SALUTE AGAIN, JOHN-JOHN

My friend, Bob Luckey, who recently retired as Newsday's Day Photo Editor, was one of the best all-around newspaper photographers that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. But, even the best can be plagued with a "right place; wrong time" situation.

Anyone over 50 or familiar with the John F. Kennedy funeral will understand the following story.

Bob and I were in Washington to cover the event. I was at the cemetery while Bob covered the funeral mass at the church. Bob was on the steps of the cathedral when the mass ended. The casket was brought out and the mourners followed. Bob joined the hundreds of other still photographers on hand in recording the scene. In those days we were issued 20 exposure rolls of film. Bob was working with two Nikon bodies; one with a long lens and one with a short lens.

At one point, he checked his cameras and they were both down to about 2 or 3 frames each. There seemed to be a pause as the funeral party waited for the casket to be lifted from the rolling stand and placed in the hearse, so Bob took that opportunity to reload. We had no motor drives in those days, so no fast auto rewind. He had to do it manually. He was doing the short lens camera first and at the point when the film was half rewound, Jacqueline Kennedy said to her son, "Salute your father, John-John." And John-John saluted. Bob became aware of what was happening when he glanced up after hearing the barrage of shutters clicking. He dropped the short lens camera that he was rewinding, and picked up the long lens body, only to find that he was far over-lensed since the action was taking place right before him. By the time he was able to switch lenses, the scene had passed into history, and unfortunately, Bob hadn't been able to record it.

Despite the fact that Bob returned with many fine photographs that day, he has always been the butt of a lot of ribbing from his fellow staffers. "Salute again, John-John" echoed around the photo department for years and Bob always bore it with good grace.

Now, let me ask: Is there a news photographer alive, who hasn't been caught in a similar situation? If you haven't, yet, you will be one day. It will happen to each and every one of us (it already has with me). It's the law of averages and Murphy's Law and just plain dumb bad luck. Bear it with grace. Bob Luckey has for almost 40 years.

© 2002 Dick Kraus
May not be republished in any part without written consent of the author

For another story about timing and the breaks of the game, I urge readers to check out this story about a Pulitzer Prize winner and a Pulitzer Prize that almost was.

http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/063002dnmetshot.378ed.html