Quite by accident, when reading the Friends of the West Highland Lines magazine, one of our members noticed that we have a well known railway videos producer living on the Far North Line near Conon Bridge.

A friendly enquiry from your editor resulted in a fascinating story. When someone has an unusual occupation it's always interesting to know how it came about.

It turns out Michael Field was the son of a top golf professional who, had it not been for the outbreak of WWII would have competed for Britain in the Ryder Cup. In 1960, as Michael was leaving school, his father became seriously ill. He had no choice but to help his mother run the family golf shop while his father was recovering in hospital. This led Michael, who up until the age of 12 had not been very interested in golf, to become a qualified P.G.A. golf pro himself by the age of 17. In 1970 he set up his own golf schools, first in England and then from 2000 in Scotland, running West Coast Golf until retiring from golf in 2011, teaching in clubs from Ullapool to Muir of Ord. This involved huge amounts of travelling and teaching and heavy 80-hour weeks. As part of his teaching method he began filming pupils as a way of highlighting their progress and showing them their faults. In 1980 Michael made a series of instructional golf films to go with the courses he was running.

Having acquired all the necessary video equipment Michael started covering all sorts of things from motor sport and cycle events to theatre productions, so he started his own company, Michael Field Video Productions (MFVP). By the end of the 1980s he realised that there must be more to life than working 80 hour weeks, so he started visiting heritage railways, rekindling an interest, dating back to organising his school railway club in 1960, arranging visits to steam locomotive sheds with his friends.

He got seriously involved in making railway videos by accident. One of the many Steam Railway magazine readers' trips, organised jointly with Steam Breaks from 1993 until about 2010, was to the Harz in northern Germany. A couple of the guys on the trip asked if he was going to make a film of the weekend. That led to work with Steam Breaks on many trips to the narrow gauge lines in Germany, and then on to narrow gauge and main lines in Poland where he become involved in the Wolsztyn Experience - the last steam-hauled commuter service in the world - a handsome compensation for having missed the end of steam in the UK in the 1960s because of his golf work.

Having done so much narrow gauge filming he had accumulated some surplus material so began work on his long-running The Millennium Narrow Gauge Collection series - he is now up to Vol 14!

Around 2009 Michael made the first of his ScotRail Roundabout series, looking at the Scottish rail scene, mainly in the Highlands, with both modern and heritage diesel traction, showing off the wonderful scenery too.

A steam version was also produced, covering the Great Britain tour in Scotland and other specials, as well as The Jacobite along with promoting the Strathspey Railway. It's sad that Michael doesn't think there will be enough material for a Steam in Scenic Scotland in 2023.

MFVP had two homes, one in Bedfordshire and one in Conon Bridge. Michael has settled in Scotland, trying twice to retire - he says he's getting too old to keep climbing up big hills with loads of gear for the master shot!

Over the past 30 years Michael has made over 100 railway films from most parts of the world and over 30 travel films with many leading travel companies, he is very much a one-man band these days with the help of his partner, Marion, filming, editing and marketing.