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The Gong Show Lives? By Ken Hackman
As many of you know, I failed retirement! After spending almost 40 years with Air Force still photography and seeing it go from an embarrassment to a respected resource for visual images I had no desire to "walk away" from what was and still is the love of my life! I continue to work at staying actively involved with military photographers and photography. I recently had an opportunity to resurrect something from the past when AAVS/Combat Camera Command was in it's glory. My Gong Show critiques of photography. Although at the times, the critiques were considered too blunt and caustic by a minority of the photographers, many Air Force photographers from that era that I've talked to recently have told me, "We need the Gong Show today. The current group of Air Force photographers need to have their work critiqued to make them better!".
Pat Nugent, Government Sales Manager for Nikon, another retiree who maintains an active interest and participation in all military photography but retains a special affection for Air Force photojournalism has worked with the Air National Guard Television facility at McGhee-Tyson ANG base in producing a number of NIKON sponsored training programs for military photographers. The original programs gave instructions on the use of the digital cameras, custom settings, use of flash, etc. Pat, SMSgt "Skip" Ivins, Chief, ANG Combat VI & Multimedia and myself worked together on a broadcast "Photojournalism: A Constructive Critique" that I hosted on July 29, 2003.
The format was fairly simple, talk about photojournalism for awhile and then critique photographs from submissions to the Joint Combat Camera Center and the DVIC and then take some phone calls from listeners. Oh yes and it is "live" no retakes! It was my first experience and I was a bit anxious, no I was a lot anxious. We did a rehearsal to check voice level, timing, Power Point slides, etc. which went very well. I thought, I can do this! When the clock was counting down for the broadcast and the red light on the video camera came on, I thought, I'm in trouble, how am I going to get through the next 90 minutes without totally embarrassing myself, NIKON, the Air National Guard, and countless other people who are watching. The answer: have a good knowledgeable director. MSgt Mavi Smith made me look much better than I deserved. She helped cover up some of my glitches with the visuals and basically assured me that I could in fact get through the hour and a half. We had some phone calls, not very many because we ran out of time, because I talked too long--Imagine that!
It was fun, the feedback has been positive so we will probably be doing another show in the near future. If any of you can, tune in, I would like to have some "old" and new friends giving me emotional support.
Editors Note: When the next program has been scheduled I'll post the information here on the MPJ Connection.
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