My Photographic Chronology and Aspirations

The majority of my work is shot around where I live, which is a fen in north Cambridgeshire. As much as I love the fens I do like to escape to explore the sea, hills, the streets and foreign lands when ever possible.

My learning curve with photography is now extends over 40 years if you count the first time I entered a Blue Peter kids TV competition to 'take a picture on your street'. I took a picture of a forlorn looking stray mutt of a dog I found on a street corner with a box brownie I discovered in my Aunty Dots cupboard - boy how I wish I had that awful photo today; but it marked the start of that curve that I'm still no way near reaching the end of. By 1979 I had a basic b+w dark room in the old pantry under the stairs of a lovely old Victorian house, but when we moved to a modern house there was no room for the darkroom so I moved over to shooting kodachrome slides that now are "portfolioed in the attic" waiting for time or retirement to go through and find the odd gem that must be in there. I was late to digital, not coming over until 2004, but I was an instant convert and my photography was a born again.

I'm now learning how to play with accident, so sometimes I aim for something like the accident I end up with. I also like to play with and attempt to develop several styles within my photography.

Photography should look for the soul, the atmosphere, the feeling etc, it should look to capture a unique moment in time - it should provoke us, move us - make us think, in my opinion it should aim to be poetic.

Quotes by others that kinda sum up my photographic philosophy

"its all about geometry" - ".......millimetres matter" -Henri Cartier Bresson

"Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.” -Henri Cartier Bresson

"We see with memory, which is why none of us sees the same thing, even when we're looking at the same thing"

David Hockney

A soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone." — Wolfgang Von Goethe

"Photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them." (Elliott Erwitt)

"if I knew how to take a good photograph, I'd do it every time"Robert Doisneau

“Photography is a way of telling what you feel about what you see.” Ansel Adams…

“A photograph is usually looked at- seldom looked into.” ―Ansel Adams

"The difference bewteen the recorder photographer... and the artist photographer... is that the artist will, by experience and learning... force the camera to paint the imagination...the emotion... the concept and the intent... rather than faithfully and truthfully reproduce a record."

~Anonymous quote~

"Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures." Don McCullin

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Jacques Henri Lartigue was almost 70 before he was discovered, so theirs a wee bit of time left for me yet :>)

I'm also dyslexic, so expect strange comments from time to time, but I don't hide form it I just get on with it, now the honest truth is thats how I typed it and so thats how I'm going to leave it.

Exhibitions and Awards

2008, 2009 & 2010 Whittlesey Arts Open Exhibition

2009 Angles Theatre, Wisbech

2010 "The Summer Exhibition", Wisbech Museum

2010 'of fen and sky' exhibition, The Tank Yard, Thorney, Cambridgeshire

Shortlisted for the Landscape Photographer Of The Year 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2016

Final short list for Outside Photographer of the Year 2016

Workshops/Tuition

I teach workshops in Digital Photography for Beginners and Intermediates at The Stamford Arts Centre. I also teach individuals and small groups, please contact me for more details

Sales

All of my work is for sale from as little as £20. A lot my work is available as limited edition signed prints or canvases, some of the abstract scapes really work a treat printed giclee on canvas. I'm really cheap - just ask via email

© None of my photos may be used or reproduced without my permission

NO GRAPHICS please, graphic snobbery may get the better of me and I will be compelled to delete - no offense intended so please don't take any