A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

photographer. And I never stopped learning.It is only in retrospect that I am now aware of the facts that I was one of the first in Cincinnati newsphotography to give up on the cumbersome Speed Graphic camera and go to the smaller twin lens reflexcamera called a Rolleiflex. The Rollei with its square 2-1/4 X 2-1/4 format had some advantages for anewspaper in that you could make either a horizontal or vertical print as the makeup editor might require.With its short focal length lens it was a poor choice for sports photography.For many of my working years I had a close association with United Press and more so after theybought International News Service (INS) and it became United Press International (UPI). In the late1950’s the UPI photographers in New York were experimenting with the 35mm camera for news workbut in particular for use in sports coverage because of the interchangeable lenses available.This was all prior to the Korean War when the made in Japan Nikon camera became so popular withpress photographers. Before this, out of East Germany came a camera called the Hexacon which was asingle lens reflex camera with a motor drive that made it possible to take two or three pictures a second.Also this one could use lenses of greater focal length to zero in on the action while remaining at a safedistance.This was important, particularly for baseball coverage. Several years before the Hexacon cameracame into limited use baseball games were covered from the field using a Speed Graphic camera andflash bulbs for night games. Cincinnati was the last major league city to be allowed to cover games fromthe field.As a rule the umpires had only to contend with three photographers during a game. One each fromThe Post, Times-Star and Enquirer. Usually we congregated on the top step of the home team’s dugoutnear the water cooler until either side got a runner on first base. Then we would trot out to a position inthe coach’s box always being certain to having the coach between you and the batter. This was to lessenthe chance of being hit by a batted ball. The coach could be counted on to warn you, or deflect a ballcoming your way.If there was a slide back to first the flash bulbs would fire and the next day each newspaper mighthave the identical same picture. The angle difference was barely noticeable. With a runner on second, anddepending on the batter, we would take up a position near home plate for the hoped for slide home. Therewere other nuances to covering a game in this manner. Should you fail to get a game action picture therealways was the clubhouse to get a shot of the winning pitcher or hitter.Covering a game by this method had its dangers. I recall being hit in the calf of the leg with aFrankie Robinson foul ball that came whistling past third base when the coach in better judgment, jumpedout of the way allowing me to be fully exposed to the line shot.Gene Smith, the Associated Press photographer for the area, accidentally got us all ruled off of thefield some time in the late 50’s. At the time it seemed a tragedy that we were being forced to cover gamesfrom a photo position off the field like everyone else in both leagues had been doing for some time. What‘Smitty’ had done was the unpardonable. He had violated the unwritten rule of every baseball clubhouseand baseball diamond. The exact details escape me now, but he had overheard some bit of conversationbetween two umpires between innings when he had held his position at third base. He reported in detailthe comments to Sports Editor Nixon Denton of the Times-Star. The AP had its offices in the Times-Starbuilding.When the umpires comments appeared in type, while they were true, they seemed to have a differentring to them. This was the end of our covering a game from the field.Getting ruled off the field in mid-season presented problems for all three newspapers. None of thepapers had equipment to solve the dilemma on such short notice. I recall early on that the AssociatedPress made a long lens camera available to its photographer. And the Times-Star and Enquirer, bothbeing clients of the AP, got their baseball pictures from this source. United Press sent me a ‘Big Bertha’camera too. This is what they were called. Using a 5 X 7 sheet film in holders and with a 36 inch focallength lens we made pictures from photo gondolas suspended from the upper decks near the first and thirdbases at old Crosley Field.The Big Bertha cameras were dinosaurs. Few photographers covering baseball games used them. We253