Quote:
Originally Posted by footfootfoot
... sexobon, that sounds like C. 1960-70s pro gear. Were /are you a photographer or an avid enthusiast?
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Yes, I started working in my teens, after school and summers, with my father in commercial photography for advertising learning photo-reproduction and product photography for everything from newspaper ads to wall murals. The equipment entailed 4x5 to 8x10 view cameras, 16x20 vacuum back copy cameras, Photostat machines, contact printers and enlargers of all sizes to accommodate the aforementioned formats, and projection cameras for photo murals. 35 mm & 2 1/4 sq. were just hobbies at the time.
I originally went into military service to become an Army photographer and volunteered for consecutive Airborne training so that I could work in most any kind of military unit. After completing the joint Army-Air Force photo sciences school (honor graduate, no surprise) and jump school, I was assigned to a photography support section organic to a Special Forces unit. The work ran the gamut from grip and grins to oblique aerial reconnaissance. The section even had a self contained (generator, air conditioner, water pump) mobile field photo lab on the back of a deuce and a half truck.
The SF operational A-teams, each of which was issued its own 35 mm camera set and film developing equipment, liked my support work and convinced the command to let them take me out on their training missions. So, there I was doing things like infrared photo documentation on a midnight helicopter insertion onto an exposed sandbar 2 mi. off a coast and rubber rafting to shore where my accompanying A-team would disable a coastal nuclear power plant. I found that my tactical skills were too limited to be able to do anything like that on live missions; so, I volunteered for SF training.
There are only 5 specialties in which one can become SF qualified and photography isn't one of them. I became a SF medical specialist and was assigned to an A-team; but, had additional photographic duties including upgrading the skills of my team's O&I (Operations and Intelligence) specialist who was trained in the SF O&I course with beginner level camera and lab skills. I later cross-trained as an O&I specialist myself. When I did my instructor tour of duty, it was as a SF medical instructor where in addition to teaching I managed the course photo library and AV support; also, I got into photomicrography to produce my own pathogen images as training aids.
My personal photo equipment (mentioned in my earlier post) often travelled with me as I was authorized to use it on duty (at my own risk) which I did when my personal photography interests went beyond duty requirements and capabilities of issued equipment. Post military, I work in civilian healthcare with no job related photography demands.