Daniel: I love your shot and especially your story. This should make for a very special and meaningful PUG submission. Great work. Cheers, Christine
----- Original Message ----- From: "Daniel J. Matyola" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 8:50 AM Subject: PESO: Refueling >I had a bit of trouble deciding what to submit for the June PUG, as > the theme seemed pretty open. I ended up submitting what I think is > the first shot I submitted to the PUG, in 2000. It was also one of my > first efforts with the ancient (but then new to me) 6x7. > > In the process of picking a submission, I also considered shots from > my first Pentax camera. In 1966, I was stationed in the Far East, and > I flew to Japan to deliver a plane for maintenance and bring back one > that had been serviced. While there, I purchased a camera and other > things I couldn't get where I was. I intended to buy a Minolta SRT > 101, since I had borrowed one from a friend, and liked the way it > operated. The sales person at the PX, however, showed me a Spotmatic, > and said that it was mechanically similar, but had much better > "glass." [Very perceptive] He also said that the same camera was > being sold in the states as a Honeywell, which was a brand name I knew > and respected. On his advice, I bought an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic. > That was about 2 years after the Spotty was introduced in connection > with the 1964 Olympics. I used that camera for 20 years, before > replacing it with a SuperProgram. I still have my first Spotmatic, > and it still works. I also have a Honeywell Spotmatic, a Pentax > Spotmatic (without the Asahi name), and a Sears clone that used the > screwmount lenses. > > This is probably not my first photograph with the Spotmatic, but it is > from my first roll of film, and it is the only one I have left from > that original roll. This is a scan of a print from a slide, but most > of the imperfections are on the plexiglass through which the image was > taken. > > http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5242937 > > The shot was taken on our way back from Japan. Our F-4 fighter jet is > being refueled from a tanker. The photograph shows the connection. > The "male" part of the connection is our refueling probe, which was > extended from the side of the plane just before approaching the > tanker. The circular "basket" or drogue is the female connection at > the end of the fuel line trailed by the tanker. It is the target used > by the pilot in connecting to the refueling line. As the plane's > radar intercept officer, I took this shot from the back seat while > refueling was in progress. > > Comments, of course, are welcome. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
