I came across this Forum just a little time ago whilst googling something entirely unrelated, and have dropped back at times and rekindled a lot of memories, learned more than a few things about the City's history and growth both before and after I arrived blinking in to this world just after WW2.
I have registered now so that I can make a contribution in return.
I quickly discovered that following links in one thread soon takes you to new topics that you then become absorbed in as well, and it was in this way that I recently found myself in a post on a thread about Elmdon Airport which then created a light-bulb moment!
As a young man I decided on impulse one morning to get some aerial photos of the City Centre .. I did a little flying of my own as a hobby. So right there I grabbed my camera, collared a friend to be the other pair of hands, and I was able to get permission to transit the centre and take a lazy loop south and back again.
I couldn't wait to see what I had got, though when I did I was rather disappointed because apart from a few they were all pretty poor. I'd obviously expected more than was reasonable from my point-and-shoot camera, which took good photos of holidays and special events but I needed to know a lot more about photography and settings etc in order to do any good from 1,000 or so feet in more challenging conditions.
So I just put them away with the other photo-wallets I kept in a box that was added-to over the years by family as well, and then with the advent of digital they all ended up inevitably in a couple of crammed-full boxes in the loft.
But I've now been up there, and eventually found them again in their wallet which was has stayed unopened since it was put away close to 50 years ago now. The prints were faded but the negatives were good so I have scanned/processed them on to my PC and would like to donate the resulting positives to the Forum's library here to preserve them because they finally have merit at last!
I hope they will be useful to some.
I have added a note to each, though some are literally trial shots just to see what movement I could get in my seat, see where to avoid distortion from curvature in the windows, stuff like that ... and also to learn to ride-out the bumps because shifting in to reverse to go back a few feet and try again isn't an option!
They will be added following the order of their numbers on the negative strips, so should be sequential though once or twice seem to jump around all the same that I really can't now account for but then it was most of 50 years ago!
Feel free to point things out, add info on somewhere that I have no idea about, leave insights if you recognise your house/school/car/washing-line!
And feel free to narrow-down the likely year, which from work, personal events, travels and more I can say was most likely the later 70s .... but from the photos themselves it was certainly after the Central Library was gone in 1973 and some unknown time before Bingley Hall caught fire and was then demolished in 1984. I'm absolutely certain that there will be no shortages of date and location clues scattered throughout the photos however for those with the local knowledge to see them.
I hope everyone enjoys looking through them - it's about time somebody did!
TQ
I have registered now so that I can make a contribution in return.
I quickly discovered that following links in one thread soon takes you to new topics that you then become absorbed in as well, and it was in this way that I recently found myself in a post on a thread about Elmdon Airport which then created a light-bulb moment!
As a young man I decided on impulse one morning to get some aerial photos of the City Centre .. I did a little flying of my own as a hobby. So right there I grabbed my camera, collared a friend to be the other pair of hands, and I was able to get permission to transit the centre and take a lazy loop south and back again.
I couldn't wait to see what I had got, though when I did I was rather disappointed because apart from a few they were all pretty poor. I'd obviously expected more than was reasonable from my point-and-shoot camera, which took good photos of holidays and special events but I needed to know a lot more about photography and settings etc in order to do any good from 1,000 or so feet in more challenging conditions.
So I just put them away with the other photo-wallets I kept in a box that was added-to over the years by family as well, and then with the advent of digital they all ended up inevitably in a couple of crammed-full boxes in the loft.
But I've now been up there, and eventually found them again in their wallet which was has stayed unopened since it was put away close to 50 years ago now. The prints were faded but the negatives were good so I have scanned/processed them on to my PC and would like to donate the resulting positives to the Forum's library here to preserve them because they finally have merit at last!
I hope they will be useful to some.
I have added a note to each, though some are literally trial shots just to see what movement I could get in my seat, see where to avoid distortion from curvature in the windows, stuff like that ... and also to learn to ride-out the bumps because shifting in to reverse to go back a few feet and try again isn't an option!
They will be added following the order of their numbers on the negative strips, so should be sequential though once or twice seem to jump around all the same that I really can't now account for but then it was most of 50 years ago!
Feel free to point things out, add info on somewhere that I have no idea about, leave insights if you recognise your house/school/car/washing-line!
And feel free to narrow-down the likely year, which from work, personal events, travels and more I can say was most likely the later 70s .... but from the photos themselves it was certainly after the Central Library was gone in 1973 and some unknown time before Bingley Hall caught fire and was then demolished in 1984. I'm absolutely certain that there will be no shortages of date and location clues scattered throughout the photos however for those with the local knowledge to see them.
I hope everyone enjoys looking through them - it's about time somebody did!
TQ
