The shot above was taken with a Nikon D200, 300mm +1.4x converter, on its first day out at Holkham beach in North Norfolk. I shot a few pictures of Kim and George, and was just about to put the camera away but had a quick look east & west using the lens as a telescope, and pressed the shutter release by accident. The heat-haze prevented any chance of focusing so nothing is sharp, but I love this image all the same. It’s my computer’s desktop image!

I remember in film days, a fast film was 400iso, and with some careful kung-fu in the darkroom you could maybe increase that to 1,600iso and get a usable print. This is a small detail from a shot at 25,600iso while I was fiddling with some buttons on the camera. Taken with a Sigma 35mm f1.4A – when the lens worked it was amazing, but sadly its focusing was inconsistent and I had to send it back.

Paris, January 2015. I’d taken a couple of street shots on our way out for dinner, but when I got back to the computer they weren’t very inspiring. Until I looked again, in the bottom right-hand corner of one frame, and found this little scene! The red light is caused by the heat lights they use around the outside tables of cafés. I really like the light, the graininess, the girl looking at the man who’s looking directly at the camera, and the man with the phone who’s oblivious to everything else. I confess I saw none of these things when I was taking the photograph! Canon 5D3 and 50L

This is a shot of a wind farm near Fulbourn, just outside of Cambridge. I know these installations offend many people, but I like them – I like what they represent, and I think that if the installation is proportionate within its environment, they look very peaceful, elegant and impressive. I’d been meaning to go out there for a while, and when I had a chance to take the car for an hour one evening, I thought I’d do the job properly and take a tripod. It took about half an hour to set the shot up, and 1/500th of a second to shoot it! But by some freak chance, despite all the turbines rotating at different speeds, during that 1/500th of a second, the alignment above happened. I don’t think I could have designed it any better if I’d had remote controls for each turbine! It almost looks like it’s been photoshopped, but I can assure you it’s untouched. Unintentional and very lucky. Canon 5D3 and 135L.

Rue Montorgueil, Paris. A quick, one-handed snap on the way back home for breakfast after a walk to the croissant shop, but this is one of my favourite shots of the street – for some reason, it’s the one that makes me feel the way I do when I’m really there. The light, the colours, the people.. I can’t really put my finger on why I like it, but I keep coming back to it… Canon 5D3 and 135L