Let me take you back for a moment to the last photograph I shared on Sepia Saturday. It was a "Walking Snap" taken in Bridlington in 1950 which showed my mother, Gladys, and my Auntie Annie. Now look my featured photograph this week - the next photograph in the recently discovered Family Stash. What is immediately obvious is that in the picture above they are wearing the same clothes as in the Walking Snap and therefore we can assume - ignoring the fact that clothing was more expensive in those days and would re-emerge from the wardrobe with commendable regularity - that it was taken during the same seaside excursion. I would have been two (maybe looking a little young for my age - but haven't I always?) and my brother Roger would have been 7.
But this is not a Walking Snap : there is no commercial imprint on the photograph and no adventurous professional photographer would have wandered so far out to sea in order to capture this stunning view. This must have been taken with the Box Brownie featured in the photograph last week and I suspect that the photographer was my father, Albert. I have to say, it is a good photograph : framed well, good composition, interesting angle - if I have any photographic talents, it is clear to see who I inherited them from. Above and beyond its technical merits (those old Box Brownies were pretty primitive cameras) the shot just seems to sum up the very essence of a family photo - happy faces, happy times.
That is indeed a great photo. Happy times indeed. (I'm wondering if you'd had a pint or two, since your aunt and mum seemed to have deemed it necessary to hold you up.)
ReplyDeleteGreat photo! What a nice follow up to the other. And what a lady your mum was, never even once took off her gloves. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed at what fine photos those old Brownie box cameras took. Just a simple roll of film, a shutter and a lens and it's magic! But then, everything is magic, to me.
The perfect holiday snap, Alan, in days when people were genuinely happy to be having a simple paddle in the sea.
ReplyDeleteWhat a charming happy holiday photo!..and it's good to see you are posting in places..... ;)
ReplyDeleteGreat photo Alan. Such simple pleasures are ofetn the best.
ReplyDeleteThe perfectly framed shot. As you say, happy times, and there’s no denying what a litle cutie you were either.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why everyone, upon wading into it, always seems amazed that the North Sea is cold... Those wonderfully captured expressions say it all.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure these were taken in Bridlington? Looks suspiciously like Southport and Birkdale to me. However, having said that, the last time the sea cam in that far in Southport must have been in the 1880s. It was so long ago that they have an oil painting of it. Even the coastguard were on camels.
ReplyDeleteYep! Definitely the genetic origin of your excellent photographic talents.
ReplyDeleteLovely photos...
ReplyDeleteWhen I was about eight or so and visiting my grandmother's house, I wondered into the hall closet. I loved to discover what she kept in there and on this visit I found my uncle's boyhood Brownie with film still inside...
That is a wonderful, joyful photo! & interesting to connect it to the other, professional shot!
ReplyDeleteWHAT FUN! WHAT FUN! I think I should like to have a copy of that photo as it makes ME smile.
ReplyDeleteA wonderful happy photo Alan
ReplyDeleteI particularly like the fact that you've found a photo almost certainly taken with the camera that appears in the Walking Pictures "snap." I've been hunting through dozens, perhaps hundreds, of images of Brownie cameras, but can't find one that looks quite like this. Do you know what model it was?
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to know whether any of those house in the background have survived. I had a quick look for them on Google Earth, without success. You don't happen to remember whether it was on the South or North Beach, do you ? ;-)
That's a cute vacation photo. I bet the photographer/father told them to lift up their clothes, smile, and look at the camera.
ReplyDeleteGreat inspiration to learn of your new finds! Makes me want to go to the beach.
ReplyDeleteGreat Shot, nicely taken, the snapper obviously had a good eye. The image fills the frame and is complimented by the square format.
ReplyDeleteI can remember my parents peering down into the Box Brownie and moving around to get the light in the right direction whenever they took a picture. The problem was they always seemed to cut the heads off, or at least part of them, or they made the image so small that it was lost in the background
A great picture of people having fun at the beach! Amazing the sharpness and clarity of it.
ReplyDeleteThey do look so happy. Perfect day at the beach. Why is your mother wearing gloves and a fancy little hat though? You look so much the same.
ReplyDeleteagreed, what a fun photo, not stuffy and regularly posed like so many we find from the past, looks like a fun group, did they remain that way?
ReplyDeleteA fun photo with the gloves still on. Why do we never see people taking pictures like these anymore?
ReplyDeleteA very happy photo!
ReplyDeleteIf Roger wades in much deeper, he'll get his plaster wet. Typical 7 year old boy with a skinned knee-cap. Some things haven't changed!
Oh yes the dresses are the same. I think the cost of clothing then and that people did not buy so much made it more wearable, used up as it went along and all purpose. So much more complicated today, at least in my closet, too many choices. There is a lot of good laughter in the photo, such fun. The gloves! And snapping a photo then, not knowing how the photo would come out until it was developed, those Brownies were trick.
ReplyDeleteOh, what a fun photograph! I just love it...everyone looks so delighted. You look adorable!
ReplyDeletewell, i'm glad i kept your post before going to bed as i now have a silly grin on my face. i guess happy times continue even to this day. i love this picture, angle included... i almost expect everything to slide off the frame...
ReplyDelete:D~
HUGZ
This is so cute! The expression on your brother's face is priceless.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping by to visit.
Kathy M.
Alan,
ReplyDeleteIt's clear that you come from a family with good knees. I'm fairly certain that the objective of this photo was to show off those great knees. What a fun time that must have been.
Talking about knees, I see your brother has taken a bit of a tumble. Which bit, you might ask ... well the bit about the knees, of course.
ReplyDeleteAww, fun times- this is a lovely family snapshot- you all look very happy.
ReplyDeleteIt is a fun photo. Everyone loves being in the water.
ReplyDeleteA perfect holiday souvenir. Will someone be going through our flash fobs and hard drives 100 years from now trying to find the equivalent?
ReplyDeleteIt really is a wonderful photo that's captured the fun of the moment. I do love the gloves!
ReplyDeleteOh so happy they all are! Thanks for sharing this Alan. Great pics. I love sharing old family photos. It's better then having them sitting in an old shoe box gathering dust.
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