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 plasticy, 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. 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 a serious medical 'wake-up call', 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.