After learning two high school mates of mine observed their 54th wedding anniversary last week, I have been wondering where the years went. It shouldn’t been a shock for I walked across the Superior Auditorium stage and received my diploma 57 years ago. But the couples I took wedding photos of have remained forever young in my mind. I was the hired photographer when Tim and Lana Shotzman were married at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in the fall of 1967. They were young then and I still think of them as a newly married couple.
After taking two photography classes while attending Kansas State University as a freshman, I decided to use my photography skills to help pay my college bills.
I set out to accumulate the needed equipment. At a pawn shop in Denver I purchased a Speed Graphic press camera. In Omaha I purchased a 35mm camera and from a hard up college student I purchased a Minolta twin lens reflex. When it came to weddings the Minolta proved to be my workhorse. It exposed a 2.25 x 2.25 negative that was easy to process and enlarge. The Minolta Autocord had a unique focusing system which made it easier to use than the more popular Rolleiflex. I established an account with a professional film processor in Colorado and registered Blauvelt Photographic Services with the university. The registered status meant I could be hired to perform and eventually be paid for photographic services provided university organizations.
Most of my work was in black and white and that meant I had to have a darkroom. Though the postcard printer required 4x5 transperancies. I covered the basement windows in my parents’ home. My father helped me modify the plumbing and construct a stand for a used kitchen sink which served my darkroom. I used an upstairs closet with a blanket hung over the door when handling sheet film.
I ordered an enlarger from New York. It was part of a Railway Express shipment brought to Superior by the Burlington Railroad.
Bank credit cards and services like PayPal did not exist. The order was shipped COD and I had to take the correct amount of cash to the REA office located in the Burlington’s fancy depot which was west of Central Avenue before taking home the enlarger. I was shocked to see the bill. The company didn’t ship the middle of the line enlarger I had ordered. Instead the top-of-the-line Beseler MCR-X was shipped. I had work promised and needed the enlarger so I gathered up the money and paid the bill. The company didn’t refund the extra money paid but it did send some cut film holders to soften the price.
The enlarger came with a lifetime warranty, I still have the enlarger though I haven’t used it since converting to digital photography.
I bought and studied books written by wedding photographers and began looking for work.
In addition to weddings, I had a number of assignments related to 50th weddng anniversary gatherings. For those, I often took not only the honored couple but their children and families.
I equated golden weddings with old. If still living my clients would have been married more than 100 years. Now I suspect all of my young wedding clients are in the old category for I quit accepting wedding photography work when I joined the staff of this newspaper 51 years ago last May. As the newspaper publisher, I didn’t think it fair to be in competition for wedding and anniversary business with photographers I wanted to sell advertising to.
Sadly not all of my clients got to share the joy of their 50th wedding anniversary. Some of the weddings ended in divorce and some of the newlyweds died before reaching the 50th year milestone.
Looking through my old photography records and recalling the experinces made for weekend fun.
A few assignments stand out. The minister I called Friar Tuck was difficult to work with. I don’t think he wanted a photographer inside his church and tried to discourage me with rule upon rule as to where I could stand, when I could take a photo and what I could use for lighting. A few would have let me interrupt their service, if need be, to capture the moment on film.
There was one wedding where I almost became a member of the wedding party. The organist was playing, the church was full and the bride and bridegroom were ready to enter the sanctuary. There was a problem. One of the groomsmen had not arrived from Topeka. I was primed and ready to accompany the bridegroom and his bestman out to meet the bride when the tardy groomsman arrived. The organist went into overtime while he changed into proper wedding attire. I now wonder if anyone in the audience suspected the delay was caused by a couple having second thoughts.
And there was the wedding in western Kansas in which the couple made their getaway in the photographer’s automobile. Seems the bridegroom’s brother had sabatoged all of the prospective get-a-way vehicles. He probably would have done the same to mine had I not had my hood chained down.
Fortunately for me, I had not unchained the hood after having had dormintory staff parking privileges.
My worst wedding memory relates to the first wedding I was asked to shoot in color. It was also the first wedding I had shot after purchasing a use electronic flash unit at the Manhattan camera store. I didn’t get my settings right and only one of the colored photos turned out and it was lost before the ordered prints were made. Fortunatley, I had taken black and white backups.
I never had a wedding called off by ice or snow, but once I had to navigate a muddy road to reach the wedding site. In Iowa I had to deal with a member of the bridegroom’s family who was always getting in my way for firing his flash at the wrong time. He was using high dollar equipment and I wondered why I had been asked to take pictures. Later I learned he had borrowed the equipment and didn’t know he needed to focus the camera. Not only did he not get the pictures he wanted he kept the pros from getting theirs as well.
And I can not forget the time I went to St. Louis for a wedding. Not sure where the church was, I had left early and was among the first to arrive. Getting out of the automobile, I ripped my suit’s seat seam. Rita and the wedding planner saved the day. While I hid pantless in the church restroom, they mended my trousers with a needle and white thread. I would have preferred black thread but white was better than none. I left my coat on at all times and stood with my back to the wall whenever possible.
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