ISO: 2000
Program: Aperture priority (exposure bias -0.3)
Aperture: f4.0
Shutter: 1/50
Focal length: 60mm
My grandfather's funeral. He wanted a bagpiper there because he was loyal to his Scottish heritage. The flag over the coffin in the background has a pretty special and unique story.
My grandfather was a Prisoner-of-War (POW) in Saigon for four years during WW2. He and his fellow POWs were tortured to the point of near-death (and past for many). My grandfather and 67 other Australian soldiers were alive when the war was over. To celebrate the victory they made an Australian flag. The red and white sections of the flag were cut from the flag of their captors, the Japanese. The blue section was from a mosquito net in the prison camp.
All 68 soldiers signed the flag with their names, battalion, and service numbers. My grandfather was the youngest of the group so they entrusted the flag to him for safekeeping. And that he did, from 1945 until his death on April 13th, 2009 - two weeks before his 88th birthday.
From the 68 soldiers who put their names to that flag, he was the second last alive. Now only one of those soldiers remain.
A very special and unique piece of ANZAC history.
