In The Viewfinder is a new series that allows you to learn a bit more about your favorite FYP Writers. While we know your enjoy their articles, sometimes you just want to know what makes them tick! We are pleased to provide that insight for you.
Hugh Walker is an amateur photographer who lives on the beautiful island paradise of Barbados with his wife, Cheryl and 14 year old daughter, Giselle. Photography is a family affair for the Walkers; Hugh’s wife and daughter being award winning photographers, having both won numerous medals and special prizes at the annual Barbados National Independence Festival of Creative Arts. As Hugh put it: “We have a healthy family competition going on and so far I am losing to the ladies”. However, Hugh is not to be outdone by the family, having won silver and gold medals as well and special prizes in Architectural, and Black & White photography.
Hugh has a passion for landscape photography and one of his greatest dreams is to have the opportunity to travel to exotic locations and be exposed to a wide variety of landscape scenarios. In late 2010 he took one such memorable trip to the Grand Canyon. His comment about the trip being “The temperature was about 5 degrees below zero and there is this guy from the Caribbean, with an insane smile on his face, shooting everything in sight an loving it! It was a dream come trueâ€.
Besides landscape photography he has dabbled a bit with portrait photography. Hugh is however drawn to architecture and abstract photography. There is something about the lines of a building that intrigues him. Each building has a character that has been developed through the design elements used by the architect, and he loves to try to find it and demonstrate it in an artistic manner.
Hugh loves to create images that are dramatic in nature; his point of view is that “We see the ordinary every day in our lives and I strongly believe that the images we create should not be ordinary, but should attempt to take the viewer to another placeâ€. Hugh embraces colour, but loves black and white. His initial exposure to photography was in the era of film and the wet dark room . “Black & white was the medium we used because we could not afford to process colour, because of the cost of the chemicals and papers. We had full control of the black and white process, from developing to printing”. Today he embraces the digital tools, especially Adobe Lightroom and the Nik suite of plugins. His favorite tool is Nick Silver Effects Pro which he finds is best at black and white conversion.
When it comes to equipment Hugh has a foot in both of the major camps. He shoots both Nikon and Canon. Some may think this is strange but he finds that both have their weakness and strengths and that being slavishly tied to one system does not fit his profile. Favorite lens are the Canon 100mm f 2.8 L macro, and 70 -200 f2.8l and the Nikon 16-85 VR . Favorite software products are Adobe Lightroom and Nik Silver Effects Pro.
Hugh’s work can be found online at his portfolio site  http://Art4life.zenfolio.com
