My Profile

I was born at Rainer's Lane, London in 1943, but spent most of my school life in Cornwall.  I joined the RAF in 1960, training as an Aircraft Fitter Weapons, at RAF Halton.  I served until 1973 and then joined the GPO Telephones, which became British Telecom in 1984, working as a Precision Testing Officer.  I took early retirement in 1994 and after a few other jobs I finally settled into retirement proper in 2005.

I've always had an interest in nature, but it took a trip to see the Ospreys at Loch Garten in 1990 to rekindle my love of birds.  My photography started in 1960 with the purchase of an Ilford Sportsman ... at the time, a very costly 6 pounds and ten shillings.  That camera lasted well into the 1980's, but with the advent of Canon's EOS system, I migrated to auto focus in 1990, buying an EOS600.  It seems strange to think that we once focused a lens by hand, making certain that our subject was well within the depth of field for that particular aperture.  The other explosive impact on photography came with the invention of CCDs and it was obvious that they would only get bigger and better.  My first steps into this medium occurred during a holiday to South Africa in 2001, digiscoping through a Kowa 621 with a 3megapixel Fuji compact.  Two years on I had migrated to a Nikon 4500, but I always found it difficult to set the camera and telescope up quickly enough to get the shot that I wanted.  In 2005 I finally discovered DSLR in the form of a Canon 10D and coupled this to a Canon 400mm f5.6 prime lens.  Since then I have migrated through the 20D to the 40D that I use today.  I still have the urge to digiscope though and have recently purchased a Minox DCM camera that fits direct, via a bayonet fitting, to my Leica Televid apo 77.

I regard myself as an amateur in both fields of Birding and Photography and have no illusions to my ability, but I admit to getting lucky now and then.  I have a few photos published in Birding World, Bird Watching and Bird Watch for my efforts.  I also submit rarity photos to Birdguides website.   My other interests include Fingerstyle guitar, Astronomy and Geology.