The "black donkey" is not a real donkey, but a person. He is not our comrade-in-arms, but I think many people in the army should remember him, because we took many pictures of him.
I don't know what the black donkey's real name is, maybe he told me, but after many years, I really can't remember, maybe because he has dark skin, is short and fat, and often wears a black leather jacket, so everyone calls him "black donkey". Since I arrived in the army, I haven't heard anyone call him by any other name.
To be honest, probably many comrades-in-arms should have a deep impression of this person from the local area, I said earlier, many of our photos in the army were taken by him, at that time cameras were not very popular, digital cameras had not yet come out, the most common should be point-and-shoot cameras, using film as a negative.
The black donkey takes photography as a profession and specially goes to the army to take beautiful photos for us. It stands to reason that such a person who leaves a good memory of our youth should be very popular, why does everyone not like him? This may have a lot to do with his personality, which can also be seen from the nickname that everyone gave him. This man loves to brag, often boasting in front of us who he knows, which leader is very familiar with him, don't say, his trick can really bluff some new comrades who have just joined the army, and after a long time, everyone will not buy it. In addition, the photos he took were not cheap, three yuan for a photo, at that time, our monthly allowance was only 35 yuan, and ID photos were more expensive. But everyone likes to take pictures and there is a market, so even if everyone doesn't like him, there is "just need" that may be the reason why he is bullish in front of us.
I remember one weekend in the recruit company, he came to the company again, and it happened that in our class, a few comrades surrounded the black donkey, looking at the camera in his hand, a very rare look. At this time, the black donkey enjoyed the feeling of "stars holding the moon", and he couldn't help but be proud when he spoke, saying that his camera was imported from Japan, the price was expensive, and how was the performance, in short, after listening, people felt that his camera had a feeling of being the first in the world. I was a little unconvinced at the time, because I had been exposed to cameras since I was a child, and in the 80s, my father bought a Seagull 120, the kind with a double lens, which could only be used in black and white film. When I was in junior high school, I joined the photography interest group set up by the school, which exposed me to more cameras, in addition to domestic Phoenix and Seagull, as well as imported Nikon, Kodak, Leica and other models.
The black donkey may have never seen a recruit despise him, so he wanted to find some face in front of me and said to me: "You recruit egg, my camera is new, you have never seen it, I see you don't even know what brand it is, right?" "I feel that the time has come to clean up the black donkey, don't kill him majesty, he always looks down on us soldiers!" So he said, "Let's make a bet, if I recognize it, you will take a free picture of everyone in our class." He confidently agreed.
I picked up his camera and looked at it, and although I hadn't used it, I still knew him. There are several English letters "RICOH-R5" on it, and then I said unhurriedly that this is a Japanese Ricoh camera, R5 type, using 135 color film, and looked at the lens, and said the aperture, focal length and other parameters, which is the modulation sensitivity and which is the shutter adjustment. To be honest, his camera is indeed rare, but these problems are not too difficult for people who have used the camera. Now the black donkey was dumbfounded, but he did not expect that he had been walking in various units for many years, and he probably had not met someone who could use a camera in a grassroots company, and today he planted a fight with me. A group of comrades-in-arms happily hugged me out, asking the black donkey to fulfill its promise and take pictures of everyone.
More than twenty years have passed, and whenever I open the photo album and miss my comrades-in-arms, it also reminds me of the black fat and fat "black donkey".