A founding member of a 40-year-old photographic society is among the exhibitors at its latest exhibition.
The Field End Photographic Society celebrates its 40th anniversary this year and 89-year-old Ron Walter has been taking snaps for the group since it first began.
Three of his favourite pictures will be on show at the society’s annual two-week exhibition at the Cow Byre Gallery in Manor Farm, Ruislip.
Mr Walter said: “When I first started I used to develop my films in the kitchen. You had to keep your fingers crossed and hope they came out. I started out on black and white and then colour and went through all the wet processes. It is a lot easier now it has gone to digital photography.”
He said he now prefers working on his computer to fiddling around in the dark in his makeshift darkroom.
“I’d take over the kitchen after dinner and then stay there until almost past midnight,” he said.
“I used to come out of there and show my pictures to my wife and she’d say ‘that’s rubbish’ - invariably she was right and then I’d have to go and clean up the kitchen.
“The advent of computers and digital was a real lifesaver for me.”
Gordon Phillipps, also in his eighties, is another of the club’s long-standing members who used to process his photos in his downstairs loo because it had no windows.
“It’s much easier now and I think I was probably the first member of the club to win anything with digital,” he said.
The exhibition runs daily for free at the Cow Byre Gallery from Sunday, October 19 until Sunday, November 2 from 10am until 5pm.
