In Remembrance of SBCC Past Members

Homer John Lockwood 1909-2005
Despite our belief that he would live forever, Homer John Lockwood died on February 19, 2005, at 1:30 in the afternoon. He was 96 years old and very much alert.

Homer was a member of the South Bay Camera Club for over 10 years. He was also married to Florence Harrison, a charter member of the club, who passed away last year. (See Below) Both were very active and contributed immensely to our club. Homer was a remarkable person and at the age of 90 purchased a computer and was doing digital photography. He also was writing a book about his life's exploits that he just finished before passing away; it should be published soon.

Homer's ashes will be spread in the Alabama Hills, which he loved so much. He must have photographed every rock there. He was a remarkable person, one in a million He will be missed very much and will live forever in the hearts of all who knew him.

by Tony Maffei

FLORENCE M. HARRISON, 1910-2004

After 93 years of a very eventful life, Florence Harrison passed away on March 4, 2004 in her Redondo Beach, CA home of 60 years. All of her early years were spent in Southern California. After achieving her Masters degree in Social Sciences she married Milo Harrison, an avid outdoorsman, who introduced her to the sports of rifle shooting and big game hunting, archery, and fresh and salt-water fishing. She excelled in all of these activities and even won an expert rifleman award for qualifying in the 200 to 1000 yard National Rifle Match course with the model 1903 military Springfield rifle. Being a female the government wouldn’t issue her the medal awarded for this achievement so her husband fabricated one and even inset a diamond.

To record their various activities they purchased a 21/4 X 31/4 Speed Graphic camera and set up a small darkroom in a corner of their bedroom. Florence soon had two children, Anita and James, to photograph and she was on her way. Her husband, Milo, was my best friend and I even helped her with her printing in 1936. She began photographing all of the neighborhood children and their pets that played with her two youngsters and developed a specialty for this field. She was using a 4x5 Graflex to help capture those fleeting expressions.

In 1947 she helped form the fledgling South Bay Camera Club and began her life’s work as a competitive photographer and winning her share of awards. In 1952 she joined the PSA and joined the CLICK CHICKS CAMERA CLUB. It is still a functional club without dues, constitution, officers or male members. . Their motto was “Out of the Kitchen and into the Darkroom”!

The PSA allowed her to express her full talent as a print maker and she quickly became a strong competitor and won the status of the FPSA rating with the five star, ruby, Steuben glass and Kinsley awards. She was also active in the affairs of PSA by attending conventions, serving on various boards and committees, and lecturing. Her PSA audio and slide program, “Clicking the Camera at Kids, Cats and Canines” is still in demand by camera clubs across the country.

Milo died in 1972 but Florence kept up her camera activities and married Ed Field, a pictorial photographer and member of the Circle of Confusion club in Whittier. Ed liked to travel and together they visited 11 foreign countries that gave her the possibility to take more prize-winning shots. China was so fascinating that she made five trips to that exciting country.

Ed passed away after a long illness and at the suggestion of our two families; Florence and I renewed our friendship and married in 1989. Our first action was to take a thirty-day trip to Thailand and China then purchased a motor home with which we traveled 100,000 miles in the following twelve years. Our trips covered all of the North American Continent from coast to coast and north of the Arctic Circle to Belize in the south. We shot photos all the way and developed the negatives from our 21/4 x 21/4 cameras on the spot in the motor home. Our biggest problem was trying to figure out who saw a picture possibility first and thereby had the right to enter it in the next club competition! As black and white competition declined and digital cameras became the norm we sadly put our cameras on the shelf. All who knew her will miss Florence.

by Homer J. Lockwood