Photography
Photography has long held a fascination for me ever since I watched my father processing black and white photographs of our family in the makeshift darkroom in the bathroom of our home. At the age of about 14 years he lit a spark in me that has continued to burn over the years.
My deep interest in all aspects of aviation was combined with photography and led me into the highly specialised world of Air-to-Air photography where I flew both in and alongside some of the most beautiful aircraft in the world and often amidst some of the most spectacular scenery and cloudscapes imagineable. Quality of image was always important to me for which I again have my father to thank as I used medium format cameras from the beginning. Hasselblads were, after a few other cameras had passed through my hands, my camera of choice and they rarely, if ever, let me down; if they were good enough for NASA to take to the moon, then they were good enough for me!
Don’t think that you need to spend a lot of money to get a good photograph, though. The images of the DH88 Comet Racer, the backlit shot of the DH 114 Heron and the Vickers Viscount were all shot using an old, Zeiss, folding, leather-bellows camera that shoots 6x9cm negatives; it cost me £6.00 (around $8.00) in a second-hand camera shop in Bournemouth in 1973 … and it is still in occasional use!
Many other branches of photography have been explored including wildlife and, more recently, infra red using digital cameras.
Wildlife (this site still under construction)