n
1964 I changed career and joined Iliffe, which later became part
of IPC, as a techincal and industrial journalist on the weekly newspaper
Motor Transport. We decided it was time we bought a house and moved back
to Kent. Houses were a lot cheaper than in the London area, and Iliffe's
offices were quite near Waterloo station in London, only three quarters
of an hour away by train. Our daughter Emma was born in January 1965 so
naturally many rolls of film were exposed on her. I got another camera,
a 35mm Zorki C, the first Russian camera I'd owned. It was modelled on
the pre-war Leica and I was very impressed by the sharpness and contrast
of the f/3.5 Industar lens, a copy of the Leitz Elmar. When Emma was old
enough to join a pre-school playgroup Valerie became one of the organiers
and took lots of pictures of Emma and the other children using her Exakta.
These were very popular with the other parents so we bought an enlarger
and Valerie printed her child pictures up to 10x8 inches and, with the
parents' permission, submitted them to various magazines such as Mother
and Baby and Child Education, which started her on a freelance career.
