About Me

Simply put .... I love being outdoors taking photographs and spending time with both friends and family. When I'm not working in Transport Planning, I unwind by getting out and about with my camera, my subject interests are wide but my main passion is the Natural World. I spend time within rural Warwickshire as well as regularly travelling around the UK and have been as far afield as Tanzania to capture Wildlife through the lens.

Experience

As a photographer I have undertaken a number of assignments ranging from Pets, Home Interiors, Products, Event and Wedding (Second) Photographer Roles.

Up until the end of the 2015 Club Season I was a member of Leamington Spa Photographic Society where over the course of 3 complete seasons I had a number of acceptances, commendations and placings within the clubs competitions and exhibitions. I have also had acceptances and commendations in national and international exhibitions and salons. My time as a member enabled me to explore my skills, whilst learning a great deal enabling me to develop my style. I just found club photography was a lot about photography to please judges and not purely for the reason I pick up my camera, to escape and see the world as I want to.

Photography for me after being a great way to adventure and feed my creative hunger is a constant learning process, building on a set of ever growing and changing skills.

I do wish to further progress my photography in the coming years. By concentrating my photographic efforts into starting and maintaining a small number of ongoing photographic projects, with the aim of eventually gaining a distinction with the Royal Photographic Society. As well as entering as many national and international exhibitions and salons as I can whilst continuing to add to my experience in working on future shoots and assignments that may come my way.

But most importantly it's just getting to see/experience some amazing things and have a lot of fun on the way to doing so.

Equipment

So whats in the bag .... I shoot using the Canon Eos System and with either a 1DX or a 7D Body with battery grip, I shoot usually with one body at a time but sometimes use a combination of both if lens changes are non efficient. (I did however start with an Olympus OM-1n 35mm but that's one for the the Shutter)

In terms of lenses, I have always tried to keep my kit as versatile as possible keeping a minimum of changes across either one or both bodies and have found the following combination works incredibly well from 16mm up to 400mm.

EF 16-35mm IS L
EF 24-105mm IS L
EF 100mm IS L (MACRO)
EF 100-400mm IS L

I may also use Canon Speedlite flashes and a range other tools/gadgets, and my current bag of choice to lug all my gear about in is the brilliant Mindshift Backlight 36L.

When extra support is needed my 3 Legged Thing Albert Tripod and L bracket, take care of things even when heavily loaded with a 1D & 100-400MM lens.

When I'm in need of holding back the light either due to conditions or for creativity, I turn to Formatt Hitech where I currently use a selection of 100mm filters & the well designed holder from their Firecrest Pro Range.

During trips out and about in less than ideal weathers, I keep comfortable wearing Paramo Clothing which I have found to be always really comfortable and dependable. Also when shooting wildlife the garments are rustle free due to the fabric used, which is a great bonus. I find their system just works as it should whatever is thrown at it.