I’m not much of a writer. I’d like to be but despite my best attempts I can’t ever convey what I’m feeling using words. The medium of photography helps me to convey some of my innermost thoughts and opinions. I have often contemplated the exact time that my interest in photography began. The closest link is my love of observing the natural world. Aged 9, I became obsessive about watching and studying bird life. My voracious appetite for recording new species took over my childhood – nothing else mattered to me. As a young ornithologist I read numerous books on the subject, my xmas list no longer contained toys – they were replaced with binoculars, natural history books, bird feeders and nest boxes.

From the comfort of my bedroom window I studied the bird life in our back garden, magnified through the lens of my, newly acquired, binoculars. The binoculars opened up a new, exciting world which fuelled my imagination. The journey of looking through a lens had begun and continues to this day. In later years the binoculars were replaced with numerous cameras. Observing the world around me was no longer enough, I needed to record it.
My first attempts at photography were not very successful. Making a simple record of an object or scene, is exactly that, a record of what’s in front of you. Photography is, despite the protestations of some painters, an art form. At this point of my life I was no artist. For a photographer to create art, they have to put something of ‘the self’ into their imagery (whatever the subject matter). My lack of life experience and technical tutoring was reflected the photography I produced.

Despite these early failings I persevered and went on to study documentary photography at Newport film school, achieving a BA Hons. degree in the late 1990′s. I now work as a freelance photographer and take on a variety of projects as well as leading a number of different outdoor photography workshops. My love of the natural world is still as obsessive and this is the area of photography I specialise in. If you are interested in learning more about digital photography and visiting some areas of outstanding natural beauty, please feel free to contact me about attending one of the courses.

Neil