The skies were always blue in the old family photographs. It was, I guess, because film was precious and
every frame had to count so the camera only came out for special occasions and for day trips during
the summer.
This is the shop where my mother got her photos printed. One of my earliest memories is of taking a
picture of her and my Dad, standing beside our gray Morris van. She's wearing a yellow summer dress but I
know that from memory, not from the crooked picture which was black and white. I loved looking
down though the viewfinder of her Voightlander camera as I walked around the house, but I was
only allowed to take photos as a special treat. My earliest pictures were of the family pets, our
cows and calves. Later, I got a Kodak 'Instamatic' camera, and from then on I was hooked on
photography. I never got into developing my own prints but instead had to leave them into the
chemists or send them them away, excitedly waiting to see how they had turned out.