A bit of Background

I have never run a Blog before and have not really worked out what you are supposed to do with them, here i go feet first leap then look.

Why am i writing this?
I wanted somewhere to put some of my pictures and to get some feedback if anyone ever reads this.
I looked into competitions and found that professional photographers are having lots of issues with rights control of pics entered.
I will link to rights issues later on as it is important that us amateurs don't kill an established industry.

Many many years ago in Barking (East London), there was a young lad who wondered, what should i be when i grow up? (I think my parents where getting concerned about my lack of direction, i was probably 7 or 8 years old and showing no signs of looking forward to a nice career in Dads DIY shop.)
Sometime during the next few weeks i while watching my usual diet of nature programs and The High Chaperal, David Attenborough did something i had never seen him do before, he stopped chatting about animals and drove (in a Land Rover) to a man in a tent in the middle of nowhere, or Kenya, i forget which (i was only 8 fer-*$%"@s sake)! This other guy was one of the worlds premier nature photographers, Mr A. and the other fella chatted about what he was shooting today and then they showed, through the miracle of modern technicolour television, some of his pictures.
Hmmm. Tent, big view, foreign travel, Land Rover, no one telling you what to do or when to do it (as far as i could see), getting paid lots of money, meeting Mr A. for chats about what a great bloke you are and how inspiring your pictures are, got it!!!! ''Mum, Dad, i know what i want to do when i grow up.... I want to be a wildlife photographer!" "Don't be silly son, you'd need a university education and contacts in all the right places to do a job like that, jobs like that are for rich kids! What about Fords or the railways, now there's a job for life."

In 1974 when you where 8 dad knows best, end of dream.

Punk came and went so did school and the 80's where so good we listened to 60's and 70's music for a decade joined bands and watched 'The Young One's, Easyrider, Woodstock Festival and went camping at bike shows, music festivals and anywhere we liked, which was anywhere there where trees fields and wildlife. Cameras where cheap nasty without zoom and you had to go to boots to get the pictures developed and it was expensive, Dad was right.

So eventually the 80's ended (hurah! it took a whole decade!) and we drifted seamlessly from hairy bikers to dirty ravers (it was so Woodstock!!! i think!) cameras where still rubbish i would get one every few years try it get frustrated and give up.

A trip around the world in 94-95 further frustrated me i still had rubbish film cameras with little or no zoom or shutter adjustment just point and squirt, i got some nice pics sent the best ones to friends and family at home to 'share the experience' and never saw more than a half dozen again.

By the end of the 90's i was in a band again and our other guitarist, got his photographer mate to come down and do pics. He brought with him his new state of the art digital camera, it was the dog's, no film, process it on the PC and away you go, probably 3-5 mega pixels, AWESOME!!!(this was press photographer quality stuff)

One year or so later i got knocked of my bike (tail ended at a roundabout), I thought i was in for a few quid this time, the guilty party and the woman i was knocked into had plenty of time to chat at the side of the road, while i lay in the middle of the road dreaming about the shiny red Ducati i was going to buy when i got this sorted out. Short version is i got £400 scrap value for my bike and tough titties, so, just enough for a computer then, and a while after that, with a Cycling holiday in Spain on the horizon i bought a Cannon 1.3 mega pixel with 3x optical zoom it cost about £300. With it i took one what is still one of my favourite photos of my Wife on her bike somewhere between Castro Urdiales and Larado

Pic:001
Here's the Missus before the promotion, when she was still the girlfriend, in northern Spain.
We didn't know she was pregnant when we left for 2 weeks riding the mountainous north august 2002.











The years have sped by, a new house later and the kids are at school and old enough to take camping, 3 mega pixel cameras are cheap as chips, time is short, but every once in a while i get a little inspired and get out whatever snappy cam i have to hand and start shooting 'the natural world'.
Usually only to find that i didn't have enough zoom or couldn't focus that close to the subject.

Pic:002. Slug and Woodlice on log back garden 2004

OK, so i got my first half decent camera, 18 months ago or 35yrs later depending, on your outlook, i am starting to make excuses to go and use it.

Some of you will scoff but my 'half decent camera' is a Lumix Fz18 compact. i needed a camera for all things quick light and easy, lots of zoom and a DSLR was just too expensive for an out and out noob like me, maybe in a couple of years a second hand one will appear for the right price.

I think i may be getting the bug.

I am also getting a number of projects together the snow covered tree at the top of the page will also have spring, summer and autumn added to its folder so i get an all seasons set of the same tree, or so i hope, i want to arrive at about 7pm so the sun is about the same place as it was at 3pm in winter.

I will work my way through all the Corny arty shots you see on photography sites, you know the ones, car lights speeding trough a junction at night on long exposure, drops hitting water with fast shutter as well as wildlife stuff too. this will in no way be a tutorial but if you have a question i will try my best to answer it.