The "Those Were The Best Times Of My Life" Story

It was an ordinary day.  My local newspaper brought back quite a few memories as I read the weekly feature known as "Through The Viewfinder."  This feature explores the art of black-and-white photography as well as color photography as seen through the lenses of the remarkable group of staff photographers that are employed by LNP News.  I have written about the dozen or so photographers that have worked for the newspaper over the past 30 to 40 years and the quality of work that can be seen in our daily newspaper.  

The weekly feature column known as "Through The Viewfinder"

At first all the photos were in black and white, but with the introduction of color printing presses for newspaper printing, the photography is now in both color and black and white.  The weekly photography feature that appears every Sunday on page 2 supplies me with memories of both current photographic processes as well as processes from the past.  I taught the art of photography to high school seniors for close to 30 years and the Sunday, March 6 feature article took me back to my teaching days when we worked with film cameras.  Not just 35mm black and white film, but 4"X5" sheet film cameras.  From time to time someone would donate a large format camera to the school and I would add it to the school collection.  My students loved working in black and white format being that they had total control of what they were doing in the darkroom.  They had to load pieces of 4"X5" film into film holders in the dark, put the film holder in the camera, compose their subject in the viewfinder, pull out the film slide and expose the film to the light of their subject.  Afterwards they would have to remove the film and develop the negative in the dark.

An old 4X5 sheet film camera

After fixing and washing the piece of film they would hang them to dry and then make their print on one of the three enlargers that were big enough to hold the 4"X5" negative.  Talk about learning!  The day they invented digital cameras was one of  the saddest days of my life!  Today anyone can claim to be a photographer, but back in the late 1900s you had to be taught how to compose, expose the film, develop the film and print the film on an enlarger with darkroom chemicals.  Now that was Photography!!  I can still see the excitement on the faces of my students as they made their prints from the negatives they had recently developed.  From time to time I still will hear...Mr. Woods...Mr. Woods!  And...when I turn around there will stand one of my students who will in turn say to me..."Remember when we used to load our own film in the dark, develop it and then make our own prints?  I still have a couple of them hanging on the wall in my house.  Kinda like a piece of history hanging in the living room!"  Well, you know...I am the same way.  I can still remember going to Millersville State Teachers College in the early-mid 1960s and taking Photograph I and II with Mr. Urban Monical.  He was a tall, skinny guy, much like myself, who loved the art of photography and you could tell it in the way he taught his classes.  When I talked Manheim Township High School Industrial Arts department chairman Mr. George Ehemann into allowing me to teach photography, I was in darkroom heaven.  Well, this past Sunday's "Through The Viewfinder" story dealt with 4"X5" sheet film and how to load it, develop it and print it.  The newspaper photographer who wrote the column did a great job.  I could understand everything he wrote...but, then again it sounded exactly like the lessons I taught in high school.  Andy Blackburn talked about loading the film into the film holder, placing it in the Kodak Speed Graphic 4X5 camera, taking a reading with a light meter, setting the camera to those readings and exposing the film.  He then went on to tell his readers about how you develop and print the photographs.  I must admit he did a great job!  The photograph that accompanies my story today shows the result of his photo shot as well as a glimpse of the camera which he used.  You know...if I hadn't sold all my old box cameras as well as my film holders I just might have given it a try again.  A true photographer never forgets how he learned the art of photography.  Might have also tried to find a few rolls of 35mm black and white film and loaded them in a camera to take black and white photos just one more time!  You know...I can still close my eyes and see the smiling faces of my students when the safelights came on and they saw their black and white photographs develop right in front of their eyes.  Photos they had just taken a short time before and were seeing them in a tray of developer magically appear in front of them.  Who wouldn't want to teach someone the art of photography and see the faces of their students as their photos developed.  Something I will never forget!!  And you know...I still have a bunch of black and white prints that some of my students gave me as a thank you for teaching them the magical art of photography.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.