Andy is a professional wildlife photographer who lives on the fringes of Derbyshire's Peak District National Park. A former press photographer his passion for the natural world was ignited as a young child, both by the beauty of rural Mid Wales where he was fortunate to grow up, and by the inspiring images of another wildlife photographer in the family, his uncle Rick Packwood. It was Rick's photographs, in particular his travels throughout Africa in the 70's and 80's, that not only revealed to Andy the staggering beauty and fragility of the natural world, it also instilled in him a burning desire to experience these places for himself one day.

In fact it was whilst travelling with Rick to photograph grizzly bears in the Alaskan wilderness that first inspired Andy to follow in his uncle's footsteps, a journey that would begin with a brief, but invaluable spell working as a newspaper photographer. After an 18 month baptism of fire Andy felt the time was right to take a chance and with the tireless support and enthusiasm of his wife Claire, they left their jobs in the city and moved north to Derbyshire.

Now, some 8 years later Andy's images are marketed all over the world by a network of some of the world's top international agencies including Getty Images (USA), Corbis (USA), Lonely Planet Images (Australia), RSPB Images, Nature Picture Library, FLPA, NHPA (all UK) and FotoNatura (Holland). In the last 2 years alone his images have been sold in more than 30 countries worldwide, from Hong Kong to Mexico, New Zealand to Taiwan and from Chile to China.

His client list is no less exhaustive and includes such distinguished names as The Discovery Channel, The New York Times, BBC Wildlife and National Geographic Traveler as well as major UK broadsheets such as the Times, The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph.

Though he has travelled widely it is the wildlife and wild places of Britain that is his greatest passion and he spends the majority of the year travelling to some of the UK's most remote areas, often choosing to spend months working with a particular species. It is this desire to immerse himself completely into his subjects lives that allows Andrew to frequently capture aspects of behaviour that have seldom been seen before, let alone photographed.

His images have also won awards in some of the world's most prestigious photographic competitions including European Nature Photographer of the Year (Germany), Natures Best (USA), Travel Photographer of the Year and most recently he received a category runner up in the International Wildbird Photographer Awards. He is currently working on an assignment for a major magazine, detailing the lives of the UK's largest seabird; the Northern Gannet (see Latest News and his Blog).