Re: CHEM. POISONING (was: Toxicity) (Longish, but full of memories)
Dan wrote: Always nice to hear there is another Marine on the list. S/F - All us jar heads gotta stick together. Dan wrote: I bought my first Pentax while serving as a Marine in Viet Nam. One of my friend photogs at the University of Kentucky was a former Marine photog, a section cheif in Nam. Maybe I should hate him, he's the guy that convinced me to join. This guy had 3 Spotmatics (all black) and 2 complete sets of everything Pentax offered at the time, late 60's. Every lens, every filter, every accessory. I couldn't get him to sell me anything. Not even lend me a 85mm or Tele-Takumar. If I remember correctly, his photo section purchased so much Pentax equipment in Tokyo, that the store would occassionally give him an "extra." That's why his name isn't mentioned, the miltary might still hold a grudge. g I lost contact and wonder how he's doing today, but I'm sure his Pentax equipment is in very well worn condition, much like my Spotmatics. - 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.
Re: CHEM. POISONING (was: Toxicity) (Longish, but full of memories)
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 BW 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 BW 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.
Re: CHEM. POISONING (was: Toxicity) (Longish, but full of memories)
On 01/24/2001 14:27, [EMAIL PROTECTED] opined: Photographers in the old days of 19th century were known to die from too much pyro exposure (say, 40 years of the job, daily, without gloves, actually PUTTING HANDS INTO THE STUFF!!! Dumb...). I don't think you are gonna die, but maybe develop some dermatitis if you bath in the stuff. When Kennedy was shot (or whenever one of our pilots was killed) 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, in 8 inch deep stainless 24 by 28 trays. No gloves. 100 prints at a time. The prints were placed in the developer face down by one person, one at a time, two per second, in a slight sliding motion. As soon as the last one went in you'd have a stack built in the far corner of the tray. The prints were then skewed (a straight fan) across the tank by rapidly moving them from the bottom of the stack with your fingers, causing them to scoot across to the front of the tray. Then again to the back. When the time was up (8+ minutes with the dilution we were using - and the industry standard at the time - +68 degrees F.) the prints were taken out from the bottom of the stack one at a time and thrown into the stop, where the process was repeated once, then on to the fixer for 15 minutes. For wash we had two 60 inch diameter, foot deep circular wash trays that were half in the darkroom, and half in the finishing area. The prints were fed into that tank where they swirled around for 30 minutes by the water nozzles that came in from the bottom. The drains were slots in the circumference a few inches from the top. Water volume was changed out every 7 minutes, or less. (The water would whirlpool over the sides if you cranked the flow up all the way!) When one tank got 200 prints in it, the next two batches went in the second. We then had to wait to soup any more until the prints were taken out by finishing, though on several occassions we tried storing the prints from the hypo into 65 gallon stainless portable chem mix tanks filled by slowly running water. The chemicals were replaced every hour or so (you could tell by the feel in the stop and fix) or 1500 prints, even though we had a crude replenishment system. Now I figure, the stop bath neutralized the developer, and fix was mostly washed off in getting the prints into the wash. I usually leaned over into the wash tank with my arms out and let the water go up over my biceps. After that, our hands were washed with Neutragena and dried to get ready for the next batch. Never had a problem. The only thing that could be remotely connected is that my hands do tend to get dry and if I don't use a hand cream after a shower or doing the dishes, I will get hard dry skin on the sides my fingernails that tends to get caught on clothing and stuff, sometimes (if I pick at it) it will bleed for a bit. I try to trim the dry skin with a nail clipper to stay ahead of it as it sticks up. But I think (never asked) that everyone has this problem, chemicals or not. I worked in that lab for a year before I went out on the carrier Bon Homme Richard to Vietnam, then for 6 months more when I got back. Then college in San Francisco, where I spent a lot of time in my bw darkroom, had a night job in a custom color lab, and was partners in a commercial studio. Got my BFA in Photography in 1970, then ended up in Phoenix, running a lab out of the bathroom and living room of a motel suite for a year, shooting Barbizon model wannabees at the rate of 16 a week, and cranking out their portfolios. Three years off from darkroom work, then 12 years around Washington D.C. working for the man, including several one year stints in chem mix, also up to my elbows in solutions, breathing dust from pouring dry chemicals from 40 pound bags and 60 pound fiber drums into nalgene drums we used to put in the hoist that lifted the stuff up and dumped their contents into the 2500 and 1500 liter custom screw pumped tanks. Spent some of that time (1/3) in chem analysis, testing mixes, films, effluent, water, triple distilling our own water to use for cooling electronics (H2O does not conduct electricity if pure), shipping 500 pounds of silver back to Kodak per month, and enjoying life! Anyone else have similar experiences they can relate? JoMac, Imagineer with Camera - 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.
