The Bunker

Ted Hawkins

Weston Rhyn

Wellington Grammar School

The Bunker Photo Gallery

For Kabir - friend and critic

Manifesto

I take photos of what interests me. They're the things I see in the village, in the surrounding area and, occasionally, further afield. All the pictures are flawed but I like to think that my eye is improving. If you enjoy them I'm happy and I hope you come back again. If you find them boring I'm sorry for wasting your time.

My photography does not seek to intrude or to denigrate. It's usually marked by an absence of identifiable people although it's not possible (and wouldn't be desirable) to exclude them entirely. When people look at my pictures I am happy when they smile and delighted when they go "Wow!"

For the technically minded I use a variety of (mostly) obselete digital cameras including:

• Nikon Coolpix 950 - 2.1 megapixels!
• Nikon D50 - my first digital SLR - still in frequent use
• Nikon Coolpix S6 - now stolen by my wife.
• Nikon D200 - a heavyweight SLR - literally.
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 - a gem of a camera that fits in my pocket and, with an f2 lens and image stabilisation, it works especially well in low light situations

I wouldn't say that I'm entirely convinced by "the camera doesn't matter" school of thought but I do think that cameras don't really matter much. SLRs can use a wide variety of lenses, Compacts are more discrete and, err, compact. A camera that you can slip into your pocket has a lot going for it. Learning to use what you've got will improve your photography much more than flitting from camera to camera.

I usually shoot Jpegs and download onto a Mini Mac (2 Ghz processor/2 gig RAM). The pictures I like best are those that look right straight out of the camera. I primarily use The Gimp for editing but I do use Photoshop Elements 6 occasionally. I'll often adjust levels, contrast and curves. Occasionally I'll sharpen, I'll crop if I have to and, very rarely, I'll clone something out. I don't often use any computer artistic effects and, while I might straighten a sloping vertical, I don't attempt to "improve" nature. For black and white I shoot in colour and convert to monochrome afterwards.

The best thing any wannabe photographer can have is the honest criticism of friends that take the time to look at his stuff and tell him what they really think. So my thanks to everyone who took the trouble but especially to Maggie for giving me my first commission, to Kabir for pretending to be impressed, to Alison for caring and, above all, to Rosemary for years of encouragement.

Allan Wellings - November 2008

You can contact me by email at: al@thebunker.eclipse.co.uk