So there I am, on the beach at West Wittering (near Chichester Harbour, SE England), one of my favourite locations. And there I am using an ultra-wide zoom and bent double to get as much as possible of the foreground, lining up a shot of the sun, the beach groynes, and the reflections/patterns in the sand. Almost there and then there is this Mum with her kids and one of the kids runs into shot and drops his bucket. ’Bother’, I thought, or words a bit like that and waited for him to pick it up. And waited, and waited and was about to ask Mum if I could move the bucket, when I realised that though it was not the shot that I had planned; it was better.  Moral of the story … don’t get too fixated on what you intend to photograph; try and observe the opportunities that are there. Think, always, think.

And I love the blue of the sky, the patterns and light in the sand, the bright sun, the dark groynes; and the bucket, well the bucket kind of pulls it all together.

‘The true mystery of the world is the visible not the invisible’. Oscar Wilde

A E Wainwright once, I believe, described his books as a love letter to the Lake District. Whilst nature is not the sole inspiration for my work it does inspire much of it. And it was down to that first trip to the Lake District when I was 11. My upbringing was in the suburbs of London. Holidays until that trip were to the coast, mostly Bournemouth and one trip to the Adriatic coast (tantalising distant vistas of the Appenines, but nothing close enough for inspiration). By no means under privileged yet the countryside was a mysterious and alluring place. And that first trip changed it all. I find the light, shapes and textures of nature fascinating, both in the grand vistas yet increasingly in the small details too. So I will call her Gaia, and Gaia dances; sometimes prettily and seductively, yet sometimes furiously and destructively; she is not tamed whatever some may think; sometimes capricious, yet not vicious; and so beautiful. And the images are my love letter to Gaia.

Well this isn’t the image I tried to upload but then I am a beginner at this. This is Humbug aka Duchess

This is my first attempt at creating a blog so forgive any errors and watch it improve (I hope)