I guess you could say I fell into photography completely by accident, I honestly don't think my path to where I am now could be more complicated! Having grown up desperate to be a vet due to my love of all creatures great and small (meaning animals, not the tv series, although James Herriot was my early hero), grades at school didn't quite go to plan and i ended up spending my teens and twenties forging a career within the stockbroking industry before spending the majority of my thirties combining running a successful jewellery business with working as an addiction counsellor. 
Having spent 6 months travelling much of South-East Asia with no real purpose in 2010, it dawned on me that the only times I really felt alive were when wildlife was involved, such as spending time with Irrawaddy dolphins in Kratie, Cambodia and being lucky enough to get extremely close to Komodo dragons in Rinca, Indonesia.  Having then decided to focus my travels around exotic wildlife, I had further trips to Sri Lanka and Madagascar. However, it was only when I returned from Madagascar with 2500 poorly framed and mostly out of focus images, taken on a point and shoot digital camera, that i decided to try to learn about photography. Since then I have been on multiple wildlife photography based trips to locations such as Borneo (twice), Costa Rica and Indonesia. Having seen the improvement in my images, I then decided to take the plunge and go to university to try to help me turn my hobby into a career.
Since moving to Cumbria and taking photography more seriously, most of my focus has been on the wildlife and landscapes of northern England and Scotland. Having initially been underwhelmed by UK wildlife, believing we just had "a few brown birds and a few elusive mammals", my eyes have been opened up to the diversity of species and habitats in the UK. As I began to learn that field craft is almost as important as having photographic ability, both my photography skills and the variety of species i was capturing began to improve. Whilst at university, having experienced some very dubious behaviour from other photographers whilst out in the field, I also started to become focused on ethical wildlife photography, making this the subject of my dissertation. Since then, ethics, in particular practising photography whilst avoiding species disturbance as much as is possible, have been at the forefront of my work and I have a strong belief that an ethical approach to both artistic and conservation focused wildlife photography is of increasing importance, particularly at a time where habitat loss and declines in species are a major concern. 
Having graduated with a 1:1, I set about trying to make a go of a career as a photographic artist. As well as selling my works through both framed or unframed limited edition prints, I am also in the process of producing my first coffee-table style photography book. Originally due to be finished in mid 2020, covid-19 and the various lockdowns meant that I was restricted to the wildlife in my home island for the best part of a year and a half. Whilst the delays were frustrating, it forced me to get to know my local patch like the back of my hand, which, I believe, helped me to improve my photographic ability, although, that being said, the book is supposed to be about Cumbria, not Barrow-in-Furness and surrounding areas! So, for now, work on the book goes on. In the meantime you can keep updated with my current work here, on my facebook page or on instagram, or you can click below for more info on what the book's about.

More about the book