When I was young, I used to spend hours in the garden watching the hoverflies visiting the Michaelmas Daisies. I remember borrowing my mum's Box Brownie and taking random photos, eg of starlings which came out like blurred blobs. I gave up shortly after starting when I discovered how much it cost to have the film developed and printed - my 6d/week income couldn't support such an expensive hobby.

We moved from Derbyshire when I was 11, to Essex for a year where they couldn't understand my accent, then to Folkestone by the sea. It was there that I became interested in amateur radio, built receivers and stayed up far too late listening to morse code. I joined the GPO from school, thinking that I would eventually learn the mysteries of thermionic valves only to discover that transistors had taken over. At University I discovered Human Factors and spent the next 40 years working in that field, moving eventually into engineering management. I'm retired now, and once again spend hours in the garden.

I had a Nikkormat in the early 70s and photographed friends and family, developing and printing in my bedsit after dark. Many years later, I rediscovered photography with a little camera that I used mainly for photographing fungi in the park. More recently I've been photographing insects and this year I rediscovered the challenge and rewards of photographing people.

I'm married with 2 children and recently discovered to my surprise that I'm older than Gerard Depardieu.