David, a keen photographer from his school days studied photography at Wellington Polytechnic in 1976 before returning to Christchurch to begin a career in photojournalism at the Christchurch Press Company in January 1977.
He covered every imaginable subject from major sporting events to Royal tours in his nearly 32 years as a staff photographer for The Press, finishing there in December 2008.
Spare time is given to personal projects as a fine art photographer, this lead to two exhibitions, other photojournalistic projects include a book “My Mysterious World” with author Margaret Mahy, work published in Japanese lifestyle magazines, New Zealand magazines, In flight magazines, Le Monde, along with travel and cultural feature stories for newspapers.