I've always had a love for all things historic and atmospheric. The older and more enigmatic the better. It allows room for the imagination to breathe. This island has a rich landscape, with hill forts, stone circles, ruined abbeys and ancient barrows confronting the traveller at every turn. In recent years, I've been catching up on a long neglected ambition to visit as many of these sites as possible.

When I first discovered digital photography in 2002, that discovery coincided with my rekindled passion for Britain's ancient landscape. I was avidly capturing every place I visited on virtual film. The two interests dovetailed neatly together.

When I was hunting on the internet for places to visit, it struck me how many sites were poorly represented by the accompanying photographs. I was blown away by some of the places I was visiting - often unexpectedly - because the internet hadn't done visual justice to the location. This was the main inspiration for this website: to paint a better picture of our heritage, thereby encouraging people to get out and see it for themselves.

Initially, I knew nothing about web design. In its first incarnation, this website was a rough and messy affair, created entirely within Frontpage. Over the years, the site has evolved into what you see today. It is now hand coded in notepad, with the vast majority of content being database-driven. The design work is all my own.

Some of the early photographs were taken using a basic old 2 megapixel Kodak digital camera. I quickly upgraded to a Kodak DX6490.

It wasn't long before I was pushing the limitations of the compact camera and decided to invest in a digital SLR . Currently, I'm shooting with the Canon 5D - a 35mm equivalent full-frame digital camera. I use the 28-105L as my walk-around lens, switching out to the 17-40L for wide-angle work. I also carry the 70-200L 2.8 lens, but it doesn't get much use for the kind of photography featured on this site. I frequently use polarising filter, and I've also started using a Cokin graduated ND filter - and this has already proved its worth on a couple of occasions. I also carry 580EX II and 430EX flash guns in my bag, which I'm starting to use for illuminating stones at night and in low light.