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Photographer Peter Washbourne is celebrating 45 years in journalism, and remembered them for his weekly column in the Lincolnshire Echo.

This week I am celebrating something of a milestone in my life.

When I “retired” in 1996 I had worked at the Echo for 45 years, but only 35½ of them were as a press photographer, the other 4½ were as a photographic printer. Only six months after my retirement that I was back in action again, not as a photographer but producing special editions for the Echo. Then I was invited to compile books and produce a couple of columns each week.

How things have changed since my early days as a photographer!

Then we used a large “plate” camera, the pictures being taken on to glass plate negatives. A bulky camera case and a large flashgun completed the equipment (although only a couple of years before I started they still used flash bulbs which could be used only once and then thrown away).

The cameras had few refinements. You had to guess what distance to set the focusing and be very accurate, especially close in. I remember how we used to make distance marks in churchyards while waiting for wedding parties to come out from the service.

St Peter-in-Eastgate in Lincoln was particularly good – the old gravestones paving it were exactly three feet wide!

By 1970 our cameras had changed to twin-lens reflex Mamiyas, which took roll films and had many more refinements. There was no more taking two pictures on one negative, and it was possible to make sure that your pictures were always in focus. Also with roll films, you could carry more with you. Plates were so heavy you could only manage about a dozen.

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