Lesson learned
…the “hard way”… OUCH!
Senior year was an eventful one, besides HS band, sports, clubs, and a teacher strike, 4-H kept my plate full serving as president of our club and the South Hilo Federation, and as the State Historian. In 1972, I was fortunate to be selected as one of the delegates to the 1973 National Conference in Chevy Chase, Maryland. 4-H delegates from all over the country convene for a week in the Spring to contribute ideas, discuss issues, and share being teenagers. Visits to Washington DC and our congressional representatives were also part of the experience.
Dad suggested an equipment upgrade for an experience like this, and he arranged to rent/borrow(?) an SLR (single lens reflex) camera…back to reloading film manually after using Instamatic film cartridges… Loading 35mm film is easy once the mechanics are understood, I eventually discovered a little trick to give me 2-3 more shots per roll.
During Spring break and just prior to the teacher’s strike, 4 Hawaii 4-Hers started their journey to the conference in Maryland. Camera on my shoulder, confident, and ready to show off equipment geared for the professional photographer, I was prepared to take a shot that would wow the audience for our report when we returned to the islands…I merrily took shots of new friends, our delegation interacting with 4-Hers from other states, the conference center, tours and scenics.
One of our tours was to visit our Congressional delegates at the Capitol; we were in a rush to get going so I loaded my camera and headed out the door.
We met with Senator Spark Matsunaga (Representative Mink was unavailable) in his office where photo opportunities abounded. I kept shooting as we traversed the DC tunnels and corridors to various buildings and offices, but still did not see “The Shot”. For lunch we were treated to the Capitol cafeteria’s famous Portuguese Bean Soup (more photos), and upon departure, we paused on the Capitol stairs to say our farewells, and this is where I saw… “The Shot”! Everyone had randomly placed themselves, but it was a perfect set up. I took a couple steps back and captured candid and posed shots…that felt great; I subconsciously heard the ooo’s and ahh’s as my images lit up the screen during our report… and this is where cocky assurance bit me in the b---.
“In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, it is not”
Excitement was overwhelming as I anxiously waited for the prints to be in my hands. It was puzzling when I picked up the prints however, there wasn’t a charge for one of the processed rolls; looking at the negative was like looking through a tinted window, the film was not exposed at all, it obviously did not scroll through the camera, meaning…any shots taken with that roll was captured only in memory.
You can probably guess which roll it was…I realized that in my haste to leave for the Capitol, I had not checked to ensure that the film would advance (note from Blought 2, “I finally paid attention”)…yep, it hurt, but I learned a valuable lesson.
I felt a photo of Sen. Matsunaga would enhance this story; while scrolling through the images found through Google, my eyes bugged out and jaw dropped when I saw this black and white image…obviously not mine (that’s me on the right, I probably have this photo somewhere), but my shots looked like this, too…even the Senator’s staff photographer saw “The Shot”…I would have added a little more bokeh, though…
Also included, a couple shots from our visit to DC in 1995 and 2018…
