About me
I live in Macclesfield and have been taking photographs for many years. Like many people, I started working with film and I had my own darkroom for many years where I produced a few passable B&W prints. However, I really struggled to realise the image I had in my mind and for a long while felt very frustrated. It was only through going digital in 2000 that I was able to produce the sort of images I dreamt about.
I have progressed through a variety of cameras and for a number of years, I used a Nikon D200 and then a D300s with a range of Nikon and Sigma lenses. In 2015 I switched to an Olympus OMD EM1 which is a great camera: small, lightweight but giving high-quality images.
The big change for me occurred around 2020 when I started using my iPhone 8 for photography. Having worked my way through several models, my iPhone 15 Pro Max is now my main camera. I also do all my processing on my phone using the app Snapseed, which is not only free, but allows me to do pretty much what I was doing previously with Photoshop on my computer. I also use a selection of additional apps (e.g. Spetrre, Provoke Full Spectrum Camera) which opens up phone photography allowing access to most styles and genres.
I work mainly in colour with a bit of the occasional B&W. If you look over my site you will find that there are a number of what could be called "straight" images, but much of what I have displayed has been 'processed' in some way, although I do like to keep this to a minimum and preferably not too obvious. Whilst many workers will cite other photographers as their source of influence, I feel my work has been informed more by painters, particularly the Symbolists and Expressionists. If I had to pick specific painters then Caspar David Friedrich and Vilhelm Hammershoi are artists whose work I greatly admire. They both managed to create a sense of stillness and tranquillity whilst coupling this with a feeling of unease and uncertainty.
I have a particular interest in Art/Photography History and the work of the Pictorialist and early Modernist photographers, in particular. Again you will see the influence of these two movements in my photography
In Dec 2010 I received a CPAGB accreditation from the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB) and in Dec 2011 I became a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society (LRPS) which I followed up with my Associateship (ARPS) in October 2012. My panels of images, some of which can be seen here, can be viewed in full on the Macclesfield Camera Club website.
For 8 years up until 2014, I was president of Macclesfield Camera Club.
I regularly lecture on various aspects of photography my 10 talks are listed below.
1. Pictorialism and the Art of Photography – a look at the Pictorialist movement which ran from around 1850 to 1920
2. It’s all about seeing – a talk about the basics of composition
3. Realising your photographic potential - a look at what you need to do to become a great photographer
4. Fine-tuning your photographs – the first part considers the role titles have on image appreciation, the second part considers some finer points of photographic composition
5. Landscape photography: theory and practice – a talk on all aspects of landscape photography, the second half is based around audience participation
6. Pioneers of Colour Photography – the first half involves a look at the life and work of 5 twentieth century colour photographers, and the second part considers contemporary masters
7. Street Photography: A Different Perspective - a look at street photography from its early days in 1960s New York to the modern interpretation of the genre
8. Making the most of Travel Photography – a talk explaining how to return from a holiday with stunning images, illustrated with the author's own images
9. Pictorialism to Modernism: Photography in the Early Twentieth Century – a look at the pioneers of Modernist Photography, ca. 1910 to 1960
10. Mobile phone photography – a look at the pros and cons of mobile phone photography and how this is gradually replacing my DSLR
I am also an accredited judge with the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union and I offer tuition on camera skills, phone photography etc.