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Saturday, August 25, 2012

More memories

Last night I managed to transfer some more of my old hard copy photos to digital images. Some of them were not very good photographs lol! 

Here are some more from my trip to the UK and France in 1959 (These days they call those trips "Gap Year Tours" - to us it was an excuse to get away from our parents and to head off for the 'Exciting Adventure").

Leaving UK and the White Cliffs of Dover

Nord Pas de Calais - bad exposure but it was a stormy day!
Many of the remnants of the WWII German defences were still
visible but most were barricaded off.

City Hall, Calais
Church de Notre Dame, Calais - not far from the WWI cemetery

WWI cemetery, Calais

Bridge over the Seine, Paris

Old buildings, Plaine de Monceaux, Paris - 66 th administrative
district of Paris located in the 17 th arrondissement .

Under the bridges of Paris, River Seine - not a good exposure
but I wanted to capture the strength of the river's flow.

Eiffel Tower in the distance - Taken from the rooftop
restaurant/cafe I worked as a kitchen hand

Returning to Dover - I had never realised how starkly beautiful those
 "White Cliffs" actually were until I saw them for myself!

Considering I was not much more than a kid, I was using a pocket Minolta camera with black and white film, my only other 'photography experience' had been with a Brownie Box camera, I reckon I did pretty good. I'm glad I've started converting these images into digital formal 'cos the old hard copy versions are about to 'expire'!





10 comments:

Jim said...

What a good collection of this trip to Europe, John. Great b/w photos.
I have to start to do the same thing with our old slides and pictures. May I ask what you are using because these few came out very well?

Cindy@NorthofWiarton said...

Excellent ! Thanks so much for sharing these, John. By the way, '59 was also an excellent Year...lol.

"Just Me"

JohnD said...

Thanks guys - Yeah! 1959 was great but the early 60's were the most exciting - lots of change through that era.

Jim I've sent you a separate email 'cos there is too much detail for a 'comment' note.

Elephant's Child said...

Thanks, like everyone else I loved these.

Jo said...

Great black and white photos! What an experience at that age!!

JohnD said...

Jo - it was fairly common back in those days. Mostly it was still the era of the P&O cruises to England - the liners would bring out migrants during the 1950's and load up with tourists, mostly young Aussies and Kiwis for the return trip. I actually flew over and back as a small part of the 'new wave' of back-packer tourists of that era. A long, boring and tiring flight with only refuel stop-overs.

Unknown said...

I bet the pictures brought back lots of wonderful memories, John.
I would have been on one of those liners full of immigrants. The Seven Seas. Sue

John Going Gently said...

there is something quite magical about b&w photos!
a nice selection me thinks

JohnD said...

JohnG - You are right, especially now 'film' cameras are gone at the expense of digital. You tried not to 'muck up' a film frame 'cos it cost you.

Maa - those boats brought out a lot of great people that helped shape our nation. I always say "Europe was populated by force of arms. Australia became a multi-cultural nation by choice!"

amber said...

Just joined your blog as the advice of mu sister, because it had details of the ship we came out on, the MS Nelly.
And yes, we did join the ship in Naples and the accommodation was very basic. Sleeping arrangements were in the hold which had been outfitted with tiered bunks. Going through the Suez Canal, the door was locked and the air conditioning was merely a large air vent. The adults pounding on the door and shouting finally had the crew back down to investigate the number of people fainting. It was then a few at a time were allowed on deck to breathe some air.
We arrived in Melbourne on July 14, 1949. That's what's on my immigration papers.