A love of photography is a genetic trait inherited from my mother and her parents. Clearing my grandfather's attic after he died was an immense task, with more prints and photographic equipment than you would imagine it possible to amass in a lifetime.

I continue to use one of his pentaxes to this day, and whilst I do own a digital camera, it disappoints me deeply. It, along with a general melancholy, has put me off developing my photography in the last two years, but now, inspired by all the lovely and enthusiastic Cape Town Flickrites I've met of late, I plan to take up the hobby again with gusto.

I'm British originally (sorry), but live in Cape Town, and have done for the past two years, and for three years in total going back to 2000. Occasionally I return to the UK, so there is the odd pic in my stream from home, where I enjoy the freedom to take my camera out a little more often without fear of theft or causing offense.

I live a diverse and contradictory life in this epic city, traversing borders many a time a day, taking buses into townships, hanging around in high class malls, visiting the disabled children's home from hell and being bitten and spat on, and returning home to cook with sundried tomatoes and listen to BBC Radio 4. I would like my photos to begin reflecting these realities a little more, and I need to learn to be brave and take my camera out more often.

I use Flickr both artistically and functionally, which can lead to a bit of a messy stream. Because I do a lot of beadwork which is sold, or a lot of product development for others, I need to document it, often in a rather unartistic manner. At other times I am posting or reposting a shot in order to use it as an image on my blog, or as an excuse to write about something. But most of the time, I try to add artistic and well-composed shots of people and places. 'Try' being the operative word!

I work as a beading skills teacher, helping women on the margins to earn a small income for their families. I spend some of my free time with two beautiful, parentless children, chilling with friends, making commissioned pieces of beadwork, or just tending to my vegetable garden and chickens. I love where I live.

I'm the admin for a Flickr group called 'Township SA'. If you've got any challenging and artistic shots which say something different and interesting about township life in South Africa, please add them.