finally gettin to this

[vet173]

My name is John Berry. I live in Renton Washington(20 miles southeast of Seattle). I am now VA retired. Vietnam vet with the 173d Airborne Brigade 67-68, hence the screen name. Also spent 3 years on a Special Forces A-team.Got my first camera at 7 for christmas, it was one of those miniature simple cameras. I think I had it broke within a week. Saw my first 35mm camera in Vietnam and I had to have one ( it had knobs and buttons and everything. ) I think it was one of those guy things, you know like we just have to have a boat at least once in our lives, or they might take away your guy badge. When I got back from across the pond to ft. Bragg I found the post darkroom and developed my first roll of B&W. I carried that filmstrip in my pocket for a week to show all my friends what I did. Somehow I seemed to get scratches all over it. I still have that first print that I did of the helicopter flying next to us as we were being ferried to the next tourist attraction in that country. I think it was the Iron Triangle. The guy running the darkroom showed me some negs of a wedding he shot on his 4X5 speed. Next payday I owned a used 4X5 pacemaker and I was in heaven. Since then I have had all sorts of cameras and formats. Now that I'm getting older I'm settling down on 4X5 and 8X0, (If I never use it again I will still never sell my F-2) that is till I can get a 12X20 after looking thru Sandy Kings at the carbon workshop I had the pleasure of going to this last summer in Montana. (you know it never ends) I have discovered the nirvana of Pyrocat-hd and the Azo-Amidol thang. I now shoot Fp-4 since I started back into film after being a traitor for 4 years. I now realise how much I missed the whole process of analog. At least I can say I used to use Supper-XX and Royal pan. After 35 years I think I am finally getting to where I want to be with my images. ( statements like that seem to chase away all the wannabe newbies, the truly addicted will not be deterred) I have accepted with joy the fact it is a journey with no finish line.

 

[BradS]

John, Hi. I grew up watching vietnam on the nightly news and talking about it in school. I remember watching President Nixon on TV...eh, but enough of that. Welcome and Thank-you.

 

[Dave Miller]

Welcome John, enjoy the Forum.

 

[clogz]

Hello John. Welcome from this side of the herring pond.

Hans

 

[Mike Kennedy]

Good morning John and greetings from eastern Canada.
I hope you don,t mind if I borrow your closing line, "I have accepted with joy the fact it is a journey with no finish line". I will use it the next time one of my friends asks why I continue to study and experiment. It adds punch to my favorite come back "If ya gotta ask,you ain,t never gonna know". Louis Armstrong on the meaning of the blues.

Mike

 

[Andy K]

Welcome John, great approach to photography! Would love to see that first print!

Andy.

 

[Curt]

Hello John

Hi John, I live in Everett and I am a Vietnam Veteran who served in the Navy refueling river boats etc. I left the Navy and went to College for about 8 years and earned three degrees and worked in medical imaging for 20 years as a RT RTT. Then I had an industrial accident, as they called it, in the hospital where I worked. Now at 53 I'm retired permanently. I am slowly putting my darkroom in order and hoping I can get out and take pictures. I have all formats from 35 4x5 5x7 8x10 and a nice Sony Digital CD model which I learned along with photoshop while I was recovering from spinal surgery. It just got the photo thing going all over again for me. Kind of like a therapy to keep the mind off pain. I write some too, that helps. I started at age 12 with a Kodak Yankee photo developing kit I saw in a store window. I did not even have a camera but borrowed my mothers old Kodak. I think it took 127 or 626, one of the odd film sizes now. I was hooked. I can still remember the smell of the fixer. When the first negatives came out it was WOW! I contacted printed them, pretty small contacts, and I was in hog heaven. It's still like that now. One war, years of college, work, and now some personal photography. The pension sucks but all in all who am I to complain.
Welcome to the forum, I'm new this week also. It's filled with information and interesting people with all kinds of views and levels of profeciency.
Curt

 

[laz]

Welcome John from another vet of your era. While I joined late in the "conflict" and sat comfortably stateside on a CG cutter, many dear friends who chose differently are on the wall.

I too really got into photography in a bigger way while in the service. On the last day of boot camp when we were issued our first pay (I think E-1 pay was $166 per month!) I headed right to the PX and bought my first SLR. Those days of totally disposable income, however small, was great for accumulating gear that once released from the total care of the government would be out of my reach for years!

-Bob

 

[vet173]

Thanks everybody. Curt, lets get together sometime and go out and shoot.

 

[philldresser]

I have accepted with joy the fact it is a journey with no finish line.

That indeed may be true , but its a journey that the longer is goes on the further you want to travel.

Welcome

Phill

 

[benjiboy]

Welcome John, from the other side of the Atlantic, what an apt description of our passion " a journey with no finishing line ". I like it.

 

[colrehogan]

Hi John,
Welcome to apug!
My husband was in Vietnam for four years. He was in Army Recon.

 

[vet173]

Thanks everybody for making me feel like family. John