I did take photos earlier, but around age 8 or 9 years old I got my first new camera, a Kodak Brownie. I still have it. It used 127 roll film and the chemists would do, or have done, contact prints. That is why so many photos from the late forties and fifties were so small. Enprints came later.
I remember taking it to the London Zoo on a school trip and taking ‘street photos’ of people in the zoo. I got some funny looks, still do thinking about it.
There have been large gaps when I did other things, but started again in my mid twenties. I used to gaze in the shop window of Joe Tung when in Smith Street where it started as a Chinese Laundry. He bought a load of used cameras from Harold Bowen and progressed from there.
My main interest was the developing and printing rather than the photography. I bought a Gnome enlarger, dishes and chemicals and learnt the hard way. Printing during the dark hours only going to bed when the day broke, leaving a bath full of prints to dry & glaze later in the week.
I improved on the equipment, as you do. I still have most of it somewhere, including an enlarger made by an engineering company in Somerset.
The first 35mm camera was a Pal, with a bright line viewfinder. I swapped that for a Minox sub miniature, a marvellous little camera system.
Then, wanting a SLR I bought a Zenith 3m with a 58mm Helios lens. I still have, although last time I saw it, it was seized up.
My prized possession was a Zeiss Werra with 35mm, 50mm & 100mm lenses. A range finder that came in a pigskin case. I still have these but the camera isn’t working.
When my eldest daughter was getting married, wifey suggested I get a new camera to do the photos. Tung’s were now in Hanley, Jean persuaded me to have a Minolta, SRT 101 or something similar. Definitely the best film camera of its time. Didn’t take to being bounced down the road so back to see what Jean could offer me. A Canon EOS film camera, I still have it.
The Minolta I gave to a mate who mended it and got a good price for it. I donated the money to the guide dogs charity.
Digital came, I bought a Panasonic with a Leica lens, tiny thing but wasn’t too bad. I still have it but not the battery. The memory cards were £1.00 per kB so rather on the expensive side.
When I was 24 or so I joined the Blythe Bridge Camera Club, meetings held in the Smithfield pub by the level crossing.
Others have been Cheadle CC, Leek PC, a new one that failed after a time at Boundary, in The Red Lion. Currently at Willfield CC, till they find out, though Covid spoilt a lot of things, including club life.
So a quick look at my photography life over the last 70 years, I have to say it’s been a bit of a blur.
