About me and my photos

In 2000 I decided to learn how to use a 35mm camera properly so enrolled on a City & Guilds Photography course one evening a week. This taught me the basics of how to manually use a camera and then how to develop and print my own black and white images. I knew then that this was something I really enjoyed and became just a little obsessed.

Most of the images you will see are of Dartmoor, over which I have enjoyed walking for over 20 years. When I took up photography, the most natural thing to do was to combine my two hobbies. I started off by taking mostly black and white but am increasingly using colour more, despite the fabulous Fuji Velvia 50 transparency film being no longer made I intend to stay film based for the foreseeable future.

All of my black and white work is processed and hand printed by myself in my own wet darkroom. The cards are printed on resin coated paper and the prints, both mounted and unmounted, are printed onto fibre-based paper – they are then given a selenium bath which should help to make them archivally safe, in all, a time consuming process.

My colour work is made up of prints taken from transparencies, which are processed and printed for me at a reputable lab. I used to have cibachrome prints made, but, as with some other film based products, the paper I preferred has been discontinued. I now have high quality digital prints made which should be archivally safe for many years.

I soon learned that the best images are made at either end of the day, although the hours in winter, with it’s low sun, can be made much more use of. I consider it a real privilege – once I have managed to get up – to be out at dawn. It’s a magical time with colours not seen during the daytime. Again, the same can be said about the evening light, which sometimes can be unbelievable.

I have now widened my selection of images to include other areas. I live in beautiful North Devon and really am spoilt for choice. We have the sea, beaches, cliffs, Exmoor to the east and Dartmoor to the south. There is so much to choose from that it can be difficult to even decide where to go. I consider myself to be very lucky.

The camera that I mainly use is a Nikon F80. I carry two bodies, one loaded with colour transparency film (usually Fuji Velvia 50, until I have used up my supply) and the other with a black and white film, (Ilford Delta 100, 400 and HP5). I have lenses of 18 – 35mm, 28 – 80mm and 70 – 300mm. I use a polariser most of the time and a red or orange filter for my black and white work. I use a tripod 99% of the time. In the darkroom I have a Durst M605 enlarger and use mainly Ilford paper, both resin coated and fibre based. Mounted prints are dry mounted to prevent them from lifting and going wavy. They are mounted in plain off-white mountboard.

I hope that you enjoy looking at my site as much as I have enjoyed producing the images that you see there.

If you have any questions please contact me and I will be happy to help.