More About Me

I (David Butcher) am a 62 year old male full-time professional freelance Photographer and Videographer, based in Winchester (Hampshire, England), but prepared to travel anywhere in the world to capture your required images.

When my Grandfather heard that I was about to be born (waaaaay back in 1957), he purchased a camera (a Kodak Box Brownie Flash III) to capture some memories of his first grandson growing up. Although I have never seen any of the photographs that he took, he gave this camera to me on my 8th birthday. I became incredibly frustrated with this “toy”, not because it only took 8 black/ white photographs on an expensive 620 roll film, but because it had a fixed shutter speed, fixed aperture and fixed focus (through a single piece of plastic for a lens), so the resultant images were poor quality (under- or over-exposed, blurred with camera shake and / or out of focus). I struggled for years to get some half-acceptable photographs from this heap of sh*t (which I still have today, although I only keep it for sentimental reasons !!) until I finally was old enough to get my first part-time job (delivering newspapers), shortly after which I bought my first 35mm compact semi-automatic rangefinder camera (a Ricoh 500G) for the princely sum of GBP 30 from a recently opened photographic shop called Jessops in Leicester, England in 1972. Finally, I could capture nice sharp correctly-exposed colour images …. I quickly fell in love with photography, and decided to make this my career !! After being spurred on by winning many competitions in the local Camera Club, I stepped up from this modest little camera to my first (secondhand) 35mm SLR camera (a Konica Autoreflex T with Hexanon 57mm f1.4, 28mm and 200mm prime lenses and Sunpack GT26 flashgun) for the horrific sum of GBP 200 in 1974.

So that was the start of my passion and addiction with photography. Many years later, I was employed by British Forces Broadcasting Services (later SSVC TV) in West Germany (1985 to 1989), where as part of a four man team, we produced a 50 minute television programme every week for and about the British Military Forces at work and play. My photographic and videographic skills were much appreciated in my role as a TV News Cameraman, and the additional duties of Lighting and Sound Engineer on location, plus editing the tapes & maintaining all of the equipment whilst back at base, added to the enjoyment of “work”.

In 2011, after 33 years working in the Broadcasting industry with several managerial roles behind me, I finally decided to take the plunge and follow my dreams, so I resigned to start up my own business as a full-time freelance Photographer and moved to Dubai, which is a Photographer's paradise !!! After 5,5 years in the sunshine, we decided to move back to England in August 2016, but not before I met the love of my life and we got married (twice, once in Dubai and again in the Philippines !!!).

After owning a large number of various Canon SLR cameras (35 mm analogue film and APS-C digital) between 1981 and 2007, I then moved across to Nikon (but not because I believe that Nikon is better, since it is the eye behind the camera that makes the difference). I currently use a Nikon D750 camera (with a Nikon D600 as a backup) plus a huge selection of appropriate lenses and accessories for stills photography and videography.

I reckognise that despite over 50 years of taking photographs, there are always new things to learn, so continual training to improve my skills is essential. To this end, I am an active member of the BPPA (British Professional Photographers Associates), the SWPP (Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers) and the SITTP (Society of International Travel & Tourism Photographers) and regularly attend their training sessions, plus numerous Webinars on-line.

So if you are anywhere in the Hampshire / Dorset / Berkshire area of England (or indeed anywhere else in the world) and need a dedicated and experienced professional Photographer to cover your event (corporate or private, including parties, weddings and baptisms), or you need good quality images to help market and sell your product or yourself, please do not hesitate to contact me for a very competitive quotation.