learn so much about others ... people, places and of course photography. I thought it about time to share some of that learning so here goes ...

1) There are some fabulous, fabulous people on this site ... but some take it way too serious

2) The shots that I consider to be my best, are never the ones that get the most favs ... but I guess others feel the same about pics I fav

3) If someone takes the time and trouble to make a comment on my pictures then does it matter if it is accompanied by a logo ... even if it is a naff one ha ha !!

4) "Explore" is a complete mystery ... always has been, always will be

My Photography ...

I've been interested since I was a kid, encouraged by my Dad who used to develop his own pictures many years ago. I entered my first competition at the age of 14 and to my surprise ended up winning first prize. I still remember that photo, a close up of a monkeys face as he stretched desperately through the bars of his cage. It made me realise how emotions, feelings, moments can be captured forever and with that my love of photography began.

Since then I've used a variety of different cameras and also played around in numerous darkrooms developing both B&W and slides. It all went a little quiet for a number of years as i struggled to regain my health after a bad accident.

In 2004 I regained my passion for photography at a time when digital photography was coming into its own and in 2006 I finally bought a digital SLR a Canon 30D SLR. My lenses included a 17-85mm which i used 90% of the time and a 75-300mm. In 2010 I made the switch across to Nikon swapping in both camera and lenses, and more recently I purchased my first mirrorless camera … a Nikon Z8.

I tend not to use too much photoshop mainly because I just dont have the time to learn how to fully exploit but I admire the creativity of those that produce some wonderful shots as much through the software as the camera. Forget the debate about "au natural" versus "photoshop", its each to his own as far as I'm concerned.

The one thing I have learned is that photography is so so subjective and my greatest annoyance are with what i call the photography snobs who criticise others. Luckily there are very few of them on this site.

My Travel ...

I've always loved to travel and am never happy unless I have my next adventure booked. There's nothing better than exploring new places, meeting new people, learning about new cultures, tasting new food. I've got one of those map things here that shows all the places I've been but I realised that a good photo can be taken anywhere so apologies if it looks a little pretentious.

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