I am a Retired Senior Technical Manager, and Consultant EMC Engineer, having spent a 40 year career in the Telecommunications industry. My interest in photography started in the early 1960's. I would spend much time in my parent’s bathroom, developing, and printing my 35mm B&W film. Getting married, taking on a mortgage, and raising a family, my photography became limited, by time and budget. As such was confined for many years, to the children growing up, and holidays. I still had my superb 35mm Canonette 'S' f/1.7 rangefinder camera, and many of my photos were on 35mm colour slides, as this was the cheapest option for colour photos. In 1985, I bought my first 35mm SLR camera, a Canon AE1-P, and started to get back into serious photography again. In 2003, Canon introduced the EOS 300D DSLR, which although very plasticky, and with a budget 18-55 lens, cost £1000. This was my entry point into the world of digital photography. Since then, I have had a series of Canon DSLRs, EOS 30D, EOS 7D, EOS 7D Mkll, EOS 5D Mklll, EOS 5D MklV, and currently an EOS R6 Mkll and EOS R7. After retiring from work in 2002, I developed a keen interest in Astro Photography, so built, and equipped an observatory in the garden for this purpose. I enjoyed 12 successful years in the hobby, progressing through a variety of telescopes, and specialised astro-imaging cameras. However, in 2014 major surgery, made me realise that living in a village with no facilities, and a wife that doesn't drive, the sensible option would be to move to a larger village, with facilities (shops, and doctors surgery etc). After 30 years of living in a rural village, there was no way that we would move into a town. So, it became a case of moving from, a lovely dark sky village (no street lights), to one with one with light pollution from street lighting. I knew that for me, astro-imaging would no longer be the same, and so sold all of my equipment. In 2015, we moved to our current location, still in a village, but with everything on-hand. I am now 100% into my photography, and with the help of a long-time good friend, run a photography group/forum for enthusiastic amateur photographers in Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Essex. Through this, I have made many new friends, and had the pleasure of meeting several of them.