I started my interest in photography at a very early age and spent months deciding which camera i should buy. I finally bought my first SLR the Canon AE-1 program with the Canon Speedlite 199A in 1981. The Canon lens were very expensive and I decided to buy the Tamron 500 mm mirror lens and Tamron 70 - 210. I started taking pictures of birds in 1986 but the results were very poor with the limited success. I bought rarity pictures from Dave Cottridge and Dr Pete Wheeler and soon started asking them for advise. I was impressed by most of the photographs and decided that to get the best results i needed to use a prime les such as 500 mm or 600 mm.

I bought my first Professional lens in August 1988 the Canon 500 mm f4.5L with 1.4 and 2x converters. My first real attempt at rarity photography was a Bairds Sandpiper at Keyhaven in September 1988. It was surprising how different the results that I achieved but was still very disappointed. I still needed to improve my fieldcraft and spend as much time as possible with the bird reading the behaviour of each individual.

My first picture  published was of a firecrest hanging upside down on a leaf taken on St Agnes in the parsonage in October 1988.

The equipmet used currently includes the following

Canon Camera used                           Lens Used

            Canon 30D                               600 Lmm is F4.0

          Canon 40D                               400L mm  F5.6

Canon 400D with power grip                100-400 Lmm is F5.6

2 Canon EOS 1 MKII n                         28 - 70L F2.8

                                                      20 - 35 wide angle

                                                      2x Converter

                                                      1.4x Converter

                                                      50mm and 25 mm extension rings

Canon Speedlites 540 and 580      

Canon XL2 video camera  

Sigma 100 mm macro lens   

I have continued to use Canon as i believe that the results speak for themselves