I emigrated to my present home in Brisbane, Australia, from the UK in 1981 as I was keen for adventure, which is a romantic statement to mask the truth, I just could not take the cruel weather of the UK any longer.

I was brought up in Blyth, a town just North of Newcastle in Northumberland, and also spent some time in Devon where I attended my very first school. Whilst Blyth hosted my numerous and dear family I was never settled as I retained a great longing for Devon, and after getting married returned to Devon at the age of 21.

Our first home was in the village of Braunton, a small 400 year old cottage with walls made of mud (cob), and where my two sons, Karl and Luke, were born.

The impetus to leave Blyth was the closure of the Blyth Dry Docks & Ship Building Yard where I then worked, as did also my dear elder brother Gerald. Both of us ended up seeking work as labourers and digging house foundations by hand on some of the local emerging housing estates. Compounding the misery, and adding to the long doll queues under long gray and cold skies, was the closure of the other great mainstay of the town, the local coal mines. I was now 20 years of age and it was time to head South!

I became a travelling man and was employed in power station construction at Drax Power Station in Yorkshire, where I met and married my wife Kate, At 22 we moved to Braunton in Devon, thanks to the support of my dear uncle Reg who employed me in his flat roofing business. I shortly afterwards became a self employed Lumber Jack. That career sojourn seemed to be a bad move, as I recalled when being driven out of a winter woodland balanced on top of a very lumpy tractor with the bitter wind in my face, strangely contrasting with a hot foot resulting from the blood inside my wellington boot which I did not want to remove suspecting my chain saw had done a good job on my ankle.

Shortly after I became a dairy worker in the Torridge Vale Dairy, in Torrington, and then promoted as a laboratory worker testing dairy products and services. The then laboratory manager, Robert Elkin, was a kind and patient man who was always willing to encourage me with my new found curiosity about the world of Chemistry. I am greatly indebted to him as his encouragement led me on the journey to further education and to where I now find myself some 40 years on.

Then into my mid twenties I went back North to attend training in Non-Destructive-Testing at Gateshead College just South of Newcastle. This type of work involves using radiography, ultrasonics and other methods to test the integrity of materials, mainly welds. On the day after the training ended, and exams passed, I was on a flight to Holland for my first job as a radiographer on a new BP oil refinery. I hated the cold and flat landscape and returned to work in Birmingham, whilst still living in Devon and also travelling to do work on pipelines in Yorkshire. After about a year I moved to, and took employment with, a testing company in Kent, where I continued in further education and where I applied for a job in Australia in 1981. Here I would give a very special thanks to a great mate, Terry Adams, for throwing that surprise "Bruce & Sheila" party to celebrate our decision to emigrate to Australia.

I was invited to Australia, as part of a major recruitment drive by the Queensland Electricity Commission, and remained employed in their Non-Destructive Testing area for 27 years, utilising ultrasonics predominantly to inspect numerous Power Station plant items for conformity. The then Government of Queensland decided to sell off their Scientific & Engineering Services branch, of which I was part. However, of the then 150 employees in the branch, two individuals chose not to take redundancy and I was one of them. I was placed in the Brisbane Head Office as a project officer and then took a position at Swanbank Power Station with the same role. Whilst my work was fascinating and enjoyable, with the help of a great boss, the death of my dear brother, Gerald, precipitated my choice of early retirement and her I am, thus far.

Having thenretired , back in 2008, it was time to get back to my childhood passion which was observing our natural world and in particular it's fauna and flora.

My first SLR camera was a Russian built Zenit that light leaked like a sieve, and which I gave away when I married at 21 years of age.  Upon retiring, at the age of 60, I bought a Nikon D90 DSLR and have currently progressed to the Nikon D800. I am now happily regressing back to  my childhood days of going walk about and observing an often hidden beauty in all that surrounds us in a natural world, whilst it still exists, and the body is still able.

I do not claim to be a photographer but deeply enjoy combining this art with my passion for natural history. My first sojourn was into macro photography with my main subjects being, Dragonflies, Frogs, insects and fungi, especially the luminous variety that can be found in the rainforests and which are only a short drive away from where I am living. Having lately purchased a Telephoto lens I have now included other genres, and in particular, birds of which we have an incredible variety of here in Australia.

I am fortunate in that I live between the Gold Coast and Brisbane city with easy access to various land forms including water ways, beaches, dry forest, and in particular my favourite, rain forests. These environs supply me with a fascinating, rich, and diverse source of photographic material.

Having had my camera now for five years I have accumulated a number of photographs, which I have been encouraged to share with others, and hence my own Web Site. No pretensions or claims here folks, just a simple site  to share with others, who are like minded, some humble images of this fascinating world around us.