When you look at the natural world you will see great beauty. Fleeting moments can take on great significance and brief encounters can leave the watcher breathless. It is the attempt to capture those moments and to try to produce evocative images that drives me on.

Originally from Manchester, I came to Sheffield to study a degree in Environmental Science in the late 1970s where I specialised in wildlife conservation. I trained as a teacher and worked as a lecturer of Environmental Science in Sheffield for 20 years before I became a full time wildlife photographer.

I started photography about 40 years ago with a Pentax SLR using slide film. This seems a bit like the Stone Age today but it did teach me a lot about how to operate a camera well, there was no checking on the back screen then! 

I have always had a deep passion for wildlife since childhood, my favourite book, 'My Family and Other Animals' by Gerald Durrell echoed so much with how I viewed the natural world, though from a English perspective and not a Greek one.

When I was at university one day I was out on the Peak's moors recording birds nests for the BTO when I met a bird photographer. A chance conversation led to a session in a hide on a Redshank's nest - I was hooked! To be so close and yet the bird unaware was absolutly incredible, I loved the whole experience. I spent the next few years working from hides and learnt so much of the field craft that is vital to become a succesfull wildlife photograher. I gradually moved into working more widely and with a greater range of subjects such as plants, insects, mammals and reptiles.

Today I use the  Canon EOS system with a variety of lenses with a EOS 1DX, 5Dmk3 and 7Dmk2. About 15 years ago I decided that I needed to start to sell my work and I am now represented by a number of agencies (NPL, FLPA and the RSPCA) and sell images and articles to a variety of magazines and organisations. I write a monthly wildlife article for Derbyshire Life and I was Amateur Photographers wildlife photography masterclass expert for 2010/11. I am also a contract holder with Natural England and have responsibility for wildlife photography throughout the East Midlands and Peak District.

During the year alongside photography I give slide shows and talks, workshops and tutorials, usually with a strong conservation theme. I run a number of trips with Natures Images.

I look at different styles of photography and try to incorporate those aspects which I feel are appealing into my work. I have travelled abroad to work photographically and I can easily see why it is so popular and usually easy!  However, I definitely prefer to work in the grey and dank UK- images are much harder to obtain and therefore far more satisfying.

I have won a number of prestigious international awards. I have been highly commended in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2008), a catagory winner and highly commended in European Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2010 + 14) and Festival de l'Oiseau et de la Nature (voted the publics favourite image in 2013) and have had numerous images featured in British Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2009-14).

I have written three books so far, 'Wild Derbyshire', 'Wildlife Photography Field Skills and Techniques' and 'The Art of Fungi Photography'. My fourth book, 'The life and Times of Henry Seebohm' (a Victorian Onithologist, traveller and steel maker) should hopefully be published in 2020.