About
 My real name is Brian, I'm a Scot originally from Edinburgh but raised in Glasgow. I have lived in London since 1974, and with my partner since 1984. Why spylaw4 as a nickname? To cut a long story short it is simply derived from an Edinburgh address that has personal connections, and it seemed as good as anything else! Although I was a keen photographer in my youth, my interest lapsed as other hobbies, to say nothing of work, limited my time and diverted me away from photography. Quite a few years ago now, having spent a seemingly endless lifetime "harnessing the forces of nature in the service of man", I was offered an early retirement package. I leapt at the chance and then re-discovered and actively resurrected my interest in photography which, apart from holiday snapping, had been dormant for far too long. Following a few tentative ventures into early digital cameras, and ignoring the multitude of large black DSLRs, I dipped a toe into the Leica world in early 2006 by buying a Digilux 2. Little did I realise what would ensue! I quickly found that like most of life's pleasures, Leicas are not only expensive, but highly addictive! Or should that be phrased the other way round? So the 'bug' bit and I progressed quite rapidly to the use once more of rangefinder cameras and after a brief dabble with film bought a Leica M8 digital camera, and then with a deep breath on Friday the 13th of November 2009, the full-frame Leica M9, introduced by Leica on 9th September 2009. I find that despite the excellent color images this camera produces, I am gradually being more and more drawn to black & white (B&W) images, initially based primarily on the M8's in-camera image processor, which produces brilliant B&W results. These are not, I find, emulated in the M9 where I have had much less success with B&W results. So after about a year I sold the M9 and bought instead an M8.2 which is now beginning to repay me with the B&W image style and quality that I used to obtain. All images, colour or B&W, are processed using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, with a couple of very useful plug-ins, and I have recently (July 2011) obtained the complete Nik set of processing software. In addition to all this I have splashed out on an X-1, a simply marvellous camera. Nothing like a single focal length lens to concentrate the mind! I have also been working part-time for Red Dot Cameras (a Premier Leica Dealer in London) since August 2009.
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