My name is "H".Not my real name as you may have gathered but a name I've answered to since I was knee high to a small thing.
As my last name is Harries my Uncle "Ginge" started to call me Harold,Harry and then settled with "H".
I was born and bred in North Pembrokeshire but have family links throughout the county with the most famous members of my family from Tenby.
I have very strong links with two artists going by the name of Augustus and Gwen John.
Augustus was is my great great grandfather on my fathers side.
During the '90s I joined the Armed Forces and served in this Country and away on a "tour of duty".
I left the forces in '99 and settled back home here in Pembrokeshire. .
Home is now Puncheston,Casmael,nesteled at the base of the Preseli mountains.
Right on the cusp of the National Park.
Lovely and quiet here.
On returning home finding work was easy but keeping it was a different matter.
Between '99 and 2004 I was made redundant on 6 separate occasions.
Some of the people I worked for were "big named companies" and never would you believe that they would go into administration.
Anyway,enough was enough.I went self employed as a professional chimney sweep.I got qualified with N.A.C.S and H.E.T.A.S and at one stage was the most qualified sweep in the old county of Dyfed.
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Things were doing good until a very bad day in Sept 2005.
I was involved in a road accident in which I was the 3rd party.
I'm not going into details about what happened but enough to say that a very good friend to myself and many many people was killed.
As a result of that vicious day things took a turn.
During the accident I damaged my shoulder.
I thought it was just aches and pains so carried on with my business as best as I could.
Due to the pain I was in I went for an M.R.I scan in August 2007 and in turn found out that I had a complicated fracture of my shoulder.An injury I suffered with for 2 years.Surgery was the only option which in turn would restrict the amount of lifting and pushing for a considerable amount of time.
In turn my business has had to cease.Can't sweep chimneys without pushing.
On a different note.
I get asked every once in a while "how did I get into photography?"
Well my late father used to own a couple of cameras.
Old 35mil Zeniths.Heavy old things.Drop one on the the floor and you'd damage the concrete.
I used to toy around with them when I was a kid.
When I was older I bought myself a Centon,again 35mil.
A great tool to learn with.
The photography had to take a back seat while I was in the forces as no time to myself and with bouts of unemployment when back home I thought that things would never get started again.
But with a lot of hard work and saving I finally got myself a digital SLR and I was back to taking photos with a vengeance.
People often ask what camera do I use to get the pictures you see on these pages.
I used to tell them and would either get a response of "but that's last years model" or "I'm going to upgrade as I can't get pictures like that" when they've a perfectly good camera.
To me the camera is a tool.
It's your eye and your imagination that makes the picture even before you've picked the camera up.
The camera captures "that picture".
The only advice I can and will give anyone using an SLR is to buy the best lenses/optics you can afford.
They along with your eye are the most important part of photography.Everything else is just furniture.
Having the "best,all singing all dancing camera" does not make you a photographer.
All I say now is that I use a Canon.
Anyway,that's a little about me.
Those of you who know me know that I can talk for Wales so I think you've got off lightly by reading this even if I do say so myself.
Got to go as lots of things to photograph.
Cheers for the now.....................H