But she knows that I am a hound of light leaks, so passed the camera on to me to try out. And so I did! I’m already the owner of one of these cameras so I knew what to expect, but was excited to see what light leak magic might be possible.
While clearing out her late father’s possessions, Tanya came across an Olympus MJU II (Zoom 80 version). She tried it out, but the images came out with lots of light leaks. She blamed the camera and the piece of sellotape holding the cracked shutter button together. Sound guesswork.
My findings were however that the camera is working perfectly. Result for Tanya! Now she can have it back and use it herself without the fear of unwanted light leaks. It was lovely to have the chance to use such a special camera though, and enjoy one of my favourite beaches with it.
My local beach, Lepe, is special to me in many ways, but I think the strongest memory I have that ties me to it forever is the day my daughter, Kitty, was born. The midwives had sent me for ‘a sweep’ that morning as it was looking that I’d likey run to 40 weeks of pregnancy yet again. After that appointment I went down to the beach at Lepe and walked along it. Much like many typical February days, it was cold, drizzly and very windy. The combination of the weather, the sand and shingle and being nearly 40 weeks pregnant (and as my husband told me at the time 0.1 tonne!) meant this was a real blow-the-cobwebs-away kind of walk. I’d go as far as to say it was less of a walk and more of a hardcore trudge. Contractions began mid-trudge and I went home and delivered Kitty 10 hours later in the comfort and warmth of our own home.
Afterwards, the midwives ran me a bath and looked after baby whilst I soaked in the tub. It had been a long day and I was exhausted. I got out of that bath, rolled into bed with my husband and our first born baby, and slept like a log. And yes, I dreamt of the beach. So every time I walk along there I think of that day and the wild 12 hours that followed after!
