The Authors

Steve Larkinson

“It was one of those magical moments, where you are in the right place, at the right time, with the right camera! There was noise and commotion right up under the eaves and a few people watching, so I went and joined in, pointed the camera and the story unfolded in front of me, quite amazing! And if you have ever seen the speed these birds fly at it’s a real credit to the equipment that I was able to react at a similar speed.

So the equipment; Nikon of course (my first 35mm camera was a Nikkormat FT2 and for this format I have always been fond of Nikon) the body was a D3X with the 70/200 2.8 lens plus a 1.7 converter. The settings for the shots were aperture priority with spot focus and exposure, ISO 1600 / aperture 2.8 / shutter speed 500.

I always shoot in raw and process in Apple’s Aperture although I only compensate for the digital format limitations of light dynamics and do not fundamentally change the photos, so the shots are basically straight out of the camera. I never use Photoshop, which I know divides opinions, but my opinion is that photos should be as close as possible to what the reality was.

Since I was a boy I have always been fascinated by photography and light, the essence of photography. Starting with box Brownies that I picked up from church jumble sales that my parents helped out at, and moving on to my Nikkormat FT2. Then as a jobbing wedding photographer I used medium format, starting with a Rolliecord, then a Kowa which was amazing for what it was, and then a Hassleblad ELM. Moving to digital I attended several training courses at the Nikon Head Office which I found very worthwhile. I moved back to 35mm format and have owned several Nikons, currently using a D600 as it’s brilliant and light, with a D300 as backup.”

Kate Larkinson

“I’m an accidental author! I became an author quite by chance when my husband Steve returned from the bakery with a baguette and some amazing photos! The photos were of a swallow’s nest that he’d spotted in the eaves of the bread shop. Besides being great quality photos, they told a beautiful tale that I think is worth sharing as widely as possible.

It took me a couple of years to find time to assemble the photos and think about the accompanying words, but once I got started it all fell into place quite easily. Then followed a few more years of trying to find an agent to help get it published! While I got lots of encouraging replies, I was unable to find an agent who could take it on at the time. In the meantime, our eldest grandchild was at just the right age for the book and e-books became more and more popular with the advent of tablets, so I finally set about publishing it myself on Kindle, and Little Bird Lost was born! The feedback both from friends and complete strangers was staggeringly encouraging, so I spent the next few months working on the print edition, and that is now also widely available. All very exciting!

My background is in librarianship and literacy, and in parenting and grand-parenting!
I’m currently working on a mystery adventure series for ages 8-12 and hope to get it ready in time for our eldest grandchildren to read.”