For months now, David has been egging me on to submit a portfolio of my macro pictures to Amateur Photographer and I didn't have the courage or the belief in my own photos to do it.

Eventually, for P&Q more than anything, I agreed, picked out a few photos and sent them in. The next few weeks were filled with self doubt (again and still) thinking things like 'my photos aren't good enough to be published' and 'don't fool yourself, everyone can do what you are doing' and other such stuff.

Imagine my surprise when I got an email from the deputy editor of the magazine, telling me they were going to publish some of them. Imagine my delight. Imagine someone so smug and happy, it's impossible. Imagine someone who still thinks they made a mistake, but I have the proof - right here in my hand, today's issue has a photo of mine on the cover and a page of pics inside.

Thrilled is an understatement. I'm ecstatic. Thank you David for having more faith in me than I had in myself and thank you AP for making me so happy I could burst.