I n the last 11 years, after moving down to Devon, living on the outskirts of Dartmoor, I have spent a lot of my spare time mountain biking and road cycling. I have been biking for most of my life and, like many cyclists, I have had periods where it has taken a back seat, which is where my photography comes in.

I’ve also taken part in a charity end-to-end road ride challenge – The JOGLE – that is John O’Groats to Land’s End. We rode our hearts out over 8 days averaging 120 miles a day. We wrote a blog of the ‘before, during and after’ and we raised over £4500 for the South Central Ambulance trust in Aid of Community First Responders.

Early Morning on Cadair Idris, Wales

I started photographing landscapes in 2012 when I made a risky purchase of a full frame DSLR camera (Digital Single-Lens Reflex). My drive to take better images started here. I thought, like many, that getting a prosumer DSLR would make me a better photographer – it didn’t! I was determined to improve and get my images to the standard I had seen from fellow photographers – the quest (and addiction) had started.

I often look at photos I captured 6 months ago and find myself being quite critical at composition, focusing, technique and especially post processing. The temptation to over clarify, sharpen or to over saturate is one which I think many go through. Yes, I feel images should be vibrant and stand out, but not to a degree where they look unnatural.

I mostly exposure blend now using 2 or 3 shots in Photoshop. This allows me to keep the finer details and tones and keep noise levels at a minimum, especially when blowing the images up to full size for printing. I have become fairly adept in most areas of Lightroom and Photoshop processing now, but there is still more to read and experience and I look forward to this aspect the most. Capturing nature in its rawness is what I am trying to attempt, and Dartmoor is one of the best places to do this. I have to thank my wife, Janet, as she is often the one traipsing behind me or acting as a portable table, often in adverse conditions.

I have started entering competitions and showcasing some of my work on forums and social media as well as entering my work into some magazines so I feel I am gaining experience in many aspects of photography.

It is funny that my photography has gone full circle. I used to shoot with film using first my dad’s old Pentax Spotmatic and then my own ME Super but as my studies took hold the camera got buried. I spend most of my younger years studying science and then veterinary medicine to now emerge as a veterinary diagnostic histopathologist and cytologist. The two have been complimentary as I am often consulted on taking images of my work for publication and now have the knowledge of post processing to help me.