"Words alone cannot express my passion and love for what I do. I see, therefore I am! If you were to ask me what I do for a living I would tell you that I am blessed with the awesome responsibility of creatively interpreting the fleeting events of our lives.

I think this sums it up in one. I am not a famous photographer and I don't make any money from it but I do get such a feeling of fulfillment knowing that I have captured history in the making.

Some of us are born into this world to make history and most of us will follow them but there is a small number who will record history. So why do I put my life on the line just to take pictures?

I was born in Lichfield on 26th May 1956. My father and mother were both in the army, my mother being Welsh and coming from Llwyncelyn. I was a typical army brat spending not longer than 2 years in one place, until I was sent to Llandovery.

I left Llandovery Collage in 1973, and I went straight into the Welsh Guards where I spent the next 20 years serving Queen and Country. It was here in my last five years in the Welsh Guards that my photography career started.

I was stationed in Germany with the Battalion and during a scheduled boxing match against the Scots Guards the Commanding Officer saw me with a camera and asked if I would take a variety of shots of the match. From that day on I was the new unit photographer. That's how things are done in the army!

When I left the Battalion in 1993 with all the army photo courses under my belt, I decided that I wanted to take up photography as a full time career so with a lot of hard work and dedication I became a freelance photographer.

The Defence Picture Library liked my photography and I have been working freelance for them ever since. I have travelled to many places all over the world including Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra leone and Iraq and this year I was with 2 Para in Iraq in March. In August I spent time in Israel with the IDF and I have just returned from Afghanistan photographing 3 Para.

Robert Capa said that if your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. In the business of war photography sometimes it is safer not to get too close no matter how much pressure you are under to get that picture. There is an old army saying it is better to live to fight another day. I have seen many a young photographer fall in to this trap and pay for it dearly.

There is one thing that every photographer must understand - luck is the one main ingredient that plays a big part of all photography you just have to be patient, and it will come.

I have been lucky to have a Welsh mother and have spent most of my life in Wales. My home here in Llwyncelyn just outside Aberaeron has been my little haven where I can forget. When I left the army in 1993 and came home for good it was one of my priorities to find my roots here in this wonderful country of ours."

Article written by Andy Chittock