My photographic journey began as a child. I always loved taking pictures, something I possibly inherited from dad who used to dabble with developing his own black & white images. I got my first camera - a Kodak Instamatic - for Christmas when I was 8 or 9. I still remember the excitement of taking pictures and then getting them back from the developer after a week's wait. As I grew, photography became something I did to record fun times with friends or when I travelled; the images were about pragmatically recording a sight or an event rather than creating an aesthetically pleasing visual. Mum and Frank once bought me a calendar for Christmas called "The Moods of Nature". I vividly recall the immediate connection I felt to those images created around the world in beautiful light and I also remember asking being very happy to receive the same calendar again the next year, and the next....
Early days . . .
At the age of 15 I decided that I wanted to become a secondary school teacher. I then systematically went about doing what I needed to do, learning what I needed to learn and practicing what I needed to practice in order to be the teacher I aspired to be. I spent the best part of 39 years - some in England, most in New Zealand - as a secondary school teacher which was both energizing and exhausting, fun and frustrating. Then, as the years ticked by, something began to stir. Call it what you will - a mid-life crisis or maybe an awakening - but the stirrings were uncomfortable and clear signs of change ahead. Digital photography had been born by now and things began to change rapidly and with that, my interest in photography and the natural world around me in particular, burgeoned.
Today's me . . .
Today I no longer teach. I eventually gained the courage to trade in the security and comfort of a stable, (although by now, largely un-challenging) job in 2018, I upgraded from a small campervan to a larger motorhome and I chose to see my wealth in terms of hours in a day, not dollars in the bank.
My time is now spent (mostly) where and how I wish. A 5-week roadie around the South Island, a weekend in Golden Bay or simply spent in my own back garden. They're all idyllic locations if we take the time to really look and see. I love to immerse myself in the wonderment of the mundane but beautiful natural world around me. I like creating the images, capturing the detail or finding a perspective or view that reveals more about the subject than initially apparent. I also love to try new things - to pull apart the familiar in order to understand it then to build on that understanding to create my own version of it.
Photography is a pursuit for me: it's the journey not the destination that I crave.