ABOUT WHY YOU'RE READING THIS

Because I'd like to offer my services as a photographer at a price everyone can afford.For whatever reason you need a man with a camera to take high quality digital photos,maybe you're  getting married,maybe you're selling your house(or your horse!),maybe you're holding some sort of sporting event or rally or maybe you're putting on a play.How about a school reunion,restoring an antique barn,or clearing out the village pond or other conservation work that needs to be properly documented,or even just some old black and white photos that need to be scanned and digitally retouched to restore them to their former glory,or for any other reason whatsoever (within reason),then why not see what I have to offer.You're only as far away as an e-mail if you need to know anything more,and I will attempt to get back to you as soon as possible,and I guarantee to answer ALL e-mails sent to me.

ABOUT ME

Well,what about me then?.I have been taking photos for some 30 years now as a hobby,so I guess that makes me an amateur photographer as I don't earn a regular living from it.I started off just taking photos of aeroplanes,mainly at Gatwick and Heathrow airports,then to the cars and hot rods that used to decorate my school exercise books,right up to todays extreme sports,from motocross to mountainboard,and jetskiing to BMX.My own self indulgent website that I get to show just the photos I like is a good insight into what makes me tick,click here to see what I'm on about.
I am the resident photographer on the Jetski Freestyle National Tour (click here for more details) ,and my photos are featured regularly in the popular Jetskier magazine.
What is a photo to me? Well,I don't really see it as an artform,more as a way to catch a moment in time and preserve it for ever,or to freeze a moving object in one place in a way that we could never do by an other means,and give the viewer the chance to see something totally unique.No photo can ever make up for not being there in person,but it can do a very good job of conveying to others what made that moment so special to us.With the advent of wireless internet technology,and cheap but reliable digital cameras,we now have the ability to take photos,and send them to anywhere in the world within seconds of taking them,making photography available as more than a tool for journalists and taking holiday snaps.
The ability to see the photo within a second or so of taking it,and the complete removal of the old fashioned chemical darkroom and optical enlarger from the chain,and replacing them with a computer and image manipulating programs,such as Adobe Photoshop means that now everyone has complete control over the whole process if they need it,and the old saying that "The camera never lies" could never be further from the truth,as we now have the ability to make it do whatever we want it to,but to still be faithful to us when we need it to be.

ABOUT THE CAMERAS I USE

Canon had won a lot of fans with the non professional EOS-D30 and EOS-D60 digital SLRs,the non pro bit meaning an image sensor about 2/3 the size,no built in battery grip,and very little environmental sealing around the switches etc.I needed the total versatility and quality of interchangable lenses,with the superior image quality and lower noise of the bigger image sensor,and based on the previous reputation,the CANON EOS-10D seemed to be the only choice.With it's 6.3 million pixel CMOS sensor,3 frames/second for 9 frames in motordrive mode,very good low light performance down to ISO3200,and autofocus that could track with a VERY fast moving object meant this camera was a dream come true.

In the space of a year,I took some 35,000 photos with it,until Canon announced the release of the "I've-got-to-have-one-of-these-straight-away" in the form of the EOS-20D.This improved on the 10D by getting an 8.2 million pixel sensor,almost instant start up time compared to the 10D(2.5 seconds can seem like a long time when you're in a hurry),even better low light performance,better dynamic range(the ability to record light and dark at the same time),faster and more accurate autofocus,and 9 frames/second for 23 frames.The images this and the 10D can capture never fail to amaze me,with enlargement to A3 size still producing pin sharp images,and even A2 enlargements can still give truly amazing results.It has now got to a point where the performance of digital cameras has exceeded that of slide film,which used to be considered the standard against which all others were judged.

The lenses I use were all designed for 35mm film cameras,which is about 1/3rd bigger than the image sensors on both Canons,so this means that the effective focal lengths are multiplied by approx 1.6 times.This is a real bonus for the telephoto stuff,as 500mm is now 800mm,but it does mean I lose out at the wide angle end of the scale.

The Canon 28-135mm F3.5-5.6 IS.The "IS" bit stands for Image Stabilisation,tiny servo motors inside the lens are controlled by motion sensors  to cancel out any camera shake when taking long hand held exposures.

The Canon 20mm F2.8 USM wide angle lens, a very high quality fixed focal length lens capable of focussing down to 25cm,and a 94 deg. field of view.

The Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 DC HSM ultra wide angle zoom lens,going down to near fish eye and giving a 102 degree field of view.

The Sigma 50-500mm F4-6.3 APO standard to long telephoto lens,the 10:1 zoom ratio meaning that for most sports work,no more lens changes are needed.I have been asked quite a few times why ALL my other lenses are made by Canon,but not this one.The Canon "L" series of lenses are supposed to better then anything else available,but the biggest zoom lens they do is 100-400mm,and is double the price.It's surprising how much I use the low end of the zoom range instead of the top end,and it's said the the Canon lenses have  better colour rendition than anything else.I have to disagree with this,as I believe I can recreate this with just a minor adjustment in Photoshop.

Canon redesigned their top flashgun with digital cameras firmly in mind,as the 580EX SPEEDLITE can even compensate for differing sensor sizes.It is fully dedicated to the EOS range of cameras,and the flash head even zooms itself to match up with the lens fitted to the camera to maximise flash coverage.

All images are saved as the highest resolution JPEGs to Compact Flash memory,my most trusted being a couple of 4Gb SanDisk Ultra II cards,these can hold roughly 1000 full resolution,or 6000 lowest resolution images each,and are tweeked where needed using Adobe Photoshop CS2.