Page 54 - Q02-2021_Fins-Magazine

TAKING
PHOTOGRAPHY
TO THE AIR
BY: PATRICIA PASTRANO ©2021 by Patricia Pastrano
PHOTOS: RON MCGEE @RAMVISIONS | FB RAM PHOTOGRAPHICS | MM: RAM PHOTOGRAPHICS
**********
Meet Ron McGee, a professional
photographer of over 50 years with a
passion for being in the air. A retired US
Air Force pilot, his father helped create the
path for him and other black Americans to
pursue their dreams.
Join us as we learn how the son of
famed Brigadier General, Charles McGee,
followed his dreams of flight and took
his love of flying and photography to new
heights.
**********
PP:
I will say, Ron, it was super hard to find anything
on you. Because as soon as I searched for you,
I would get results for your Dad (Brigadier
General Charles McGee). Can you tell us about
your background and how you came into
photography?
RM:
Since I was five years old, aviation was always
my primary interest. Like most kids, I wanted
to be a pilot and an inventor, be a pilot and
a photographer, be a pilot, and be whatever
else, but I always wanted to be a pilot. So that
was always my career path. I was able to follow
what my Dad did, flying in the Air Force. I
was able to travel and take photos, and it was
a good combination of my interest. It was a
combination of both, and it worked out.
I used to do photography at a very young age.
My Dad had given me a Kodak box camera shot
with 120 film. I just played with it a little bit, but
it was pretty cool. Back then, developing things
was kind of expensive for us at the time. So I
didn’t do a whole lot.
I was actually in the service before I really got
into photography. When I went to Vietnam,
you could buy cameras fairly inexpensively, so I
purchased a Yashica Tel Electro X. It was my first
35-millimeter camera. They had a darkroom on
base for black and white images that I could use.
How could I pass that up? So, I started taking
shots over there.
When I came back from Vietnam, I learned that
the rule was in color and not black and white. So
I went out and bought nice cameras. I got my
Nikon equipment at that time. I also had a color
darkroom. I had taken an old closet in the house
and converted it into a darkroom. So, I didn’t
really have a darkroom. We just had a room and
made it dark. [LAUGHS]
It was expensive in color. I used Ektachrome
film - if you remember Ektachrome and
Cibachrome film - for prints because it was
archival, and I thought that was pretty cool.
Yeah, it was all expensive at the time, but I
liked it. After I did a favor for a friend and took
pictures of his model train set, it got published.
Then I took a photo of a friend’s daughter.
One thing led to another and I thought, you
know, I’m doing a lot of stuff for people free
here because everybody wants photography
done. And I should make a business out of it.
Ron McGee