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Brian Tompkins |
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BRIAN TOMPKINS AN INTRODUCTION:
Born? Yes. In the South of England, way back in the dark ages. I became
passionately involved in photography at the age of thirteen. My first
darkroom was put together by the time I was fourteen and the next four
years were spent crouched under the stairs. I only ever wanted to be a
photographer so when I left school I signed on in the RAF for nine
years in order that I could become one.
 Brian and a glass of red
The 5”x4” was our ‘smaller’ format, for aerial work we used 5.5”x5.5”
or 10.5”x10.5” cameras and they were roll film!! 100 exposures at a
time. These cameras were mainly used for photo reconnaissance or
recording bomb drops. However we were often called upon to carry out
air to air/ air to ground photography with a handheld versions of the
5.5”x5.5” cameras. These cameras were known as the F24. They had three
shutter speeds but to change them you had to physically take the entire
roller blind assembly out of the camera and replace it with another.
The lenses were long focal length, which meant the 36” lens was just
that, 36 inches long, plus the camera and a 100 exposure magazine. All
aimed through a peep sight and a pair of crossed wires. The magazines
were supplied with a handle for cranking the film on, the usual method
of operation was to pinch one of the spare aircrew who would kneel down
beside you and frantically crank the film round. As at this time we
were flying Shackletons there was always plenty of helping hands.
Another version was the K20. This had the advantage of an optical
viewfinder and a labour saving device, lever wind. These cameras had
originally been made for the American Airforce but we had waited until
they had thrown them away and rescued them from the skip. Likewise our
enlarger. Negs were usually viewed as negs by the photographic
interpreters or contact printed. But we did have an enormous
10.5”x10.5” enlarger, and believe it or not, it still had a brass
plaque with Luftwaffen- Eigentum (Property of the German Air force)
engraved on it. Then we had the F97 which was a night camera and
synchronized the exposures with flares on parachutes both of which were
Infra-Red, trouble is it never worked and was a joke. Oh happy days.
After leaving the RAF I would have liked to have pursued a career in
photography but having acquired a wife and son during my RAF service I
had to earn some money and as many have found out this meant that
photography as a way of earning a living was out. Somehow I found
myself in the construction industry and as I didn’t know the first
thing about it my employers kept promoting me. Although hardly fun it
did mean that I had spare cash to enjoy my photography. During the
seventies I got heavily into Leica, an addiction which in fact has
never left me. Eventually this involvement led to me meeting a
publisher and I wrote, edited and translated a few books for him, all
of which involved Leica. At this time I was also heavily involved in
camera clubs, both as an active member and a visiting judge. I gained
the distinction of Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and
immediately gave up. I lectured at the local art college and became
tutor and examiner for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Medal Award scheme.
Then suddenly, like the revelation on the road to Damascus, I realised
that I just wasn’t enjoying it. The Leica Pocket Book was selling
extremely well, two re-prints in the first three months, second edition
within six, but when the publisher asked me to prepare the third
edition I just couldn’t be bothered. Anyway the tax man was chasing me.
I just packed it all in and resigned from the clubs and stopped
judging. It might seem an odd thing to give up like that but I did have
a reason. If you are heavily into the photographic world of exhibitions
and competitions you, as an individual, lose some of the control. You
tend to always have in the back of your mind what a judge might think
of your picture. You end up taking photographs to please other people
and for me that ruined the pleasure of me being in control. The only
thing was I still kept taking my snaps, but now for a strictly limited
audience…me.
This state of events lasted for nearly twenty years. Then I decided to
go digital and bought a computer. WOW, the floodgates opened. The
learning curve wasn’t a curve at all, it was a vertical cliff. But I
persevered and eventually some of it started to drop into place and
make sense. But apart from photography something else happened. I
discovered forums and web sites where I could get help with computer
technology and the complications of digital photography. People asked
questions and I realised that the expertise I had acquired over the
years meant I could also start helping others. Here was a means of
communicating that negated all boundaries of time and distance. I could
be talking to someone half a world away as if they were sitting in the
next room. Not only could we exchange ideas and information but we
could instantly transmit pictures. This has brought back my interest in
photography. Yes I miss the smell of Hypo and the tactile pleasure of
handling a roll of film but that’s a small price to pay. I also miss my
film cameras, I still have a large collection but they sit forlorn and
accusingly on the shelves in the study. So yes digital photography has
a different appeal to analogue, one is not better than the other, it
just means that we have a choice which way to go to achieve our object.
In fact many photographers are now using both and choosing the best
tool for a particular job.
So when Wilf, who I must have known for more than twenty years, asked
me if I would like to make a contribution to this site, I jumped at it.
I intend every month or so to write a short article which I hope will
be of interest to some. Nothing too technical, that isn’t my style and
in fact that sort of thing is adequately covered elsewhere. So these
articles will be more like a fireside chat over a pint and hopefully
some will draw up a chair and make themselves comfortable.
email Brian
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