Spike Walker

Spike is the creator of four of our Award-winning images this year, raising his tally to a total of 23 Awards since his first in 2002. His passion for microscopy started at the age of ten when he received his first microscope, a present from his father, which at £4.50 cost him almost his total weekly wage. Two or three years later Spike began to produce photomicrographs directly onto photographic printing paper. This involved laying his microscope on the settee in the front room using a 15-watt cooker bulb to project the image onto the paper held in the hinged lid of a small biscuit tin. Spike took early retirement 21 years ago, having taught in schools and colleges after gaining a degree in zoology. This decision was intended to allow him to convert what had for years been a part-time obsession into a proper 'day job', though it was hardly an immediate success. Soon his studio evolved from a few microscopes in the spare bedroom to a well-equipped laboratory in his garage that now houses over 25 instruments.

Of digital imaging and how it has revolutionised photomicrographic technique, Spike declares: "This has given my work a new lease of life; I am now able to produce images I never would have dreamed possible only a few years ago."

To find out more about these images, click on the thumbnails below.