A GARDENER who has become an impromptu photographer is urging others to follow suit.

Tony Harding says that anyone with a camera can achieve the same results as him.

The 59-year-old, from Dorchester, captures his images on his way to work or on his way home.

He has found his spur of the moment pictures, including these of a frosty Winterborne Herringston water meadows near Dorchester, of autumn reflections in the water at Weymouth Harbour and of Ringstead Bay near Weymouth with Portland in the background, have had stunning results.

These are photos that Tony has taken as he has passed through the landscapes using a variety of cameras, including a camera phone.

Tony, who runs gardening business Sundial Landscapes, says his mantra is 'stop, compose, shoot, go' and he never takes more than three photos of the same image.

He says: "Unfortunately, work has to come first and so the images I record are very much 'spur of the moment'.

"I don't spend hours setting up my gear, to capture 'the shot'. I don't sit for hours waiting for the 'magic hour', when the light's just right.

"I take the photo as I see it and don't make special trips to areas in order to source new subjects. I don't even own a tripod."

Tony has always had a very keen interest in photography, stretching back to his camera club days at school.

"Photography was originally intended to be my chosen profession but I turned down a place at university in order that I could help my mum and dad launch their own business.

"However, over the past 17 years, my work as a landscape gardener has got me outdoors again and given me the opportunity to take more photos.

"I will also take the opportunity, when out with my family or when I'm walking Bertie my Labrador, who comes to work with me, but only if something really grabs my attention. A lot of the time when coming home from work I might see something like a sunset that I think will make a good picture.

"I love a good sky. That's the one thing that really attracts me."

Tony shoots mainly digital but grew up using film and still enjoys the challenges of it as a medium.

"I would say to anyone who wants to do anything similar is that the best piece of advice is to have a camera with you at all time because you never know what you're going to come across.

"I've learnt my lesson now but I dread to think how many times I've missed the opportunity, to 'capture' that moment, because I didn't have my camera on me.

"Always look around you and see what's going on and you will come across something you want to take a picture of.

"It's really nice to build up a library of images and then you can share them on Facebook, Instagram or other social media if you want to."

The editing process should be kept to a minimum, Tony says.

He makes simple edits that most people should be able to do on photo editing software. These are cropping, contrast, sharpen, saturation and rotation.

Tony adds: "Due to the power of 'high end' editing tools, such as Photoshop and Lightroom, many professional photographers will transpose elements, such as a dramatic sky, from one image and use it on another, to create the desired effect but this level of editing doesn't really appeal to me.

"Why 'edit the life out of an image', if the subject isn't good enough to begin with?"

Married Tony, a dad of four, moved to Dorset from Sheffield.

He said: "It's lovely living in Dorset. I've been down here for a long time and I wouldn't choose anywhere else to live. It's the ideal place for taking spontaneous photos."

Tony uses a range of cameras. They are a Sony A7 (digital), Nikon F100 (35mm film), Yashica Electro 35 (35mm film), Yashica Mat (medium format film) and the camera phone of a Samsung Galaxy S6.