Born in Preston, Lancashire, my formative years mainly consisted of pointing and goggling. By the age of 13, and after more paper-rounds than I can now count, I was able to afford a camera to point and look through so I was able to walk through the streets of Britain without drawing attention to myself.

Since then, despite my first camera dying in my hands, I've endeavoured to show my fascination for ocular scrutiny through my photos. Photography is a lot more than pointing in the right direction and pressing a button, it's being sensitive to the subtleties in a scene, be it a wry smile or a fleeting burst of light, that really make for a fantastic image. (Because of this fascination for detail I must have one of these: and as such all work is welcomed.)

Photography as a hobby has had a great boom over the last few years thanks to reliable digital technology becoming increasingly affordable, and now in turn, the wealth of photographers from which to chose is now higher than ever. As a photographer, I should find this daunting, but I feel that it challenges each of us to get better, and more imaginative in our work. As a consumer it's easy to feel overwhelmed, but it's important to make sure you know the different photographers in your area in order to find the right one for you; different photographers have different styles, and different styles suit different people.

After a decade working with the public I have come to realise that it takes a great depth of personality to please all of the people all of the time, and very quickly learnt that, when working on weddings especially, what works for one person, may not work for another. Owing to my personal love of street photography, I love to sit back and just record the people and the emotions in the room, but, thanks to my experience in the studio, I'm not afraid to get into the action to encourage people to reveal themselves.