Atkins" union affiliation is with International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Atkins resides in Hawaii, where he has also worked locally such as shooting commercials for Hawaiian Electric Company and United States Senator Daniel Inouye.
Atkins is known for the footage of killer whales preying on seal pups in the British Broadcasting Corporation"s The Trials of Life (1990), for which he won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award. Atkins also was the director of photography for the Cape Horn unit for the feature film Master and Commander, which won an Academy Award for Cinematography by Russell Boyd, ASC. Atkins has been nominated for an Emmy award numerous times, winning it for his work in Great White Shark (1995) (Cinematography), and Hawaii: Strangers in Paradise (1991) (Cinematography, Outstanding Cultural Programming).
