I am a retired family doctor living on the edge of the North Yorks Moors National Park. I first became interested in photography at the age of 12 following the purchase of a Kodak Brownie 127 at a Boy Scout jumble sale. I soon graduated to a Box Brownie and began to develop and print my own photographs with the aid of a home-made enlarger. My interest continued until it was interrupted by a move to university. Some years later it was re-awakened with a desire to take better quality photographs of my children and I invested in my first SLR camera, a Pentax K1000. In 1986, a friend and I formed the Stokesley Photographic Society, which has since become one of the top amateur camera clubs in the North of England. Being a member of such an organisation is a great stimulus to improve one’s work and to experiment with different subject matter. There will always be someone on hand who has some knowledge that he or she is happy to pass on, and ideas tend to be bounced around between members and visiting speakers.

In 1994, I succeeded in achieving an Associateship of The Royal Photographic Society and in 1997 a Distinction at the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain.

My own particular photographic interests are wide and varied with a particular emphasis on the Natural World in all of its aspects. As an amateur, I do not have to earn a living from photography, so it has to be enjoyable. To do so it does have to present some form of challenge, and I am therefore trying to push the boundaries of my own work, either by exploring new fields or improving the quality of the pictures in existing ones.

John Davies