I live in a rural Cumbrian village in the Eden Valley and am so lucky to live in such a scenic and beautiful part of England with so many photographic opportunities.

I‘ve always had a passion for studying nature in all its forms since I was a boy. I spent a lot of my youth studying reference books from the library and used to sketch photographs from glossy publications and wildlife magazines so I could keep the images of animals when the books were returned This study of photographs in national geographic magazines and the few wildlife identification books with decent photographs available at the time, fuelled my imagination and dreams of being able to direct the eye of the camera to expose the beauty of landscapes, animals and plants to the world as I see it.

I don’t always get it right, but half the thrill of capturing the atmosphere or moment in time, as a unique slice of time shot is the effort endured to be amongst the mountains or under the sea to be a part of that moment to make the image complete.

My obsession with diving started as a 14 year old boy watching the Jacque Cousteau programs on television. I have my Dad and his diving buddies to thank for training me. All my Saturday job money was saved to buy diving gear.

The most treasured of all was a Kodak instamatic 110 camera in a Birchley products housing. The flash cubes were fitted externally to the underwater housing and often floated away, despite them being sticky taped to the camera. Shots were terrible, but I never lost hope with my underwater photography and saved up to by a Russian built Cosmic Symbol 35mm camera and flash in another Birchley products housing. I yearned for a Nikonos underwater camera, but could never afford one as a teenager and young man.

The years role by and although I‘ve been an active diver with a keen interest in marine biology, underwater photography was still out of reach.. I currently use a Fuji finepix f200EXR in an underwater housing and enjoy the extra dimension of photography to my dives and interest in marine life. Photography in British waters is very challenging with poor visibility, tides and fierce currents giving backscatter with flash photography.

My first SLR camera was a Praktica, which was replaced with a Cannon 6 years ago I rediscovered my love of art in photography and travel with my Nikon DSLR at work, home or play.

My favourite lenses are the Nikon 400mm telephoto and 105mm macro. I enjoy walking in the mountains of the Lake District and Scotland with Fred, my four –legged collie dog companion, in winter and in summer.

I aim to capture an image that speaks for itself- whether its the cold of winter’s day, a lonely mountain, the innocence of a child at play or the beauty of a wild animal in its natural habitat.
It’s a privilege to share these shots.