Welcome to the very first post of Photo Plod. This is the start of my personal photography blog, charting some of my work and my growth as an amateur photographer. It will contain some images of my own and others, and I invite critique and opinion. This is an "open house", so to speak.

By trade, I am a police officer in London. I live with my girlfriend of 3.5 years, and our two cats. My photography kit is simple - I don't earn enough to afford lots of high-end kit! I now use a Nikon D80, having upgraded from an old Nikon F65, which I still keep for Black and White film images. I have only three lenses - a telephoto, a wide-angle zoom (standard kit lens) and a fixed 50mm prime. My tripod was inherited from my father, and dates back to around 1970.

On the technical side, I'm lucky enough to own a copy of Adobe Lightroom (which I use for most of my image editing) and do all my work on my laptop. I also own an old copy of Photoshop.

I hope you find this blog interesting as I write.