I am currently the President of Southampton Camera Club and my involvement in photography started when I married Jim Mansfield ARPS in 1953. It really was a case of "if you can't beat `em - join `em". However my photographic interests have developed very differently and although involved with holiday records of duo-fade slide lectures, my personal photographic interest now centres on interior photography.

I use available light, as I dislike the effect of flash and much prefer the way natural light moulds and shapes the subject. I never carry a flash and will use door frames or other natural means of support rather than use a tripod. I find it a challenge to be able to hold the camera still using a very slow shutter speed and then view the finished result.

We travel extensively and have found American museums more tolerant of photographers than museums in Britain. It certainly enhances a holiday being free to `shoot' away in many of their grand historic houses.

Unfortunately this form of photography does not fit into the camera club competition format. Generally in order to interest the 'judge' house interiors have to be in a state of total disrepair, full of shabby items covered in dust, cobwebs, cracked window panes and peeling paint. However who is to say that such a setting is more artistic than that of an immaculate reconstruction. After all it is the quality of light that matters in the end.

All my photographs are taken with a Nikon FE2, handheld and on transparency film.