Musician turned photographer credits AP for RPS honours

^{A photo of a butterfly that helped Mark win an LRPS Distinction [Picture credits: Mark Goodwin; Band photos: courtesy Mark Goodwin]}

Mark Goodwin, who was a drummer with the Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group, ensured that he always carried a camera when touring the globe with Donegan, who died in 2002.

Donegan rose to fame in the 1950s and was best known for novelty songs such as My Old Man’s a Dustman.

Goodwin, who was with Donegan’s band until 1973 and is now aged 71, says that gaining an LRPS Distinction in July is ‘proof’ that reading AP has made him a ‘better photographer’.

Photography became a second passion after music – inspiring him to capture thousands of images while visiting entertainment hotspots such as Las Vegas.

Goodwin started to take up photography seriously in 1978 and now specialises in nature and British wildlife photos, using his Nikon D3S and D2X DSLRs.

‘I had to work pretty hard to gain this distinction and it means a great deal to me. I feel it’s a sign of recognition for all the hard work and study over the years,’ said Goodwin, who has been reading AP for more than 40 years.

He added: ‘When I was a pro musician, practice was part of my job. I would do it every day for at least two hours, but I had been doing that since I was 12 years old and didn’t know anything else.

‘Learning photographic techniques including wet-darkroom and now digital has been both enjoyable and very taxing, but Amateur Photographer was never very far away.’

Having had access to many well-known figures in the music business over the years, he plans to publish previously unseen images in a photobook.

The photographer has set up a studio at his home near Chepstow and started to digitise an archive of thousands of images, including four rolls of b&w film of Abba at the Albert Hall, London, in 1978.

Goodwin, who describes himself as a ‘semi-professional’ photographer, explained that he was given exclusive access to photograph Abba in his job as a promotions manager for record label CBS.

He also documented Ray Charles in Hamburg, Germany, in 1963, for example.

Goodwin today tells AP that he plans to work towards an ARPS distinction.