My name’s Craig Dowling and I’m from New Zealand. I grew up in Beach Haven on Aucklands North Shore. I never thought about travel when I was young, nor about photography for that matter, but I read a lot of National Geographic magazines and was fascinated by the magical places and outstanding scenery within.

I got my first camera when I was 10. It was for a school trip traveling around the Waikato region in the central North Island. It was a Kodak camera which took those large 35mm film cartridges and had the neat plug-in disposable flash cubes. Real hi-tech! But it did the job and set me on the road to where I am now.

Over the years cameras came and went but it wasn’t until 2002 when I was living in England that I bought my first digital SLR. I’d been looking at them for some time but could never afford, or justify the cost of one. Then Canon brought out the EOS 300D range at a semi-affordable price. Being a Canon EOS, it fit my previous Canon EOS 35mm SLR lenses. I now have a 450D but am contemplating an upgrade to a 60D or 7D.

I left New Zealand in February 1997 for what at the time was to be a 2 year working and traveling holiday based in the UK. Many years later and I’m still here!!