I was born at an early age near Wigan, in Lancashire as it was before they moved it to Greater Manchester, the same year as the Festival of Britain was held. My interest in photography started to develop at the age of 11 when I was presented with a Kodak Instamatic camera for passing my 11 plus. A succession of 35 mm cameras followed, and by the time I was 14 I had discovered how to obtain the key to the school darkroom and evade doing PE, or games as it was called. Instead, I taught myself black and white film processing and printing.

Upon leaving school, being a Lancastrian, I joined the textile industry, which only took 3 years or so to slump and I was made redundant, joining instead British Leyland's Heavy Vehicle Division in Truck Service.

Following an internal transfer some 7 years later, I became a computer operator with BL, and subsequently worked my way up (or should it be down) the grades with various financial organisations, culminating in working for a major local authority as an IT consultant with a special interest in digital imaging.

Throughout this time my interest in photography had continued, albeit in fits and starts, until it was kick-restarted with the introduction of affordable digital photography in 1999. The liberty that digital gave me, freedom from messing in the dark with nasty chemicals which didn't even taste particularly nice, has driven me to now move exclusively to DSLRs. Recently the doctor advised me to lose weight, so I bought into the Olympus four-thirds system, which is much lighter and has some of the best lenses around.

I now live in semi-retirement with my wife Rowena in Scotland. I earn beer (or should it be malt whisky?) money by selling my photographs to locals, visitors, and picture libraries, and also via the internet, and I work part-time as a caretaker on a private country estate.

I also carry out specific photographic assignments on request.


Cow Gate