I am frequently asked about the cameras and camera techniques used in making my photographs. Simplification  of tools and techniques is to my mind, is highly desirable. My preference is to use a large format wooden field camera. It is basically a box shape with a lens at the front of the box  and a ground glass screen at the back, with leather bellows in-between.  The leather bellows allows the lens  to be moved closer to the ground glass screen or further away from the ground glass, so that the image can be brought to focus on the screen.  To see the image you have to throw a black cloth over the ground glass screen and place your head under the cloth, just like in the old days.  The image is dark, always back to front and upside down.  You cannot hand hold this type of camera, it must be mounted on a tripod.

The camera has no electronic circuitry, no auto-focus or built in exposure meter. Sheet film is carried  in a film back which is inserted in place of the ground glass screen before I make a photograph.  I  use three lenses,  representing wide angle, normal focal length and short telephoto in this film format.   I don't use filters, except for clear ultra violet filters which are there for lens protection, although I sometimes  take these off.  All of my colour photographs are made on transparency (colour slide) film. Great effort goes into matching the colours reproduced  in my publications and exhibition prints  with those colours actually recorded by the film.    I tend to use  one or two  film types, being familiar with their exposure and colour characteristics under a wide range of lighting conditions.  I determine exposures  using a hand held light  meter.

This camera is  heavier  than a 35mm or medium format cameras and is slower to use.   However, for me it  has  advantages.  First is the clarity of the reproductions which can be obtained from the larger film size which is important to me so that I can  preserve maximum detail in the reproduced images.  This heightens the illusion that the viewer could literally walk into the photograph and touch the subject.  Second, as the camera is slower to use, the very action of making a photograph becomes  a more conscious series of sequences.    It requires  careful thought of my viewpoint, the subject's form and dynamics, the contrast range of the light and all of this is prior to  getting the camera out of the backpack. 

It is not so much the subject but your feeling towards the subject which matters most in photography. To make an aesthetically pleasing photograph requires an awareness, an intuitive understanding, compassion and sensitivity towards the subject.

Awareness is the least discussed  element in good photography and a lifelong process.    I have passed areas I have previously visited and been surprised by the potential images I had not seen.    There is the constant trap of approaching the subject with preconceived ideas and when the prevailing conditions do not fit these ideas, returning empty handed.  This process of gaining awareness is the  most significant creative factor influencing my compositions.    To me, compositions are  about feelings.  They are a melting pot  of experience and understanding  which the photographer brings to their subject and it is how these feelings and thoughts are captured by the size,  shape, and placement of elements  as they are composed on the ground glass screen.   Building your awareness of your subject requires you to go on your own inner voyage of discovery, to develop your curiosity, to constantly be open to the unexpected.

Within Nature, I find this process of awareness infinite. It is not only a physical and creative process for me, but a spiritually rejuvenating process that I can find nowhere else. Nature is a place where our modern city lifestyles are forced into simplification, necessitated by our daily physical requirements for food and shelter. Nature is also a place where lifelong friendships can be founded, through the simple act of sharing in the company and welfare of others. This provides insight and perspective into one's self and others, within the confines of a mini community with a common goal, something which can be taken back to the city life and applied there.

It saddens me that some of the last remnants of wild places and areas of natural beauty are constantly under threat of being irrevocably damaged or destroyed. Perhaps with growing awareness and improved understanding will come a deepening value. We stand to gain enormous benefits at all levels if we undertake to improve our environment and retain our last remnants of wild places, to enjoy now and to pass on to future generations. This is without doubt one of our biggest challenges facing us all in this new millennium.

Alex Bond