I see you in your photograph - Part Two

I thought I'd found all the old photographs and had sorted them for use on Eamonn's Memorial Page. Then, on opening the very last of the boxes that were in the outside store, I discovered the slides dating from the 1970s and 1980s. They were in a little wooden box that I'd decided to use for storing seeds for the garden. I knew that the old slide projector was in the under-stairs' cupboard, so dusted it off and set it up. Unfortunately, the carousel no longer worked, so I had to load each slide separately.

The quality of slides varied greatly. All were taken using the second-hand Zenit that Eamonn bought for my 30th birthday. I was keen to learn photography and this was my first SLR camera (pre-digital). Some of the slides had deteriorated, due to age and storage conditions; others were as clear as the day they were taken; some (a whole cartridge box) were black, or out-of focus, or with poor lighting. Eamonn couldn't be bothered to learn how to set up the camera. He often criticised me for how long I I took before taking a photo. He'd often leave it on a previous setting, not suited to the conditions in which he was working. The number of black slides indicate that there was something over the lense when he pressed 'play'.

Despite this, I discovered a few shots he'd taken of me on our walks. Poor quality but what a wonderful find.  His photography skills improved enormously after he was given a digital camera by the boys at the school as a retirement gift. The permanent setting was 'auto'.

Memories came flooding back as I worked through hundreds of slides. There are very few photographs from those two decades. Those that were printed were carefully selected as slide-print was expensive. One such print, was this shot I took on our trip to Thetford Forest, Norfolk. It's one of my favourite photos. This scan of the print does not live up to the quality on the original slide. It shows Eamonn, daughter Kate with our first German Shepherd, Morgan. I took about ten minutes to set the camera. All three victims subjects were getting restless.

There are dozens of slides that were't printed from that trip. This is a photo of the projected image. It is one of the better slides.
 Eamonn's younger sister and family met us in Thetford Forest while they were in England

I was going to have a selection of the slides converted to digital format, but decided against it. The memories they evoke would be different if the pictures were enhanced and 'improved'.  This is a younger Eamonn, as he was forty years ago.

I see you in your photograph.