Derek P. Blake has been taking photographs since the age of nine years, when his parents gave him his first camera for his birthday.  The camera was Brownie Cresta II complete with a roll of 120 monochrome film.  Derek was hooked on photography from that time on.   Over the next year he saved up his pocket-money to purchase a flash gun for the Brownie, costing one pound, seventeen shillings and six pence (37/6 or 1.88GBP), this took just over six months of saving. With this basic equipment he achieved success in two photographic competitions, one of which was a national competition.

 

Soon after starting work as an aeronautical engineer, he purchased a Russian made Cosmic 35 camera, later adding a light meter and hot-shoe flashgun. He soon found himself taking photographs for the Apprentice Association Magazine, 'Whirly Wings', which had circulation of over 2000 copies. Soon after Derek upgraded to his trusty Pentax Spotmatic, which served him into the late nineteen-nineties, when he transferred to digital.

 

Derek has always been fortunate enough to be in professions where his skills as a photographer have been utilised to a high degree, he has also spent periods purely as a professional photographer.  With many published images to his credit, he has published a local community newspaper (circulation in excess of 10,000 copies), a national specialist magazine for refugees, several church magazines, and more recently has been involved in providing images for web-sites and Greek Island Guides. Derek's first love has always been photography and uses the by-line “Fanatical about Fotography”

 

He has lived on the Greek island of Lesvos in the North-East Aegean, for almost five years, and is now based in west Cornwall in the UK.   We are in the ideal location for the supply of images of wildlife, images of the beautiful Cornish landscapes and has a huge stock of traditional Greek scenes, wildlife and the beautiful Greek island landscapes.