Biography
I've always been enthusiastic about marine life and all that lives underwater since I could stand on two legs. Brought up behind a farm in the southern English country side I established a huge passion & respect for nature. I was always the kid bringing home jars of Newts and other forms of pond life and much to mothers disgust! I must have only been about 3 or 4 years of age when my parents purchased my first aquarium for me after winning a goldfish at the local funfair. From that day till this, the underwater world has been, to me, a magical place that I shall never tire of. I've kept a huge variety of species over the years allowing me to closely study the behaviour of all sorts of creatures, this naturally has been invaluable to me in my photography underwater.
Another passion born from my upbringing amongst nature was drawing, I would spend hours sketching or painting animals or country scenes. I loved capturing the way the light would affect so many different textures, tree bark, leaves, feathers & fur. Many of my landscapes pieces would strangely include water in one form or another, an early sign maybe that my heart truly belonged in or around water.
My passion for art eventually developed taking me on a wonderful journey through various art related career's starting off as a draftsman for a large architectural company in Guildford in Surrey. It was here I cut my teeth in technical drawing on exciting projects such as the rebuilding of the Iranian embassy some many years after the incident involving the S.A.S. From here I took a different angle and begun a career in computer graphics. I began by becoming a Conference Graphics Designer where I would produce backgrounds and illustrations for projected backdrops for conference speakers. This job took me around the world and is where I found a love for travel. After several years of hard work and many a sleepless night this energetic role was traded in for 3D Animation work where I worked on a variety of projects including TV Adverts, Architectural visualisations, video game production and educational films for a variety of companies including , Sony, Virgin Interactive, British Telecom, Orange, Temenos Banks, The British Insurance Brokers' Association and the BBC World Service among others.
In addition to all this fun animation work I was a regular face behind the counter of the Tony Backhurst Scuba Centre and as a DMT through to Divemaster in the pool at weekends. Through visiting this shop on a regular basis I became great friends with Steve Brown, the shop manager at the time. He offered me part time work where I would not receive a penny in exchange but build up a fund where I would exchange my labour for underwater camera gear, first with a camera & housing, then a few months later my strobes and strobe arms, then wide angle lens etc etc.
In the summer of 2007, my partner Helen & I decided to live out a dream and moved to Dahab, Egypt for 3 months. Here I worked occasionally as a Divemaster but most of my time was spent with Helen exploring the reefs, canyons and sea grass beds of Dahabs shore, not forgetting Dahab's Bell's & Blue Hole sites. We would dive these wonderful sites several times a day, most days. This was achievable thanks to 'Wael' owner of Orca Dive Centre based in the heart of Dahab www.orcadivecentre.com where Wael would allow us to use his tanks and air in exchange for us helping to build his website. This allowed me to gain invaluable experience as an underwater photographer.
It is to Helen who's monumental patience where during photo dives I would spend ages on a single subject whilst she would get cold waiting for me to complete my shot and for her huge amounts of ongoing support that I dedicate this website to along with my great friends, Steve Brown & Wael. Thank you guys for all your support and helping me in every way you can in the pursuit of my ongoing dream of becoming a professional underwater photographer.
