Click here to view my photos as a continuous stream.

A retired librarian, and an occasional photographer, with a fondness for abstraction; for subtle shapes and colours; for the elegant simplicity of a well-crafted artefact; and for the often unnoticed beauty that can be found in the very small.

On a less pretentious note, I can’t resist characterful cats, demonic squirrels, obese wood pigeons, and beautifully coloured six-legged beasts that do terrible things to your garden plants. Human beings, with the exception of performing musicians, rarely get a look in, and I’ve never knowingly photographed a dog. (Not wishing to alienate any dog lovers who might stumble across my Flickr photos, I should hasten to say that I have no doubt that there are many strikingly handsome, or cute and cuddly, members of the dog family. It’s just that I have a preference for characterful cats, demonic squirrels, etc. etc.)

My early photography was done on film with a basic manual SLR. The last 15 of my Flickr pages are from scans of prints from the film years. I stopped taking photographs for a very long time, but was tempted back when I realised the advantages that a digital SLR could bring and, in mid-2007 I bought my first digital SLR, a Canon EOS400D.

I mostly use it with a Canon EFS 17-85mm IS 4-5.6 USM, a Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM, and a Sigma EX 105mm f2.8 macro. I use this often incomprehensively sophisticated piece of equipment in a very unsophisticated way – the camera is almost invariably set to aperture priority, manually focussed, and operated in natural light. The depth-of-field preview facility is invaluable. I make extensive use of a tripod, and also of various photo-editing programmes – mostly Corel Photopaint. For my abstracts/photomanipulations I also use a variety of applications which offer me different types of effects filters.

An update, very belated, on cameras is called for. My Canon has been supplemented by two smaller 'bridge' cameras - a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ 38, and a Nikon Coolpix P510. The Panasonic has a very good lens, is small and easy to handle, and works well in low light. The slightly larger Nikon has certain advantages over the Panasonic including a beautifully clear articulated rear viewing screen, and a somewhat unbelievable 42x optical zoom. This would be of little use without an effective anti-vibration system. Thankfully there is a very effective one! As indeed, there is on the Panasonic with its more modest 18x optical zoom. The miracles of modern science! Both cameras have given me many more picture opportunities than I might have had if I was only using the Canon SLR. These days that stands me in good stead for close-up and macro work with a tripod.

Flickr has offered me a much appreciated opportunity to both share my photographs with a potentially vast ‘audience’, (some of whom have said nice things to me!) and to explore and marvel at the imagination and creativity of so many wonderful photographers (to some of whom I have said nice things!) All in all, a very pleasurable experience!