I'm a working photographer based in West Yorkshire, England.

Apart from commercial work, I've always taken photographs for the love of it. At times I'm not altogether sure my wife and kids have seen the sorts of photographs I take as importantly as me, but I have to be grateful for being allowed the opportunity to just get on with things. Photography on any scale can absorb plenty of time, often lots of solitary time and distractions, so my wife Lesley is a star in putting up with all that.

When I first got involved with being a photographer in 1980 it was almost expected that taking non-commercial or family photographs meant you almost had to have black and white film in the camera. The back half of the last century was I think, a fantastic time for film, and especially black and white. Apart from the fact that any photograph had to have been taken using film, there was the expectation that there should also be more than an interest in making prints and messing in darkrooms.

This was mostly what I did at college. I dont remember covering anything like studio lighting, large format, or commercially useful areas. Nothing that might line you up as an earning photographer. Instead we had smaller cameras and a heavy bias towards basically photographing nothing more than whatever you wanted to at the time. Also both the black and white and colour chemical darkrooms were a big part of learning to be a photographer. I have to be honest all that suited me then, and it still does today.

I'm certain the world is a fascinating place, I think a lot of people know that, but I'm not too sure why it is that some people have to take photographs of it - even now. I could never really, in my best Yorkshire accent, fully explain the truth behind tracking down the last remaining crumbling, desolate ruins, or photographing a motorway bridge. For me I think its purely because I have the old West Riding tenacity, a gamekeepers eye, legs of a mountain goat, lots of cameras - and an understanding wife.