I‘m sure I was the despair of my parents. I simply didn’t know what I wanted to do, apart, that is from being a rock star. That hasn't happened yet.

Eventually, I qualified as an English teacher taking up a post in a secondary school. This wasn't really me, and in 1977 I secured a job at a London music publishing company. We produced background music for TV Radio and Films. This was more my thing since I’d always been very active musically, writing songs and playing in bands.

My dad had great influence on me. He had charisma!

Apart from having a natural talent for landscape photography, he loved collecting sea pictures and abstract modern paintings and that's where my interest in photography started. 

When I was 15, he entered me into an annual photographic competition as a junior under his name.
I was surprised and delighted to come second with a photograph of beached sailing boats. The judges said, and I quote - “this wasn’t just some photograph taken to finish off a roll of film.” Actually, that’s exactly what it was!  Even so, this small taste of success inspired me to continue snapping away. Small victories are important.
 
I lived in Surrey for several years regularly working as a freelance photographer for local newspapers. At the same time, I sold pictures to advertising agencies via Stock Photo Libraries.
 

In 1989 I completed a professional photography correspondence course to help me brush up on important skills.

My partner and I now live on the East Sussex coast. This is an area of outstanding natural beauty and part of the South Downs National Park. There aren’t enough hours in the day to photograph it all!

We both enjoy travelling and always with a camera. The pictures “Tokyo Rush Hour” and  "Great Southern Hotel Berry” were taken in Japan & Australia respectively. 

I still get a huge buzz waiting for a print to emerge from the printer and regularly feel amazed at the results.

VISIONS AND INSPIRATION

The world is full of wonderful photographs and photographers. I particularly like the work of Boyd Norton and Annie Leibovitz.
I was always taught that a photo should tell a story or have a universal theme.  That is to say, something to which people can relate to at an emotional level. Happiness, sadness, humour, nature, tranquillity, loneliness, family, poverty, war, famine. The list is endless; of course, some subjects being more appealing than others. 
I believe that simple is best and it continues to astonish me in a fast-moving digital age that we can look at a static image repeatedly and never tire of it.

MY APPROACH?

I start with a photograph, then, with a little bit of magic, some photos are transformed into Paintings or Lithographs. Some become Watercolours or Plain Pencil Sketches. Others are more abstract or conceptual. Much depends on the image, what is appropriate and where the mood takes me. Photography should be fun, impulsive, and afford the opportunity to experiment.