Slides, Done

By shendyNo Comments
This photo of the Cathedrale St Nicholas in Nice is the last photo that my dad took on slide film - in September 2007. Fuji Provia - Camera not specified, probably Pentax *ist Over the last few weekends I have been rattling through "scanning" the rest of his slides. I say "scanning" because I've adopted a different approach - up to now I've been using an Epson V700 flatbed scanner and it's done me proud. But recently I've not been completely happy with the results from it on my own photos, so I started to investigate the possibility of using my Fuji digital to photograph slides and negs. I ended up buying a macro lens (a Nikon 55mm f2.8 manual focus) from ebay, a Nikon/Fuji adapter, some extension tubes so I could get close enough for the image on the film to fill the frame, an LED panel, and a copy stand.All set up in the garage, so as to reduce the amount...
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New content added – Gardens

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Over the last couple of weekends, I've added a new "Gardens" section. One section is dedicated to Hidcote Manor in Gloucestershire, somewhere he visited many times. Hidcote We also have Kew Gardens in London - again, somewhere he went back to many times. At some point I'll get to the photos he took on a flower photography course he did there, run by Heather Angel. Kew Then we have a selection of places he seems to have only visited once. This one is from Nyman's Gardens in Sussex And finally a section for the gardens at home. Home...
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Stirling Moss

By shendyNo Comments
Well this is terribly sad news - Stirling Moss has passed away at the age of 90. Obviously given that my dad was watching motorsport during the 1950s and early 60s, he saw Moss race quite a bit.Here are a few of my dad's photos of him. Stirling & Katie Moss at Scrutineering - Le Mans, June 1959 International Trophy, Silverstone 06/05/1961Cooper T53P - Climax International Trophy, Silverstone 06/05/1961 Le Mans June 1961.With Graham Hill Empire Trophy 08/07/1961, SilverstoneWith Chris Nixon. Empire Trophy 08/07/1961, Silverstone Guards Trophy 07/08/1961, Brands Hatch Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Guards Trophy 07/08/1961, Brands HatchLap of Honour British Grand Prix 20/07/1963, SilverstoneWith John Whitmore (in sunglasses).Moss tested for Lotus in 1963, after recovering from his 1962 crash at Goodwood, but retired without racing again....
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PL Travers

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Completely coincidentally with the release of the new Mary Poppins film, I was sorting through some of my dad's photos over Christmas when I noticed that one the black & white films from October 1955 mentioned PL Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books. And there, towards the end was this one frame... PL Travers, bottom right My aunt confirmed that it is her - the photo was taken at the Symons' house in Gloucester Gate near Regent's Park. The Symons were friends of the family, and I have a vague memory of visiting them there in the 1970s - something to do with being allowed to play underneath a grand piano, or something like that. My cousin apparently met her when he was 6 months old. One thing that occurred to me is that PL Travers probably reduces my Bacon Number quite significantly (see Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon) - me to my dad, to PL Travers, to Walt Disney, to anyone...
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Guided Tour part 5 – Travel

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This is a new section, and one where I know there will be plenty of photos to add - not least from the 10 holidays my parents had in Venice. Quite apart from the usual European summer holidays and city breaks there are trip to Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Malaysia, Mauritius, the Bahamas, the Maldives and Thailand. The first set I have posted is from my dad's 1953 cycling trip through the French Alps. We went back to the Alps in the summer of 2008, just a few months before my dad died, and the first time he'd been back to some places since he was there in 1953. As I say, lots more to come here! I've also been looking to see what other sections I can add to the site. I can definitely see a section on gardens and flowers, which he loved photographing - plenty of visits to Hidcote in the Cotswolds and Kew in London, as well as flowers anywhere and everywhere....
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Guided Tour part 4 – My Dad’s Life

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This section of the site is a bit more personal, but will still have something to interest people. While not everyone will necessarily be that interested in student life at Imperial College in the mid 1950s, or the productions of the Imperial College Drama Society, I have found them fascinating to see how differently people lived and even looked back then. Look at the parties, and how everyone seemed to sit on the floor. The "Early Life" section even has some colour photos from the 1930s - look at the swimming trunks my dad is wearing in this one! The "National Service" section has some great shots of his time in the Army - he was in REME and I believe he ended up lecturing about radar for a time. Some of it just shows the sheer mundanity of service life!...
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Guided Tour part 3 – Northampton

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The third part of the website is devoted to my home town, Northampton, and like the Kings Road photos is a mildly interesting piece of social history. A lot of the photos were taken in the early/mid 1970s when the centre of town was being redeveloped - the not-at-all missed bus station and suchlike. It's not all bad though as there are sets of photos from the Borough Show, the Carnival and the Raft Race in the 1970s, and plenty of photos from Abington Park, where we spent many happy days in my childhood - I expect many people will have happy memories of Gallone's ice cream. There are also plenty of photos of the canals around the town and Stoke Bruerne. I'm sure there will be plenty more photos of the town to come from the rest of the archive....
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Guided Tour part 2 – People

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The other part of the site that has got the most attention is the sets of photos from Kings Road in Chelsea, taken between 1967 and 1975 -a time of such fantastic changes in the fashion scene - swinging 60s through to the less renowned 70s. However bad the 70s fashions got, it's still a great record of what real people were wearing. The one shot that always catches my eye is this one. The first thing I thought was "Bay City Rollers", and you'd be so wrong. They hit it big in 1974-75-76, while this photo was taken in July 1973. Far from being trend-setters, they were a good 2 years behind the fashion. Unfortunately there is nothing remotely like this to add to the "People" section - it's basically the only street photography my dad ever did - and I'm not quite sure what else to add. The obvious additions is a "Family" section - the big advantage of having all of his photos is that I...
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Guided Tour part 1 – Motorsport

By shendyNo Comments
Seeing as I've merged the mydadsphotos blog and the john.shendy.co.uk website, I thought I'd give a brief guided tour of what you can find. First up - the motorsport. The crown jewels of this section are undoubtedly from my dad's trips to Le Mans 1959, 1960 and 1961, plus the Monaco Grand Prix 1962 - some fantastic images, especially the colour ones like this But that's not all there is - there are photos from 6 British GP's between 1958 and 1977, 7 International Trophy events between 1960 and 1974, and all sorts of other events from Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Not to mention some vintage car stuff as well. Unfortunately there aren't any more motorsport photos to add - I've scanned and posted basically everything, including some of less than perfect quality, as it's such a great set of photos from a classic era of motorsport. There are lots more photos of cars to come as my dad would always take photos of anything interesting he saw - lots of Ferraris...
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France 1986 – St Tropez

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Following on from the previous post about the summer 1986 holiday to Port Grimaud (although this post will appear above it in Wordpress), when we went over to St Tropez there was a huge crowd of onlookers ogling at the beautiful people leaving a party on some vast yacht. I'm sure some of these people might be famous (there was a suggestion of a Monaco Princess, and the chap in the third picture appears to be signing an autograph) but I have no idea who there are. One presumes there was a gold & white theme, unless that happened to be the trend that summer....
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