I had been looking at Don’s photography on Flickr for a while now and he regularly posts something a little different to the norm. The images are a mix of film photography and digital but are consistently thought out compositions. Despite being a resident of the Lincolnshire and retired automotive entrepreneur (although he’ll just say he ran a garage), Don is more at home in the wilds of Scotland (as many of us are). He is a keen cycler and has covered great swathes of the highlands towing camera and camping equipment. We asked him the usual range of questions and he sent us a range of pictures that I had picked out from his Flickr stream. Over to you Don

In most photographers lives there are ‘epiphanic’ moments where things become clear, or new directions are formed. What were your two main moments and how did they change your photography?

I suppose my first moment came when I was in my very early twenties I worked in the motor trade & won a sales competition, in fact I won several & the manufacturer ‘paid’ me my winnings in ‘Bonus Bonds’ & as I had accumulated a fair few I was able to use these to purchase my first ‘proper’ camera a lovely little 35mm Yashica rangefinder I remember it looking so striking in the brochure, I just had to buy it & from that point on I was hooked. I have always been a lover of the great outdoors & now equipped with my new little camera I would return from hikes in the hills with shots that were clear & sharp giving me super reminders of my forays into the countryside…but there was something lacking & that was technique….they were record shots, clear & sharp maybe but record shots none the less.

My second epiphany came sat in the waiting room at my dentists & doing what we all do to pass the time away I was reading the magazines provided & admiring some superb photographs in National Geographic. It was at this moment I realised what was lacking in my photography, sure I had sharp shots that were even possibly story telling but compared with those I had been looking at either the composition was poor, lighting wrong or both, I set out at that point in time to learn more & improve these aspects of my own picture taking skills, in fact that is when I started taking pictures rather than bland records & I am still learning & honing these skills close on forty years later.