Hello and welcome to my online gallery.
So, who am and why am I doing this? (that’s a question I ask myself sometimes!). I'm a self-taught photographer with no formal art training. I've loved photography since my late teens when I was given a Kodak Instamatic camera (some of you will remember those) for Christmas. Later I started using fully manual Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras for family photos and for taking images of the night sky. Why the night sky you ask (possibly)? well, I've had a long interest in the science of the universe and used a telescope and film cameras to capture images of the moon and "fuzzy blobs" (nebula and galaxies, comets etc.). Although I don't do that these days, it did teach me how to manipulate a camera and, just as importantly, developed my patience and persistence due to the time taken to capture and develop such images on film (some of you will remember film as well).
The coming of digital photography opened the way to me for more photographic learning and creativity. I joined a camera club and the Royal Photographic Society (and gained their LRPS award) and started to develop my style and the scope of my output. My work now is wide ranging and is inspired by manmade and natural forms (landscape, natural history, abstract, macro, colour and monochrome etc.). I love the feeling of the creative processes involved in producing a work of art, and I strive to make my photographs just that, art. I want to hang them on my own walls at home and for them to enhance that environment. From the seeking out interesting shapes, beautiful vistas, wildlife etc. to the final printing and framing my images I take care to make to make my images engaging to me. I hope that in doing this I make the work engaging to you, the viewer, as well.
For me photography is not just record of something in from of me, it’s the door to the creative process, allowing me to break the world down into manageable portions which engage and challenge my mind. I use in-camera techniques and development tools as I think appropriate to create the images I show. Some images may not look natural but they represent what I saw in my minds’ eye when pressing the shutter button on my camera. I’ve dabbled in other art forms in the past but it’s in photography that I’ve found my creative outlet.
I’ve been exhibiting in art and craft shows, Art Weeks events and private galleries for about a decade now and enjoy meeting and engaging with people about my images and how photography fits (or not) within the art world.