Ever, ever?...

Did my passion for photography come from my Dad? Hard to say! He did own a Kodak Instamatic, but it was always kept in its plastic box in the sideboard, and I can't ever remember him using it. I do know that he was always very supportive once I got the photography bug, and he signed as my guarantor when I bought my first 'good' SLR on HP! It was a Yashica FR1, a couple of snazzy Japanese steps up from the Russian Zenith EM you can see him using here, but all this talk of the Credit Squeeze reminded me of the very first camera I bought on the 'never never'...  That was a Halina Paulette Electric, and a second hand model cost me £16 in 1975. Thing was, unlike today, it was only mine when I'd paid for it, and I had to traipse down to Alan Halkyard cameras in Eccles every Saturday to pay another pound off the price. Crikey, I used to feel wonder if I'd ever own it! Finally, of course, I got my sweaty palms on it, and loved it all the more for the effort it had taken to own it.

It's time, as the economists keep telling us, to get back to get back to those values!