Richard asked me how we choose the photographs that appear in each issue of REGIMENT, as he felt readers might be interested. Ever happy to oblige, I offer a few words on the subject. Firstly perhaps, a little bit of background might be in order. REGIMENT is published by Nexus Special Interests Ltd. and came into being in 1994.

The publication was the brain child of Ken Jones, the then-and still-editor of Military Modelling. At the time I was the editor of Practical Wargamer and also a contributing editor to Ken's magazine. I was asked if I would like to edit this new magazine and agreed at once. There are currently nine published issues of REGIMENT a year and the initial concept was that each issue featured just one present day regiment or corps of the British Army, with occasional forays into foreign armies. The present day formation and all its former or antecedent units were covered in one issue. I use the past tense, for before very long we found that with some units that had their origins in the 17th century and with a wealth of former regiments, we simply could not do their history justice in one 64 page issue. I suggested that a double or two-part issue would be more appropriate for units like this and this was agreed by the powers that be.

The publication is chiefly photograph led with around 200 in each issue, plus around 7,500 words of my text. It does not assume or pretend to be a regimental history-it is a celebration of the unit in question. There are just two of us in the 'field' team, myself as editor and my photographic editor. I am retired and work at home, where I am lucky enough to have a large room that serves as an office, library and war game room. My photographic editor however has a full time job and takes annual leave in order to come on visits to units. At the moment there is quite a waiting list of units waiting to be featured. As I write this it is mid July 2000 and all this year's issues and those scheduled for 2001 are booked up, with more units waiting for coverage after that.

In outline the system works like this. If a unit has contacted me, I explain the delay before they will appear, but keep in official contact via Regimental Headquarters (RHQ). Then, with about six month's lead time (it varies) I make contact and pay a personal 'hearts and minds' visit to meet the RHQ people, to assure them we are not there to rubbish the regiment- an attitude all too prevalent in some modern publications-and obtain a 'feel' for what the museum and archives have to offer. I then arrange a date when it will be mutually convenient for the two of us to visit the actual regiment, RHQ, the archives and the regimental museum. Often the last three are co-located, but the regiment could be anywhere in the UK, Germany, Northern Ireland or more distant.

The purpose of visting the present day regiment is to photograph officers, NCOs and men in as many Orders of Dress as possible, plus their equipment, vehicles and weaponry. The commanding officer usually selects one of his senior officers to act as liaison with me and to ensure that all the soldiers and kit we need to photograph are assembled. Also, we have a good look around the officers' mess and the warrant officers' & sergeants' mess to photograph any paintings or prints they have. These are often, but not always, duplicated at RHQ, but during a 'one off' visit we need to capture everything and our cheapest commodity is film. These visits often involve two day's work and thus an overnight stay. The regiments accommodate us in the officers' mess and look after us very well, with first class hospitality-I've had many a hangover to vouch for that.

The records kept at RHQ vary from regiment to regiment. Much depends on the available room, the staff and the interest in past history. The key player is the Regimental Secretary, usually a retired officer of the regiment itself. Some places are really organised. I recall that quite recently we went to the RHQ of The Queen's Lancashire Regiment and were shown a really smart, tidy and well-organised archive room. We rubbed our hands in happy anticipation, only to be told there were two more rooms like this one... Equally, at other units we have been shown a cardboard box the size of a dining room table, brim full of loose photographs with the instruction "Have a look through lads".

Then the work starts in earnest. On a visit to the actual regiment, we often have 30 or more soldiers lined up in various Orders of Dress, plus weaponry, vehicles etc. My photographic editor uses ISO100, 200 or 400 films for this, dependent on weather conditions. We work through the regimental archives in chronological order with my photographic editor photographing the photographs so that we do not take the originals away from the archives--our idea, not necessarily insisted upon by RHQ. He uses ISO 800 film plus magnification rings to the camera and works in natural light, usually a convenient windowsill, rather than rigging up impressive, but unnecessary, lighting. We use colour film throughout, even though the subject may be monochrome, as black and white film/processing is prohibitively expensive and we do not use it. My job is to write the caption for each image. Often the words are on the back of the photograph, but we also need to ask for clarification on some points and perhaps bring out why the image is important to the regiment.

We try to achieve a balance of material within each period of the unit's history. This is not always possible, as the coverage is often uneven. During WW2 for example, British units were officially forbidden to take cameras on active service. Equally, there are no photographs before the 1840s, so we rely on contemporary prints and paintings to illustrate the earlier periods. Whilst REGIMENT is a commercial publication by Nexus Media Limited, we do try to involve the unit being covered as much as possible. I always run my text through RHQ for example, and take in all their amendments, suggestions, additions etc.

In my initial visit I focus on what is important to the particular regiment and make sure we include images of this in the publication, where possible. Often, as the RHQ staff warm to us and the coffee/tea flows, suggestions of what might be covered or offers of more even material come forward. Some museums, archives and RHQs are not co-located, so it is necessary to visit each in turn, allowing at least a day for each. Equally they may be together, but contain so much material that it is not physically possible to cover all that is there in one day or one visit.

Overall, on visits to the unit and RHQ, my photographic editor can certainly drain my film budget by getting through perhaps 40 rolls of film, producing over 1,400 images.

So, the visits are over and the films are sent off for processing via the Nexus system. When the prints return, my photographic editor makes an initial assessment, based on the quality of the image, the subject matter and the amount of material available on that topic or period. He is well versed in this, having been taking military photographs for years, as well as the six with REGIMENT. He then mails me his suggested selection with a 10-15% over, so that I can make the final choice as I plan out the issue. I do not design each issue, there is a pool of designers at the Nexus offices down in Kent who do that, but I plan out the running order, coverage, the 'chapter' headings etc.

Finally, I send off (or sometimes I drive down) the photographs, now all grouped under selected chapter headings, text, magazine plan etc to my designer at the Nexus office. She scans the images, lays out the issue and sends me back the black and white page proofs with low-resolution image scans for positional assessment. At this stage I invite someone from the regiment/RHQ to inspect the proofs and make any amendments (minor ones only at this late stage). I then mail these off to the designer who carefully (and patiently) takes in all the changes. The last stage is a set of full size proofs printed dark green on light green-and smelling of ammonia-to run a last check for any errors. The magazine then goes to print.

I'm not sure that I've answered Richard's question well enough-it's a case perhaps of being too close to the product-but I will expand on any point.