“I sort of became hooked on nature photography when a giraffe I was pointing my camera at turned around and looked at me and I took the picture and felt a connection.  

Holidays with my children focused around nature and together we took many pictures of different birds, mammals and insects, learning and observing their characteristics and the environment in which they lived. 

We joined the society many years ago and started entering competitions, readily accepting advice and guidance and we progressed after listening to many a talk and judges comments. 

More recently I have been drawn to the sea and learnt more about long exposure minimalistic seascape photography using filters.

I have taken photographs since the age of 11 and joined Stafford Photographic Society following my retirement in 2018.  I enjoy all aspects of the Society and find it to be a friendly, inclusive and enjoyable outlet For my photography.  I am a member of the Society’s Committee and undertake the role of PDI coordinator.

I enjoy the majority of photography genre’s and currently shoot with a Canon DSLR and a Leica compact camera.

Below is a gallery containing a selection of my images.

I started taking photographs as a teenager and joined SPS in 1990. I’ve been on the committee for much of that time, sometimes as Secretary or President, but mostly ‘dogsbody’. Though I enjoy most genres of photography, I have concentrated in the past 15 years on Audio Visual (AV). Through this interest, Carole and I have made many AV friends, and travelled, around the world, sometimes lecturing, sometimes judging international AV competitions. I am a PAGB AV judge and have been on distinction assessment panels for the PAGB and RPS. I was honoured to recently be awarded a Fellowship of the Irish Photographic Federation for my AV work. I’ve accumulated far too much photographic kit, but mainly use my iPhone and Olympus MFT systems.

Like many others of a certain age, I became interested in photography in my early teens.

Not much pocket money ,so film developing and contact printing was my starting point. A home made enlarger was a huge step forward for me. The tales I could tell, but not here.

Now much older, I am a committed Sony user, Sony A7c Body.

With Sony FE 20mm G, Sony 50mm f 1.8, Sony FE 24-105 G f4 and Sony FE f5.6 – 6.3 200-600 G lenses.

I have no formal qualifications and am entirely self taught using pc, Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CC . For printing I use a Canon 9000 Pro A3+ plus printer.

My subject range is general, with no specialist genre.

 A member of SPS for a good number of years and still enjoying photography.

I was a teenager when I first got interested in taking photos and bought my first decent camera, a Zorki 4 in 1968 when I was 17. In my early 20’s I was asked to take wedding photos of a deaf & dumb couple who could not afford a professional. I was 30 when I went to live in Zimbabwe for a few years and took wedding photos for two work colleagues, one of those was traditional African wedding and a truly jaw dropping experience.  During almost all of the many years since I have been asked to take many weddings, birthdays, christenings, people and organisations anniversaries, as well as other events. For example, this year I took five school events (I now have an advanced DBS Certificate – paid for by a school) This included my 3^rd visit to Victoria Hall to take award photographs and 3 proms. All I request if I don’t know the people asking is a small donation to one of the two charities close to my heart.  

I do enjoy going to the photo club meetings, chatting with members and seeing some amazing photographs even though my photos would be classified as ‘Picture post cards’ by a judge rather than competition photos. I am now retired and trying to get more into nature photography. I have also had studio lights for many years. I’m a Canon man, shoot in RAW and use canon free editing software and tweak in photoshop elements.