Originally posted by gary2881 Dear Bob, thanks for starting this thread, I have read and enjoyed it from the first post. I want to comment on something that you mentioned in an early post about vets gravitating to other vets.
Yesterday as I returned to my car after shooting pics at a local county park, an older fellow with a camera around his neck was also returning to his car from a different trail. From a simple "Hi, get and good shoots?" it took only seconds to realize that we were both vets and stood and talked in the parking lot for and hour.
As it turns out, this fellow was an Army combat photographer in Korea, using a Speed Graphic. After Korea, he spent several years as a medical photographer. Somewhere along there, he applied for the Warrant Officer program to fly helos. He made a tour in Viet Nam in "64, before retiring from the Army in 1967. He retired from the Army before I went into the Navy in '68, but we still shared and instant bond.
Gary Sommer
USN Combat Search and Rescue HC-7
Viet Nam '70 '71
Sounds pretty familiar! I've had many similar circumstances myself over the years. As for the Speed Graphic, reminds me of an "Old Lifer" Staff Sgt. we had when I was working out of the HQ unit in Saigon.
He was always goin' on about how we should be using the 4x5 Speed Graphics instead of shooting 35mm. Always talkin' bout how much better the images were, etc.
I finally told him one day, "if you carried one of those Speed Graphics to the field, you'll come back without a single usable image". The idiot accepted the challenge and went out. Damned camera hit the ground as soon as they went into the LZ. Long story short, the camera was DX'd (trashed for scrap) and he didn't get a single shot ... except from a 35mm he also had with him.
Never heard anymore about the "bigger negative" argument any more. We did use the 4x5's for studio and set up shots though.