Dengler Images

Remembering Angus and Betty McDougall

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Carol and I lost two very close friends this past year. First in early February we lost Betty McDougall, wife of Angus McDougall. Then, several weeks ago, Betty’s husband Angus “Mac” McDougall, an icon in the world of picture editors, photojournalists and photo educators, passed away.

Days after his death David Rees, director of the photojournalism sequence at the Missouri School of Journalism, and I wrote a story marking Mac’s death for the upcoming September issue of News Photographer magazine, published by the National Press Photographers Association. What follows is a portion of that article where I reflect on the personal relationship that I had with Mac.

Those of you who are friends of Mac and Betty or supporters of photojournalism, please consider a donation to the Angus and Betty McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies.

Betty and Angus McDougall at the 1977 NPPA convention in Vail Colorado

Angus McDougall was many things to people, but in my case he was simply my best friend.

Like most, I respected his work ethic, insistence on excellence, intolerance of laziness, phoniness, and pompousness, and his willingness to state it. We liked to say he had one hell of a bullshit detector set on ‘very sensitive!’

Of course you really couldn’t love Mac and not come to adore his wife, Betty. Betty was Mac’s partner — not just a spouse or a life partner — but a true partner in everything. His work was her work and she was as dedicated and perfectionistic as he was. He used her as a sounding board. She typed all of his work (he was a single-finger typist), edited his writing and was his most honest critic and editor (she too had a very sensitive bullshit detector, but her way of stating it made you feel good about your self, at least until you thought about it) and she wasn’t above leveling that honesty at Mac, who with a smile on his face would symbolically twist a knife in the air. He trusted her insight over all others. It was Betty who had the photographic memory of all of Mac’s students and colleagues – she could tell you who they were, when they graduated and where they went – not to mention much more personal information. Mac would freely admit that if there were papers that would be needed later, he would entrust them to Betty so they could actually be found. Betty was always thoughtful of Mac’s students; in fact it was Betty who started the tradition of dinner at their home for photo-j students following their final exam. It was Betty who made Mac more accessible, more human.

Mac and Betty grew up in Waukesha, Wis., knew each other in grade school and became high school sweethearts. They fell in love and were together from that point on – through college, Mac’s professional education in photography (which his father thought was “crazy” and Betty whole heartedly supported), throughout his career at the Journal, IH, and the university, and the remainder of Betty’s life. Betty assisted him on photo feature stories, holding lights, and breaking down barriers with new subjects. They were married for 70 years and for the past three decades or so they used the same wedding anniversary card. They each knew what the card would say. Only a new date would be written on the nearly filled-in card. As would be expected, losing Betty in February was tantamount to losing a large part of himself.

Over the last couple of years Mac focused much of his energy and dedication to assuring that, though Betty had advanced Parkinson’s disease, her wish to remain in their home was realized. To accomplish this goal he did many un-Mac-like things. He rolled her hair and took over the cooking and cleaning. We even saw him once in Betty’s frilly little apron. It was a sight to see with Mac in the kitchen and Betty with drill sergeant precision instructing from the living room.

Mac and Betty knew how to have a good time, too. A McDougall party in their younger years could involve jumping on pogo sticks on their front lawn (documented in home movies), or the nose-nickel game – lying flat on your back on the floor with a nickel on your nose and trying to inch it off with your tongue. Pictures from this parlor game were published in LIFE magazine. By the way, Betty won that contest.

Mac was very humble about his professional awards and kept most tucked away in a drawer or buried on a shelf. Going through his home following his death, his son Angus “Craig,” daughter Bonnie and daughter-in-law Kathleen, found award after award. They were puzzled as to why they never knew of these accolades. These weren’t just any awards – but awards whose previous recipients included the likes of Winston Churchill (he was once a reporter), Walter Cronkite, Ted Koppel, and James Nachtwey. His children didn’t know about these awards because Mac just didn’t talk about it. It was always about the work, not the recognition. Mac saw awards and honors as the byproduct of excellence; no big deal because that level of performance was what he expected of himself, and others, every day.

This humility dates back to his preprofessional days. My wife Carol and I had known Mac for years before we discovered that he even received two life saving awards. One was an award for heroism from the Boy Scouts for saving a life. Who was the person he saved? Betty, when she fell through ice as a youth. Later he would attempt to save another life when he was a harbormaster in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, but the person later died. Mac’s son inherited his dad’s lifesaving traits. Angus Craig McDougall was awarded two Silver Stars, three Air Force Distinguished Flying Crosses, and seven Air Medals for rescuing downed pilots and crew from the front lines in Vietnam.

According to Craig and his sister, Bonnie evenings at the McDougall household started with a requisite happy hour, followed by dinner. Mac once reminisced, “Betty always made dinner a family affair, and I probably made it a board meeting. If I got too excited, our Siamese cat would bite my ankle to the delight of the kids.” Occasionally, they might have as a dinner guest, perhaps a visiting photographer from LIFE magazine. According to Craig, “In those days having a LIFE photographer over for dinner was like having a rock star visit today.”

One of the secrets to their long life, besides the nightly gin martini, prepared in a perfectly chilled glass, was their daily walk – they would drive to a different part of Columbia and walk for an hour, and then return home for breakfast. Betty served as the scout for locations and routes and carefully recorded their walking mileage.

Mac’s quirks are memorable – his hand resting on his head as he thought. A 1978 News Photographer article described it as “McDougall places the flat of his hand carefully on top of his head. He holds it there for seconds at a time in deep thought, almost as if he is hoping the answer will seep from his palm into his brain.” or his habit of lecturing with the hidden toothpick in his mouth. Students would panic as he inevitably became agitated, wondering if he would swallow the darn thing. It is only appropriate that there is already a rumor going around that one of those toothpicks was placed in his mouth before his body was cremated. This is probably an urban legend destined to stay a mystery.

I will miss “iChatting” with him on the computer. What a technologically savvy guy he was! He certainly shattered the stereotype of the computer illiterate older adult — How many people in their nineties are using Photoshop, InDesign, and working collaboratively over the internet on a book project. He especially liked this because you could talk for hours and not have to pay for a “long distance” phone call.

Mac and Betty and my wife Carol and I were good friends who liked to hang out with each other as much as we could. It was a friendship that we treasured, and unique given the roughly 37 year age difference between us. Age simply was not part of the equation. It is a wonderful example of friendship being ageless. We believe our relationship was a testament to their youthful outlook on life — they were always open and younger than their chronological years. While we hoped they would be with us forever, the four of us knew that their time would come sooner rather than later and as always, they openly discussed their life and eventual deaths.

Mac’s daughter-in-law Kathleen put out word the morning of his death that Mac had taken a turn for the worse and wasn’t expected to make it through the day. I made the familiar drive from Springfield to Columbia to be with him.

Among the things I told him as I held his hand moments before his peaceful death was the influence he had on others – family, students, friends and colleagues and what a wonderful gift that was; how we all loved him for how unselfish he was in his time and support. But I also told him that there’s a whole world of people, not just students and professionals, but also the people he met and photographed, the readers who were moved by his work and the work of his students whom he equally touched in an indirect way.

I knew this was the message that all of us would have wanted to tell him.

ABOVE: Betty and Angus McDougall atop a mountain at the Vail ski resort during the 1977 NPPA connvention in Vail, Colorado. (photographer unknown)

LINKS

The other Hawaii

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A hiker makes her way through the forest of Hanakapiai Valley to Hanakapiai Falls in the Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park. The 120 foot falls are reached by way of a two mile primitive side trail off the Kalalau Trail which runs along the Na Pali coast on the northern shore of the island of Kauai in Hawaii. From the trailhead at Kee Beach in Haena State Park, the strenuous hike to Hanakapiai falls is eight miles roundtrip. (John L. Dengler)

I have always been fascinated by the natural beauty, environmental challenges and the history of the Hawaiian Islands. Because of this I’ve made close to a dozen trips to the islands including Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Maui, Lanai, and the Big Island over the years.

Most of those visits have not been at fancy resorts but rather the backcountry of the island’s national and state parks. While most visitors to the islands camp out in fancy resort hotels, much of my time is spent camping in a tent, slogging through a rainforest bog, or camping where steam from a nearby active volcano was coming out of the ground outside my tent.

It’s been a while since my last trip to the islands. Much of my outdoor photography in recent years has been focused on Alaska. So I decided I wanted to freshen up my offerings and revisit some of my favorite outdoor haunts in Hawaii. For this trip, the islands of Kauai and the Big Island were on my list. Places of focus on Kauai included the Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park, Kalalau Trail, Hanakapiai Falls, Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, Waimea Canyon State Park, Alakai Swamp Wilderness Preserve. On the Big Island the primary target was Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The main pit crater, Halemaumau which is part the Kilauea caldera had been the scene of some volcanic activity earlier this month, but as luck would have it, it died back on my arrival.

Actually, my luck wasn’t good much of the trip. On this trip I experienced much more rain (some of it heavy) than I have in the past. I attributed it to hurricane Carlos which passed south of the islands. While Carlos was never considered a threat to the islands, I can’t help but wonder if it was a factor. My luck didn’t hold out either for the view from Kilohana overlook at the end of the Alakai Swamp Trail, but realistically I didn’t expect that it would. I’ve hiked the trail several times in the past with the same result. Despite this outcome I enjoy the otherworldly look that the fog and low, mist-laden clouds give the swamp (technically an alpine bog, not a swamp). The fact that the Alakai Wilderness Preserve is located on a plateau near Mouth Waialeale, one of the wettest spots on Earth raises the odds dramatically that you will not see the view from Kilohana.

Hawaii is a difficult place to photograph, because so much of it has been photographed, and the part that hasn’t, is difficult to access due to the tropical environment, and rugged terrain. It’s a challenge that is rewarding for those willing to work at it. While many flock to the beaches for sunset photography, I have found the early morning sunrise and light equally beautiful — and devoid of tourists. While I have to admit I get suckered into taking the setting sun photos (how can you not?), I do try to look the other direction and see how the light is dancing on other subjects.

Every time I go to Hawaii, I always make the same mistake of wanting to take too much equipment out into the field (on long day hikes or longer backpacks). And each time after the first day, I realize my mistake and adjust accordingly. The weather in Hawaii is deceptively beautiful — until you start hiking up and down the same ridge or cliff for the xth time. Hopefully, I will be able to find the notes to myself that I took on how to configure my equipment the next time.

As of now, I have some serious editing to do before posting those images. Look for new images in my Hawaii-focused galleries and archives over the upcoming months.

ABOVE: A hiker makes her way through the forest of Hanakapiai Valley to Hanakapiai Falls in the Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park. The falls are reached by way of a side trail off the Kalalau Trail which runs along the Na Pali coast on the northern shore of the island of Kauai in Hawaii. From the trailhead at Kee Beach in Haena State Park, the strenous hike is eight miles roundtrip. Photographed using a Nikon D3 and a Nikon 20mm f2.8 lens. Image capture: 1/320 at f5.0, ISO 200

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Doing homework in West Virginia

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Unnamed waterfall on Dunloup Creek near the abandoned mining town of Thurmond, in the New River Gorge National River in West Virginia. (John L. Dengler)Carol and I made a scouting trip to the New River Gorge National River and the Gauley River National Recreation Area for an upcoming trip in September when I will be photographing whitewater kayakers and rafters during the annual water release from the Summersville Dam on the Gauley. My mission was to get a feel for the land, the rivers, and to conduct research with the park service for the fall trip.

I didn’t know what to expect of West Virginia and the Appalachian Mountains. While I had been to Great Smokies National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina as a child, those memories aren’t as clear, nor do they account for the fact that I now carry on assignments quite a load of photographic equipment.

Our weekend visit to West Virginia was somewhat rainy, though there were breaks in the weather that allowed me to get some practice photography time shooting kayakers and rafters on the New River. While I didn’t get in quite as much whitewater photography as I had hoped, I now have a good sense of the area, and what things I need to account for logistically when I return.

The close friends that we were staying with welcomed us into their new home allowing us to catch-up on our various lives. They also gave us a good overview tour and cultural insight of the area including trips to the Vandalia Gathering, the state’s annual celebration of the traditional arts, music, dance, stories, crafts and food, and to Tamarack, a showcase venue for West Virginia arts, crafts and food items and those who produce or perform them. Hopefully, there are some opportunities for editorial stock photography sales to illustrate West Virginia travel and culture from these two places.

The trip was much too short but I took away two key impressions: 1. That this is rugged, remote country, particularly with accessing the river and 2. That West Virginia is beautiful. I can’t wait until I return in September.

ABOVE: Unnamed waterfall on Dunloup Creek near the abandoned mining town of Thurmond, in the New River Gorge National River in West Virginia. Photographed using a Nikon D3 with a Nikon 70-200 mm f2.8 lens, mounted on a a on a Slik Pro 804 CF carbon fiber tripod with a Really Right Stuff BH-40 ballhead. Image capture: 1/13 at f20

To license image, click image. To see our collection of fine art prints, click here.

Thunderbirds spotted in Ozarks skies

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Two Lockheed Martin F-16 "Fighting Falcon" jets from the United States Air Force Demonstration Squadron-better known as the ?Thunderbirds? demonstrate the precision flying for which they are known during the air show at the new Branson Airport, in Branson, Mo. The The Branson Airport, is the first privately financed and operated commercial service airport in the United States. (John L. Dengler)

My photography career has intersected with aviation many times. For stories, I’ve been in hot air balloons, rode with helicopter traffic reporters, flown in a glider, done aerial photography from “doors-off” helicopters, flown in an open cockpit of the Red Baron Squad, flown in the Goodyear Blimp and experienced a scary incident with an electrical fire in a four-seater plane. I’ve also done stories on F-15 test pilots, and once in the early years of my career stupidly attached remote-controlled cameras to an acrobatic pilots plane (great photos, but I was sure lucky they didn’t come off). I’ve even had a helicopter pilot that I was flying with land his helicopter in a McDonald’s parking lot because he wanted lunch (I reminded him that I didn’t think they had a “fly-thru” window).

Enough ancient history — so, despite the threat of rain in the afternoon, I was drawn to photographing these “birds” even if they were of the metal variety. I packed light and mobile for the event. I left the 600mm at home and instead opted to use my 70-200mm and when needed, a 1.4 teleconverter. Festival-type shooting always requires you to move easily and quickly through crowds. To this end, I carried my equipment in a couple of ThinkTank pouches attached to their Racing Harness and Steroid Belt.

Air shows are always fun, and challenging to shoot. You have a variety of different aircraft, flying at vastly different speeds. You might need the fastest shutter speed your camera offers to capture the just below speed of sound pass of a fighter jet, or a significantly slower speed to capture the ever so slight blur of a propeller (nothing worse than to “freeze” a propeller — making the plane look like it has lost power).

A U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II makes a pass after a fiery simulated bombing run during the air show at the new Branson Airport in Branson, Mo. The pyrotechnic display was by Rich's Incredible Pyro. (John L. Dengler)Air shows also force you to anticipate and be prepared to react to any unexpected action. If you haven’t already begun tracking the plane when it is early inbound, and, figured out what it might do on the pass, and where that is likely to happen, you’re going to miss the shot. That anticipatory thinking led to my getting a photo of two of the F-16 Thunderbirds appearing to be flying in unison. Another time was when I noticed the odd shuffling of spectators by event organizers near the airport runway during the A-10 Thunderbolt II demonstration. I knew something was up but didn’t have a clue, but suspected the action was going to be on the ground and not the air. While I was surprised as everyone else. KABOOM! I was in the right position and focused in the right spot.

A U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II makes a pass after a fiery simulated bombing run during the air show at the new Branson Airport in Branson, Mo. The pyrotechnic display was by Rich's Incredible Pyro. (John L. Dengler)

 

TOP PHOTO: Two Lockheed Martin F-16 “Fighting Falcon” jets from the United States Air Force Demonstration Squadron–better known as the “Thunderbirds” demonstrate the precision flying for which they are known during the air show at the new Branson Airport, in Branson, Mo. The The Branson Airport, is the first privately financed and operated commercial service airport in the United States. Photographed using a Nikon D3, using Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 lens with Nikon TC-14E II 1.4x teleconverter. Image capture: 1/1000 at f5.6, EV – 1.7, ISO 200.

ABOVE: A Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthog” jet from the United States Air Force makes a pass after a fiery simulated bombing run during the air show at the new Branson Airport in Branson, Mo. The pyrotechnic display was by Rich’s Incredible Pyro.. Photographed using a Nikon D3, using Nikon 70-200 mm f2.8 lens. Image capture: 1/1000 at f4.5, EV -1.7, ISO 200

To license image, click image. To see our collection of fine art prints, click here.

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