Where I Got My Start: This was taken shortly after I started Photographer's Mate A School at NAS Pensacola, FL in June 1967. Thought ya'll would enjoy a good chuckle.

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

This was taken shortly after I started Photographer's Mate A School at NAS Pensacola, FL in June 1967. Thought ya'll would enjoy a good chuckle.

Photo School 1967

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xxredbeardxx Loc: San Clemente CA.

nicksr1125 wrote:

This was taken shortly after I started Photographer's Mate A School at NAS Pensacola, FL in June 1967. Thought ya'll would enjoy a good chuckle.

Wow. Fun photo.
Was the camera new? I would have guessed it
was from the 50's. I'm guessing by now you have
at least a couple of photo albums filled up.

:thumbup:

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Super!

I was in Personnelman training in Orlando in 1971. I wanted to be a journalist, but there were no openings. Didn't think about photography back then :)

AP Loc: Massachusetts

nicksr1125 wrote:

This was taken shortly after I started Photographer's Mate A School at NAS Pensacola, FL in June 1967. Thought ya'll would enjoy a good chuckle.

What a surprise Nick. My friend Lee went to Photographer's Mate School in Pensacola, FL 1965 I think. When I was in Vietnam I was on special detachment to Okinawa for 6 months, I was in the Navy Seabees MCB-8.

We had a Navy Photographer with us that I hung out with, James Fiscus. I was in country 1966-68. The film days were a lot more complicated in the making of a photograph then it is today with using a digital camera.

Photo below made with my brand new Minolta SRT 101 & 200mm f4 Rokkor lens that I bought in Okinawa. Photo made on the Perfume River HUE, Vietnam 1968. Isn't photography wonderful!

I see your holding a 4x5 SPEED Graphic or is it a CROWN Graphic? Thanks Nick, for the memories. AP

Photo made on the Perfume River RVN using Kodak TRI-X ASA 400 b&w film 1968. I was 20yrs old.

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nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

xxredbeardxx wrote:

Wow. Fun photo. Was the camera new? I would have guessed it was from the 50's. I'm guessing by now you have
at least a couple of photo albums filled up.
:thumbup:

The camera was by no means new. I suspect every PH A school student had used it since 1955 or there abouts. It is a Speed Graphic. I used Crown Graphics when I went to the Naval Air Test Center at Pax River, MD. I was assigned to VP-30 along with 2 other classmates to teach basic photography to non-photo type aircrew members. They wouldn't put us on aircrew status but, we flew 3 or 4 8 hour training missions a month. We worked out of the base photo lab & got to go on 7-10 day long carrier trips with some of the test groups. I spent about 2 months at sea on 5 different aircraft carriers. One of the trips was the sea trials on the USS Kennedy. It made me feel old when I found out she was being retired.

xxredbeardxx Loc: San Clemente CA.

nicksr1125 wrote:

The camera was by no means new. I suspect every PH A school student had used it since 1955 or there abouts. It is a Speed Graphic. I used Crown Graphics when I went to the Naval Air Test Center at Pax River, MD. I was assigned to VP-30 along with 2 other classmates to teach basic photography to non-photo type aircrew members.

Very interesting. Well my friend, you have certainly
seen a lot of changes in your lifetime and photography
is so much easier now because of it. One thing hasn't
changed. We still capture light in a box.
keep shooting. Life is good.

KTJohnson Loc: Northern Michigan

Happy Veteran's Day mates. I was in Pensacola in 1971 for Communications A School. I remember those starched shirts after sending them out for cleaning. A big THANK YOU to all vets for your service.

From there I went to Bremerhaven, Germany where I got my first "good" camera, a 35mm Mamiya-Secor, then traded up to a Minolta SRT-101. I'm sure the military is partly responsible for getting many of us started in photography.

srat50 Loc: Ware, Massachusetts

I bought my first Nikon while in Newport RI. Navy 68-72