About me
Severe weather and landscape photographer
A high based supercell broiling overhead in Nebraska
Storm Chasing
castles in the sky
Storm chasing and photographing severe weather is my biggest passion in life and circumstances allowing, I head out to Tornado Alley every Spring with my fellow chasers at See Nature's Fury to hunt down and document the planet's biggest storms. The UK also gets its fair share of severe weather with migrating storm complexes and the occassional homegrown supercell available during the summer months to keep feeding that obsession.
Landscapes
Painting with numbers
Whenever the opportunity presents itself, which is fortunately quite often, my 2nd love is to head out and explore, to develop the relationship between myself, my camera and my surroundings. From enclosed spaces to wideopen places; waterfalls to woodland, sunset drenched hillsides to mist covered valley floors, I'm always on the pursuit of capturing the majesty of nature and bringing the viewer into my view.
Perfect hiking weather on top of the Eildon Hills.
My Zen
After gaining a distinction in Photography at university many many moons ago, for one reason or another I never pursued it seriously until about 20 years later when I slowly began to combine it with my passion for storms. I’ve always been drawn to the dramatic and sublime in nature and started chasing storms in 2007, at first with various tour companies and then professionaly from 2018 with See Nature’s Fury.
Storms I prefer to photograph in isolation, to let them breathe and allow the majesty of their construction speak for itself as they dominate the landscape beneath. I’m also fascinated by the motion of storm clouds and the myriad of different forms that the combination of air and moisture can take.
Conversely, I love to explore the relationship between landscape and the weather it finds itself in; woodland drenched in fog, valleys lying still under blankets of mist, hillsides and mountain tops receding into the setting sun. The combination is endless.
I currently reside in Northumberland which is an absolutely beautiful part of the world no matter the weather or the season. Here there is simply no end to the amount of exploring and photography to be had and is the gateway to further adventures north. Whether it be pursuing storms across country or hiking up the side of a hill, both hold a sense of exploration and adventure and both afford the opportunity for me to stop and listen to the world, marvel at my surroundings and be at one with nature. Photography for me is a very calming and meditative pursuit.
My Gear:
Cameras
- Canon R6 - main camera.
- Canon 80D - backup and video camera.
Lenses
- Canon L Series 24 - 105mm IS USM - my goto all purpose lens. Beautiful piece of kit.
- Sigma Art 14 - 24mm - my default wide-angle lens for capturing those massive storm vistas.
- Samyang 24mm 1.4 - superb astro and low-light lens.
- Canon 70 - 300mm IS Nano USM - pin sharp with ridiculously fast auto focus.
- Tamron 16 - 300mm - welded to my 80D, this lens and I have been through a lot together.
- Canon Nifty Fifty - because everyone has one 😉
Printer
- Canon imagePrograf Pro 1000
paper
- Fotospeed Platinum Baryta 300 Fine Art Paper
- Natural Soft Textured Bright White 315
- Panorama paper etc
My Process:
from screen to print
If you like my work enough to feel inclined to buy a print then from the bottom of my heart I thank you.
I take immense pride in my work with each print for sale on this sight reflecting the very best of what I can offer and when it comes to printing my work, I want to ensure control over the whole process and ensure you get the best print possible rather than leave it in the hands of a third party.
After experimenting with various paper types, I settled on Fotospeed's stunning Baryta Fine Art Paper which perfectly reproduces exactly what you see on screen - you can read more about it here. However, herein lies the rub - everything is calibrated to reproduce what is seen on MY screen. Your screen may differ slightly, be it desktop, phone or tablet, but by and large it is probably set to the sRGB colour space and should therefore closely resemble mine. If you order a print and feel it differs slightly from what you have seen on your screen, then that is absolutely out of my control but I feel you should be made aware.
I print each photo to order and inspect and package each one personally so please allow a few days for your print to arrive. A3 prints are wrapped in tissue, packaged in a compostable cellophane for protection and sent in an eco-friendly presentation box. A2 prints and larger are sent in outsized tubes to prevent overcurling.
