I came into the world surrounded by photographs. My father had his own darkroom and took literally hundreds of photographs of me as a young child. One of my favourites is shown here. I look very happy because I am on a beach. I have always loved the sea.

As I grew older, my father encouraged me to have a go at taking pictures with his box camera. When I went to art college to study for a degree in Graphic Design, he bought me my first SLR, a Canon AE1. Photography and darkroom work was a very enjoyable part of the course.

After college, I worked in London, mainly as a book designer, for eight years. During that time I had the priviledge of working with some excellent photographers who were commissioned to provide work for the books that I was designing. I also spent many hours in photo-libraries researching pictures for different books.

In 1990, I moved to Cumbria, close to the Lake District. A gardening book that I designed while still in London inspired me to take up garden design as there is little work for a graphic designer in these parts. This has also been very successful as a garden that I designed for the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show won a Silver Gilt Medal in 2004. But something was missing.

I began to think that if I had my time all over again, I would have really liked to have been a photographer. I have been using a digital compact for many years, but I wondered if it was now time to invest in a digital SLR. I bought another Canon and signed up for a course in digital landscape photography and that was it - I had found my passion.

It was suggested to me that I create my own website - so here it is. I hope you enjoy my work.