My passion: Patrick Noakes, managing director at Victoria Gate Casino, has a passion for photography

I’ve been taking photographs for as long as I can remember. I was given a Kodak Instamatic at the age of seven, and that’s one of my earliest memories of using a camera. As a child, I took lots of family holiday pictures, but the passion really started with the dawn of digital cameras. I bought my first good-quality digital camera in 2001 shortly before a trip to Las Vegas. The ability to experiment freely with the camera in capturing the essence of the Vegas strip and then craft the photos afterwards really got me hooked.

Since then I focussed mainly on street and travel photography. Learning to ‘see’ the shot has helped develop my eye for colour and composition. Casino design plays a really important part in how a venue is received by customers, and photography has certainly helped me appreciate the skill that goes into the design and presentation.

At Victoria Gate Casino the design team at Fuse worked hard on the design and creating a striking visual effect, taking a cue from some of the more contemporary Las Vegas casino designs and, with my passion for photography, I really enjoy being involved in the creative aspects of casino management.

My passion for photography involves the whole creative process.

As well as enjoying the process, I love where photography has taken me. My wife and I love to travel, and I find now my choice of holiday destination is often driven by the photo opportunities it presents. One recent memorable trip was Japan. We toured the Honshu island via bullet train, staying in different cities and small rural villages to capture the unique intricacies of life there. The sheer madness of the neon streets of Shinjuku compared to the serene temples and Zen gardens makes for fascinating contrast and striking images.

As well as taking photos, I’ve also spent many hours restoring family archive photos using digital techniques. Using social media, I’ve gathered and restored hundreds of photos of my ancestors from around the world, with the earliest dating back to the 1880s.

It gave me a real feel for the development of photography,

You would think that the best photo I’ve ever taken might be some exotic travel photography, but my favourite picture is an action shot that I took of our Chow Chow, Bella. She’s a puppy in the picture and it’s an amazing action shot of her shaking the snow off her fur.