Self Isolating is like being back in the navy

"In the Navy" again! What I mean is that we are self-isolating and our house and yard are like a ship at sea (CV62 a carrier). We send reqs and once a week the supply ship shows up from the grocery store to do an "unrep" and if we need other things for example from Home Depot get an airlift, I mean delivery. If we can't get it delivered we don't need it. It does remind me of being at sea, no getting off until we finally get to a port. I am keeping busy doing bird photography in the garden and astro imaging over the PC from the Canary Islands.

Jeff USN Photog 72-76 wrote in post #19039408
"In the Navy" again! What I mean is that we are self-isolating and our house and yard are like a ship at sea (CV62 a carrier).

Interesting perspective Jeff. I'm a bit worried though that you're a covid-62 carrier!

No just going roady

OP DIV was the photo lab spaces on the ship

updated to my old compartment number when I ran the color darkroom, this is the compartment

I think it would be fascinating to be a photographer in the US Navy.

I'm curious what types of photography assignments you had. Was photography your hobby before you joined?

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #19039612
I think it would be fascinating to be a photographer in the US Navy.

I'm curious what types of photography assignments you had. Was photography your hobby before you joined?

Yes I started with an Instamatic 104 then in High School got a Pentax Spotmatic. I also did some filming of the high school football games.

Being a Navy photographer your assignments ran the gamut. Anything they need a shot of we did. Grip and grins, documenting building construction, award ceremonies, dignitaries, in Pensacola the weekly AOC graduations, traffic accidents or anything that damaged gov't property, broken parts, portraits.

Of course there were the not so nice assignments, plane crashes we had to document every part that came out of the ground
Autopsies, whether from the plane crashes ( they were pretty messed up) or from murders.

the good outweighed the bad. They filmed the movie Midway while I was at Pensacola and I got on the set with a camera and got to meet Charlton Heston, Glen Ford, Henry Fonda, Hal Holbrook, and others. Also got to cover the Pensacola Open golf tourney and meet most of the players.

The Navy also paid for all my film that I took personal pictures with and I processed them all myself, B&W, Color and Color Slides. I enjoyed processing slides

Jeff, thanks for sharing. Must have been a blast meeting all those actors. Keep safe.

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #19041041
Jeff, thanks for sharing. Must have been a blast meeting all those actors. Keep safe.

Here is an old super 8 I shot on the set

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=0Z6T_bGvna4&​t=43s

i tried to get a photo gig in the Navy because my dad had been a Boiler Tech 3 (51-55) but a) he said i wouldnt like it and b) they couldnt give me any kind of guaranteed job. i wasnt planning on going in and chipping paint or mopping decks for 4 years...

i enlisted in the Air Force instead and while i didnt have a guaranteed job as a photographer, i did go to school for Graphic Arts (DM in the Navy) even though i had been my college newspaper's photo editor and chief photographer for 3 of 4 semesters and worked for Gannett News, and a custom print house. i got a 2nd AFSC (Rating in the Navy) as a Photographer and i shot pretty much the exact same stuff that you did!

no accidents or autopsies but grip and grins for dignitaries and promotions/awards were the norm. news photos for the base newspaper, and i did some medium format stuff for the U2 and SR-71 program, that im not going to discuss...

made the badges for all the dignitaries for this, and then went and shot photos of the event

Ltdave wrote in post #19041260
i tried to get a photo gig in the Navy because my dad had been a Boiler Tech 3 (51-55) but a) he said i wouldnt like it and b) they couldnt give me any kind of guaranteed job. i wasnt planning on going in and chipping paint or mopping decks for 4 years...

i enlisted in the Air Force instead and while i didnt have a guaranteed job as a photographer, i did go to school for Graphic Arts (DM in the Navy) even though i had been my college newspaper's photo editor and chief photographer for 3 of 4 semesters and worked for Gannett News, and a custom print house. i got a 2nd AFSC (Rating in the Navy) as a Photographer and i shot pretty much the exact same stuff that you did!

no accidents or autopsies but grip and grins for dignitaries and promotions/awards were the norm. news photos for the base newspaper, and i did some medium format stuff for the U2 and SR-71 program, that im not going to discuss...

made the badges for all the dignitaries for this, and then went and shot photos of the event

Hosted photo: posted by Ltdave in
./showthread.php?p=190​41260&i=i70802829
forum: The Lounge

I was lucky, the Marines wouldn't guarantee photog, but the Navy did and I trusted them. When I was in boot they tried to get me to go Nuclear tech even offered E-4 for switching but I had the guarantee in my orders and it worked out.

THE DOWNSIDE: The rating was full so advancement was really tough. I made E-4 (3rd Class Petty Officer) in 2 years and then aced the test for 2nd Class (E5) but they only advanced 4 people worldwide. Also had I reenlisted that is a good chance they would have pulled me out of the rate and forced me to go to a different job (chipping paint). Luckily I was getting out to go to work for my Dad and help him in his payroll and legal timesharing business where I became a computer programmer. After 10 years I left him when he sold the company and went to work for Quest Diagnostics as a billing maintenance programmer for the next 28 years until I retired.

Did either of you guys get to photograph the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds?

Interesting film of Hal Holbrook.

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #19041680
Did either of you guys get to photograph the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds?

Interesting film of Hal Holbrook.

I was stationed in Pensacola for 2 years and that is the home base of the Blue Angels, would see them several times a year, so often that often we wouldn't go out to see them. The sad thing is that I was on the funeral detail when we had to bury one the Blue Angels after a bad crash with the Phantoms, they switched back to the A4 Skyhawks after that.

Most of my slides are "somewhere" the few I have are really poor copies but here is one anyway, from the old days (mid 70's) with no AF or auto ISO

final

Hey thanks for sharing those. I've never seen the Blue Angels in that aircraft before. A real blast to the past!

Your aircraft carrier photo is awesome, too.

These are the Blue Angles of my youth! When i built the model, it was 4 of the same A4's and a stand. ( A little repetitive )