About Tony Hinde
My father was a school master and taught at an Independent School situated, not far from Hereford. We lived in the annex of a large country house on the edge of a common and living in such an area has had a lasting effect on me and I have always loved the countryside and everything that goes with it.
When I was five we moved to the Midlands and I was brought up in the hustle and bustle of a large town. Weekends were usually spent going for walks in the surrounding countryside, and as my father was a very keen ornithologist watching birds became the norm on these occasions; and this is from where my interest in wildlife stems. My mother was a trained nurse and worked part time in the local hospital but she always made sure she was home in time to greet both myself and my older sister.
As a family we are close, and strong family values have always played a part in our upbringing.
Career
After leaving school I went to agricultural college in Scotland and on leaving I actually turned my back on farming and pursued a career in sales and marketing with a couple of multinational companies.
I have always had a very independent streak and after a number of years working in the Midlands I turned my back on hustle and bustle and moved to the country and pursued my love of photography, turning it into a source of income. While not specialising in any one field my main interest is photographing wildlife, but I also do some commercial work as well as the odd wedding, and for a time I also supplied our weekly newspaper with various photos.
Today while I still earn a small income from photography I am also working for Catchpole & Frogitt Private Wine Merchants. I love the sales environment, and enjoy the challenge it throws up while also gaining satisfaction from having clients happy with their purchase.
Leisure
I play golf most Saturdays with friends which is always good fun. I have a dog who needs to be exercised at least twice a day, this is always a pleasure as I am surrounded by hills, and at weekends Catherine will come as well and we’ll go on long hikes over some of the highest parts of Shropshire.
I do enjoy good food and I am very fortunate that Catherine is an excellent cook and can conjure up some mouth watering dishes from next to nothing. We grow most of our own vegetables, and while it is a bit time consuming, there is nothing quite like eating vegetables that have just been picked out of your own garden.
Travel has always been an important part of my life, I start to become very restless if I’m at home for any length of time, I always want to know what is over the horizon.
In the mid seventies I hitch-hiked round North America with a friend. It was an incredible adventure and we met some amazing people and their hospitality and generosity will stay with me forever. So to will the incredible freedom that was had in travelling with no timetable and no constraints. Even today I attach a huge importance to freedom and just wish that more people could enjoy the freedoms that we enjoy.
In 2006 I spent New Year in South Africa and visited Kruger National Park it was here that I developed my love for African wildlife and in May of that year I spent 3 weeks travelling around Namibia on my own. This combined my passion for photographing wildlife and my love of freedom. I took a tent and on one occasion camped just yards from the South Atlantic Ocean with jackals roaming the beach, awesome!
In 2007 I went with Catherine to Kenya where we spent an incredible couple of weeks in the Laikepia District and the Masi Mara game conservancy. We were looked after by six or seven Masi tribesmen and camping out in the bush was an unforgettable experience. You would be amazed how much noise is generated by the wildlife at night!!
When not abroad Scotland is where we can be found. I do love Scotland as it offers so many unique opportunities for good photographs.
In 2003 I teamed up with some friends and we stayed on the Knoydart Peninsular halfway up the West Coast of Scotland. The Peninsular is one of the last truly wild places on the UK Mainland. With no roads and very poor communication it is very easy to forget about the twenty-first century.
I have been back every year since and sometimes twice in the same year. I did go once at the end of February, it was spectacular with a good covering of snow and clear blue skies, and total silence, a truly wild place.
I belong to our local Amateur Dramatics, these days I tend to be their lighting technician although I have trod the boards mainly in Pantomime or reviews performing some long lost comedy favourite from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore or Tony Hancock or even the Two Ronnie’s, always good fun and plenty of opportunity to improvise.
My Music
I grew up in the sixties, a fantastic time to be growing up. Everything was happening at once; the austerity of the fifties and the aftermath of the Second World War had come to an end and the Sixties heralded a new beginning. It felt as if the whole of humanity was emerging from a darkened room into the bright outdoors. There were some downsides the Vietnam War being one of them; but the Young Generation were convinced that they had all the answers for a better life and were keen not to make the same mistakes that there parents had made.
The music of the era reflected this new dawn this hope and I was very much influenced by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Simon and Garfunkel, with their anti war message and their call for justice. The Beatles brought their own unique style and spawned a whole new generation of bands including The Moody Blues, and Fleetwood Mac, who were just out to enjoy life and be free.
As the Sixties became the Seventies Neil Young and Carol King arrived on the scene and we started to grow up. Music continued it’s evolutionary journey towards the Punk Culture, it wasn’t my style and I continued to follow Dylan and Young along with a much changed Fleetwood Mac, while Pink Floyd just kept improving; and we wondered what had happened to the wonderful free days of the Sixties. To some of us, The Times very definitely were A-Changin’, but we all continued on our voyage through life and while we tried to cling to our musical roots of the Sixties we were becoming older and our tastes began to reflect this change. Classical music started to creep into our repertoire, as we progressed through the Eighties and Nineties and we became disenchanted with the offering modern music had to offer, the so called boy bands, groups manufactured by Reality TV programs.
The good thing to come out of this journey through time is the abundance of styles that now reign, and there are now some fantastic artists out there; and Tracy Chapman together with some of the Scottish bands, Capercallie and Runrig sit on my iPod alongside Dire Straits, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Pink Floyd, and a full mix from the intervening decades, including Jazz, Classical and Opera indeed The Times They Certainly Have Changed.
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