About Whipper_snapper  

I'm a native east Londoner, born in Forest Gate but living near Romford on the Essex/London borders. I have been a keen photographer since the age of 16. My photography represents a wide spectrum of personal interests varying from pictures of historic places to images from human rights campaigns I took part in during the late 1990s. I was a professional journalist from 1972 until 2002 when ill health caught up with me. I now suffer from M.E./Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This limits the frequency of my photography and my choice of subjects.... most images are close to a car park.

All my photographs are strict copyright and may not be reproduced without my prior permission.

I have a passion for photographing churches, castles, sunsets and anything British either rural or urban. Apart from my mother's home county of Norfolk I also love Dorset, Sussex, Kent and some parts of Essex. Other parts of Essex are more 'challenging' photographically, especially nearer to London.

Another passion is naval history from the 'steam and steel' period as well as combat aircraft of both world wars and WW2 tanks. I was a museum assistant at Firepower, the Museum of the Royal Artillery, but eventually had to give that up. I'm still a member of the Lance and Longbow Society.

I've written two sets of wargames rules - "Bills, Bows and Bloodshed" for the so-called Wars of the Roses and "Eggshells Armed With Sledgehammers" covering WW1 naval warfare around the Dogger Bank/Jutland period.



Born on June 9 I'm a typical Gemini - mercurial and inquisitive. I have been told that I suffer from a 'deplorable excess of personality'. My family seem to have inherited that trait. My personal politics are liberal but not dogmatic. I am not quite 'green' - more sort of 'peppermint' coloured.

I am heterosexual BDSM and proud of it.... safe, sane and consensual on the 'dominant' wing of the lifestyle. I was chairman of SM Pride nationally from 1998 to 2000 and I'm a former Spanner Trustee. I was co-organiser of the 1999 and 2000 SM Pride marches.

For those unaware of the term BDSM Wikipedia has this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDSM

In the late 1990s I worked as a dungeon monitor [BDSM health and safety person] at Torture Garden, Age of Reason and other nightclubs and I still maintain a keen interest in lifestyle health and safety. During my time with SM Pride my telephone number was listed nationally and I found myself counselling people from all walks of life with BDSM issues or who were simply coming to terms with themselves as 'non-vanilla' people.

I have appeared in several television documentaries and chat shows talking about our lifestyle. One episode of 'Secret Suburbia' featured myself and my eldest daughter Emma with Emma holding forth on the perils of having a pervy Dad. In her commentary she said: "There's no one quite like my dad.... he's.... errr... unique!" Bless her!

Around 10 per cent of the sexually active adult population is BDSM inclined but not so many choose to admit it. Many of my scene friends have 'come out' as BDSM to friends and family. Some have even found that their parents or children have similar interests as well, giving rise to yet another nature/nuture type discussion.

I wrote this about coming out: www.thebdsmsite.org/comingout.htm

By way of a disclaimer I should point out that none of my testimonial writers and very few of my Flickr contacts are BDSM people - my Flickr friends are mostly people who know about my sexuality and who are either content to ignore it or accept it as non-threatening.

I'm Male and Taken.

United Kingdom