Its Not Grim Up North

David Tolcher

An enthusiast who enjoys having photography as an excuse to get out in to the wilds.

Photography has inextricably intertwined with my life for nearly 40 years. I am not a photographer in the sense that I make my living out of it nor am I an artist but have used the medium to further enjoy outdoor pursuits and to scratch a technical itch with regards to cameras and technology. Photography was also a very necessary escape from a demanding career. Like any ‘craft’ I have learned how to make my images work, importantly knowing when they don’t but allowing myself the pleasure from the moment of being ‘there’ and taking them. It is fairly obvious to me who amongst my friends are artists and have taken to the camera as a medium and those (like me) who know the elements that make a good picture. My main interest for many years was insects (or more precisely butterfly & dragonflies with the occasional pursuit of adders) before finding a passion for landscape photography in about 2000, more or less coinciding with discovering 5x4 and Velvia 50.

Black Veined White, D100

Interestingly these events had a big helping hand from my lifelong partner (since 17 anyway) who first enabled my interest in proper photography with the purchase of a slide projector when I was 19 and an Ebony RSW when I had the big ‘40’ which got me hooked on 5X4. More on this theme later.