Early inspiration

Way back in the late 70’s/early 80’s when I was a kid I became hooked on 3 particular things - computers, synthesizers and cameras. I can’t remember which came first but I can recall owning a Commodore 64, then an Amiga and I learnt to programme them from the very start. Since I was heavily influenced by the work of Jean Michel-Jarre and other synth oriented musical composers, I figured out how to take control of my Commodore’s sound processing chip. I wrote a very simple computer-based synth instrument complete with onscreen keyboard and keyboard shortcuts to play notes across the musical scale. You could even adjust your sound envelope with ADSR parameters. It was primitive but I shared it with friends who had a lot of fun with it back in the day.

I never wrote anything like that again or took it any further, the skills I learnt diverged from that point. Nowadays writing code for website applications is very much my day job whilst exploring music, sound design, learning musical theory and practice, is very much a lifelong hobby. I am no musician to be honest, more of a tinkerer who sometimes by sheer fluke creates stuff that sounds just that little bit musical.

I parked my music production interests for many years and it wasn’t until during the various lockdowns that it came back. I am also fascinated in the parallels that can be drawn between the large, highly specialised synthesizers of the 70’s and what we have today. Everyone can access this fascinating world of music now through various means, too many really, but over time, I hope to write about as many of them as possible…

Photography came to me when I was about 13 years old. My maternal grandfather was an engineer by trade and worked on some complex technology in the war years and thus never went into any of the conflicts, his skills were more in demand right here on our shores. I never know exactly what it is he worked on but part of his job involved a lot of cameras! He used to fix them and test them out in different conditions.

To be honest everyone in my family, both mums and dads side have all been into photography of some shape or form over the years.

So when I received my first point-and-shoot compact camera in 1985, I photographed everything and spent pocket money on the film being developed. Later in 2002 I switched to digital partly and later as the gear became better and I started shooting for some London agencies, I got into it very seriously and joined the professional world.

That was until my kidneys nearly failed and I had to undergo transplant surgery. I reverted to a regular office, computer based job, a regular income.

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