From the day I was born I have had photography in my life.  Dad was a keen amateur and as a child I recall the thrill of being allowed in to his dark room to watch the magic of the developing bowl. Without realising I absorbed knowledge about composition and lighting and in my own small way what made a good image as opposed to a 'snap'.  I had a grandmother and a brother who can paint and draw, but that skill passed me by.  But I was creative and loved to make things, constructing montage images from scraps and oddments.  So the grounding for my future work was created, as so much is as a child, but without me ever realising it.

Then came the years of marriage, children and work - little spare money or time.  Apart from the normal recording of the children and holiday snaps I did little else with my camera.

Redundancy and early retirement co-incided with the emergence of digital photography.  With my thirst for anything new in technology it was a natural decision that I had to have a digital camera.  At that time they were still in their infancy so the quality of the photos, looking back on them some 15 years later, were horribly pixilated, but it got me started.  The idea that you could now afford to take as many shots as you liked and not have to worry about printing costs was a revelation.  Within the first two years I quickly went through several advancing cameras and came to recognise the limitations of delayed shutter speeds and pre-prescribed formats, so beloved by camera manufacturers for mass market cameras.  As I became more adventurous they limited me and this continued till I bought my first DSLR.  Now I had a bemusing choice of settings and began to collect lenses for all occasions like other women buy shoes.  Finally I felt I had found an absorbing hobby that challenged me technically and artistically.  By joining camera clubs and entering competitions it also fed my compulsion to compete.  Now I could get serious.......