First and most importantly, I want to say how much I appreciate every visit, view, comment (complimentary and/or constructive - haven't had one that wasn't so far!) and fave - so a big THANK YOU to everyone who takes the time to view, comment or fave my photos!

I am a country boy at heart - I love the beauty and peace of the countryside. I try to take pictures that show that beauty, and hopefully capture some of the pleasure and satisfaction of being in that spot. Most of my pictures reflect the nature of the countryside around where I was born and still live - lots of ancient woodland, gently rolling hills, winding rivers and (hopefully) blue skies.

My photographic "journey" began with a few cheap 110 and 126 cameras, and progressed through a Russian Zenit TTL, to a Canon AE1 Program. On the way, I dabbled a bit in drawing and painting, before other things in life took priority. I returned with a series of Nikon DSLRs about 20 years later, and found the whole software processing thing both revolutionary and liberating at the same time - no more expensive film required, and the ability to reshape the final image was SUCH a step forward for me. I know plenty of people love film, and I see the truth in the idea that it makes you think more about what you are about to shoot - but for me, this is far outweighed by the ability to shoot in HDR, then change the look and feel of the whole image afterward, in some cases change it completely to expresses what the mind and heart did (or wanted) to see. As I mentioned, I did a bit of rudimentary drawing and painting, and find software processing brings some of the complete artistic freedom of expression of drawing and painting into what would otherwise be a "what you see is what you get" type of art - not that this is not without expression or artistic merit, far from it, but for me I find almost all of my images are re-creations of varying degrees.

I genuinely feel that each of my pictures are an attempt to create a world that I would love to step into - an escape from the world of reality, into a world where beauty and balance and a "right-ness" are the fundamental and basic principles that rule reality - as is sometimes perfectly true in real life, but sadly often enough is not the case. Thus, each time I look at or work on an image, something of what I love and feel MY "perfect world" would look like is in some way expressed in a simple image.

Good photographs are like a precious jewel - rare and hard to come by, but so valuable, as those things you truly love are so often in some way expressed and experienced in the imagination because of the image, and beautiful experiences and memories can almost be captured and re-lived.

I sometimes feel that the absolute and linear nature of time and existence preclude any idea of permanent "perfection" in the real world, but as I fumble toward the fundamentals of what it means to LIVE, I wonder if it is is not the end, but the journey, not the destination but the road, not the final achievement, but the attempt to truly achieve... One of the contradictions in life is that there is no sensible or recognisable ultimate "end" or "goal" of any true or absolute meaning - of course, there is an end to an individual existence, but this ending is not the purpose of life - thus while we continue to exist, we have no choice but to experience a constant CHANGE and progression that does have meaningful goals, achievements and experiences, BUT each one passes away inexorably into the past, and no-one knows what the future will bring.

Enough ramble - hope you enjoy what you see!