I first got interested in photography back in the sixties, as my uncle was a keen amateur photographer who did a lot of weddings and portraits. He did his own developing and printing, though I wasn't directly involved in it. 

 

I bought my first SLR camera in the seventies, which was a Praktica LB model, and I enjoyed taking black and white photos, developing and printing them in my own darkroom. 

 

I remember going to several workshops with fellow enthusiasts from the steelworks, held by a photographer in Pontybodkin. They included microscopy (using an extension tube) as well as modelling sessions. 

 

The Science Fiction one was good fun; we had a black card background, which we back-lit and pricked holes in with a dart. Now we had a starry backdrop, and we took dramatic pictures of model spaceships 

 

On my retirement in 2017 I joined Coedpoeth and Minera Camera Club to learn more about photography, and by the end of the year I was appointed Chairman. It's been very rewarding all the way, and our membership has grown steadily from the half-dozen or so we had at the time. 

 

I appreciate our good committee, who've made that possible. I have tried to make it a club for the members, not for the chairman! Mike and I worked very hard to keep things going during Covid, and it's great to see the progress since then. 

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Subjects

I like to photograph landscapes and wildlife, as well as still-life scenes. To get the Grebes picture and other wildlife shots, I spent 5 or 6 hours at a time at my local pool.

 

I'm very interested in old industrial sites such as Brymbo Steelworks where I worked for 22 years. I'm getting out my old B & W photos of the place and creating a series of paintings based on them, which I'll donate to the Brymbo Heritage Trust as a way to give back to my community.

 

I believe that art runs alongside photography, as composition is key to both of them. I've learned a lot about both since 2017, and I'm still enjoying my photography.