My first photographs [4]

In 1960, or more probably 1961, I was given my first camera as a birthday present. This was a Welsh-built Purma made out of bakelite. It had three shutter speeds defined as slow, medium and fast and shutter sped was controlled by how you held the camera, upright one way for slow, horizontal for medium and upright the other way for fast. The shutter was a weighted focal plane and one had to be careful in fast mode not to allow the camera to jolt when the the shutter fired with a massive clunk. The film used was 127 size in square format. I'm not 100% sure that the photos in this set are of my first film, but certainly from the first few films I ever took. As mentioned, date uncertain but more probably 1961 when I would have been 12 years of age.

 

 

Her's a photo that didn't come out well, probably used the fast shutter speed which had a tendency to jolt the camera. The black spots are marks on the negative which was developed by the local chemist. I could have spotted them out but it would take a while and for this out-of-focus scene is probably not worth the while. The location is the small playground which used to be part of the police houses complex, I have no idea whether it's still there or not. My brother Geoff and sister Sheila are on the see-saw along with the two Gronow girls, Janet and Beryl. The boy in the background is unknown but may be Ross Forman who appears in other photographs in this sequence of negatives.

Done