About me

I have spent a life in education as a teacher. I still enjoy nothing more than helping/teaching people to improve their photographic skills with the camera or with Adobe’s Photoshop.

If you are interested in ONE to ONE TUITION, and would like to enjoy a workshop, at the computer or in the field, please contact me.

I have been involved in photography for a very long time.

My first encounter with photography was in 1958, at the age of 8, in my parents’ kitchen. The magic of producing simple contact images and watching their details appear in photographic dishes was sufficient to form my interest for the rest of my life.

At the age of twelve, I spent considerable time, with my father, in his darkroom that resided in a corner of the garage. This resulted in the production of black and white images, between 8½ x 6½ inches and something like 16 x 12 inches, using an amazing variety of photographic papers and finishes. The prints were washed in the bathroom and then left on the tiled wall, to dry over night. At that time I was using a 35mm Vioghtlander Vito B camera (that produced stunning results).

As the years went by I graduated to my own darkroom where the main output was colour prints (from negatives) using mainly a pair of Mamiya 645s and occasionally Contax (35mm) cameras, which were usually used for colour transparency film or black and white negative stock.

In 2002, I bought a digital compact camera, to satisfy my curiosity!! I was knocked, out and from that time on, I was smitten by digital photography. From a Nikon Coolpix 4500, I soon progressed to my first digital s.l.r., a Canon EOS 10D and a few Canon/Sigma lenses. I quickly found that my film cameras were simply gathering dust, and so they were sold!!

Up to this time, my photography had been restricted mainly to landscape and steam railway photography. But the purchase of a digital slr (with its resulting increase of lens’ focal lengths) meant that I could start to flirt with my long interest of wild birds (the feathered type) and other wildlife. My recently purchased Sigma 170-500mm lens gave me focal lengths of up to 800mm! I was able then to photograph small birds from a reasonable range, with mainly pleasing results.

I had become hooked and so I made the transition to a 500mm prime lens, via a Canon 100-400mm zoom lens (with 1.4x extender).