Mischievous pups gaze out at you from the inside of plant pots...

A soggy tiger cub plays with a fountain of water...

A chimp sniffs a daffodil...

Four baby owls line up with a look of wide-eyed innocence...

If you have seen the sort of animal pictures that make you go ahhhhh! then it's quite possible you have admired the work of former Lincolnshire Echo photographer Mike Hollist.

Mike has spent a working lifetime covering major news stories and human interest features for the Echo, and more recently throughout the country for the Daily Mail.

But it's his eye for the comic, the unusual, the appealing or just the plain bizarre, that has earned Mike an international reputation as a photographer of animals great and small.

Now, after 37 years working as a staff photographer with the Daily Mail based in Manchester and London, Mike (left) has decided the time has come for a change.

At the age of 65 he is going freelance, working on specials such as his favourite subject animals, together with other features for the Daily Mail.

He tells me: "It's an exciting new career move and I will relish the challenge.

"Apart from bring a job, it's also very much a hobby.

"I'm not a skiier or a golfer or a yachtsman, so working for the Daily Mail in a new capacity will be great.

"And I count myself a very lucky person.

"If any of my pictures can raise a smile or make people think, then it makes it all worthwhile.

"A still picture and video images can have power, especially on news, and some stills have an iconic sense and images are carved in people's minds forever."

When it comes to being in the right place at the right time, Mike is convinced, "It pays for everyone to carry a little camera around.

"Some of the best news pictures have been taken by aware amateurs on stills or video.

"I am a bit of a technophobe but I will be looking at the next generation of digital cameras with interest."

Mike, whose home is in London, recalls: "It all seems light years since I used big plate cameras on the Echo.

"I may be 65 years, but I feel as young as I did when I was working for the Echo 40 years ago."

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