Not many images have survived from those early days, let alone good ones.
My first camera was a toy - a sub-miniature Coronet Midget about 3" high and made of green bakelite (the only plastic then) with a primitive viewfinder. A small lever for the shutter, no other adjustments, and you got 1/30 sec at f/10 - that's was it! It used special 16mm film.
Got the camera on my 8th. birthday and this was my first photo - my sister demonstrating her curtsy (nice little girls were all taught it in those days) in Wellington boots. Taken on our small front lawn in the English Midlands, this grainy old photo contains a lot of history for me. Rode a tricycle on that lawn, was born within sound of the bells of the church in the background where my parents' ashes are now scattered. You may click here to hear those bells, still sounding exactly the same today.
When a bit older,
I graduated to a second-hand folding "bellows" Kodak. That actually had three
shutter speeds- 1/30, 1/60 and the rarely used "Bulb". This served for many years,
even when flying and exploring caves. Only in the 50's came the big jump to color,
a used 35mm SLR Exacta, then a Konica T2 and T3 with a mulititude of lenses and
accessories. More recently I had a tiny Pentax, automatic everything, that travelled
on my belt so I didn't miss many shots. Now, since 2001, I have had digital Canons
and it's even more fun!.
In the summer of 1944, WWII was still raging in Europe, although with a successful
D-Day everyone was hoping it wouldn't be much longer.
Boys only slightly older than us were still fighting and we knew that we might have to go too - I had been an Air Cadet for years. In the meantime we were expanding our horizons on bicycles, towing a home-made trailer full of camping gear. I still tend to travel with everything "including the kitchen sink".
No hi-tech gear like camp stoves or nylon - those tents are canvas. I can't recall ever staying in an official campsite or park. They were few and far between - and cost money. We travelled cheaply, often hitching, sometimes by illegally and dangerously hanging onto the back of trucks with one hand and steering an overloaded bicycle with the other at high speed.
This
shot of a camping friend was taken on our first trip into the wilds (?) of Dovedale,
Derbyshire, a land of mighty (1000 feet!) mountains, unexplored caves and famous
fishing waters.
