timothyphoto

I'm engaged to a fantastic woman called Liz. I'm so lucky to have her because she understands my passion (addiction?) to travel and photography. She's one of those amazing women who lets her man do his thing without asking too much in return. She comes with me on trips whenever she can but doesn't give me a guilt trip if I have to go alone.

It took me 37 years to find her.

I know plenty of photographers and cameramen who weren't so lucky.

During my time as a photographer at the Independent, I was driving along Tavistock Square in London 10 minutes before the 7/7 bomb attacks.. on my way to shoot a rather boring and non-descript portrait job. I heard the blast but just carried on going. It didn't register in my mind as a bomb blast for some reason. By the time I got the call from the office, the police had put a huge cordon around the area and I ended up shooting nothing. When you're a jobbing news photographer, you dream of encountering moments like that. I have very different sentiments now.

When I was covering the civil war in Eastern Indonesia in the 90s I accidentally walked right into the 'enemy' with two other guys. We had to run for our lives whilst being shot at by a group of men from quite close range. I was so scared, (excuse my language) that I pissed myself and didn't even realise it until we has stopped running about 10 minutes later!

Yes. I shoot my images with photoshop in mind. Digital cameras tend create a 'flat' image IME, and I shoot images with a view to making them much more 'punchy' in photoshop. Being proficient at Photoshop is a very important aspect of digital photography IMO.

This: http://humanplanet.com/timothyallen/wp-content/gallery/timothy-allen-portfolio/timothy-allen_photographer_054_0.jpg

or this: http://humanplanet.com/timothyallen/wp-content/gallery/timothy-allen-portfolio/timothy-allen_photographer_008.jpg