I started photography way back in my childhood - a cheap instant camera as a Christmas gift. I progressed to 35mm B&W in college where I studied a City & Guilds - learning the camera (Minolta X700, Minolta Dynax 404si, Praktika MTL 5 with broken light meter), film developing and printing.

It was a way of dealing with my shyness, and later, my mental health issues - depression ruled much of my teens, twenties and thirties. I was eventually diagnosed with ADHD and the treatment/medication really helped me to solidify things in my life. It gave me focus I'd never had before. I grieved for all the lost opportunities and wasted time lost with not being able to focus on the main creative outlet I had. Now I have much more focus and drive to improve my photography, and hopefully that shows.

Then I gradually moved to digital with a Nikon D40. I'd add lenses to the Nikon, until it was lost in a burglary. I moved up to a Nikon D90, with the 18-105 kit lens and a Tamron 70-300 zoom macro (which I still have, despite it starting to fail). I added a Nikon D2x to the mix, more lenses (Sigma 150-500 superzoom, Nikon 50mm ƒ1.8 AF-d). I sold most of this to then get the current Nikon D3x as I had fallen in love with Nikon's pro body format and this is the camera I continue to use today. I'd happily get a replacement of this, but I'm also considering getting a D2x (or the D2xs) as a second body.

I also did photography professionally with a design agency - doing client portraits for their corporate websites, as well as product photography for advertising or production reviews. I moved companies to a specialist auction house and did their instrument photography - namely classical violins, bows, cellos and the like. Some of this was used in advertising and was also a very exacting and demanding process - the clients of the auctions demanded fidelity and colour which we had to provide. It could make or break sales.

After this I moved into being self-employed with a dog walking business in partnership with my wife, which has now allowed me more flexible working hours and giving me the opportunity to get out and about photographing more. I'm slowly building up my gear again now I'm able to and looking to get a dedicated macro and superzoom to replace that ageing Tamron.

(updated 08/11/21)