Biography
A little about myself and how I became interested in Photography.
Born in Hampshire in 1940 and moved to Dorset in 1947 where I live today.
I was about 14 years old when I first took an interest in photography. My hobby at the time was Entomology, and I was a collector of Butterflies and Moths. It occurred to me at the time it would be better to make a photographic record rather than kill and pin them out for display!
Having little or no money an expensive reflex camera was beyond my reach, but my family did own a Brownie Box Camera and some Binoculars.
I discovered that if I Glued the front lens from the Binoculars in front of the Camera lens I could focus down to about 10 inches, and so, with a short stick held against the Camera body with elastic bands, I could set the focusing distance to the object I was photographing, and that was the start of my photographic exploits.
With the gradual acquisition of more sophisticated equipment (I have mainly used Minolta), I moved on to photographing other wild-life, country scenes, and landscapes.
In my early 20's I was one of the founder members of Wimborne Camera Club. In 1966/67 we began developing AV (Audio Visual) presentations and doing public showings. By 1970 another club member (Alan Seymour) and myself designed and built what was probably the world's first fully automatic twin projector fading system. The Victorians called this kind of presentation "dissolving view", all be it done manually in those days with acetylene lamps.
The group within the club was to be called "Vision 70 Colour Sound". An assessment of the equipment's performance years later revealed that over 1 million fault-free operations had been achieved.
In 2003 I changed over to Digital with a Minolta Dimage 7i passing on my two 5000i cameras to a young enthusiast.
In 2004 I retired from work as Principal Design Engineer and to my delight, have recently renewed acquaintances with some friends from the club who are excellent photographers and a great encouragement.
At the end of 2005 Minolta closed down their camera operation, which supprised us all, and when my Dimage 7i failed it could only be replace by the insurance company with an offer of a Canon EOS 350D which I happily accepted.
I met and married my wife, Nicky (known as AnnaKirsten on her web site) in the early 70's, and we have one daughter.
You will notice that the title of two of my galleries start with the word 'Creation' and I give this explanation.
I was brought up on Evolution, which seemed simple and logical at the time, but as I became interested in photography and especially macro work I found myself asking how did this or that happen? Could it be by random chance and mutation for which there was and is no observed or recorded evidence. We can see the workings of natural selection in for example the Horse or the Dog but this turns out to be selected variety within the existing DNA, which for the Wolf, Great Dane or Miniature Poodle is virtually identical. From dead chemicals to a beautiful Butterfly is quite another matter.
As a Principal design engineer with 48 years experience, if there is one thing I can recognise, its design by a brilliant designer.
I was about 14 years old when I first took an interest in photography. My hobby at the time was Entomology, and I was a collector of Butterflies and Moths. It occurred to me at the time it would be better to make a photographic record rather than kill and pin them out for display!
Having little or no money an expensive reflex camera was beyond my reach, but my family did own a Brownie Box Camera and some Binoculars.
I discovered that if I Glued the front lens from the Binoculars in front of the Camera lens I could focus down to about 10 inches, and so, with a short stick held against the Camera body with elastic bands, I could set the focusing distance to the object I was photographing, and that was the start of my photographic exploits.
With the gradual acquisition of more sophisticated equipment (I have mainly used Minolta), I moved on to photographing other wild-life, country scenes, and landscapes.
In my early 20's I was one of the founder members of Wimborne Camera Club. In 1966/67 we began developing AV (Audio Visual) presentations and doing public showings. By 1970 another club member (Alan Seymour) and myself designed and built what was probably the world's first fully automatic twin projector fading system. The Victorians called this kind of presentation "dissolving view", all be it done manually in those days with acetylene lamps.
The group within the club was to be called "Vision 70 Colour Sound". An assessment of the equipment's performance years later revealed that over 1 million fault-free operations had been achieved.
In 2003 I changed over to Digital with a Minolta Dimage 7i passing on my two 5000i cameras to a young enthusiast.
In 2004 I retired from work as Principal Design Engineer and to my delight, have recently renewed acquaintances with some friends from the club who are excellent photographers and a great encouragement.
At the end of 2005 Minolta closed down their camera operation, which supprised us all, and when my Dimage 7i failed it could only be replace by the insurance company with an offer of a Canon EOS 350D which I happily accepted.
I met and married my wife, Nicky (known as AnnaKirsten on her web site) in the early 70's, and we have one daughter.
You will notice that the title of two of my galleries start with the word 'Creation' and I give this explanation.
I was brought up on Evolution, which seemed simple and logical at the time, but as I became interested in photography and especially macro work I found myself asking how did this or that happen? Could it be by random chance and mutation for which there was and is no observed or recorded evidence. We can see the workings of natural selection in for example the Horse or the Dog but this turns out to be selected variety within the existing DNA, which for the Wolf, Great Dane or Miniature Poodle is virtually identical. From dead chemicals to a beautiful Butterfly is quite another matter.
As a Principal design engineer with 48 years experience, if there is one thing I can recognise, its design by a brilliant designer.