Roy is an electronic engineer by profession, having graduated from an Australian university a long time ago. For a number of years he designed integrated circuits (IC’s) at GEC Research Laboratories, London, before entering the world of electronic design automation (EDA), creating software tools for electronic engineers. In this role he traveled the world, and moved to the U.S. (North Carolina) from the U.K. in 1996.

In 2001, he started his own business, Fotronix, Inc., developing and constructing high speed photographic flash systems. He moved to Southern California in 2004, and now runs a company which consults in many areas: high speed imaging, high speed flash, EDA, advanced technology applications, business development, and even such seemingly unrelated arenas as histology and radio-frequency identification (RFID).

Roy is a passionate wildlife photographer, specializing in high speed flash and macro photography.  Well known for his hummingbird photography, Roy’s work has been exhibited across the U.S. He is also a very keen arachnologist, and has an extensive library of spider images.

Tom Mangelsen and Stephen Dalton are Roy’s main photographic influences. Wolfgang A. Mozart, Iggy Pop, Robert Calvert, Ed Kuepper, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Blind Willie Johnson are major musical influences, while Willis Gertsch, Barrie Gilbert, and Harold ‘Doc’ Edgerton are technical influences.

Roy is at his happiest when tramping/hiking anywhere with his wife Ruth and dog Charley (a black standard poodle named after Steinbeck’s), or when on the jungle floor searching for bugs and spiders. Roy has lectured internationally on macro photography, nocturnal mammal photography, remote photography, and high speed flash photography.  He is available to consult in any or all of these areas, and has assisted at numerous hummingbird photography workshops.  His high speed flash equipment can be rented, however, a requirement is that Roy must be there as well to oversee its correct operation. The gear utilizes high voltages and requires careful treatment.