John Ashley started taking monochrome photographs with his first camera (a Kodak Instamatic) in 1968 when he was nine years of age, and began developing and printing his own photographs in his father's darkroom from the age of eleven. He soon progressed to a Russian 35mm Zorki 4 and a rusty old Pentax Spotmatic sp500 when he became a teenager, building his own darkroom when he was 14. His love of Pentax cameras has remained ever since, and he now regularly uses a collection of Pentax camera bodies ( ME MG MX ) to this day.

An Olympus XA and OM2 became favourites in the eighties, and this led him to try out Olympus digital cameras when a 3 Mega-pixel model became available.

Most of John's work has been landscape and architectural, reflecting his love of nature, the countryside and historic buildings (especially churches - even though he is a devout agnostic)

 "I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything". Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley.

He has dabbled with the abstract, portraiture, industrial photography and the human form, but the bulk of his commercial work has been of landscapes and buildings. However night and low light photography remains a fascination.

John has been creating photographic images for over thirty years, and has been an active member of many photographic clubs, which has expanded and enhanced his artistic awareness.

John is enthusiastic and passionate about photography, and feels that the additional patience that comes with age means that there are still challenges and opportunities to be explored.