This page does three things: tells you how I got into photography (because this is something I always like to hear about other photographers); describes the equipment and photographers that most inspire me (because you might find some of them helpful too); and, at the foot of the page, offers some more in-depth information in the form of free downloadable pdf files.

How I became a photographer

I’ve been short-sighted since I was six, and therefore aware that everyone sees the world in their own, unique way. I was fascinated by my first introduction to optics at school – it made me wonder what if we saw a different portion of the spectrum? Or if we lived at a different speed – could see things that move too fast or too slow to be perceptible to human vision? And, of course – what if the world is really different than we assume from seeing it the way we do? The camera is a machine that enables me to see the world in different ways – I love the surprise of looking at what I’ve taken with it.

My childhood passions were reading (especially about other worlds), exploring nature, and designing and making things. I was sure I was going to be a novelist, so I read English at Oxford; but then (since I couldn’t seem to start writing) I worked in publishing, specializing in illustrated non-fiction. I edited gardening books for Dorling Kindersley, which exposed me to professional photographers and garden photography; plus free Kodachrome and encouragement to take pictures in case they were useful for sales material.

Looking back, I think it was an unconscious revolt against the way I’d suppressed my creativity that sparked a personal crisis when I was thirty. I felt ill for no apparent reason, and in pursuit of healing I got involved with rebirthing and other new age pursuits. These were all immensely helpful, and I discovered many hidden aspects of myself and started to live a happier, more aware and more purposeful life. As I travelled the world to do workshops, I was also learning all I could about photography, and gradually discovering my real visual passions.

Where I'm at with it now

I've been studying photography seriously for more than twenty years – learning mainly from books and magazines. I used to shoot slide film, and switched to digital in 2006. I’ve investigated working for magazines and shooting stock, but nothing quite jelled, and I’m happy at the moment producing my own archival prints and pursuing fine art photography. I want to experiment with more abstract work, and given my publishing background (I still edit books as a day job), I’ve got lots of ideas for e-books, stationery, etc., some of which may even see the light of day.

Once I’m out with my camera and in the flow, I’m filled with peace and delight, regardless of what photographs I’m taking. It’s a way of being in nature, of slowing down and being in the moment, and of opening myself to seeing the hidden treasures I’d normally walk straight past. Frustratingly, I usually have to battle with myself – my inner critic will insist the whole thing’s a self-indulgent waste of time; that I’m not good enough; that I should be doing work that earns money instead. But I almost always get over this backchat and see wonderful things (if the process isn’t working, I find the most helpful thing to do is to stop still until I start to see).

Favourite tools

The viewfinder
I love this magic black box which somehow connects you intimately with your subject, while encouraging you to look at only what excites you. The viewfinder on my Nikon D200 is particularly good if, like me, you wear glasses (viewfinders on many cameras give me only a partial, rather grey frame).

Nikon D200 camera
I switched to digital capture in April 2006, when I bought this camera. It has surpassed my expectations, and I’m delighted by how much more I experiment now that there’s no film cost, just as I’d hoped. I shoot more hand-held now, because the results at ISO400 are excellent, and even ISO800 can work fine. I do still appreciate the way a tripod slows me down, though: I find a balance of both approaches, depending on the conditions and how stuck I’m feeling, is good. (I do lust a little after the new D300 – its sharpness at high ISOs and its 51-point AF system are tempting.)

Nikkor 105mm f2.8 macro lens
I bought this when it first came out in 1990, and have done the majority of my photography with it ever since. It focuses to life-size but also works well as a short telephoto lens. I think it produces particularly pleasing out-of-focus effects, and I often use it at either extreme of its depth-of-field capabilities – either to make one detail sharp and the rest of the image a blur of colour; or for the flat effect of having everything in the frame sharp. It’s small enough to be quite portable, and I often use it hand-held (I gather its replacement, which I covet for its vibration-reduction, is unfortunately bulkier). But the best thing about this lens is being able to explore right through a subject, setting your focal point wherever you like.

The best book on Photoshop/digital imaging
The book that finally got me seeing the wood for the trees with Photoshop and the whole digital imaging process is Rob Sheppard’s Landscape and Nature Photography with Photoshop CS2 (2006). I would highly recommend this even if you’re not using Photoshop CS2 – he presents a workflow that makes perfect photographic sense, and drums it home that the process is about bringing out your vision for the photograph – not getting hung up on some mythical idea of ‘doing it right’. I feel much more confident now about using all my imaging software, not just Photoshop, because the fundamental principles of working on a photograph always apply: I see the software clearly as what it is, a set of tools, rather than a baffling technological mountain that you have to climb exactly the right way or you’ll fall down a hidden crevasse and your image will somehow be defective.

Lightroom
A new toy, and one that’s made me an awful lot happier to work on my pictures. I can quickly sort out a cardful of images and rename the keepers, and then process individual pictures quickly and non-destructively. I also use it to create the gallery pages for this site. I still need Photoshop to make selective changes – and I mean sometime to experiment with collaging images – but Lightroom has radically simplified and speeded up my workflow. (I was using Nikon Capture NX and the file browser in Photoshop CS before, which didn’t work with each other and made the initial sort-out a lengthy, clumsy process.) I’ve found Martin Evening’s book on Lightroom very good, and there are also excellent tutorials and other resources online at Lightroom News, including a free ‘upgrade’ to Evening’s book, covering Lightroom 1.1.

Outdoor Photographer
My photographic education took a great leap forward when I came across the U.S. magazine Outdoor Photographer while I was living in Australia (the newsagents there are wonderful!). Once I was back in Britain I started subscribing – they offer amazing deals, so I get it delivered to my door for less than I’d have to pay if I could beam over to a newsstand in America. I particularly enjoyed the fact that (being Californian) many of their contributors talked about the emotional and spiritual challenges of nature photography alongside the practical technical considerations. Most of my favourite photographers, listed below, I first came across in Outdoor Photographer, and I especially recommend their columnists Dewitt Jones (very Zen!), George Lepp (great tech tips column), William Neill and Rob Sheppard (both of whom are featured individually on this page).

Favourite locations

Welsh Border
I grew up on the edge of Oswestry, and live a couple of miles away from my childhood home. I can see straight across the Shropshire Plain to the Wrekin and Long Mountain from my cottage, but I love most the hills behind me that are the beginning of Wales. The local geology is extremely varied – limestone hills next to sandstone, with odd volcanic outcrops – and so the landscape is full of surprises: scraps of woodland, stone outcrops, hidden valleys, streams and waterfalls. There were many attempts at mining and quarrying in the nineteenth century, most of which failed after a few years, and so there are old quarries, disused railway lines and canals and tumbledown buildings. I’ve got a lot more exploring to do.

Immediately west of Oswestry are areas such as the Old Racecourse, Candy Woods and Llynclys Hill (see Shropshire Wildlife Trust for their sites in the area, most of which are great for photography). A little further out are my two favourite valleys: Glyn Ceiriog and the Tanat Valley, both of which are wonderfully dramatic to journey up and are full of hidden corners. Going south along the Border, more favourite places are the Stiperstones (great dingles!) and Stapeley Hill (lots of archaeology).

Lake Vyrnwy
This Victorian reservoir in the Berwyn Mountains is one of those places that fills me with delight. I have childhood connections to it – my father was in charge of the dam and the aqueduct that runs from it to Liverpool: so I’ve been inside the dam, and also explored the romantic draw-off tower, which is full of fantastic Victorian machinery (neither are open to the public, I'm afraid). We usually drove visitors round the lake, though, and it’s only in the past ten years or so that I’ve explored the shores on foot. I love the head of the lake, especially, where there are all sorts of different landscapes crammed in a small area, and the varying water level means that no two visits are the same – there might be a sheet of water or yards of meadow there. Lake Vyrnwy’s now an RSPB reserve, and it’s their improved access I benefit from. Last winter I found the site of the medieval hospitium to the south of the lake (on top of the world), and I’m hoping to explore more of the side valleys soon.

My garden
I do a great deal of my garden photography at home, and plan the garden to be as photogenic and productive as possible. I moved here in 2004, taking over a garden that hadn’t been worked for twenty years. Since I’m renting, I garden on a shoe-string. I’ve cleared and rabbit-fenced (it’s like Beatrix Potter here!) a small kitchen garden area, with four vegetable beds surrounded by cutting and fruit beds. I also made some flowerbeds in front of the house, intending this as a sitting area, but found it too shady, and instead discovered the remains of an old brick stable floor under an enormous rubbish heap, which I’ve excavated and made into ‘the patio’, surrounded by old-fashioned roses and other vivid and romantic flowers.

My previous garden in Shrewsbury was very small, but I also rented a half allotment where I grew fruit, veg and flowers for cutting. Many of my earlier photographs were taken there.

Gardens open to the public
I’m lucky enough to live half an hour away from Powis Castle, and often go there to unwind and have fun with my camera. It’s somewhere that almost always fills me with peace and delight, and despite the fact I’ve been visiting regularly for fifteen years I regularly discover new things there. I used to go frequently to Wollerton Old Hall as well, but it’s a bit of a cross-country drive now I’m in Oswestry.

Further afield, I visit Wisley quite often, and also Harlow Carr, which has some imaginative things going on nowadays. I also love, when I can get down there, The Garden House, on the border of Devon and Cornwall. This got me very excited when I first saw it in the late 90s – it was so crammed with new and imaginative ways of planting.

Photographers I’ve learned most from

Niall Benvie
I was really excited when I first came across this Scots photographer via a feature he wrote for Outdoor Photographer. It was wonderful to see inspiring images taken in a landscape crowded with buildings, roads and telegraph wires after the seemingly endless wilderness available to American photographers. I’ve found his The Art of Nature Photography (2000) and Creative Landscape Photography (2001) both helpful and inspiring; and his website includes an archive of his articles on photography.

Joe Cornish
An absolutely brilliant British landscape photographer. He works with a view camera, and I can’t imagine going out with only a couple of dozen sheets of film (i.e. shots) for a day, but I have enormous respect for his work and he’s an inspiring author and workshop leader. See his website and First Light (2002).

Ernst Haas
He was a pioneering colour photographer, especially of more abstract work, and I find both his images and the things he said about photography deeply inspiring. Unfortunately his book Creation is out of print (I’d love to see it), but I have A Colour Retrospective (1989), and there’s a good website featuring his work and quotations from him.

William Neill
I especially like his landscape details and his ‘Impressions of Light’ series, which experiments with abstracts from camera movement. There’s a spiritual aspect to his work. His columns in Outdoor Photographer are always good, and I also recommend By Nature’s Design (1993); see the home page of his website for links to his online workshops and also to his new blog.

Freeman Patterson
I fell in love with his Portraits of Earth (1987), which were abstract in their absence of scale. He’s a great photography teacher, and I especially enjoyed his Photography and the Art of Seeing (1985) and Photographing the World Around You (1994); see his website for more information.

Galen Rowell
A wonderful landscape photographer (although rather too inclined to run up mountains at the crack of dawn to be a model for me), who also studied perception and colour vision in relation to photography. I recommend his Mountain Light (1986), and thankfully (he died in 2002) there’s a website featuring his work, including a reading list on perception and a selection of his Outdoor Photographer columns.

John Shaw
A great practical teacher for me, although the books I have were written in the film era (which was when I was learning about camera technique): Focus on Nature (1991), Landscape Photography (1994), The Business of Nature Photography (1996); he now publishes e-books on Photoshop, which are available from his website.

Linde Waidehofer
Inspiring for her intense colour photographs, and also for her self-publishing, which nowadays takes the form of e-books – see her website.

Charlie Waite
I learned a great deal from Charlie’s book, The Making of Landscape Photographs (1992), and also from him direct at one of the very first workshops he did with Light and Land, which was a real boost to my photography. His website includes a selection of articles as well as galleries of his dramatic and thoughtful landscapes.

Art Wolfe
Great landscape and travel images; I recommend The Art of Photographing Nature (1993) if you want to improve your composition. I find his website a bit confusing, but there’s some good stuff on there if you dig around.

Downloads

Enjoy photographing your garden
Tips from my slideshow talk for gardening clubs (see the News page for upcoming dates)

On photography (especially landscape photography), creativity and connecting with nature
Some favourite quotations.

What I’ve learned the hard way about digital imaging
Nitty-gritty stuff on exposure, white balance, software gremlins, printing, etc.