A mum whose kids secretly took pictures on a camera they found at their grandparents’ house was left speechless after the images were posted online 10 years later by someone who stumbled across the vintage piece of technology in a second-hand store in the Philippines.
Sharon Worgan, 43, from Conwy County, North Wales, had no idea the precious pictures even existed until they were posted on Reddit on May 23 by 22-year-old Vince Masauding, who lives in Davao City more than 6,500 miles away and had discovered the Minolta camera in a thrift shop with the roll of film still inside.
The candid photos show Sharon’s three youngest children Dylan, 20, Eleanor, 17, and Lewis, 12, playing at their grandparents house in Wales, which they visited every year during school holidays when they were children.
They were spotted by an old university friend on Reddit just hours after being uploaded, who contacted Sharon, who lives with her partner Jonathan Baxter, 51, and four children, including her eldest Lauren, 24, who does not feature in the photos.
Vince, a vintage photography enthusiast, is not sure why he chose that specific camera out of the hundreds that were available or what pushed him to get the film developed, but said he wanted to find who they belonged to.
From left to right, Jonathan, Dylan, Eleanor, Lauren and Sharon now live in Wales (Collect/PA Real Life)
Sharon wrote a comment under Vince’s post telling him “this is my family, get in touch” and now plans to turn the snaps, which remind her of “happy times”, into a photobook for future generations.
Although none of her children have admitted to taking the camera, she has an inkling Dylan – of whom there is a selfie – is responsible.
“I thought ‘that’s really weird’, where have these pictures come from? How are they there?” said Sharon.
“And on Reddit! I have never used Reddit in my life so I had to create an account.
“It’s lovely to see those photographs because I didn’t have one of Jonny [Jonathan] riding the mower.
“They look really authentic, like memories that have been taken on an old camera, they’re lovely.”
Vince Masauding discovered the vintage camera in a thrift shop with the roll of film still inside 6,500 miles away(Collect/PA Real Life)
Sharon was not aware of the pictures’ existence until she woke to a message from her old university friend saying “you wont believe who’s in these picture’ and inviting her to click on a Reddit link.
She initially did not believe the message was genuine but after a few “security questions” she clicked the link and up popped half a dozen photos of her three youngest children, husband Jonny and his step-father Les.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing because it didn’t make sense at all,” said Sharon.
Sharon did not have a picture of Jonathan and Lewis (front) riding a lawn mower until now (Collect/PA Real Life)
But the pictures had been posted by someone in the Philippines, which kept Sharon guessing before the penny dropped.
“How it got to the Philippines, this was the detail that really threw me, I couldn’t work that out at all,” she said.
“My partner used to work on cruise ships so he’s been to the Philippines so I’m looking at the picture thinking ‘did he lose his camera there?’
Photo of Sharon’s daughter Eleanor taken on the film camera, which was found in the Philippines (Collect/PA Real Life)
“But it didn’t add up because Lewis was already born and the dates didn’t match up.”
But when she saw the selfie of Dylan she suddenly put two and two together.
She vaguely remembered the camera at her mother-in-law Jan’s house in Wales which they visited every year during the school holidays.
The Minolta Riva 90 camera found in a thrift shop in the Philippines (Collect/PA Real Life)
“The kids were always messing with things they shouldn’t be messing with, and the camera was one of them,” Sharon said.
“I imagine Dylan – the boy who took the selfie – probably took the majority of the photographs.
“He says he can’t remember taking them, but he was kind of smirking when he said it, so I’m pretty sure it’s him.
Lewis at his grandparent’s house in Wales during the school holidays (Collect/PA Real Life)
“I think he’s mortified with that selfie because he doesn’t look anything like that now.”
The camera disappeared from sight after Sharon’s parents-in-law decided to move house in 2021.
“They boxed up lots of old stuff and sent it off to auction or charity shops,” she said.
A picture of Lewis and Les (left) standing in the garden taken on the Minolta camera that was discovered in the Philippines (Collect/PA Real Life)
It would appear the box containing the camera was eventually sold to a thrift shop 6,608 miles away, in Davao City.
This is where vintage photography enthusiast Vince stumbled upon the Minolta and discovered there was a still a roll of film inside.
“I can’t believe how crazy it is that among the hundreds of working cameras they had, the Minolta Riva 90 was the one I chose,” Vince said.
Due to the global pandemic, it was not until a year later that Vince decided to get the film developed and post the pictures online.
A ‘selfie’ taken by Dylan on his grandparents vintage film camera around 10-years ago (Collect/PA Real Life)
“I wasn’t sure (it would work) because there was a chance it had already been exposed to sunlight,” he said.
“I don’t know what prompted me to develop them but they came out.”
A few months later, Vince decided to post the pictures on Reddit to see whether he could track down the camera’s original owner and six hours later he received a message.
“I didn’t expect it to be that fast,” he said.
Picture of Eleanor, Dylan, Jonathan and Les (from left to right), taken on the Minolta around 10-years ago (Collect/PA Real Life)
“When I woke up, I had like 200 notifications on my phone.”
Sharon did not know how to send a direct message on Reddit so commented on Vince’s post “this is my family, get in touch”.
“It’s a throw back to a really happy time and it’s nice to see the kids when they were little,” Sharon said.
The Reddit post has received a lot of attention with one user commenting: “It’s so insane that in a world this vast, Reddit makes it so small.”
Jonathan and Sharon had no idea the pictures even existed (Collect/PA Real Life)
Sharon added: “Lewis thinks it’s great because he’s of that generation where getting loads of likes on the internet is really important.
“So he thinks it’s amazing that photos of him have gone viral in his world because he’s not on Reddit or social media.”
Vince sent over copies of the pictures which Sharon is planning on printing off and making a photobook.
“It’s a good story for the grandchildren isn’t it,” she added.
