Geoff is an award-winning freelance professional photographer with a
special interest in nature and landscapes, and has many published picture
credits to his name worldwide in books, magazines, brochures, calendars,
posters, greetings cards and many others.
Photographing wild Otters in North-west Scotland
Geoff is a naturalist first and foremost. His interest in nature
began in his early teens with a fascination for
insects and other 'bugs', with their incredible miniaturisation, amazing
variety and wonderful life-histories. As many of his insect subjects
disappeared down the beaks of birds, birdwatching became a 'natural'
progression.
After his school education, Geoff went on to study zoology at London University and
gained a BSc degree with Honours, and it was during this time that he picked up a camera,
caught the 'shutter bug' and began capturing on film the nature subjects
that he saw, focusing on insects first and then - everything else(!).
Gradually, his photography broadened into other areas - particularly landscapes -
and photography became an important part of his life. Geoff is completely self-taught,
with no formal training or education in either photography or art, learning from books
and from experience.
Geoff lives in Christchurch in Dorset, on the south coast of England, and has
travelled extensively throughout the British Isles and occasionally to
other countries in search of nature and landscape subjects to photograph.
In his nature and landscape photography, Geoff is always looking for that little something extra that will lift an image above the ordinary, make it
more evocative, more wondrous, more memorable. The effort involved is
not always rewarded but when it is the miles of travelling and walking, the
hours of watching and waiting, and the numerous ‘near misses’ fade into the
distant memory, and the photographic spirit is renewed in the search for that
next ever-elusive special image.
The tale of the one that got away .... (Otter diving)
Apart from his commercial successes, Geoff's most notable competition successes have been in the annual UK-based
Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, the biggest and
most prestigious international competition of its kind. The aims of this
Competition are: "to find the best wildlife photographs taken by
photographers worldwide, and to emphasise through the work of such
photographers the beauty, wonder and importance of the natural world".
It is sponsored by British Gas (as BG plc) and organised by the BBC Wildlife
magazine and the Natural History Museum in London, and now attracts more
than 20,000 photographs from over 3,000 photographers (including the 'top guns' of
nature photographers) in 65 countries.
In the 1998 Competition, Geoff's photo of a Red-throated Diver on its nest
and perfectly reflected in calm water (view picture)
was the winner of the 'Animal Portraits' category; the Red-throated Diver
(like a streamlined goose) is a rare bird in Britain, breeding only in the
wild moorlands of Scotland, and a special licence is required to photograph
it anywhere near its nest.
Geoff also had another picture Highly Commended in the 'Wild Places' category,
a photo of a group of Shags at the base of a huge sea-cliff with giant
crashing waves (view picture).
Photographing Red-throated Divers in north Scotland
(seven hours in the 'sweatbox')
In the 1997 Competition, Geoff's photo of a Kingfisher perched on one of
a group of posts and reflected in the lagoon of a Nature Reserve in
England (view picture) was Highly Commended
in the ‘Composition and Form’ category.
In the 1994 Competition - which attracted 'only' 12,000 entries - his photo of Fallow Deer grazing beneath a Scots Pine at dusk in the New Forest in England (view picture) was
runner-up in the ‘From Dusk to Dawn’ category,
and in earlier years of the
Competition he has won the 'All Other Animals' Category with a close-up
picture of a Horse-fly and has had several other photos Highly Commended.
(Winning and Highly Commended photographs from the Wildlife Photographer of
the Year Competitions can be seen in the books of the same title published
annually by Fountain Press of the UK and the BBC).
Photographing deer in the New Forest, England
In 1999, although unsuccessful in the Wildlife Photographer of
the Year Competition Geoff was one of the finalists in the BBC Countryfile/Radio Times
'Photo 2000' Competition - which had the theme 'The Changing Face of Britain's Rural
Countryside' - with his photograph of wild Scottish moorland ploughed for so-called 'tax-loss
forestry' (view picture).
Also in 1999, Geoff was invited to participate in the 'Daybreak 2000' project where nature photographers around the world were invited to capture some special images of the natural world
during the first morning of the year 2000.
This special and unique project - which involved around 100 of the world's leading nature photographers - was
created by American artist Roger Tefft "as a means for photographers to commemorate the timeless
beauty of the planet at a relevant moment in human history, and to promote wilderness conservation".
The photographs now form a superb book (and travelling exhibition) called Daybreak 2000.
Geoff is one of only four photographers that took part in the UK and is proud to be associated with the
project, which included many of the elite of the world's nature photographers. Some of the images he produced for the project can be seen in the Daybreak 2000 gallery and one of them (view image) was selected for inclusion in the book.
More information about the project and other photographers' images can be found at the Daybreak 2000 web site.
Many of Geoff's most beautiful and evocative images are
now available as fine photographic prints of various sizes, and a number as
Limited Edition photographic prints.
Others can be seen on the ‘big screen’ at his slide
presentations to nature groups, photography clubs and other interested
societies. Some of his best images can now be viewed on this web site.
Geoff does not restrict his photography to nature subjects and landscapes
but also photographs many other subjects including sports, transport,
architecture, people, travel-related subjects, and others (see
About Photo Stock Library) . Whilst still a
semi-professional, he was commissioned to take all the photographs for
the book 'The New Shell Guide to East Anglia' published by Michael Joseph
Limited in 1990 (see third part of 'Some Published Work' page).
As well as marketing his work directly to publishers and as fine prints,
Geoff is represented by various photolibrary agencies including the top
international agency Tony Stone Images (incorporated with Getty Images),
the Nature Picture Library (formerly BBC Natural History Unit Picture
Library) and RSPB Images (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) - links to these sites can be found on the Links Page.
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