About Me
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Formby beach with Barney (I'm the one in the red shirt). Inset - Lucia at Llandudno beach (a cold day!). |
I was born in Birmingham in 1959 (I'm a bit more comfortable saying that than printing my age). I moved with my family to Rotherham and then Thurnscoe in South Yorkshire, and then to Northampton. As an adult, and through work, I have lived in Onchan on the Isle of Man and in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I am now settled in Warrington, Cheshire with my girlfriend Lucia and our dog, Barney.
I first created this Website in 2004/5, not long after purchasing my first digital SLR and while studying on a part-time degree course in Computer Science. In recent years I have been working on a Web project - a Design and Content Management System, due to be launched soon. This site is the first to be created on (moved to) the new system.
I have been interested in birds for as long as I can remember. When I was young we lived on the edge of Thurnscoe village and we didn't have to walk very far to be in the open countryside. Walking, watching and learning to recognise birds was something many of us did to pass our weekends and school holidays away. There were no computer games then (actually, no computers if I'm honest).
That said, I do not have a thorough knowledge of birds and struggle like the majority of casual birdwatchers to tell one Warbler from another, or to identify that winter wader at a distance.
The first camera I owned was a Zenith E SLR (anyone remember it?). At the time I was interested in motor racing and most of my pictures (slides) were taken at Silverstone. Twenty years later I bought an Olympus SLR (I can't remember the model) and focused mainly on black and white photography; setting up my own darkroom. I remember at the time investigating the equipment I would need to go photographing birds, but I found the cost prohibitive.
My first digital camera was a Nikon Coolpix 885. I bought this to take pictures for a website I wanted to develop for work (it was never finished) and to take pictures when on holiday. I take it with me on field trips to take landscapes of the places I visit.
I decided to buy a digital SLR and go photographing birds in May 2004. At this time, there was still some debate about whether digital or film was the way to go for bird photography and I spent a lot of time reading up on the subject. I read 'The Art of Bird Photography' by Arthur Morris, one of the best and most highly respected nature photographers in the world. This is an excellent book, considered by most to be the very best on the subject, however, it was first published in 1998, so digital was not an option and is not mentioned. Now, of course, there is no debate about digital v film (apologies to any photography purists reading).
Get hold of a copy of the The Art of Bird Photography
, especially if you're a beginner. The majority of the advice and techniques described are still applicable to bird photography today and the images are inspiring. Visit my Books page to see a list of other books I have read.
For a while after buying my digital SLR I wasn't sure if I had made the right decision and I was starting to regret spending all that money. This was mainly due to the fact that my first images were of such poor quality. This is an important point for beginners. Even with the very best equipment (which I certainly didn't have) it can take time, effort and a lot of patience to start producing good quality images.
In these 'about me' pages (see the links below), I have listed and described my photographic equipment, and to a certain extent my technique, in the hope that it may be of interest to beginners in bird photography. A lot of us make mistakes when first buying equipment and when first going out into the field; I certainly did, and still often do.
My Equipment:
- Cameras
- Lenses
- Support (tripods, etc)
- Protection
- Hides
- Flash
- Camera Bags
Other:
- Digital workflow
- Books
- Other Equipment
