Attenborough’s cameraman coming to Strule Arts Centre

IT was a serendipitous crossing of paths that put humble Omagh on Doug Allen’s map.

Two years ago, while walking in the enlivening mountains of Connemara, Doug was drawn to a man who sat observing a waterfall through his tripod-mounted camera. The amateur photographer who had captured the attention of one of David Attenborough’s most trusted and enduring cameramen was the former principal of Drumragh Integrated College, John Dennison.

The Scot and the Omagh man got talking, and both the professor and the pupil found the other to be congenial company.

A friendship began to grow, and Doug promised he would someday come to John’s hometown in Tyrone.

It was upon the upshot of this covenant that I scored an interview with Doug.

On Monday, November 21, Doug is coming to the Strule Arts Centre to talk with local people about about photography.

However, while I’m sure that there will be a surplus of tricks, tips and techniques for aspiring photographers to glean, based on the delightfully unrestrained, meandering conversation I had with Doug when we spoke on the phone earlier this week, don’t expect a prosaic, classroom-style lecture. If there is one thing that about Doug that is self-evident from hearing him story, it this: Doug does not do boring.

“Aye, it’s a fair day here in Brighton,” said Doug in his warm, throaty, Scottish voice. I hesitate to make the comparison, for fear of being accused of saying that all Scottish people sound the same, but the way Doug chats is redolent of Billy Connolly is his later years.

“I actually have a home on the west coast of Ireland too, down in Connemara.

“It reminds me of Scotland,” said Doug, “Every time I go down to that wee house, I feel like my spirit has been renewed.”

There a touch of the poet in Doug –maybe unsurprisingly.

His life has been elemental and impulsive; his guiding star oriented by a desire for travel and adventure.

“I was not one of these people who start put with a career path,” reflected Doug. “I certainly didn’t know as a child that I wanted to be a photographer or a cameraman.”

And the 71-year-old did not grow up to become just any cameraman.

If David Attenborough is the godfather of nature documentary making, Doug is his consigliere or underboss. Attenborough might be the face of the Blue Planet mob, but Doug is, perhaps, just as crucial to the success of the whole enterprise.

“I was lucky enough to go on a holiday to the Mediterranean with my family when I was about 10 or 11,” said Doug, trying to pinpoint the push that set the rest of his life in motion.

“It was a great place to get into snorkelling, and then later diving.”

But Doug understands that nothing exists in isolation from its wider environment. In some sense, Doug had to be a product of the 1960s.

“There was great TV being made at that time. It was stuff that was full of adventure and discover,” said Doug.

“And we were just beginning to understand at a deeper level how a lot of the world worked.

“Then towards the end of the 1960s and the early 1970s, some people began to take environmentalism seriously.”

Doug went to university and completed his degree in Marine Biology.

“Science was good for understanding how things worked and everything, but I wanted to see it with my own eyes.”

So, acting upon this desire not just read but live that which he was interested in, Doug accumulated experience diving.

Eventually, aged 30, he found his lucky break when he got a job as a diver with the British Antarctic Survey.

“What I learned about working and diving in these extremely cold conditions gave me an advantage over other cameramen when that opportunity later arose,” said Doug.

And it did not take too long before it did.

By the time Attenborough and his team arrived at a sub-zero expedition which Doug was working on, the Scotsman had already taken an interest in photography and was sending pictures away to a producer at the BBC.

“I was asked to accompany David and his small team around while they were there.

“I observed his cameraman and I decided that I liked everything that the job involved, The adventure. The wildlife. The cold. The people. I liked it all, and decided that I would need to learn how to film as well as just take pictures,” he said.

Before long, Doug had refined his skills, and was getting regular work with Attenborough, as well as other filmmakers.

“It was brilliant. I was getting to work up close with emperor penguins, killer whales, polar bears, belugas, sperm whales,” he said, with a note of satisfaction.

But, while Doug has worked disproportionately with cold water creatures over his career, he had filmed in just about every conceivable habitat, and he also crossed beyond the borders of natural history.

“I’ve done feature films, documented expeditions in which the people are the focus, and different stuff,” he said.

Doug had a treasure trove bursting with golden anecdotes of adventure and jeopardy.

Given the way he has spent his time and lived his life, Doug’s outlook is unique and sort of precious. And, all-importantly, he is a captivating storyteller who know the value of the tales he has to tell.

Hopefully this has left adventurers, photographers, nature-enthusiasts, documentary-lovers, storytellers, and the rest of you, hungry for more Doug.

If it has, call the Strule Arts Centre or go on their website, and look about a ticket for his ‘It’s a Wrap’ evening on Monday, November, 21.