My interest in macro really came to the fore when I first became ill 6 years ago. Off work and confined to a pocket sized concrete garden with nothing to offer me except weeds, I decided to make the most of a bad job – and began making a record of all the insects I could find.

At the time, I was running a citizen science project aimed at introducing people to the wildlife in their local park or green space, so this just felt like an extension of my day to day job! But for my eyes only!

Of course, I had been photographing insects and flowers in close up prior to this, but when you can’t leave your home, that fascination becomes more focussed, a sort of narrowing, in line with the shrinking of your world.

Now, my garden is bigger, but interestingly, we don’t have the variety of species we had in that little concrete jungle? Well, we might do, but my world has become bigger again and maybe I just don’t have the time to really look as I did that summer….