I have been taking photographs for the last sixty years (yes, since the age of seven!), and this website is to showcase some of them. The first camera I owned, and still own though no longer in use, was the traditional “Kodak Box Brownie.” It was given to me by my Grandmother (who had used it as a young woman, in the Edwardian era) for a trip to Essex (via London) with my Mother to visit her brother and sister-in-law my Uncle Doug and Auntie Sylvia and family, who lived at that time in Gosfield.
We spent part of the day in London, having travelled there by rail, in itself quite an adventure for a seven year old boy, and visited all the sort of places one is supposed to visit on your first visit to the capital. My first photograph was taken of a guardsman outside Buckingham Palace, in those days they still went on guard outside the railings. I still have a copy of that first photograph, not very good and rather crooked alignment, but it was the first in a long line of photographs. Some people would say I have not improved much, but they can please themselves!
After that, I was well and truly hooked. I had my first attempt at a darkroom (in the family bathroom) at the age of about ten. Seeing the first print from my negative appear on the contact paper in the developer was an unforgettable experience. From then onwards my photography followed what would seem to be the usual route of holiday photographs, friends and family until I joined the RAF in 1966, not, unfortunately, as a photographer (there were no vacancies for photographers at that time), but I was able to take it up as a hobby.
This was when my photography started to get more adventurous, and by this time I had graduated to a Kodak Instamatic camera and now was able to take photographs at “eye level” rather than at waist level. I was to find out that waist level photography enabled me to take better photographs, so now a lot of kneeling was required. Having “passed out” of training and entered the world of adult service, my photography took a back seat for a while, as I had discovered the adult world of beer and, more importantly, GIRLS!!
In 1969 however I was posted abroad to RAF El Adem (see Album 1) and now had enough money to buy what I still think of as my first real camera, a Mamiya 35mm SLR.
I spent just over a year at El Adem (it should have been two) but whilst I was there Gadafi took over and told us to leave! Actually, while say “whilst I was there,” this is not strictly true. I was on leave in Malta GC at the time, and was even prevented from getting back at the end of my leave.
- The MV Velma Lykes (now USTS Kennedy) in Grand Harbour Malta GC 1969
No problem though, I reported to RAF Luqa and and was employed there for the next six weeks, no uniform with me so I was working in civilian clothing. In those days Malta had not been made as much of a tourist place as it is today, so it was an enjoyable place to be. While I was on leave I had been staying at a bed and breakfast establishment in Gzira at the princely sum of four shillings and sixpence a night, in those days Malta used British Currency. After the six weeks, I was put on board a RAF Britannia going to… Cyprus! I was not to get back to Libya just yet. Unfortunately I was not to get to see a lot of Cyprus as my money had run out and I had not had a proper pay parade since before I went on leave so apart from a couple of “casual” payments at RAF Luqa I was pretty much broke! however, I did manage to get one casual payment at RAF Akrotiri to cover me for essentials, but as I was only there for about fourteen days this was not a real problem. There was quite a few of us “stranded” in Cyprus at this point and apart from reporting to air movements every morning there was not a lot to do. At the end of the fortnight we were all put on board a Short Belfast for the journey to back RAF El Adem.
TO BE CONTINUED…..
Travelling With a Camera by Ray Hindle 