A2A photography - How not to do it.
Shortly before departing the UK for Oshkosh 1985 I had purchased a further Exacta Varex camera from a work colleague , a slightly later model to my 'trusty' friend of 15 years with its superb Zeiss lens.
This was pre Zoom lens technology/availability and it was quite usual practice to carry a standard and a telephoto on separate interchangeable bodies.
Early morning at Oshkosh the opportunity came to re-acquaint with the Spitfire Tr IX, now owned by Bill Greenwood. This was to be a gentle 'trundle around' with a couple of Mustangs and David Price in his Mk XIV Spitfire.
With space at a premium for control swing, seat and parachute harnesses on, no accessible pockets and zero stowage I opted for just the one camera, the new one but with the Zeiss 50mm lens. Just the one of roll film, 34 frames on, as changing film and or lenses with caps would be fraught.
The shot I was after was the mass of parked aircraft under the obvious Spitfire wing and roundel plus the Mustangs and Spitfire if they were sensibly close.
We took off and I captured a couple of shots and then click....the trusty old Exacta had a mechanical film counter 1-36. On the newer Exacta it was reversed, counting available frames down from 36-1.
A really dumb mistake, possibly assisted by the general excitement of flying in the Spitfire again.
PeterA
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