About Me

I got my first camera, a 110 cartridge film camera, when I was about 7. It was red, it was plastic, it was pretty rubbish, but it was mine and I loved it! My first outing with it was a trip to a local park where I rattled through the 24 exposures in about half an hour taking photos of the ducks. I excitedly snapped away at anything which moved and couldn't wait to get home to post them off in the paper envelope to be developed and printed. And when they were returned after what felt like an eternity (about 3 weeks) the photos were predictably awful! A whole lake and a speck in the distance which may or may not have been a duck. But I didn't care, I'd taken those awful snapshots, me, and nobody else. It was my record of that day, that cold, dull day. But I'd had the best time ever...

I kept on snapping away over the years when my pocket money allowed it. Went through several similarly rubbish cameras, and thought I would die from jealousy when my sister bought herself a compact camera with auto-focus! She was kind enough to let me borrow it a couple of times, and after one trip with it a suggestion from a High School Art teacher made me think about pursuing photography at college (says a lot about how good my drawing and painting was...) And after 6 years studying I hope my photographs improved! I achieved A-level, BTEC ND and eventually BTEC HND Photography in 1999. I'd spent 6 years learning darkroom developing and printing. Digital..? Passing fad isn't it..? How wrong can you be? I tried to resist as long as I could and stick to my 'Silver gelatin roots'. But eventually I gave in and sold my soul to digital. It's very much a love/hate relationship but most of the time we get along okay. I'm learning my way through Photoshop CS5. If you are an expert and can see glaring edits/errors I'm happy to receive any advice. Otherwise feel free to have a look around and let me know what you think via the 'Contact Me' page.

Almost 30 years later I still have those awful photos, I wish I still had the camera. As you may be able to see from my images on this site, I'm still happiest when I'm snapping away somewhere or other. I have no favourite subjects to photograph, I just get in my car and drive. These are some of the things I've seen.

I also owe a "Thank You" to Chris. I may have been slightly tipsy (Ahem...) but I was listening.

We all have to start somewhere... x

Thanks, Hazel.