Ian Wilson ARPS

I'm an engineer by profession, but have been fascinated by photography ever since I was at University. I discovered it was possible to sign out the key to the college darkroom, and that was the beginning of a long love affair with confined spaces, red lights and smelly chemicals.

The combination of work pressures and a young family meant that photography took a back seat for several years, but in 1997 I joined a camera club in order to learn how to do it “properly”. I became a member of the Royal Photographic Society and gained my LRPS distinction in 2000. As the rest of the world went digital, I continued working with film – mainly medium format – and making darkroom prints. Eventually, in 2005, I took the plunge and replaced my aged collection of film bodies and lenses with a state-of-the-art Digital SLR.

There was a huge learning curve coming to grips with Photoshop, but my background in computing meant that it was far less painful than it could have been. Going digital also allowed me to experiment with printing in colour: something which I’d done for a while in the darkroom, but had given up in order to concentrate on monochrome work. I joined Cambridge Camera Club in 2007, and gained my ARPS distinction the following year.

I will tackle most photographic subjects, but have a particular interest in natural history, architecture and anything remotely “quirky” …