Hope you are sitting comfortably, then I'll begin. Been sorting through some old, no, very old photos and came across the one at the bottom of this post.
It was taken of my twin sons and their lttle mate from next door with, wait for it, an SV Pentax (bought new around 1965) with a secondhand 200mm lens that I can't even remember the name of! It's a nice little picture that went pretty much unforgotten until I heard on the local radio that they were running a photographic competition. I decided to enter as the station was based very close to where I live. Went on holiday and thought no more about it, until, on returning, found that I'd won!
It gets better from here. The guy from Kodak, whi was helping to run the comp was also on the group organising the Kodak side of 'The Living body', which originally was a TV series about the miracle of the human body. After the TV series was over, Kodak ran 'The Living Body' exhibition, the largest ever organised by them. It ran for 6 months at the science museum, and then for another 6 months at the Royal Photographic Society in Bath.
On part of the exhibition was illustrating how the body gets rid of water. They had a picture of a boxer sweating, and someone in the arctic with their breath visible. However, they had a problem with the third way we dispose of water. 'Eureka!', this guy shouted, 'I know where the picture we need is', and he phoned me up. The rest we unreal. The photo has been widely published. some of you really old people out there may have even seen it.
I had to take the boys to the launch of both exhibitons, and at Bath, after the publicity was over, got my own open top bus for a tour, had a slap-up meal in a posh restaurant, and a good time all round.
Best bit was of the many photographs at the exhibition, four were made into postcards. Lord Litchfield had two, one being the classic mother and baby one we all remember when we see it, another one was a close-up of a baby's foot, ans, of course, there was my shot!!
I used to get £50 for every 100 printed, and my one outsold the others by more than 10:1. As a result, I bought an Olympus OM2 SP and loads of other stuff. I also used to get all of my film and processing free for around five years after, until the guy who started the ball rolling left.
The one thing I regret is not getting a photo of the contributing photographers in the foyer display at the royal Society. My name was next to (over, actually) Lord Litchfield. (Is this a valid claim to fame?).
I am not going to proof read this, so you'll have to put up with the typos.
Oh yes, you'll probably want to see the photo.
