Me, when I was 'big'! lol

I was born and brought up in Northamptonshire, England, living in Wellingborough for most of my life, though also spending time in Reading, where my family hail from.

In 2002 I moved to Belgium, up until then I hadn't really been that interested (I never had a long enough lens) in wildlife photography. More often than not I would take photographs of motorcycles, architecture, cars and landscapes etc. However, I have always been a great lover of nature.

Having moved to Belgium I rediscovered the great outdoors, which was made easy as I first lived in a small seaside town, which was surrounded by vast amounts of countryside, forests and wildlife conservation areas. I've moved twice since, once to a village on the edge of a small forest, close to Brugge (Bruges) and then in 2009 to the city centre of Brugge (Bruges) my last residence in Belgium before returning to my homeland in 2012.

I now live in Crouch End, north London, where I now spend most of my time photographing street scenes in various areas of London.

I have been an avid fan of photography for as long as I can remember, most probably bolstered by the fact my father was and still is a Natural History photographer, as well as an author of eight nature books .

Since 2015 I've been shooting mostly street photography and people with Leica rangefinders and from late 2017 a Leica SL mirrorless camera. Previously, for the majority of my nature photos in Belgium I've been shooting with a Canon EOS 1D mkIII, a. Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5 - 5.6 L IS USM lens. Generally I found the 100-400mm a very good compromise lens that I chose over the EF 400mm f/5.6 L, due to the smaller size I needed for travelling with my motorcycle and bicycles.

Since the summer of 2014 I've been shooting with analogue film on an Olympus OM4Ti and three OM Zuiko lenses, which I just love!

I've also been shooting 120 roll film for many years, on a 1970 Hassleblad 500c and three Carl Zeiss lenses (50, 80 & 150mm), however, I've never had the film scanned.

In the beginning of January 2015 I traded my Hasselblad gear in and purchased a secondhand Leica M7 and Leica Summicron 50mm version 4 f2.0 lens and subsequently I've added a Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 90mm f2.8 version 2 lens and a Leica Summicron-M 35mm f2.0 ASPH lens, which have now both been sold. Though I now have a Summilux-M 35mm ƒ1.4 ASPH FLE. Unfortunately I no longer have the M7, though I did have an M8.2, then an M (Typ 240), followed by an SL (Typ 601), finally, I now have an M Monochrom (Typ 246), which is another dream realised and I find myself using 99% of the time.

The Leica gear is a joy to use, and it has been a dream fulfilled, to have had a Leica rangefinder camera, although it was also a steep learning curve. It is however great fun and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone! After buying the M7 I also purchased a digital Leica m8.2 and subsequently traded both in for a used M (typ 240), which was amazing! However, I traded that in for my Leica SL (Typ 601) which I still have, together with my most recent purchase, an M Monochrom (Typ 246).

I handhold around 99% of my shots, although I do own both a good tripod and monopod. I just prefer the flexibility of shooting without anything hindering my movements, so I can be ready to get that special shot in an instant! Well, that's the theory LOL!

To my mind there are very many truly talented photographers on Flickr, long may it continue!

Thanks for looking and best wishes,

John Larkin

P.S. A friendly word of warning to people who think it's okay to steal other people's photographs:

Please don't use any of my photo's without my permission, they're all copyrighted by myself, so please no blogging, copying, or using them without my prior consent!

Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Yours truly on my old '02 BMW R1150GS Adventure in the Eifel region of Germany, September 2004.

These are the countries I've been fortunate enough to have visited, up until now. I love to travel and would like to visit every continent, realisticaly though, I hope to visit at least North America, New Zealand and Australia (where my sister and her family live) one day!

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