Photography in the High School Years

Several years ago I started some threads (3 I think) about the photos I took during my college years (1975-1979), but now I've begun to scan some negatives from photos I took in high school. My junior and senior year I often took photos for the yearbook so often I got out of class for that purpose. One teacher allowed me to leave school and go home to get a camera once. My dad let me use his Mamiya Sekor 1000 TL with Sekor 55mm f1.4 lens. And he supplied me with all the Tri-X I needed (via bulk loader).

A few images here from fall semester of my junior year.

clean up after chem lab

 

Practicing a cheer out of uniform

Some more. I hit the create thread button prematurely.

some classroom instruction

 

Home Economics class doing some food preparation

 

our ever patient guidance counselor

 

And in my spare time I still liked to experiment. I wanted a big moon image for moonrise, but my dad's 85-205 Vivitar just didn't have the reach for the effect I wanted. I hadn't discovered how to use my 700mm telescope with a camera yet so I tried a few through my 7x35 binoculars. Without an adapter it was hit or miss. Here's my best effort, if you can believe some results were even worse.

binocular moonrise with plenty of stray light

All the "Hardly Known School of Kansas Landscape Painters", did this sort of subject matter, so naturally I followed suit

Late 1950s

I didn't do much school photography in high-school years, but did yearbook in 7th and 8th grade.

 

I also have pictures back to 5th and 6th grade.

 

Most of that was on a Canon VI rangefinder borrowed from my dad.

(After he bought a Canon Pellix.)

 

By 7th grade, I was using mostly Tri-X in Diafine, at EI 1600, so I could do available light inside.

 

Egan | Facebook

 

has many of my 7th and 8th grade pictures. (1970 to 1972.)

My dad was always generous with his camera gear. My junior year he allowed me to take the Mamiya to school as needed. Or sometimes his Konica C35. When I was 11, though, he allowed me to take his Voigtlander Vitessa L to photograph the homecoming parade. If I can find those negatives I'll scan and share them. I have school photos back to fifth grade, although with a simple 127 camera.

A few more from that roll.

more cheer practice

 

this one was scratched, but tighter composition, two girls at left I've known since first grade

 

another try at moon rise through binoculars

moon rise again

Nice series, Mike! All my work in my teenage years was with a Certo Super Sport Dolly, and later a Mamiya C33, but sadly nothing survives from those years. But then again, perhaps it's just as well...

I stepped up my "high school photo coverage" a little more for my senior year as I bought (from family camera store) a Konica Auto S2. I wouldn't even begin to try to count how many rolls of film have been put through this camera. Still works (used it a couple of weeks ago) except counter only resets to 26 when back is opened and shutter speed ring is a bit stiff. Focusing and auto exposure are still spot on.

I will have a "Konica edition" of high school years after I locate and scan some more negatives.

I always enjoy these "time capsule" photos. The journalism class in my small high school had a Nikon EM, a darkroom, and a very patient teacher who encouraged my interest in photography. I researched cameras for months while saving up some money, and eventually bought an Olympus OM-1 at the age of 14.

Here is much of my 5th grade class, on the way out the door. I believe available light with Tri-X.

I am not sure now when I started using Diafine, but I did used to like Tri-X at EI 1600.

 

 

Here is much of my 5th grade class, on the way out the door. I believe available light with Tri-X.

I am not sure now when I started using Diafine, but I did used to like Tri-X at EI 1600.

 

 

[ATTACH=full]1208936[/ATTACH]

 

 

In the early 1960's, I used to shoot indoor basketball games with a 135mm/f3.5 Serenar on a Leica IIIc (no other choice, that and a 50mm/f1.8 Serenar were the totality of my camera gear).

 

I shot with the lens wide open at 1/30th waiting for the players to be at the motionless instant of the top of their jump. Probably shooting my Tri-X at 1600 to 2000.

 

I used Ethol UFG, warm with my Kodak tank in the top of my mother's double boiler. I came away with some pretty nice shots after some darkroom heroics.

I learned about Diafine from my grandfather during the summer before 5th grade, not long before he died.

 

I then inherited much of his photographic equipment.

I might have gotten my first box of Diafine for Christmas, and so had it for the later part of the school year.

 

Not understanding as much as I do now, I thought about how nice it was to get the magical two extra stops.

 

This was with my father's Canon VI, with working meter, so I could do pretty well with indoor shots.

The classroom had windows for most of one wall, which allowed some outside light, along with a good

number of fluorescent lamps.

 

I still have the Canon VI, but the original meter died long ago. I now have another meter, which

works some of the time, and tapping sometimes helps.

 

One problem I did have with the meter, is that it has two scales with a sensitivity switch.

Sometimes I would read the wrong scale, either underexposing indoor shots, or overexposing

outdoor shots.

 

Now, people know that their pictures might end up on Facebook.

 

Fifty years ago, they never would have thought about it, but the pictures are there.

I did have to be more careful about metering when I got the Konica Auto S2 as its lens barrel mounted CDS cell averaged the light whereas the Mamiya Sekor 1000 TL only metered a small amount. I don't think it was a true spot meter, but I remember a shaded area near bottom of frame that was the metering area.

I also took pictures for our high school yearbook. I had a Yashica Mat LM and a tiny Metz electronic flash, which seemed pretty cool at the time, though I was envious of the other photographer, who had a Rolleiflex and a big Honeywell flash. I think they belonged to his dad.

 

However, I somehow managed to convince the book's editor-in-chief to marry me. So tough luck, Rolleiflex guy!

 

Nice story, Kent.

Kent, I really like the blue and yellow complimentary colors in that shot. Beautiful job and a really pretty girl.

My collection of Late-70s and Early-80s Nikons and Pentaxes is largely complete. So, these days I keep buying them, but refurbish them and give them away to deserving High Schools students.

 

For example, the other day a young lady (17?) and I were both looking at the film cameras in a local thrift shop. The cameras were junk, and we both passed them up. I asked why she was looking at old film gear. "I have a digital camera, but I really want to try film", she said.

 

I sent her Dad a box with a Pentax ME Super, 28mm, 50mm f/2 and Vivitar 70-210 f/4 Macro, plus one roll each of Porta 400, Velvia 50, TMax 100 and Tri-X 400. Sent some simple instructions of where to go for things, (Adorama, NCPS, Butkus, etc.) Made sure it went to Dad so that there wasn't some weird Old-Guy Young-Girl in a Thrift Store thing going on.

 

Good fun! Now, there's one more person out there who has exposure (!) to film. Cost me a little bit of money, but I have a lot of fun cleaning up old gear. So, mentally, I'm way ahead.

I'm coaching the yearbook photographers at my local high school.

Man they don't know how easy they have it today, compared to manual everything that I had for my yearbook.

 

The only con is, with digital, TOOOOO many photos are taken, 500-1,000+ shots at a major sport event, per photographer. Multiply that by number of photogs at the event, and then by the number of events. And it becomes a major chore to filter down to anything like a reasonable number. Figuring less than a dozen will make it into the yearbook for each of the major sports and maybe only 5 or less for each of the minor sports.

In my day, we only shot 1 or 2 rolls of 36x per event

I worked the previous summer to save up for the camera, an Olympus pen-FT. It was small enough that I could carry it everywhere, and did.

 

 

I'm hoping to scan some more of my high school negatives this weekend. I think these will from my Konica Auto S2, which I carried with me nearly every day. On the days we had lab I sometimes borrowed my dad's Konica C35 and even shot a little 110 in my Kodak Pocket Instamatic 40. Somewhere I have a photo in study hall made with the 40 on Verichrome Pan film. Just propped it on the arm rest and let the electronic shutter do the rest.

[quote="Gary Nakayama - SF Bay Area, California, post: 5600975, member: 2105396"

(snip on yearbook photography)

 

The only con is, with digital, TOOOOO many photos are taken, 500-1,000+ shots at a major sport event, per photographer.

 

With digital today, I try not to take sooo many, though maybe more than film days. Quality over quantity.

 

But in my 7th and 8th grade yearbook days, I would buy 100 foot rolls from Freestyle, so I could afford more shots than some might.

 

I also have a lot of shots from scout camp, that I might not have taken with more expensive film, mostly that I didn't print.

This is from 8th grade with a camera that snaps onto a 126 cartridge, with no back, and otherwise as simple as possible.

I remember those little cameras, Glen. Years later a similar model that took the 110 cartridge was also made. I think I have some 126 photos from my 7th grade years, probably on Verichrome Pan, developed in my Dad's darkroom.

I remember the 110 models, but never owned one.

 

I did use other 110 cameras in the early 110 years, and develop them with my Yankee II tank.

True street photography. Little posing or subliminal agendas.