Mike Toddington of the WCPHA c1999
Toronto. For our 25th Anniversary, editor Bob Lansdale worked his network of exchange journal editors to pony up an article for this volume of our journal – Photographic Canadiana.
The WCPHA (Western Canada Photographic Historical Association) had a friendly debate running with us when Ev Roseborough was editor. Their newsletter editor at the time, Mike Toddington, contributed this thoughtful piece on both camera use and camera collecting called “Hindsight … is 20/20”.
Mike begins, “Have you often thought of the time you have missed that perfect, once in a lifetime camera buy? It is one thing to ponder the pros and cons of an investment and then decide against a purchase but its quite another to miss the boat completely.
“Regrettably, I fall into the last category and mine is a sad and woeful tale. In 1956 I was a draftee into the UK Airforce. I worked in telecommunications and despite my numerous efforts to transfer to the photo section, the requests were always declined on the grounds that my psychological tests showed conclusively that I had ‘no aptitude for photography’.
“In spite of this ghastly revelation concerning my fanatical pastime, I continued to take pictures on the base (which required a special security permit). My ‘Voigtländer Vito I’ served me well.
“I processed my pictures at home, taking the finished prints back to the base and selling them to various individuals at a small profit. Much to the chagrin of the Base Photo Section, I was being asked by senior officers to take official photos.
“Questions were being asked as to why I was not working in the photographic section. When the reasons became known, the matter was never raised again. After all, who would want to be locked in a darkroom with a “wannabe photo psycho”?
“Determined to produce better pictures this ‘psycho’ decided to upgrade the Vito and changed to a Leica as used by the ‘pros’ in the base photo section.”
To learn the reason for his regret, members can read all of Mike’s sad tale in the pdf file for issue 25-3 on the free members only DVD/memory stick. See above or at right under MEMBERSHIP/Membership to join. Send any questions on membership to Lilianne at member@phsc.ca.
NB. As members we all regret the decision to not buy that camera/lens far more than we regret anything we bought! I can certainly relate to Mike’s sad tale … And by the way, today is FAIR DAY!!
