I am passionate about capturing and sharing stories of the incredible creatures with whom we share our world. Through my photography and writing, I hope to show the wildlife that often goes unseen and inspire others to care and learn more.
Background
I was born in the suburbs of the West Midlands conurbation in 1961. Unlike many wildlife photographers, I did not have an upbringing surrounded by wildlife nor the encouragement of a supportive mentor to stimulate an interest. I don’t have a wildlife-related degree nor any formal qualifications in photography but I am passionate about both.
My mother was a farmer’s daughter, and I spent many happy summers on the family farm in Staffordshire, giving me an abiding passion for the freedom and open spaces of the English countryside.
I nearly became a farmer, but in the end, became a public servant, first joining the army and, several years later, the police, where I finished my service as a detective in 2011. I have since worked periodically as a contract investigator and crisis consultant.
Working Life
I learned how to use a camera and darkroom as a photographer on the streets of Belfast. A tour of duty in Hong Kong that followed provided the opportunity to buy a decent camera, set up a darkroom and the inspiration to take pictures. When I returned to the UK, I came close to trying my hand as a professional. I am unsure what genre I would have been drawn into; probably the competitive world of weddings and portraiture. Not being a natural “people-person,” I would not have lasted long. Anyway, growing family and bills to pay put paid to that dream. Although I wonder what might have been, I look back without regret. Struggling to find inspiration, I have fallen in and out of love with the hobby many times. I didn’t pick up a camera with serious intent until 2015, when I discovered the buzz of wildlife photography on a trip to Tanzania, generating an abiding passion that hasn’t dwindled. Despite the immediacy of digital photography, the unpredictable behaviour of wildlife and the challenges of wilderness photography means I still enjoy the same anticipation of working in ‘Lightroom’ as I once did in a darkroom.
Professional Wildlife Photography
So, I decided to become a professional wildlife photographer. Although it has never been my sole source of income, it now dominates my working life. I have sold prints, written for magazines and other publications, and run photography workshops at home and overseas.
In 2018, my wife and I left the hustle of a big city to live in the open countryside, moving from the industrial midlands to a rural smallholding in a quiet valley below the splendid wilderness of the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and within a short distance of the rolling uplands of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It is an ideal location to live and photograph local wildlife.
A recent change in circumstances has refocused my energies on photojournalism once more. Living where I do, with all the attendant wildlife conservation issues, I have now turned my attention to this.
So, browse my galleries, buy my book (when it is finally published), read my posts, follow my story and enjoy the website.
If you are interested in learning more about my book or anything else I am involved in, please subscribe to my occasional newsletter using the form at the bottom of the page.
Please call back.
Recent Awards
