Photography:    Photography has been an obsession of mine since the ninth grade at Jefferson Jr. High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee! I was on the year book staff and we had engaged a professional photographer to record our  student galleys, special events as well as sports. As youthful and inexperienced as we were, we took the photographs provided by the photographer and pasted up the pictures on the forms provided by the year book publishing company. We also insisted that we receive the negatives as well. We wanted to print our own pictures of friends, etc.. Then disaster struck! When we cropped the pictures to fit the number of pages we were allowed. Our janitor was constantly complaining that there were croppings and pictures all over the floor of the year book room and he did not know what was trash and what was clutter. We made it easy for him, we said, "If it is on the floor you can dispose of it."

    We kept the negatives in the box with the pasted-up pictures of the year book. Problem one: Students made a habit of coming into the room during lunch time or during study hall time "to take a look at the work we had done" then replace the "work" back onto the table. One day the inevitable occurred; after "looking" at the pictures, someone replaced the pictures to the box, but forgot to place the box on the table. Exit students, entrance janitor with directions  to dispose of "stuff" on the floor. Into the incinerator went our our almost completed work including the negatives of such.

    Chaos! now we were devastated, no year book, no money to engage the photographer the second time around and he chastised us  for not letting him retain the negatives until the annual was completed and sent off. It appeared that there would be no year book for the year, 1947. Out of the kindness of his heart, he made a gesture that saved the day! He offered his darkroom and lab (at night) to us if we wanted to get our Brownie Hawkeye cameras and take some pictures and try to save the day! Redemption was at hand! Remember, this was Oak Ridge, the birthplace of the Atomic Bomb! Who works on atomic bombs? Chemist and Physicists, and scholarly people  who did not shoot Brownie Hawkeyes, instead they did their photography with Leicas, Zeiss Contacts and such. High end foreign cameras of professional quality. The children of these scientific geniuses' were my classmates. And they allowed their children to use their equipment! We had a chance and a deadline. We took advantage of both and shortly the campus was "snapping away" and nights were spent in the darkroom. In record time we had an excellent year book for 1947.  Not only did we have a great yearbook, it was entirely a student project. hen and there I was bitten by the photography bug!

    In the following years I made contact prints on a cigar box printer, saved money for a better camera than my Sears "Tower 120 Camera." Through College and years in the Ministry of the United Methodist Church I continued to improve my hobby. My youngest was hired by "the" professional camera store in Birmingham, Alabama and he helped his dad acquire better equipment.  By that time Margaret and I were leading tours to central Europe and the Middle East (Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Cyprus, etc.) We made seven trips to Central Europe, and seven trips to the Middle East. My hobby was invaluable as I made the photographs for my brochures and slide shows with a series of projectors operated by a computer. I went from Pentaxes to Nikons to Hasselbades!  Now in retirement I use a Canon and a Nikon, both digital and print my photographs on my HP PhotoSmart printers. 

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