About me
a quick introduction
Welcome to my (new) website, thanks for visiting.
I’ve been an avid photographer since the late 1980s. Familiar with most genres, I was club photographer for the Sheffield Steelers ice hockey team in the UK throughout most of the 1990s, before my two real passions kicked in.
The majority of my time behind the lens is now spent creating images for book covers (something of an obsession) and shooting live concerts whenever possible.
I still try to find time for landscapes when I can, but given that mountains are virtually non-existent in the Netherlands (where I now live), that can be a bit of a challenge. I usually have to wait until I go on holiday to scratch that particular photographic itch.
Photography, however, has never been my main profession. I’ve been a journalist, writer and editor for 35 years. So I’m usually being creative one way or another.
You meet the strangest people when you’re out and about with your camera. Yes, that’s me in Venice with actor David Tennant. (Photo: Georgia Tennant)
“Your photos are like capturing lightning in
a bottle”
a more detailed version
I can’t remember when I first picked up a camera. I wasn’t allowed near one when I was young (I had a habit of breaking things). My dad always had one when we went on family holidays and they always fascinated me, especially when the Polaroid instant cameras arrived in the 1970s.
I didn’t get my own until the 1980s (a tank-like Zenit SLR), before my long-term affinity with Nikon began in the 1990s. It started with the F90x and progressed through the D70, D300 and D800 – bringing me to the D850 and D5 I currently use. I still have them all, including the D5300 I won in a competition.
I worked as a journalist on a local newspaper in the UK for ten years and that gave me invaluable access to the staff photographers (and the dark room). I soaked up as much of their expertise as possible and put it to serious use when I teamed up with one of them and we became club photographers for the Sheffield Steelers ice hockey club. Photographing the fastest team sport on the planet was certainly an education! This is also when my interest in photographing concerts started – I’d review the shows and take the pictures as well.
Over the years, my writing career has taken me (and my camera) to six of the seven continents – including Antarctica – but a whole new world opened up when I started submitting work to Arcangel Images (one of the most creative libraries in the publishing industry). So far, I’ve been fortunate enough to have my images used on well over 300 book covers all over the world, including titles by many famous authors, such as Val McDermid, James Patterson, Lisa Jewell, Bernard Cornwell, Nora Roberts, David Baldacci and Diane Gabaldon. I’ve even been on a few myself!
Which brings me back to the gigs. There’s a thrill about taking photos at a live concert that’s difficult to match. My images have been used on tour posters, in promotional material and for general publicity. Still waiting for the album cover!
