Born in 1967 in Warwick, Warwickshire, I moved to the Northwest of England in my early twenties.
I currently live in Wigan, Lancashire and have done for the past 30 years.
My main hobbies are photography and software development.
I’m active with my local photographic club Chorley Photographic Society and am currently the General Secretary of the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union, and also the General Secretary of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain.
Some of my software projects include https://ukcpg.co.uk and https://cimgr.com which are provided as a free resource to fellow photographers.
I first became interested in photography after buying a digital bridge camera, whilst on a family trip to London in 2006.
I quickly moved on to my first DSLR and joined a local Photographic Society in an attempt to become more proficient with my camera.
Joining a photographic club drew me into the concept of competition photography, and after twelve months perfecting the craft, started to have some minor successes at club level.
This quickly led onto national competitions, and I entered my first national competition in 2008. This eventually led onto international competition, medals, and a reasonable number of blue badges (best author) in major salons.
I joined Chorley Photographic Society in 2012 and subsequently left my first club to pursue my ambitions in national club competitions, helping Chorley to regularly appear in the top 10 in the FIAP World cup and also reaching the finals of both the National Digital and Print inter-club championships in recent years.
I started out like most amateurs as a ‘traditional’ style photographer, but became interested in ‘pictorialism’ … the concept of photography as an art form, and photoshop, and developed a strong post-creative ‘alternative reality’ style of imagery.
However, in recent years, now that I have had the opportunity to travel, my favourite genre has changed again, and travel photography has become my new passion.