AST FRAM - St. Albert Photography Club

T
H
E
LAST FRAME
APRIL - 2003
St. Albert Photo Club’s Monthly Newsletter
POINT STANDINGS
2002 - 2003
Debbie Tetz - 21
Sieg Koslowski - 20
Allan Skoreyko - 14
Derald Lobay - 10
Tim Schultz - 8
Andrew Soon - 6
Gary George - 4
Al Popil - 4
Eric Klaszus - 3
From days gone by, Al Girard, shows off rush pouches used when television stations used to shoot film
and needed to get it on the air quickly.
Film was ready at eleven
At the April 9 meeting
Al Girard told us of his
career at CFRN as a TV
cameraman.
Like most of us he
started as a kid, with a
Brownie Box camera. His
big step up in technology
came when he bought
a Kodak Pony camera
for $35 at the local drug
store and started using
May
Competition:
People
Kodachrome for colour
slides.
On the way to his career he got sidetracked
into playing the piano
and joining a band as a
drummer. This became a
serious distraction which
led him to play with Dion,
the Fendermen, and Dave
Dudley.
While this didn’t lead
May
Guest Speaker:
Bob from McBain
to stardom, it did give
him some interesting
photo opportunities and
led him, back in Edmonton, to take a seven week
course in Black and White
Techniques at NAIT.
Bob Alexander of Berkley was his instructor and
came to be his mentor for
many years. It was Bob
Alexander that got him
Tech Tips:
Night Photo’s
his first big job, photography for a NAIT brochure
that Al showed around.
Bob also recommended
him to an Advanced
Fine Arts Black & White
course in Banff, which led
to a major job doing the
photography for the ballet
summer syllabus.
The core perception in
the course was “anybody
can take postcards”; they
were required to look for
“something different.”
Going down into the
mine at Canmore he was
surprised to find lots of
colour and a whole new
vocabulary: tunnels are
called “roads” there, and
a worksite is called a
“room.”
He was hired at CFRN
six months later working
with 16 mm motion film.
June
Guest Speaker:
None
June 11th
Wrap-up Dinner:
St. Albert Inn
PAGE 2
Al with one of his pictures.
There was also a Bolex
after he graduated and
stayed with them until he
retired in 1998. When he
started, all remote cameras (field) lacked sound
capabilities.
The film was balanced
for Tungsten lights and
came in 400 foot rolls
($80/roll.) The film processor was quite exotic
technology.
It ran the
film through at constant
speed and had “elevators”
at the in- and out- ends
to ease loading and unloading. These elevators
held about six minutes of
film. The processor took
a lot of water. One time a
storm blocked the sewers;
they kept the processor
running and coped with
the flood.
Some interviewees were
a little difficult to film.
Don Getty would walk towards the camera during
the interview and when
the cameraman hit a wall
St. Albert
Photo Club
VOL: 2, ISSUE 8
PUBLISHED MONTHLY
September - June
monton, although you
may have to bounce the
signal off buildings, and
has gone live from Clyde,
Drayton Valley, and Canmore.
The studio cameras at
CFRN are now robotic,
run from the control room.
One is called “Darth” and
the other “Vader”.
Even on vacation Al was
on duty. While holidaying
in Barbados in 1983,
he reported the start of
the Granada invasion to
CFRN-AM by telephone
producing a worldwide
scoop.
When
photographing
Christmas
lights,
Al
recommends using a Sun
Gun so that you can get
the house; the lights are
bright enough to take
care of themselves.
Now that he’s retired
he’s returned to still
photography, and follows
the Nascar racing circuit.
tell him to “look out.”
Peter Pocklington once
forced him to walk backwards down a flight of
stairs at the legislature.
Al helped design the
mobile studio, the “Live
Eye”, which allowed the
first live-to-air remote
coverage. It is a van with
a microwave dish on a sixty-foot mast that is raised
pneumatically, taking six
Story - Gary George
minutes to raise and six
minutes to lower.
The antenna is
mounted
with
a
breakaway
mount – the tower’s much more
expensive
than
the dish.
It’s
rather important
not to raise the
tower into a powerline. The Live
Eye is basically
line-of-sight.
It
can reach the To see more of Al’s work go to http:/
main studio from c o m m u n i t y. w e b s h o t s . c o m / u s e r /
most parts of Ed- tvnewsman
SECRETARY
PRESIDENT
Derald Lobay
Gary George
TREASURER
Mary Ann
Peterson
PROGRAMME
DIRECTOR’S
Derald Lobay
Doug Poon
Night Photo’s
Night Photography
(ISO 50 unless otherwise noted)
Twilight Glow:15-30
minutes after sunset, 15-30
second exposure
Star Trails: North star over
pinnacle; counter clockwise
(N. Hemisphere); closer to
north star, more curvature;
ƒ2.8; focus at infinity;
increasing the aperature will
increase the number of stars
visible
Star Points: ISO 400; 600/
(Focal
Length)=Maximum
Exposure Time; i.e. 600/
18mm = 33 seconds; use full
moon or twilight to illuminate
foreground
Moon-lit Landscape:
ƒ2.8; shoot at moonrise or
moonset for better modeling
& color; use 812 filter to
warm colors
FULL—10 to 15 minutes;
QUARTER—1/2 to 1 hour;
CRESCENT—1 to 2 hours
Double Exposure with
Moon: Put moon on last; 1/
60 second FULL—ƒ11 to ƒ16;
GIBBOUS—ƒ8; QUARTER—
ƒ5.6; CRESCENT—ƒ4
Moon Sizes: big foreground
subjects go with big moons
Painting
with
Light
Source: Illuminate grey card
with light source at similar
distance to subject; spot
meter
Lightning: Best at twilight;
ƒ8; at least 10 seconds.
Send tech tips to:
dpoon@telusplanet.net
CLUB
CONTACT
Doug Poon
(780) 459-7627
E-mail:
dpoon@telusplanet.net
THE LAST FRAME
and
s
N
2nd Place Slide
Seig Koslowski
CLUB MEMBERS WINNING MONTHLY PICTURES
COMAPRIL
PET
ITIO
H
Best of Show and 1st Place Slide
Seig Koslowski
3rd Place Slide
Seig Koslowski
Far left
1st Place Colour
Al Popil
Above
2nd Place Colour
Debbie Tetz
Left
3rd Place Colour
Tim Schultz