Villager Jim on a decade of Weather Watchers

A rainbow captured over the Derbyshire countryside by Villager Jim

BBC Weather Watchers is fast approaching its 10th birthday.

Launched in November 2015, the crowd-sourcing weather club now has over 362,000 registered users sending in snaps from across the UK, many of which are shown during forecasts.

Among them is popular Derbyshire photographer Villager Jim - once dubbed "the Banksy of the photographic world" - who has submitted hundreds of Weather Watchers photos over the years showcasing the Peak District's natural beauty.

He said: "Actually seeing Editor's Pick pop up is great fun. What makes it even more fun is that I have a couple of friends who are also passionate photographers and they post as well.

"It's a real jibe if you get one on and they don't, so we're having a great laugh doing it.

"It's just good fun. It's lovely to see recognition and to then see it on the weather and news is great."

Villager Jim said sunrise and sunset were a great time to get snapping

Villager Jim said he became a photographer after taking photos of his dog Dilly that went viral when they were used in a story that claimed she belonged to a US marine who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Villager Jim said the story was "totally made up" but "it got to the point where I just couldn't do anything about it - it was appearing on hundreds of internet sites".

Since then his many more of his photos have been warmly received on his social media channels.

"She [Dilly] was a beautiful thing and she actually created my career, she genuinely did. It went bonkers," he said.

"We average at least 1,000 likes on every image but sometimes more, one went to 30,000 likes.

"It's even more so a sanctuary in my eyes for people to come to and just have nice, good feeling stuff."

The village of Great Hucklow in Derbyshire during a misty September

A pink dawn in the village of Beeley in Derbyshire

The positive response has validated Jim's decision to dive into the hobby.

"I only kind of took up photography when I moved to my current home," he said.

"I moved from the city of Sheffield to the countryside and have a lovely garden.

"I woke up, literally the very first morning after we'd moved, and out on my garden was a hare.

"I actually couldn't believe it. Then realised I needed to get one of these cameras where you can swap the lenses so you can have a bigger lens to take a picture of an animal further away.

"I went out and did that against my wife's better beliefs, she said it was a bad idea because I'd just go off it like I do with everything else.

"Fortunately for me, it's one thing in life that I've stuck with and enjoy it just as much now as I did then.

"That must have been at least 17 or 18 years ago, but I just got so hooked."

Villager Jim says he is out and about before sunrise every day

Jim says he gets out every day before sunrise to start taking photos.

"I have a very nice routine in the fact that I'm always up and out at least an hour before sunrise," he said.

"Of course, that changes constantly. Around the May and June time, your sunrise is at 04:30 so you've got to be up at 03:00 to be able to have a cup of tea and check the days figures or whatever and then zoom out.

"I get to see every single sunrise there is, that you can actually see.

"Obviously there's lots of days where it's cloudy or raining, so you're never going to see the sunrise, but whenever there's the opportunity, I see every single one.

"I think that's a really valuable thing, and it's never the same of course. I think that's a joy in itself."

A misty Chatsworth captured during autumn

A sunrise captured in the summer by Villager Jim

Villager Jim said his top tips for other snappers included starting out early in the morning and being mindful of framing.

"The biggest tip of all is to imagine the scene as noughts and crosses, where you have the subject not in the middle one," he said.

"So if you're taking a picture of a dog or bridge, put it somewhere other than the middle so that there's a bit more depth to the picture.

"That's the biggest lesson I've ever learnt.

"Second lesson - get up early. All the lovely photos are normally at sunrise or sunset but sunrise, you tend to have a bit more time to get some good shots and the atmosphere."

A "tiny squirrel" captured in autumn in Derbyshire

And are there any plans to swap his Villager Jim moniker for his real name?

"A wonderful BBC newsreader commented on me and said, 'he's the Banksy of the photographer world', and I shall be forever grateful for that strapline," he said.

"It's kind of fun, it's just slightly different having something mysterious about [me].

"So I've hidden behind [it], because I'd much rather my pictures do the talking than me."