For something completely different please visit www.instagram.com/nodding_pig/.

Thanks everyone for the 9 million views (October 2023). It has been a long, slow slog to this milestone, mainly because my Explore days are behind me (permanently banned, apparently, for too many railway photos). But the real pleasure of Flickr for me is not the number of views received, rather it is seeing inspirational and thought-provoking photography, and interacting with my valued Flickr friends and contacts.

Important notes

Many of the photos in my Photostream include members of the public. If you see yourself in one of these photos, and are unhappy about the photo being shared on Flickr, please contact me and I will be happy to discuss removing it. Thank you.

I welcome comments and constructive feedback, positive or negative. If your comment is polite and in some way related to the photo I will always acknowledge it, even if it takes me a little while to do so.

If you choose to 'follow' me that's fine, but it's unlikely that I'll reciprocate unless I'm strongly attracted to the work in your Photostream. I'm also unlikely to 'follow' you if you are already following literally thousands of other Flickr members. This is simply because I need to keep my contacts down to a manageable number: time is limited and I want to be able to properly appreciate the photos shared by the people I have chosen to 'follow'.

About me

The Nodding Pig sits on the parcel shelf of our car and can often be seen agreeing with views expressed by the car's passengers. I was born in Sheffield in 1959, then moved to the West Country aged about six, and have been here ever since, apart from when I lived in Birmingham as a student.

Photographic interests

Railways, architecture, towns, dereliction, street scenes and anything that looks in danger of disappearing, or being changed for the worse.

Cameras

I was given my first camera in 1973: the "Prinz Mastermatic III" was a simple 35mm model with fixed focus that seemed to work best at a range of about 30 feet . Those early results were mediocre, but I suppose at the time I was trying to get to grips with photographic skills. Then, in 1976 I received the gift of a Pentax Spotmatic 1000, which was a vastly superior piece of equipment. Sadly, that particular camera only lasted for a couple of rolls before it was stolen at a school fair whilst I was showing visitors the model railway. My dad must have taken pity on me because by the end of that year I had an identical replacement.

Until about 1983 I took slides almost exclusively (apart from a few black & white films whilst I was a student), then switched to colour prints for the rest of the decade. Around 1990 I acquired a second hand Pentax ESII which meant I could take slides and prints at the same time. A lovely camera, the ESII was damaged when I had to put it in hold luggage on a trip to Spain in 2006 (the hysteria about liquids in hand luggage was at its height), and it hasn't worked properly since. In about 1997 the collection grew with the addition of a second hand Nikon FM2, purchased specifically for use with an Arsat 35mm shift lens that I had already acquired for architecture photography. I retired the Spotmatic 1000 at this time.

In 2007 I bought a Nikon D80 and stopped using film. The D80 was replaced by a D7000 in 2011. At the end of 2011 I started shooting film again, in parallel with digital, using the Spotmatic 1000 and the FM2. In the winter/spring of 2013 I borrowed a friend's Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex, which was my first ever foray into the world of medium format film photography. Encouraged by the experience of using the Rolleiflex, I went on to buy a second hand Bronica SQ-A. In May 2015 I ventured into the world of Nikon FX photography with the purchase of a D610.

June 2018 saw me trade in the redundant D7000 for a Sony ILCE-6000 - something for those occasions when the weight and bulk of the D610 is just too much to bear. So far so good because this small but feature-rich camera is proving to be a pleasure to use.