Richard Ellis has had a camera close by his hands since he was a teenager, and a paint brush since his early 20's, so his interest in the visual arts has been around for a while.

However, over most of his life until retirement the usual issues of raising a family and making a living in the High tech industry meant that he never devoted the time, energy or money in taking this interest further.

Retirement brought 4.5 years of full time traveling with his wife, Marion Sharp. They then settled in Carleton Place, where he took water colour classes, and found that he really couldn't draw very well. However, he noticed that the other students were painting from a photograph. Since this didn't seem to make much sense - why not just take a good photograph - he turned to photography more seriously.

Since 2004 he has upgraded his equipment and skills, and also realised that his interests lie in taking images of living things.

His other passion is theatre, and he was always frustrated with the difficulty of combining these two interests. However, a chance remark resulted in an opportunity to do some theatrical photography, and he is now spending his energy developing this opportunity by working with theatre companies whose budget does not run to a professional photographer.

Still interested in travel, his images reflect the people he meets, the living things he sees, and the theatre whenever possible.

He can be reached at sharpellis@rogers.com.