John Bebbington FRPS

John developed an interest in insects at a very early age - his first memorable encounter was with a queen Buff-tailed bumblebee at the age of 2! The sting made a lasting impression.

He bought his first SLR - a Spotmatic 1 - in the mid 1960s and natural history photography became a passion, especially after he joined the Field Studies Council as a tutor in North Wales and wanted to back up field teaching with illustrated talks. His photographic technique was given a real boost in the early 1970s when he met Michael Proctor who persuaded him to join the RPS Nature Group and submit images for Associateship.

In 1978 John took over as Head of Centre at the FSC's Juniper Hall Field Centre, near Dorking in Surrey, where he remained until retirement in 2004. He began teaching natural history photography courses (close-up and macro in particular) in 1979 and continues to do so.

In 1991 he gained his FRPS with a slide panel entitled 'Protective colouration in European Lepidoptera' and is serving his fourth term on the RPS A&F panel in the Nature Category.

His main photographic interests are in close-up and macro work with invertebrates and plants and in photomicrography, and he has recently begun to explore the relationships between flowers and their pollinators, looking at  flower structure, visible light reflectance, UV reflectance and UV-induced fluorescence.

 

He still works as an educational and photographic consultant.

 

Contact details;
John Bebbington FRPS
Quantock View
Newtown
LANGPORT
Somerset
TA10 9SE
Tel: 01458 253027
Email: john.bebbingtonfrps@btinternet.com