About Me…

During his teenage years, Mark continued to shoot with the K1000. He favoured mono cityscape shots of Edinburgh using Ilford HP5 film. Mark loved its smooth grain and ease of developing and printing. Like any teenager, as Mark got older, school work and other activities became his main focus and photography took a back seat. Mark’s interest in photography was rekindled during university, mainly through travel. Mark found photography really enhanced the experience of holidays by forcing you to look much deeper. Mark aimed to come back from each destination with a set of shots he felt captured the mood of the destination. Mark tended to only shoot when he travelled as he was still busy with university, scouts and then his work after graduation. In 2002, Mark finally made the move from Pentax cameras to a Canon EOS 3. He continued shooting primarily travel photography but he also began to show an interest in Landscapes. He recalls his early landscapes pretty much consisting of a scene with either a gate or a big rock in the bottom third of every shot. Despite still shooting slide film, the age of digital technology was quickly overtaking. He was resistant at first to move to the digital medium for fear that it would lack the quality of film, but the reality was he was just a traditionalist trying to hold onto the past. 

Mark’s last trip with the EOS 3 was to South Africa in 2007. Whilst on the trip, Mark took a photograph which, for him, was a game changer. It was his first ever digital SLR photograph, taken with a friend’s camera. He took the picture and instantaneously, there is was, all on a memory card and ready for printing. No waiting until he got home, sending film to the lab, and then scanning it to use on a computer - the scans where always awful quality too. His final South Africa images whilst good, did not render the quality and ease of use that the digital image offered. Using computers to showcase images was the way forward. Mark’s next purchase after a lot of saving and deliberation, was a digital camera! He bought a Canon EOS 5d MkI, a camera so good he kept it for 8 years.

Photography took a bit of a back seat in Marks life for a second time. He met his now wife, Laura and apart from taking the camera on holidays, photography did not feature much. Shortly after, Mark became a dad to his two wonderful children. Family life and work where busy enough to fill his life up for the next 5 years and so it is only in the past 6 years, Mark has found the headspace and enthusiasm for photography again. This time, it is definitely here to stay, especially as his wife is also now a keen wildlife photographer, and so it is a passion they share. Mark has developed a deeper understanding of his own abilities and a real passion for exploring the world around him through the medium of photography. Landscape and wildlife are predominantly what Mark enjoys to shoot now, but not exclusively. Mark feels it is healthy for photographers to challenge themselves by shooting a variety of genre. It keeps you on your toes and teaches you different techniques which you can then apply to all your shots. Learning panning by doing motorsport photography for instance is a great technique to develop which can then be applied to shots of birds in flight or horses running. 

Mark has just had a major change over to Canon Mirrorless and RF lenses. The current list is below:

Canon EOS R5

Canon EOS R7

Canon RF 15-35mm f2.8 L

Canon RF 24-105mm f4 L

Canon RF 24-240mm f4-6.3

Canon RF 70-200mm f2.8 L

Canon RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1 L

Canon RF 50mm f1.8

Canon RF 85mm f2 Macro

Kase Revolution filters

Benro Camera Support Equipment

Lowepro Bags.