About

I was born on 25 February 1960, live in Bristol, England, am married to the wonderful Lyn and my nationality is British. For those who are into astrology, my sign is Pisces. I learned to dive in 1978 with the University of Bristol BSAC branch whilst studying for a degree in Physics. I graduated in 1981.

An interest in underwater photography developed to the point where I was effectively “semi-professional”. Encouraged by this, in 1998 I decided to pursue diving full time, concentrating on photography and writing, supported by instruction, creating diving web sites and anything else that puts my diving experience to good use.

I am a member of the Bristish Society of Underwater Photographers (BSOUP) and in March of 1999 I became an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society (ARPS). My photography and this web site have won a few awards, including “highly commended” in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition for my picture of a spawning starfish.

The photography and writing career took off, particularly with support from Diver Magazine which regularly publishes my work. I still do a bit of professional instructing, but only enough to keep my qualifications current.

Over the years I have accumulated numerous diving qualifications. I have remained involved with University of Bristol as a diving instructor and have taught hundreds of students to dive. Many of my students are now instructors themselves. At the time of last update to this page I am approaching 4,700 dives.

In 1998 I started using rebreathers and since then nearly all of my UK diving has been on rebreathers, but the vast majority of my overseas diving remains on open circuit. With all the camra kit I fly with, carrying a rebreather as well is just not practical.

Prior to becoming a self-employed diving photographer and journalist I worked in the computer industry, mainly for IPL Information Processing Limited, based in Bath. My final position was Principal Consultant. My work included technical and management consultancy, project management, system design, programming, sales support, and development and presentation of training courses. Application areas ranged from safety critical avionics systems through to business workflow systems. I am a Chartered Engineer and Chartered IT Practitioner through the British Computer Society.

Alongside my diving work I kept a bit of computer work going as a sideline, mostly developing web sites for diving related businesses. This grew into more a more general web related software development business. Home and away nicely complement each other.