ABOUT ME

A naturalist and photographer for the past 51 years, with a background in Horticulture.I was privileged to work for the Nature Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy Council, and finally English Nature. These are all the same government department responsible for Nature Conservation in this country.
I have worked as warden or site manager on several of our National Nature Reserves,
mainly at Castor Hanglands, and for the past 21 years in the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire.

My nature photography began many years ago with a home - made telephoto lens
and has progressed somewhat since then.

For anyone out there interested in the subject, I started off with a Pentax , and over the years have worked my way through nine of them.
In fact I still use the last one for close - up work, with a 90 mm Pentax macro -- that must be a collectors item by now ! I soon started to sell pictures for publications and many have been used all over the world. I had much material in a part work called " The Living Countryside" , and was a regular contributor to the R.S.P.B magazines.

My real claim to fame was winning the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award in the plant section, in 1985. I won a Minolta X700 camera, which was good, but I was so used to the Pentax system that it took a long time to adapt. Since then I acquired a large format Mamiya 645 and another couple of Minoltas.
As far as lenses go, I have dozens, but mainly use a Tamron 70 - 210mm , for hide work, and the old Pentax or standard Minolta for close work. I have a 100 - 500 Cosinon for long range work.

After working free lance for many years I finally put a lot of material with Woodfall Wild Images, a mainly wildlife photographic agency.
And that is where we are now.
At the moment I am re - working as much freshwater wildlife as possible. I have a whole series of tanks set up including running water. This is much less strenuous than struggling up a mountainside with a hide and all the gear

WE HAVE MOVED ON

Every thing is now digital.  I finally took the plunge about two and a half years ago.

I have all Nikon Cameras - a D100 and a D70 s

I have a Nikor 80-400 VR zoom and a Nikor 300MM

Recently acquired a Sigma 100-300mm Ex f4 with various converters.

I wish I had had this gear years ago.!

Many of my pictures can be seen on these internet sites -

http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showgallery.php?si=&perpage=24&sort=2&cat=500&ppuser=5779&friendemail=email@yourfriend.com&password=

 http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery21

 http://www.birdguides.com/birdnews/pictures.asp?s=all

 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shropshirebirds/

More about me if you are that interested