Photography, or rather serious photography, is only a recent activity in my life. First got into it after buying a cheap Canon 300V SLR camera so that I could take wildlife pictures in South Africa - I had no idea how to use it outside of the auto functions and I was happy with this.

That developed into an interest in underwater photography after qualifying as a scuba diver, which also relied mainly on automatic functions.

I only stated getting serious after another member of the family got a camera and did a course - the stuff she was doing appealed to my sense of technical understanding and started me on the journey to learning about camera use and deliberatly taking a good photo, rather than getting one through luck of the draw.

I've done a lot of reading and gotten a digital SLR since then and now refuse to use anything but full manual mode for every shot that I take. I feel I owe it to myself and the people that enjoy looking at my pictures. Hopefully the number of them increase!