 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Photography was the only profession I wanted to be in, so after leaving school I attended Derby College of Art at the Green Lane annex for 4 years from 1960 under Jack Tait and John Fisher. On leaving Derby I worked as a Medical Photographer at St James’s Hospital, Leeds, where under the guidance of David Howard, the Senior Medical Photographer, I learned the disciplines that formed the foundation upon which the rest of my career of 40 years was to be based. My work at ‘Jimmies’ covered every aspect of Medical Photography - it was the largest Teaching Hospital in Europe and proud of its reputation. It was with great sadness that I left St James’s in 1968 to take up the post of Photographer at a Research Institute in Berkshire where I was to set up a Photographic Department from scratch. The new department was to cater for the needs of around 230 scientific researchers, technicians and other staff, and provide virtually all photographic services in-house - quite a challenge. Two people were key in the smooth running of the department, Geoff Fletcher, there from the early days, an accomplished photographer who enjoyed his sports cars and now runs his own business, and David Hawkins who having attained his Degree in London, was raring to go and quickly gained the respect of myself and the rest of the Institute staff. During the early 1970’s I developed, specialized in and offered a unique Photomicroscopy service to researchers at my own Institute and others. Apart from a keen personal interest in this field, it was also in an effort to keep the standards of lecture slides and publication prints as high as possible - it was notoriously difficult at that time to produce evenly illuminated, sharp and colour saturated transparencies from tissue sections. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Bone Section
|
|
|
|
Around this time I added the Advanced Technicians Dip in Applied Photography to my qualifications, resulting in promotion to Senior Photographer grade. At the same time I was awarded my Fellowship of the Royal Microscopical Society and shortly after was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 1975 I submitted a Portfolio of my work to the RPS under the category ‘Scientific Purposes’ and was awarded an Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society. In 1976 I was promoted to Principal Scientific Photographer and became the youngest CS photographer to achieve this grade. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
During the mid seventies, my interest in creative photography grew, perhaps as a counterbalance to my daily work, and I joined the Newbury Camera Club. It was mixing with tallented photographers like Ray Goodenough, Pauline Phillips, Pete Sutton, Richard Summersby, Dave Hatfull, Hugh Anger, Joan Wakelin, Brian Most, Tony and Gwyn Smiles, David Wheeler and Tony Worobiec, that really sparked my enthusiasm and introduced me to the highly competitive environment of Camera Club Photography. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Newbury CC Exhibition. With kind permission of Jim Irving
|
|
|
|
These were heady years when as a club we seemed unable to put a foot wrong, winning many major national and international competitions including the first Jessop £1,000 Competition. During those years the club went from strength to strength, with the highlight being winning every round of the fiercely contested ‘Southern Photographic Federation’ competition during one year in the late 1970’s - to our great embarrassment and delight. I’m particularly proud to have been involved in the success of the club during those years and of forming enduring friendships with a bunch of interesting, competitive and like-minded people. www.newburycameraclub.org.uk |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Collecting our cheque. With kind permission of Jim Irving
|
|
|
|
During the next fifteen years I was involved in a number of different ventures, but photography and my enjoyment of it was never far away. In 1999 I relocated to the remote Preseli Mountains in Pembrokeshire, UK. where once again I’m able to indulge my passion for Photography through the Commercial Services I offer, and share it with other enthusiasts in my Day and Residential Digital Photography Courses. |
|
