Born in 1970 in the South Wales mining village of Ynysybwl (pronounced un-is-uh-bull), my informative years were spent roaming the hillsides and mountains around this village with numerous dogs as my companions over the years. In many ways it is to those dogs that I owe my love of the outdoors as well as to my Father and Grandfather who were equally in their element when out with the dogs. 

 I began to photograph my surroundings around the age of 14, with my first real camera being a Zenith SLR, a camera that felt like a brick around the neck but which was almost indestructible. Over the years I have thankfully moved on to more modern set up and now use a Sony A700 and Konica Minolta Dynax 7D Digital SLR, although I was still a late convert to digital, instead clinging onto the slide format until fairly recently. I am a self taught photographer who has exhibited images across South Wales, supplied stock images to a Wales based photo library and have taught at an introductory level to a number of small groups about landscape and wildlife photography.

Once old enough to drive I naturally began to explore further afield, right across Wales and then up to the Scottish Highlands and finally to true wilderness and the Canadian Rockies, having already been there 3 times I am now planning a fourth trip for 2010. Naturally with all this countryside to explore my interests have expanded into Hill Walking, Winter Mountaineering, Mountain Biking and Back Packing, but always with a camera weighing me down, I am just thankful that it is not my old Zenith!

D Hart

 

PS in the near future in I will be launching a new Blog entitled Tonto,s Trails, Tonto being my new hillside companion these days.