In 1941 USS Argonne was the Base Force Flag Ship. Among her many responsibilities, she was the headquarters of the Fleet Camera party.

Throughout 1941, and especially the 2nd half of 1941, Argonne continuously dispatch camera parties of 4 to 5 members of her crew to other ships as those ships were about to go to sea.
On August 26, 1941, the Fleet Camera Party boarded USS California.


They filmed BATDIV 2 at sea. Here is a still of that footage showing USS Tennessee and USS Pennsylvania.


Many of the times the purpose was to film and photograph anti-aircraft drills, but not exclusively for that purpose.
For example, 2 different times in September 1941, USS Arizona had a Fleet Camera Party board her.
The 1st time was on September, 3rd.

At this time, they were filming and photographing flight operations.


In this photo you can see the Camera Party at work on USS Arizona's main deck.


Here are stills of that footage.




This is also when these well known photos were taken.




The Fleet Camera Party boarded her again on September 23, 1941 to film Task Force 2 anti-aircraft practice.

Virtually every time a Task Force went out to sea during the months of Aug thru Nov, a camera party was dispatched to one of the ships from USS Argonne.

The last one that I can find at this point is when Task Force 2 left Pearl on November 28th.


There is so much more here to find concerning these Fleet Camera Parties.

It also explains why there was film footage of the attack taken from USS Argonne on 12/7/41.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/81712