I've always been a keen photographer, and used to follow the fashion for technical 35mm SLRs in the 70s and 80s, on to digital in the past few years. When I got my latest 8 megapel digital camera (a Nikon Coolpix 8800), I was astounded at the detail and sharpness of the images I could capture and see so quickly.

Now that I'm slowing down, I've rediscovered the beauty and detail that can be had by going back a generation, to the medium format film cameras of the 1940s and '50s. These old cameras just leave the modern digital and 35mm ones standing, as I hope these examples will shew. I'm currently restoring a 1920s Zeiss Maximar, which I hope will be capable of even better results, if I can find a big enough tripod.

I take a lot of photographs, and most of my paintings are done from them; not copying a single photograph, but usually working from anything up to six, taking different elements from each, combining them, or using them to construct a composite viewpoint.

Sometimes, however, if you're lucky, you can find yourself taking a picture that is just not capable of improvement, that itself says everything you could say or more; or perhaps says it in a way that you couldn't express in a painting.

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Photographs

One of the best-known features on Bodmin Moor is the Cheesewring. This image is taken from just above it, and is one of my all-time favourites.

Sometimes you are there just at the right moment, in the right season...

...and then something you see every day shows its true nature.

There are times you have to sit and wait for the happy juxtaposition. I wonder how many people have looked at this image and not seen the aeroplane?

And there are times the legends come to life.

"At the Cheesewring"

"From the Cheesewring"

"On the Duloe Road"

"Strolling on Lemon Quay"

"Dozemary Pool"