My love of photography was born in 1960. I loved my Yashica TLR and treasured every shot of the 12 per roll we had in those days. But superb definition was to be had if you carefully focussed it correctly. No AF in those days. My images of my family taken in this primitive method are still good today and reveal a lot about my father and his passions.

The SLRs got more and more complicated with every model having another gimmicks. Nothing changes in this. And my many slides of my travels probably lay somewhere in a landfill.

I have learnt in my recent re-introduction to this craft with DSLR that you have to buy the best equipment if you want to get the best results. There are no half measures in this.

My main aim now is to obtain images which portray the essence of the subject. A bird shot should convey its activity, its behaviour, its beauty. Birds are in the fast lane and need to be slowed down by our fast shutter speeds.

I marvel at their agility and grapple with the problem of capturing their normally unseen midair meetings.

Lately I have got less fussy and thnk am image should always tell a story and the quality is less important in this regard.