In the picture Mystery solved of old camera’s wedding photos
❝ I was blown away by how thoughtful and kind it was of Megan trying to look for us. It was a total shock when I did see them Belinda Alger
THE mystery of a number of wedding photos found on a roll of film inside an old camera has been solved – at least partially.
Belinda Alger says she was “blown away” when she saw on Facebook photographs she had never seen before of her wedding with husband Lee.
The Post reported on Tuesday how student Megan Barnett had stumbled across the pictures after buying a second-hand camera from St Nicholas Market.
After the story was published in the Post and online, it was shared thousands of times on social media and was eventually spotted by a colleague of Belinda, who had been at the wedding, at St Nicholas Church in Essex, 17 years ago.
Belinda, 50, from Essex, said: “I was blown away by how thoughtful and kind it was of Megan trying to look for us.
“It was a total shock when I did see them.
“I’m quite private, so I wasn’t sure about all the shares at first, but me and my husband thought it was such a kind thing to do.
“The camera belonged to my mum’s friend, who has actually passed away now.
“I’ve been in contact with her family, so any pictures of her I’ll pass on, which is nice because it’s memories to share.”
The couple tied the knot in 2002 and the person who owned the camera lived in Colchester, so some mystery still remains over how the device ended up in Bristol.
Megan, a first-year student at Bristol film school Screenology, bought the camera from a stall at St Nicholas Market last September.
“I bought the camera from one of the stalls at the outside market there on Saturdays,” said Megan, who moved to Bristol from Devon for her studies.
“I like taking film photos and wanted something easy for everyday photos, and I thought £15 was a pretty good price for it.”
A few days after buying the 1994 model of the Canon Sure Shot AF-7, Megan noticed the film it contained was nearly used up, with space for only three more photos.
“I was really curious to find out what pictures had been taken, but it was only last week when I went to get the film developed at Bristol Cameras, just down the road from where I bought the camera.
“Two days later, I went to pick the photos up and had no idea what I was going to find, which was pretty exciting.
“A friend warned it could be something pretty nasty, so to see lovely wedding photos was really nice.”
She said everyone looked very happy in the pictures.
Megan said at the time: “I really hope the couple are still together and that they will want these memories from the day.”
After Belinda came forward, 20-year-old Megan said: “I was a little worried that she might not have been happy about someone sharing her wedding photos on Facebook, but she’s so lovely and we’ve been chatting for the past day about the photos.
“She’s really appreciative of the fact I took the time to track her down to try and return her photos.
“It would have been nice if we’d been able to meet up in person to exchange the photos but she lives in Essex, which is a bit of a shame.
“I’m going to post them to her instead.”