A jaunt down Memory Lane..
Danny "The Eskimo" Tichonchuk was a nice guy and welcomed me to the San Diego Union and Tribune Photo Lab with helpful hints.
He encouraged me to "hang in there" when I was hired and assigned to the tiny Wirephoto Room (still going to school) where I could do course reading after I turned the lights back on.
I often would read during the 7-minutes it took for an AP photo to be transmitted then I would turn off the overhead light, flip on the reddish-yellow "safe light," open the machine, take out the newly-exposed photo paper, wrap a new sheet around the drum, close the machine and then process the one just received in the trays of developer and fixer. Then it would wash for 10 minutes or so after I turned the white light on again.
This was time to "hit the books" again before the cycle repeated itself. And it did over and over as I was privileged to be seeing the BEST examples of news-worthy photography.
When the prints were properly washed, I would drain them and take them down the short hallway to dry them on the glossy dryer so they would have the shiny finish necessary for use in the paper.
We really didn't worry about extended washing for long-lasting archival quality. These were news photos shot by AP professionals from around the world, and were discarded at the end of the day.
The Photo Editor would have seen the facsimile thin paper copy and alert me when he was really interested in a shot.
Sometimes I got a LOT of reading done for school and other times, not so much "white light."
Stan Griffin started a few of us in Wire photo so we could see these professional images and learn a thing or two about how to be a winner with our camera. Stan knew what he was doing!
After about 6 months I "graduated" to the large room where multiple prints and enlargements were made for the CNS, Copley News Service, working with Al Sund.
Shortly thereafter, I was paired in a small darkroom with Thane McIntosh and went out on my first assignment as a staff photographer for the San Diego Union and the Evening Tribune.
I started this during my sophomore year then took a break from college for four years to concentrate on being a news photographer. I got married, had two children and DID return to USD for my final two years and got my BA in English/Journalism in 1968.
Stan encouraged me to complete my education and he and Charlie Sick arranged for me to work weekends and split days off when I went back to school.
I never did make the cover of TIME Magazine but I DID graduate in 1968 so I did a bit of manual cut-and-paste to have me featured.
In 1964, my full page in its sister publication LIFE, was for real.
I had snapped two shots of a sign I saw carved in an apple orchard while flying back from shooting aerials of surfers.
The paper turned it down (?) so I offered it to the national magazine. It was the Miscellany Page and I got a byline...and a $300 check.
After I graduated and had my BA in English and Journalism, I wanted to apply to the paper's Copley Training program and move over to the writing side of newspapering.
Stan Griffin broke the bad news to me.
After so many years as a staff photographer, my pay grade was much higher than the entry level for the writing/reporter slot. To use my newly-received diploma, I would have to take a cut in pay.
Instead, I started looking around and got hired as a Researcher by the CBS Cronkite Morning News. A new direction for my career in news.
Here are some miscellaneous views of me in the 1960s:
Labels: #Evening Tribune, #San Diego Union, CBS Cronkite News, CNS, Cousteau injured, Goodyear blimp, Healthy Exercise, LBJ, Minnesota Fats, President Kennedy, TIME & LIFE
I was 21 ....an older college freshman
The University of San Diego was founded in 1949 and, 11 years later, I found it in 1960.
Had just finished my 3.5 years as a U.S.Marine combat photographer and was still getting used to wearing civvies.
I gratefully had accepted a scholarship at the young University as the school's first "official" photographer. The 1961 yearbook was the first for the school.
One of the first people I photographed was Senator John F. Kennedy, who had come to San Diego in 1960, campaigning to become President of the United States of America.
Just a few weeks before, I had packed up all my darkroom gear, movie camera, and Rolleiflex, left Charleston, South Carolina and headed West.
A few fellow freshmen joined me when I suggested, "
let's go see the next U.S.President."
Of course, I had my camera with me as we pushed through the crowd downtown to get closer to the platform set up on Broadway.
I recall that 56 years ago, I looked up at a policeman on the platform, told him I was the official photographer at the University, and asked if he could give me a hand getting up on the stage. The officer did.
Today is the 53rd anniversary of the assassination of the President and I have used my photo of the young man often in this blog.
Three years later, I was assigned to take his picture - as President Kennedy - when he accepted an honorary degree from San Diego State University and gave the Commencement address.
Then I was a staff photographer for the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper and really had actual credentials to be there with my camera.
He made his fateful trip to Dallas five months later.
I went back to USD on the 45th anniversary of my graduation.
One of the fellows who had gone downtown with me to "see the Presidental candidate" was at the reunion and we talked about that afternoon.
That was a joyful day in 1960 and one to remember.
Thanks for reading this and sharing my memory of seeing the President - twice.
Labels: downtown San Diego, JFK, President Kennedy, Sen Kennedy, USD
700th Posting on my blog...
On the occasion of my
700th blog entry, here's my most recent shot. It was taken Tuesday night.
Not exactly "right out of the camera," it has been worked on. A lot.
That's Andrew Scotchie on the right and Will Bridges, left, on bass. The drummer is Eliza Hill.
They are the
River Rats from Asheville, playing at the Tattooed Moose.
My newest technique picture, using a Black & White Plug-in tool from Topaz, is a shot taken in England a few years ago at the Tower of London.
Two young men showed step-by-step how knights dressed in their armor to prepare for battle.
Then gave a rousing example of banging and clanging each other on their helmets, chests, arms and legs with real steel swords.
Actually, I combined several tools to create this look.
In addition to taking away all color, I also changed the focus to blur the background.
This helps make the combatants stand out from the background.
The attention is further focused on them. Literally.
Because this is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, I also have a picture I took of him in San Diego when he was speaking at a College Commencement.
This was in June, five months before he and the First Lady flew to Texas for several days of speeches.
A brief outline of details on this photo - and another I took three years earlier - can be found at
Charleston Currents.
Hard to believe it has been half a century since the young President was killed.
Media all over the world are marking this date with words and pictures.
I felt it was appropriate to share my two junctures, as a small remembrance, of those times all those years ago.
In 1960 I was a freshman in college and had great luck in being in the right place at the right time to catch a photo of candidate Senator Jack Kennedy in his quest for the Presidency.
In my lifetime, so far, I also have traveled to
Berlin, Germany, to
County Limerick, Ireland and to
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In fact, I was a Marine "stranded" overnight at the base in Cuba, anxiously waiting for a military flight back to the United States, during a scary security lock down caused by Castro.
I guess that would have been MY Cuban crisis.
So this 50th anniversary - and my 700th blog posting - has reminded me of some exciting and adventuresome periods in my life.
Thanks for stopping by to share some moments on my blog.
Please drop by again and often.
I'll keep writing.
And taking pictures.
Labels: 1963 Commencement speech, candidate Senator Jack Kennedy, Castro, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, honorary doctor of law degree, John F. Kennedy, President Kennedy, San Diego State College, The River Rats
45 Years Ago.....
I was going through my photo files and came across this photo I took in 1963.
President Kennedy flew into our seaside city to speak at graduation and receive an honorary degree at San Diego State. This was about 5 months before he went to Dallas.
As I recall, we had to go through lengthy procedures and it took several weeks for the
Union-Tribune newspapers to obtain clearance and credentials to cover the event.
In the 1960 Presidential campaign, when I was a college student on a photography scholarship at the University of San Diego, I asked a policeman if I could climb up on the platform while Senator Kennedy spoke before a huge downtown crowd.
He said
"Sure, let me give you a hand."
Labels: 1963, Dallas, JFK, November 22, President Kennedy, San Diego State, USD
USMC : Photography = College Scholarship
Being a Marine Corps photog paid off big time! Toting around a camera during my military "career" for 4 years enabled me to be the first in the family to attend college.
In 1959 I had flown to MCRD in San Diego for a week with the Camp Lejeune, N.C. Marine varsity football team. I traveled as the team photographer, NOT as a player! The late 1950s were peaceful and many very good college athletes had enlisted as reservists meaning there were lots of young, talented players in the various services then. And rivalries developed.
As my East Coast team prepared to play against the Marine Corps Recruit Depot varsity team, they had to practice each day but I was free to roam around this pretty, laid-back southern California town that was similar to my seaside Charleston.
Eventually I looked up a priest who had taught me in high school and now was a History Professor at the young (11-year old) Catholic university. He introduced me to some of the senior faculty and he suggested that since they had no photographer maybe I would be a good candidate. I was experienced, had my own equipment, was now very interested in starting college and was about to end my enlistment in the Corps.
I accepted an offer of a photography scholarship to the University of San Diego and, as soon as I was discharged in 1960, I packed up my cameras and darkroom equipment and flew west. The sun-bleached blonde young man who met my plane and drove me up to the campus in his vintage "woody" asked if I were a surfer. I said I had body surfed at Folly Beach in South Carolina. He smirked.
So now I was a former Marine and a freshman in college, slightly older than my peers.
I started this photography blog two months ago and several people commented on the picture I posted of John F. Kennedy. Like me, they appreciated the crisp combination of the large, excited crowd and the speaker with his familiar face turned toward me. This was Senator Kennedy in the 1960 campaign and he had drawn a huge audience downtown in this supposedly Republican city.
With a few pals from the University, I pushed my way toward the platform and showing my USD student ID card, said I was the school's photographer and could I come up on the platform. Times were REALLY more simple then and I was given a quick ok by the policeman and I found myself in a great photo location.
A few years later, several months before he was shot in Dallas, I was a staff photographer with the daily newspaper and photographed President Kennedy again in San Diego. It took two weeks to obtain credentials this time through the Secret Service and the President's Press office. Times weren't as simple then.
Labels: body surfer, Camp Lejeune, Folly Beach, JFK, Marine Corps photographer, MCRD, President Kennedy, USD, woody wagon Washout Area
Stan Griffin started a few of us in Wire photo so we could see these professional images and learn a thing or two about how to be a winner with our camera. Stan knew what he was doing!
The paper turned it down (?) so I offered it to the national magazine. It was the Miscellany Page and I got a byline...and a $300 check.
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