Congratulations to our graduating students!

NAIT Photographic Technology Graduate Showcase

Friday, April 23rd, 2010 / 2:30 – 5:00 pm

The graduating students of the Photographic Technology program will be showcasing their portfolios and photographic imagery at a Graduate Showcase event planned for Friday, April 23rd, from 2:30 – 5:00 pm in Room H005 of the NAIT Main Campus. We invite you to come and view the talent and work of our students.

CAPIC Assistant Workshop in NAIT Studios

Here Michele Ramberg (second from left) oversees the assembly of a lighting soft-box as she recruits students to participate in her demostration.

Darren Jacknisky of Bluefish Studios along with assistant Celena (centre) demonstrate how they go about setting up their equipment and getting the money shot. Michele Ramberg serves as the model.

This is a bit of a late entry but we'll go with it. On Saturday March 20th the Edmonton Chapter of CAPIC (The Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators in Communications) held their first Assistant Workshop. The venue was the Photographic Technology studios.

Among the presenters were a panel of six prominent local professional photographers including Curtis Trent, Curtis Comeau, Michele Ramberg, Chris Stambaugh, Nathanael Sapara and Darren Jacknisky. The panel members answered a number of student questions on assisting. Lunch was included and provided a good opportunity for students to mingle with the professionals.

After lunch came individual demonstrations by Michele, Chris and Darren along with his assistant, Celina. Chris talked to the students about wedding photography assisting and gave a good breakdown of what would be expected. Darren then presented with his full-time assistant Celina and they discussed and demonstrated how they would set up a shot. Michele was last but not least and recruited students to help her set up a shot for a magazine cover.

According to main organizer (and recent grad), Dorothy Carter, "It was a great turn out with 18 attendees!! I organized it for Edmonton with lots of help from Michele Ramberg, Brett Gilmour and Darren Jacknisky. For the Edmonton workshop we followed Calgary's outline for how the day would go. I'm just really pleased to see that CAPIC is growing and that we can offer a variety of events to the commercial community."

PHT 450 "One Light Portrait"

Students recently completed a “One Light” portrait assignment following the style of portrait photographer, Darton Drake, out of Chicago. They were to create a series of 5 or 6 portraits from a single session and present them in a collage form. The results were intriguing, with each student showing their own interpretation of the assignment. I hope that you enjoy viewing the ones presented below.

Nikita Gushue

Melissa Carriere

Zach Ayotte

Miriam Den Oudsten

Karmen Meyer

Jessica Loughlin

Jeanetter Janzen

NAIT Photo Student Wins Edmonton Journal Photo Contest

We were pleased to hear that 2nd Year Photo Student Karmen Meyer was the 1st Place winner in the recent Edmonton Journal photo contest for post-secondary students. Karmen won the contest with one of the images from her third semester photo thesis. The Journal ran an excellent story about Karmen on the front page of the Saturday, March 13 edition. To read the story, click here.

Congratulations Karmen! Here's the winning image . . .

Major Photo Conference at NAIT

California photographer Dane Sanders addresses the symposium.

The Photographic Technology program was pleased to host the recent Exposure Photography Symposium at NAIT. This four day event was organized by the Alberta and Saskatchewan chapters of the Professional Photographers of Canada and featured four speakers, an image competition with 260 photographs, national PPOC accreditation judging, national PPOC executive meetings, a Gala Awards evening, and social events. The event was a major success thanks to the concerted efforts of the organizing committee, led by Chairperson Ian Grant.

Tyler Meade from Kamloops demonstrates his commercial location photography technique.

All twenty 2nd Year students entered images in the image competition. Their submissions were judged amongst the entries from the professional photographers and did very well with 3 Merit Awards and 29 Acceptance Awards. The three major student awards for the competition went to: Brendan Klem (NAIT) for the General category; Trevor Burns (NAIT) for the Portrait category; and Arete Edmunds for the Commercial category. The Commercial Photographer of the Year Award went to Corey Hochachka of St. Alberta (a NAIT graduate), and the Portrait Photographer of the Year Award went to Kathy Walker of Red Cliff, Alberta. Congratulations to these individuals, and to all of the category winners.

Photo History Students Tour Archives

On Feb. 12, the students in PHT210 Evolution of Photography, a second semester course, were treated to a field trip tour of the Provincial Archives of Alberta. Here the students got to see first hand some of the historical photographic materials and products they learn about in class. The tour was very interesting and informative. Many thanks to our gracious and knowledgable hosts for the tour, Terry O'Riordan (right), Audiovisual Conservator and Katie Roth (2nd from right), Reprographic Technician.

PHT 450 Executive Portrait

Our second years are back and continuing their lighting fundamentals education in their last lighting class called "PHT450 Portrait Lighting II". The class is taught by Ian Grant and highlights the fundamentals of executive, glamour, group and child portraiture. Their first assignment was based on the Executive Portrait theme and gave them the opportunity to capture an "executive" in their work environment. Some of the samples of their work appears below for you to enjoy.

Jeanette Janzen

Jessica Loughlin

Kari Knapp

Miriam Den Oudsten

Yesan Ham

Zach Ayotte

NAIT Photo Grad, Dale MacMillan, featured in Techlife Magazine

We're always proud to see our graduates get recognition for their talents and their accomplishments. The just-released issue of NAIT's techlife magazine has an article on sports photography tips and features Dale MacMillan, a 1994 graduate of our program. Dale is an accomplished photographer in many areas and is especially well known for the quality of his sports imagery. Have a look at the techlife article and Dale's website.

NAIT Students Winners - - Bridgestone Photo Contest

Bridgestone Canada has announced the winners of their eighth annual Bridgestone Photo contest. This contest has photographic students from across the country, representing 11 colleges, competing for prizes and cash awards totalling nearly $40,000.

Each of the participating photographic programs receives a First, Second, and Third prize amongst their entries and an overall Grand Prize winner and Honourable Mentions are selected from the entries. Students from both first and second year classes of NAIT's Photographic Technology program entered the competition. While we didn't win the national awards, we are still proud of the entries and our three winners. The first second and third place awards from NAIT are represented below. All of the winning photos from across the country can be viewed at http://www.bridgestonephoto.com/eng/index.asp?id=2009winners .

Congratulations to our winners!

First Place for NAIT . . . First Year student Amanda Matskiw

Second Place for NAIT . . . Second Year Student Miriam Den Oudsten

Third Place for NAIT . . . First Year Student Patrick Zubiri