Short Biography

Having slowly migrated in a north-easterly direction from Aberystwyth (where I went to study for a geology degree in 1981), I moved to the Machynlleth area of Mid-Wales in 1994 and after confronting a certain amount of techno-fear, I started exploring the Internet and in time came across a few USA Storm-Chasing websites. After a while I started to wonder: is this possible over here?

A few exploratory trips proved it was, when in August 2000 I bagged a beautiful funnel-cloud over the nearby hills. That was it - I was hooked!

Since then I've been running a surprisingly popular weather-blog on my website, and getting more and more involved in investigating extreme weather events in the UK. We British love nothing more than to talk about the weather and I've done that on a number of radio and TV appearances and in illustrated talks. I'm also involved at a managerial level in the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO) and in the very popular online forum at UK Weatherworld.

The media have used my work on several occasions in recent years and BBC Wales' weatherman, Derek Brockway, has used a number of my photographs to illustrate his recently-published book "Whatever the Weather".

When not out with the kit, I work in geological research, interpretation and conservation via a range of media and especially web design. I now try to arrange my diary to avoid commitments on potentially stormy days and I tend to work at weekends if the weather is boring. Thus, as time goes by, and further storms are intercepted, this site will continue to grow.

I hope you enjoy your visit to my gallery.

Using this website

I do appreciate that people have differing amounts of time available to browse a website like this. With this in mind, I have arranged the images into six categories (on six pages) and I hope this makes navigating to what you are looking for a bit easier!

The Slide Library is subdivided into six galleries as follows:

Sorted by weather-types:

* Thunderstorms, twisters, hazards & damage
* Snow, Ice, Frost & Fog
* Rain, Flood & Drought

Sorted geographically:

* The Cardigan Bay Coast
* The Dyfi Valley and its surroundings
* Geology and Mines

The images on this website are low-resolution JPEGS: the master copies, which would be used for mounted prints or digital image supply, are at a resolution of 300 pixels per inch and in terms of print size they vary between 16 and 36 inches longest side - not the sort of thing I'd email to anybody without prior arrangement!

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Technical notes

I purchased my first SLR fim camera - a Canon A-1 - in 1989 when I was doing voluntary work for the British Geological Survey in NW Scotland - what a place to learn about landscape photography! Today, I have three A-1s: the original was stolen from my car in Edinburgh in 1990 and its replacement has just been retired on compassionate grounds. They are such robust and reliable workhorses, especially in the rough conditions I frequently find myself working in.

Changing lenses when salt spray is flying through the air is a risky business. Having three cameras with three different lenses circumvents this issue neatly. The lenses begin with an ultrawide Vivitar Series One 19-35mm, continue with a more standard Canon 28-85mm and for long range I use a Canon 100-300mm telephoto zoom. This setup gives me a great choice when I am composing a photograph.

I use Fuji Provia 100F film almost exclusively these days. Slides are digitised by me on a fully calibrated system using an Epson V750 PRO scanner at 6400 pixels/inch, creating digital images at around 300 megabytes in TIFF format. Printing is done by Redcliffe Imaging Ltd of Bristol.

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