27Feb/08Off

March 2008 Newsletter

The upcoming March 5th meeting:

Marla Singer will be discussing modeling from a model's perspective. As a model herself, Marla will discuss how she interacts with photographers, what her expectations are, how to handle models (snyness and whatnot), typical rates, how she poses, etc. Marla will also be presenting a slideshow of images.

Just a reminder: If you haven't yet renewed your membership that our new Treasurer, Mike Roest, will gladly be accepting your membership fees in March's meeting ($30 for individuals or $40 for couples).

And more stuff in the Newsletter

Summary / review of Tatiana Zamachnaia's presentation "Painting with Light" from the February meeting
Words from our new President
The results from the February print competition
and more!

President's Message

Welcome to the new face of the Calgary Photographic Society. As the new president of the club, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for voting me into this position. I feel honored to take on the role of leading the club into the future of photography. I would also like to tell you a bit about myself.

I first fell in love with the sound of a shutter release at the age of nine. I purchased my very first camera from McDonalds. That’s right…McDonalds the restaurant. For only a dollar, plus the price of a Big Mac meal, you received a fluorescent yellow 8mm camera. My family didn’t have much money back then, so I only ever shot a few rolls with it.

Over the years, my interest in photography grew and dwindled in phases. It basically depended on what kind of equipment was available to me. So when my brother bought a Canon 35mm SLR, I was compelled to give it a try. The amount of control it gave amazed me. I would borrow his camera all the time, and probably put more film through it than he did.

When my father in-law found out that I had an interest in photography, he decided it was time to clean out his closet. After dusting it all off, I suddenly had Two Pentax 35mm film bodies and a number of lenses. I began shooting more often and even joined a photography club to see what others thought of my work. The Calgary Photographic Society helped me improve on many techniques, but I still felt that film was holding me back. Photography can be an expensive hobby.

My first real camera purchase was a Pentax K100D. Through trial and error, digital photography allowed me to greatly enhance my skills. In less than a year I had put over 10,000 shutter releases into that camera.

I started hanging prints on the walls of the lunch room at work. My colleagues loved the images and have even purchased prints. Who would have thought that a hobby could turn profits? A few weeks later I made my first real sale to the company I am working for. North Cariboo Air wanted fifteen large prints to fill the walls of their new departure lounge. I never would have imagined myself having a gallery. Especially one that is being viewed by the thousands of passengers we charter each week.

I am still relatively new to this form of art; however, photography has become a major part of my life. Taking on this role will make it even more prominent. Together with the new members of the executive, I hope to take the society to new and interesting places. We have some great ideas for the upcoming years, and I look forward to working towards the interests of our membership.

See you at the next meeting:

Ryan Pahl
President, Calgary Photographic Society

The New 2008 CPS Executive

Position	Name
President	Ryan Pahl
Past President	Harry Mah
Secretary	Mike Johnson
Treasurer	Mike Roest
Monthly Program Director	Carla Fedje
External Program Director	Scott Winter
Newsletter & Website	Jeff Clement

Upcoming (March) Guest Speaker

February Guest Speaker Review - Tatiana Zamachnaia

Tatiana Zamachnaia introduced us to her unique form of photography: Painting with Light. Tatiana, mild mannered software consultant by day, confesses to be nocturnal when it comes to photography. She got started as an Aurora (Borealis) chaser and ended up playing with flashlights to add lighting in a scene as a way to kill time while waiting for the northern lights. She's perfected her art to the point that she is now a mentor with the Photographic Society of America (light painting category).

Tatiana considers painting with light to be a form of art that offers endless possibilities. You can emphasize details, enhance shadow areas, and color components of an image to produce truly unique images. Leveraging the moonlight to add detail to background areas, Tatiana will trip her shutter and literally run around the subject, painting it with her flashlights. Typically she'll shoot at f8 so that she gets a reasonable balance of depth of field without dragging out the exposure too long. Noise becomes an issue on longer exposures on digital cameras.

I'm a gadget guy. I pride myself in my collections of flashlights. Or I did... My measly little collection of flashlights was put to shame by just the selection of lights Tatiana chose to bring to the meeting. Sigh. Tatiana showed up with a duffle bag full of flashlights ranging from tiny consumer lights, to cripplingly bright law enforcement style lights, to a huge 15 million candle power monster named "Big Bertha". Apparently back at home she has a whole basement full of lights. When she heads out on the road for a shoot Tatiana will often use a trailer to carry her arsenal of lighting! I am humbled indeed.

If you want to get out and try some of this on your own, Tatiana had some advice:

Spots with city lights and foliage are interesting. Shooting during the magic hour can yield some spectacular images.
While these photos have an immediate wow factor, they still need to have something beyond that to keep the viewers interest. Make sure there is an interesting subject and composition and not just cool lighting.
The best times to shoot are within the period of 4 days before a full moon to 2 days after. This gives you enough ambient light that you can get some detail in the background. Otherwise, you'll likely be looking at lighting the entire scene yourself.
Bring a portfolio of your work. For some reason people tend to freak out when they find you running around in dark clothes, in the dark, wearing a tactical vest, loaded with flashlights, near/on their property. Bringing a portfolio can help clear up what you are doing and hopefully avoid unpleasant conversations with the local law enforcement.
When shooting with digital cameras in the cold, battery life can be a real problem. Chemical heat packs, strapped to your camera, can help keep life in your battery. (be careful with that though. some of those heat packs get pretty hot)
You can prevent fogging your lens in colder weather by breathing through a snorkel. (I'm not kidding)
ISO 100 / f8 (exposures > 1hr on digital are too noisy so film becomes a necessity)
Don't leave the light in one place too long or you'll burn a spot into your image.
Dress in black so you don't show up in the scene. (Just in case you didn't look suspicious enough charging around in the dark)
Be careful to shield the flashlight from the camera or you'll end up with obvious streaks on your image.

Tatiana's website is http://www.tatianaphoto.com/ and, if you have not already, you really should make a point of checking out her galleries. There is some amazing work on there. Tatiana has just wrapped up a trip to Belize / Guatemala to paint the Mayan ruins and she has already posted some of her new shots to her website.

An interesting side project for someone with some time would be to do research if there is a correlation between Tatiana's photo excursions and UFO sightings in the area. I suspect there is!

As an amusing aside, inspired by Tatiana, five of us intrepid souls headed out towards Kananaskis late last Friday night armed with cameras and an obscene number of flashlights. Our first stop was the old derelict restaurant / gas station "Fort Chiniki" along the Trans Canada just before the Seebee/Exshaw overpass. We dragged out the gear and started playing with lighting up the building. We made it about 45 minutes before someone, probably the owner, told us in no uncertain terms to vacate the premises. We should have heeded Tatiana's advice and brought along a portfolio to add some legitimacy to what we were doing. Oh well. Maybe next time we can win him over.

-- Jeff Clement

February "Open" Print Competition Results

Advanced Category

Advanced Open - Norm Capper - A Lost Feather

Score	Photographer	Title
9.0	Norm Capper	A Lost Feather
8.0	Ian Johnstone	Finch
7.6	Scott Winter	Come on in
7.3	Julie Meisser	Winter or Spring
6.6	Carla Fedje	<untitled>
6.3	Wei Quik	<untitled>

Intermediate Category

Intermediate Open - Ryan Pahl - Open Access

Score	Photographer	Title
8.3	Ryan Pahl	Open Access
8.0	Jack Blair	Snowscape #3
8.0	Carol MacKinnon	Storm Light
7.0	Wes Devauld	<untitled>
6.6	Helmut Schoderbock	Swiss Mountain Scene
6.6	Jeff Clement	Don't Kids Play Outside Anymore

Novice Category

Novice Open - Stephen McCracken - London Through My Eye

Score	Photographer	Title
7.6	Stephen McCracken	London Through My Eye
6.6	Mika Anderson	Summer Home
6.6	Kyle Johnson	Sunset During a Forest Fire
6.0	Mike Johnson	The Bone Yard

February "Theme" Print Competition Results: "Tools"

Intermediate Theme

Intermediate Theme - Jeff Clement - <untitled>

Score	Photographer	Title
7.6	Jeff Clement	<untitled>
6.6	Carol MacKinnon	The Old Hammer
5.3	Wes Devauld	Tool

Novice Theme

Novice Theme - Stephen McCracken - Tools

Score	Photographer	Title
7.6	Stephen McCracken	Tools
6.3	Mike Johnson	Irons

Upcoming Print Competitions Themes

Date	Theme
Mar 5, 2008	Back Alley
Apr 2, 2008	Graffiti
May 7, 2008	Paper
Jun 4, 2008	Different point of view on a common subject

Web Crawl

Looks like you're all going to have to do some crawling on your own this month. Best of luck to all of you!

The weblinks archive can be found here.

Also. For any members with websites that would like them listed, please e-mail the URL to me at jeff.clement at calgaryphotographicsociety.ca.