I retired from my professional life a few years ago and was determined to a) put a bit more effort into an existing hobby and b) start a new one..​

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MUSIC

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I have always loved playing music, starting with violin at the age of 11 and then a few years later finding folk clubs and never looking back.  

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I played fiddle in a duo or two, various guises and eventually settled with mainly guitar and singing as an accident at work prevented me carrying on with violin, sadly.  Work then took another turn, this time to do with being busy as well as raising a family and from the mid '80s till fairly recently, I did very little.

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These days, I help run a folk and acoustic club every Monday night at The Red Lion, Epworth, North Lincs and am also one of the organisers of Doncaster Roots Music Club, where we put on concerts by touring professionals in the field of folk and roots music.  I am often either compere or running the sound desk, and sometimes I play a support set either solo or with Dave Allison, my partner in crime on violin.  We also released our first album together in April 2023. As well as guitar, I dabble with mandolin, bouzouki, cittern and dulcimer.

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PHOTOGRAPHY

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Like many of my generation, I bought the odd SLR camera in order to put it in a cupboard and made the excuse to buy a digital version when they came out..  They always seemed to be Nikon (although my first SLR camera as a teenager was a Zenith Z1!)  These were slowly traded into better models till come lockdown in 2020, I had a decent D5200 camera.  Then I thought I'd knock up some Youtube videos of my music and found the camera to have a few limitations, (if you've got this far, you probably like cameras and know the Nikon DSLR cameras have awful video autofocus..). So I bought a mirrorless for better focus in video (Z50.)  Then I thought I'd start landscape photography as my wife is far fitter than me and runs up mountains my knees and back complain of, so a more gentle stroll with a tripod seemed a great idea and I still do it. (Oh, and like guitar acquisitions, cameras have a must have element too, so I also have a D780 and a DJI Action 3 with all the toys.....)

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GENERAL

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I don't profess to be an expert in either hobbies but this website is part of the fun and indulgence. Too young to retire but trying it anyway and at least these activities conspire (together with my bike and a mate to ride with via pubs) to keep me out of mischief.  

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