As a former official U.S. Army photographer, 85-year-old Richard "Bud" Budvarson couldn't help but bring a camera along on his trip to Washington, D.C., last week.

That said, he didn't bring just any camera.

Budvarson brought his Speed Graphic, an old news camera issued to him in April 1945.

"I was able to keep it after I got out of the service," he said.

It's been his for the past 67 years.

"It's big," he said. "It was made in Rochester, New York, I know that."

It shoots large-format film, measuring 4-by-5 inches.

Budvarson, of Coeur d'Alene, was in the 82nd Airborne, serving from January 1945 to May 1947. He was in the nation's capital last week as part of an Inland Northwest Honor Flight.

Budvarson spent 40 years in the newspaper business after his military service. He is a former publisher of the Shoshone News Press and advertising director for the Coeur d'Alene Press.

He missed a few pictures while on the Honor Flight trip, because the camera takes a bit more time to ready itself for action compared with modern cameras. Still, he believes he captured about 15 to 20 great pictures on his trip.

"That was the most wonderful event I've ever had in my life," Budvarson said. "It was just the way people responded to us and treated us."

He was one of 36 veterans and 20 guardians from the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area who were taken on the Honor Flight. Budvarson's son Dan accompanied him.

It was the trip of a lifetime, he said.

And, "I had not spent one penny in the whole trip," Budvarson said.

It was his first time in Washington, D.C., since 1946, he said.

It was a micro-visit. They left Spokane on Monday, April 30, and landed in Baltimore.

The Honor Flight group made it to several memorials on Tuesday.

By Wednesday afternoon, they were back in Spokane.

They visited the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps memorials, World War II memorial, the Korean War and Vietnam War memorials, and Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknowns.

After the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns was completed, the Honor Flight veterans were greeted with an unplanned and memorable surprise.

A group of about 100 middle-school students - who just happened to be at the Tomb of the Unknowns at the same time - lined up along both sides of a sidewalk as the veterans passed by headed for their bus. The students shook hands with the veterans and thanked them for their service. The Honor Flight group members wore T-shirts identifying them.

The students' reaction to the veterans "was totally spontaneous," said Deni Wiggins, executive board member for the Inland Northwest Honor Flight group. "That was a real highlight for the vets."

Budvarson's honor flight group was one of just two this year for the Inland Northwest.

Wiggins said Budvarson did weeks of research before the trip, determining the position of the sun at the times the group would be at the different memorials. He also mapped out the layouts of the memorials, hoping to get the best possible pictures at each stop.

"We made him our honorary photographer for the trip," Wiggins said. "We gave him the front seat on the bus, so he could get off on a run and get out and set up."

Back at home in his Coeur d'Alene apartment, Budvarson develops all his own black and white pictures, using a makeshift darkroom.

He uses a bathroom as a wet lab, developing negatives and paper prints.

A long, narrow walk-in closet in a bedroom has been transformed into a dry lab, where he exposes the photographic paper. Using an enlarger, his four-by-five inch negatives are projected to make prints.

The prints are transported from the dry lab back to bathroom wet lab using a clam-shell type box, protecting them from light.

Back in the bathroom, the prints are slid into a series of trays, using photographic chemicals, making the image appear.

The final rinse is in the bathtub, washing off the excess chemicals and finishing the wet process.

The prints dry from a clothes-line-like wire hanging over the tub.

Soon a few Honor Flight photographs had made it through the process.

The first one fully developed is a shot of some Honor Flight veterans in front of the Marine Corps War Memorial, depicting the raising of the American flag at Mount Suribachi in February 1945 by U.S. Marines during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Budvarson was a month into his Army service about this time.

Observing the manual steps he takes to develop his film, it's no wonder Budvarson finds modern digital photographs to be "magic."

Still, it's clear Budvarson loves the extra steps. It's a craft.

It's clear there is more dedication in each frame. There are fewer chances to get the right shot, plus there is time that must be dedicated to each in the darkroom.

The 35 veterans that traveled with him to Washington signed Budvarson's World War II Photo Diary book. The hardcover book has more than 270 pages of photographs from his time in the Army.

"They all put their name and branch of service on the inside cover," he said. "That's kind of my souvenir."