 He started work at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1903 prepared illustrations for lectures by Isaac Bayley Balfour, becoming a permanent employee in 1914 and working there until his retirement.He was the official artist to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh and provided photographic illustrations for books, articles and calendars.He developed all his photographs himself, amassing a large collection of plates and prints that he sold to D. C. Thomson who subsequently donated it to the University of St Andrews in 1987.