JoMac wrote:
the photographic lab at Naval Air Station Miramar, San Diego,
California had to produce a moderate to humongus number of
panchromatic and color 8 x 10 prints in short order. The Kennedy job
involved over 24 hours of printing from 4 x 5 dupe negatives using six
enlargers. We took turns processing these prints, by hand..........
Wow! Very close to my memories, though I didn't realize that sailors were
taught these mass production procedures. I did work with several Marine
Corps photogs that appeared to have no problems with chemical exposure
while we were still in the business. One did develop severe problems with
warts on his hands. Sickbay said the warts were being aggravated by the
chemicals and required him to wear latex gloves. Another developed a very
bad case of blood poisoning. If I remember correctly, he had very dry,
cracked skin at the time, and was working strictly in the color print lab.
He was transferred out of the photo MOS (job assignment.) Today, I have
the same very dry cracked skin hand problems that JoMac described.
Now to explain why I didn't think sailors were taught these mass production
techniques... While assigned to headquarters of the Atlantic Fleet Marine
Force in the early '70's, we frequently were tasked to produce massive
press releases on the order of those described by JoMac. At the same time
I was frequently assigned aboard a ship with a very nice photo lab during
NATO exercises. After spending a couple of days with an AMTRAC platoon on
another ship without a darkroom, and assaulting a beachhead, I returned on
the first evening of the actual exercise to develop not only my film (~30
rolls B&W and 15 rolls transparency) but the film of every Marine Corps
photojournalist, public affairs officer (PAO), and combat artist above the
rank of Gunnery Sergeant (read commissioned officers/gentlemen.) That was
about a dozen other people. Some of them shot a lot of film that first
day. After printing all the contact sheets, the senior PAO comes down to
the photo lab from the officers' mess and selects around 30 B&W negatives
that he wants several hundred 8x10s of each for immediate release to the
civilian and military press. Since I was the lowly corporal, and probably
the only one of these photogs who actually knew anything about a darkroom,
I figured I was going to spend the remainder of the exercise in the
darkroom. One of ship's photo lab Chiefs thought this wasn't fair that I
was going to spend the entire exercise in the dark, so he offered to have
his sailors make the prints for me during the night, they worked the night
shift anyway, so I could get 3 or 4 hours sleep and take photos the next
day. I explained the PAO's cropping requirements and the techniques JoMac
described. I even printed 2 negs and in effect demonstrated the
techniques. When I awoke at 4:00 (3 hours sleep) I found the sailors had
made exactly 150 prints of 1 negative. They were printing/developing them
one at a time. After that I always figured they didn't teach those
techniques to sailors.
The chopper left the flight deck for the command base in the Turkish Thrace
every morning at 6:00. Between 4:00 and 6:00 I was able to finish 10 more
negatives, for about a third of what my PAO had requested. I got my butt
chewed for a long time that morning, and was told that I could return to
the field every morning to shoot photos. BUT, I was to be on the afternoon
chopper back to the ship and print ALL of the requested negatives each and
every night. AND I was not to rely on the Navy for anything other than the
facilities. AND if I failed at this, well, he reminded that since I was a
former MP I did know what a brig was like. For the next 7 days, I think I
only slept while riding in a chopper or jeep, probably not even 3
hours/day. The journalist, who was junior to me, had orders to wake me if
anything happened.
When we got to Istanbul, after the exercise, I slept through the first 2
days of liberty. Then on the last day of liberty, I took a tour of Aya
Sofya, a cathedral converted to a mosque, and the Blue Mosque, a Sultan's
palace. I shot a lot of available light Ektachrome, not only of the
beautiful mosques but also of a very interesting city. When I returned to
the ship to develop my transparencies, I learned (the hard way) that
another sailor had contaminated the E-6 chemicals. All of my slides had a
purple cast. After that I had a real chip on my shoulder towards sailors.
; )
-
This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe,
go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to
visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org.
