William Ting

Good old days
When we were young, we hardly took any photo. We only had enough money to buy food and book. But then, I got RM1.00 a week as pocket money which I seldom use. This is translated to RM10-15 in today's money. I remembered that one large meat pau must be about 20 cents as compared to RM2.50 now if it is of the same size and quality.
Taking photo was a luxury at that time. And talking about camera, I had no idea what was that and I could only remember the huge studio camera which was made in China.
My first camera was a Kodak Instantmatic which was made of plastic and used "126" cartridge film. I took one roll of photos (24 of them) and the result was so disgusting that I never touch that camera again. That must be in 1970. Later my brother-in-law "gave" me an Olympus which used half frame 36 mm, ie, 72 shots from a roll of 36-exposure film. This camera took very good quality photos and was quickly confiscated by him because his nephew used it to take naked pictures of children using my name!
I complained to my parents and my brothers quickly went to Labuan and brought back a huge Yashica top viewing camera using 120 film. To me, that was the beginning of "real photography" because I suddenly realised that I didn't have money to buy film and process photos. Then, being enterprising, I figured that if I can process my own photos, I could make some money and also support my hobby. So, I went off to buy an enlarger, some chemical and paper.... (to be continued)

This is the only family photo my parents took. I figured that it must be taken in 1961. My youngest sister was not yet born. My eldest and third sisters were not in the photo as they were married!