Having spent 42 years as a Veterinary Surgeon I retired in December 2019. I was lucky to get a holiday in Spain just before the 2020 lockdown! It was always my aim to spend more time on photography as a hobby/enthusiast in the time I expected in retirement. How wrong I was!

I started with a simple 35mm point & shoot Adox camera and progressed up to 2 Pentax ME super cameras. I have always been keen on steam trains and my first black & white photos were of Flying Scotsman on Newcastle on Tyne station in the late 1960's. Once I moved to work in Kidderminster I have the wonderful Severn Valley Railway on my doorstep. The station was only about 100 yards from my work place.

My first digital cameras were Olympus but my first DSLR was a Canon 400D which I enjoyed and used for several years. I progressed upwards by swapping to a Nikon D300 with a fantastic 17 - 55mm lens. I immediately took to the sturdy build and balance. I added wide angle & telephoto lenses in due course. I got great results on the SVR with the special Gala days adding a lot more opportunities. I also took a lot of photos in my work for reference and to show clients what to expect in treatment of their pets. This added some degree of macro work to my portfolio ( they were not added to Flickr as may have caused a stir!). I still took lots of other genres but my main interest was still trains.

I eventually added 2 D3 cameras bought on Ebay to my collection and then further Fx lenses. I do still use the D300 when the mood takes me.

I used to take it on holidays but found it a little heavy at times so then also invested in a Fuji XT2 camera and various lenses to act as a travel camera and also for general use.

Lockdown brought macro and studio still life to the forefront thanks to Mr Amazon Man who kindly delivered where other people could not go. I decided to create a portable/collapsable home studio with A3 foam boards in black & white and added some panel lights etc..... It opened up a new interest and challenge which I have continued since lockdown ceased.

I have also become more interested in trying to photograph birds and wildlife with hopefully improving results and was thrilled to see a Kingfisher at the Cardigan Nature centre whilst on holiday in the local area. They are so beautiful but elusive. I sat in a hide for a couple of hours and took about 200 images of the Kingfisher preening and feeding and felt very privileged to be there.

I now live in Worcester and walk along the river-side paths with my camera and dog. There is a wide range of birds living on or near the river. The city has lots of interesting buildings and parks and the Cathedral provides a wonderful backdrop in photos, especially in night shots when it is illuminated and has great reflections in the water.

My wife and I are now providing child care for our grand-daughters who have recently started school and we are involved in the school run delivery & collections. Free-time is now more limited than I had planned for in retirement but I wouldn't have it any other way.