About me

Welcome to my photography blog site. I’m an amateur / hobbyist photographer from Gloucestershire. I don’t really have a specialist subject or area at the moment, I enjoy landscapes, long exposures, night photography and underwater photography. More recently becoming more interested in working with people, I enjoy shooting what I call “Creative Portraits“

For me, photography is very much my art, I don’t especially find a need to document or to tell a story as such, but I do very much enjoy creating pleasing and artistic images. I’m a very active member of my local camera club in Gloucester, and also Bristol Photographic Society. I like helping other photographers and have recently become a Federation Judge for WCPF and MCPF.

I also really enjoy entering salons and exhibitions, pursuing various distinctions and accreditations. I find this really helps and drives my photography. As of May 2024, I hold DPAGB, EPSA, EFIAP/b, BPE4. I have decided for the moment not to pursue further RPS distinctions so I have let my RPS membership lapse, and therefor am not entitled to use the title LRPS any longer. I may decide at a later date to re-join the RPS.

Achievements, Awards and Accreditations

2024

• EFIAP/bronze – 450 Acceptances in FIAP International Exhibition
• Fourth BPE Crown For 200 acceptances in National Exhibitions
• PAGB Black Badge – Selected to represent Great Britain in the FIAP Biennial 2024
• Bristol Photographic Society Annual Competition – Advanced Prints – Winner
• London Salon Of Photography – Accepted for both Colour and Mono
• WCPF Members Exhibition – 10 Acceptances & 3 Selectors Awards
• Gloucester Camera Club Annual Competition – Advanced Prints 2023/24 – Runner Up
• Gloucester Camera Club Annual Competition – Advanced Digital 2023/24 – Winner
• Gloucester Camera Club – Banner Trophy 2023/24 – Most Acceptances In International Competition
• FIAP Blue Badge – Best Author In International Exhibition – Photoclub Alianza Francesa Medellin Circuit 2023

2023

• EPSA – 700 Acceptances in PSA Exhibitions
• EFIAP – 250 Acceptances in International Exhibition
• PSA Whos Who Of International Photography 2022
• Third BPE Crown For 100 acceptances in National Exhibitions
• Bristol Photographic Society Aggregate Competition – Advanced Prints – Winner
• Photographic Society Of Great Britain –
• WCPF Members Exhibition – Margaret Aven Trophy For The Most Acceptances (17)
• WCPF Members Exhibition – Best Mono
• WCPF Members Exhibition – Best Creative
• Masters Of Print – Gold Medal – Best Colour
• Gloucester Camera Club – Gloucester Cup 2022/23 Winner
• Glouceter Camera Club Annual Competition – Advanced Prints 2022/23 – Winner
• Glouceter Camera Club Annual Competition – Advanced Digital 2022/23 – Winner
• Glouceter Camera Club – Panels Competition – Best Print Panel 2022/23 – Winner
• Gloucester Camera Club – Banner Trophy 2022/23 – Most Acceptances In International Competition

2022

• AFIAP – 40 Acceptances in International Exhibition
• Second BPE Crown For 50 acceptances in National Exhibitions
• Gloucester Camera Club – Gloucester Cup Winner
• Glouceter Camera Club – Panels Competition – Best Mono Panel – Winner
• Gloucester Camera Club – Banner Trophy 2021/22 – Most Acceptances In International Competition

2021

• Royal Photographic Society – Licentiate
• First BPE Crown For 25 acceptances in National Exhibitions
• Gloucester Camera Club Annual Competition – Intermediate Colour 2020/21 – Winner
• Gloucester Camera Club Annual Competition – Intermediate Mono 2020/21 – Runner Up
• Gloucester Camera Club – Banner Trophy 2020/21 – Most Acceptances In International Competition

2020

• My first Acceptances and Gold Medal in International Exhibition (FIAP/PSA) – Cheltenham2020 (PAGB Gold)
• My First Acceptances in National Exhibition (BPE) – Neath2020
• Gloucester Camera Club Annual Competition – Beginners Prints 2019/20 – Winner
• Gloucester Camera Club Annual Competition – Beginners Digital 2019/20 – Winner
• My First acceptances and award in external exhibition – MidPhot2020 (MCPF Ribbon)

2019

• Gloucester Camera Club Annual Exhibition – Beginners Colour Prints – First Place
• Gloucester Camera Club Annual Exhibition – Beginners Mono Prints – First Place
• Gloucester Camera Club Annual Exhibition – Beginners Digital – First Place

 

My Photographic Journey

I’ve been interested in photography since about 2013. I first decided to take it up as a hobby after I’d split up with my partner, I’d just finished doing up my new home and was looking for a new personal interest. I’d been a keen scuba diver for a few years, but not really that keen on diving in the UK any more having been somewhat spoiled by diving in the fabulous waters of The Red Sea and The Maldives, so needed something else in addition. And so close, personal friend suggested that since I liked taking snaps of fish on my underwater compact camera, then I may well enjoy photography.

At first I was a little skeptical, but decided to give it a shot (pun intended) and in the summer of 2013, I did a bit of research then bought a cheap Fuji S2980 bridge camera. And on 5th August I headed out in to the Cotswolds to have a play around…

This was the very first photograph I took as a hobby. It’s the Plough Inn at Ford in Gloucestershire.

I thoroughly enjoyed just being out on my own, absorbed in taking photographs, a feeling of relaxation and calmness I still feel now when I’m out with my camera. I messed about with the built in zoom and tried playing about with Depth Of Field and ISO which I’d read a bit about during my research. I went all around the Cotswolds, stopping to take pictures of things that caught my eye like thistles, wheat fields and cows leaning over gates, eventually ending up at Birdlip taking pictures of the sunset and bee’s and Moths in the dark! I finally got home at about 11:30 at night.

When I looked, about 95% of my images were crap (which is still pretty much the ratio to this day in fairness) but was totally hooked on photography from then on.

Over the next few weeks, I went out to Rococo Gardens, Plitville Park, Gloucester City Center and Easnor Fireworks, where I shot this image that I still have on my Livingroom wall and as my Facebook banner picture now! Although I am starting to sort out some new images to update the artwork in my home so I don’t think it will last much longer on my wall, but I have no intention of changing it on my Facebook profile.

By the middle of September, I had really become enthralled with photography, I signed up for a short Intro To Photography course at Cheltenham collage to learn a bit more about it. I was amazed by the types of things you could do with a camera, so much more interesting that the grainy, faded images of my Aunty Mag wearing an orange & brown pant suit in the 1970’s that I was more familiar with up to that point

A bit of practice coupled with newly learned knowledge from the Intro course, and lots of YouTube videos, I started to get some pretty decent images for someone that hadn’t really attempted to take a considered image less that 2 months before. I was trying out all sorts of things like abstracts of oil on water, water drops on CD’s Forks and Spoons, and spirograph with light.

I soon realised that I’d outgrown the capabilities of the little Fuji Bridge camera so I again did some research decided to upgrade to a DSLR, so bought a Nikon D3200 and over the next few months I continued to experiment and practice both at home with things like water splashes and out and about exploring places like (the very photogenic) Gloucester Docks and as far as Elan Valley. For Christmas 2013 I decided to head out to The Maldives again and bought an underwater housing for my D3200 to combine my two passions and was really pleased with some of my images even though still only being taken with natural light. Here are a few of my images.

2014 was a year of travel for me, I actually took a photograph in a country other than the UK in every month of the year. In January of course I was in The Maldives, February was New York, In both March & April I went to Germany for work. May was Croatia, June in the Red Sea then July & August was a long weekend in Amsterdam. In September I went to Iceland, then back to Germany again in October, November I out to Malta & Gozo, then December I headed back out to The Red Sea again.

I think I spent pretty much all my free time in 2014 with a camera in my hand, or editing photographs, I’d again quickly outgrown the quality and features of my D3200 and was needing more of full featured, enthusiast camera, so I invested in a Nikon D7100 – which I believe is one of the best all purpose cropped sensor camera’s out there. And my photography really continued to progress.  I joined a photography group in Bristol and continued to shoot landscape type work, Inspired by the Brooklyn Bridge, also I started out on a bit of a project to photograph bridges, especially ones that were illuminated at night.

A fun fact for 2015 was that I saw the year in and out underwater, with a camera in my hand – I don’t think there are many people that can claim that! I got involved with a small photography group in Kingswood that I really enjoyed, but I was working away quite alot and I’d met a new girlfriend so finding time for photography was really difficult. I still took my camera with me many places, and did manage to get some good shots at places like Slimbridge and Cotswold Wildlife Park, but spending a couple of hours to shoot landscapes is much harder with other people in tow.

Throughout 2015 and 2016, my bridges project continued, and while working in London, I finished work one evening at about 5:30 near Westminster, and had a slow walk back along the river to my hotel near Tower Bridge, taking photographs all the way – eventually getting back to my room at around 1:30am. 2016 also saw me point a camera at a model for the very first time on a Malice In Wonderland shoot with some Gloucester based photographers. Here’s a couple of the images from that shoot

I continued to travel in 2016, albeit not quite as much as in 2014, I managed to get a couple of dive trips in, and also a wonderful photography trip out to the Rocky Mountains in Canada – I managed to shoot some brilliant landscapes out there and would love to go back. I won’t include images here as I’ve already uploaded some in to my Landscapes Portfolio – Click here

2017 was rather a quiet year photography wise, much the same as 2015, finding it harder to balance work, social and photography. My partner and I went to Majorca with some friends in the summer,  which was fun, but not really very photographic, however we went to Thailand late on in the year and I managed to get some images I was really pleased with. I’ve included these in my portfolio here, and here.  I managed to get one trip out to the red sea, which has turned out to be my last due to a combination of a problem with my foot preventing me from diving for a couple of years. I’d finally recovered and was fit enough to dive again, so I’d booked another trip scheduled for the beginning of April 2020… And we all know what happened at the end of March 2020… The COVID19 pandemic closing the world down for the best part of two years.

In 2018, I joined Gloucester Camera Club and started to enter club competitions. Because I’d not entered all rounds of the annual competition, it wasn’t possible for me to win anything in the 2018/19 season, but in the 2019/2020 season I more than made up for it, first of all winning  all three of the Beginners sections in the 2019 Annual Exhibition <Click here> and then both the Digital and Prints sections for the beginners class for the Annual Competition. <Click here> 2020 also saw me enter my first external competition (MidPhot2020) and was thrilled to have two images accepted, and another winning an award!  <Click here> I then went on to enter the Cheltenham International Salon and was absolutely amazed to win a Gold Medal! <Click here>

In 2019, I started to become more interested in working with models so I signed up for a couple of studio workshops, they arn’t especially cheap, but lighting is usually set up well for a beginner, and you lean alot as well as usually coming out with some reasonable images. I found that I very much enjoyed shooting Art Nude images as well as Fine Art style photography. Again, this fits my passion for high quality, visually pleasing photography.

In the 2020/21 season, won the Colour – Intermediate class and came second in the Mono, I was also placed second in the club Panels competition. In national and international exhibitions, I managed to achieve almost 50 acceptances in the season, winning the Banner Trophy for the most acceptances in the season.

In the Summer of 2021, I managed to achieve 25 acceptances in to British Photographic Exhibitions, gaining me my first BPE crown award, which is no mean feat because the competition in BPE Salons is very intense as there are only about 10-12 salons per year and BPE Crown Awards are pursued by many British Photographers. I also managed to gain 40 acceptances in FIAP International Salons, which meets the criteria to apply for the AFIAP award in November. I’ve also gained a number of medals, ribbons and awards along the way. I update my Awards & Acceptances blog with my competition achievements. <Click here>

My crowning achievement of 2021, and indeed my photographic journey so far, must be, that on my 50th Birthday, I was awarded my LRPS. This really was quite a rollercoaster trip, being unsuccessful in my first attempt (which I felt was a little harsh, seeing the standard of other, successful panels) I’ll talk more about my road to LRPS in a blog post though. The important thing is that I was eventually successful. My successful panel is displayed here

So that’s really my photographic journey so far. Currently I’m doing lots of work with models, Over the summer of 2021 I’ve been shooting alot, and I’ve done a couple of high quality, styled shoots recently that I’ve very much enjoyed so I’m also working on developing my photoshop skills to complement this. This is my first attempt at it, I’m pretty pleased with it for a first go, but I can’t see it winning any awards or anything and feel I have a long way to go with it before I’m up to the standard that I’d like.

Where do I want to go next? Well, this season I’ve moved in to the Advanced Photographers class in the camera club, so I’m not expecting to win this season as we have some very good photographers as members. I have already reached the criteria for AFIAP so will be able to apply for that this year, and I’m actually well on my way to EFIAP, but won’t be able to apply for that until November 2022 at the earliest. I am considering PAGB distinctions, either CPAGB or DPAGB, I’m not sure what standard I am at yet. I am also starting to think about what I can do for my ARPS also – I do have the concept for a panel in mind, but it’s going to take some time, expense and effort so we’ll see how things pan out.