PHT 350 Portrait I Student Assignment – Low-Key Portrait

Congratulations to all the second year students with their Low-Key portrait assignment submissions. I was very happy with their efforts – the portraits overall were the strongest that they have submitted to date. Here is a sampling of some of them for you to enjoy.

Elyse Fiore

Karmen Hughes

Trevor Burns

Jeanette Janzen

Gord Heatley

Bobbi Ryan

Nikita Gushue

Once again, Photographic Technology students and staff are gearing up for our annual Print Display and Sale, Thursday and Friday, November 26th and 27th. The main campus south lobby will be transformed into a gallery-like setting with many fine works on display for exhibition and sale. Teams of student volunteers are busy getting the word out and doing the considerable leg work involved in preparing for this much-anticipated yearly event.

Prints are mounted and matted, ready for 16 x 20 framing and waiting for a good home on some lucky person's wall. You will find a variety of subject matter and photographic styles in this exhibition ... something to suit the tastes of any discriminating picture lover ... and at a very reasonable price for original art.

Each year the event supports a charity chosen by the students. This year the students have elected to support The Rainbow Society of Alberta, a charity dedicated to fulfilling wishes for Alberta children with a chronic or life-threatening illness. Please come visit us during our event. You may find the perfect Christmas gift for yourself or others.

This Week at NAIT / Nov. 16 - 20

The Photographic Technology program has a full week of "extra" activities this week:

• Monday, Nov. 16th - - Neil Stephenson, Professional Market Executive with Canon Canada came by and gave a presentation on some new Canon equipment / "goodies". Neil is out west to do a Canon 7D intro event at Vistek in Calgary and made a special stop-off in Edmonton to visit with our program.

• Tuesday, Nov. 17th - - Steve Smith of Wacom, makers of tablets and touch screen computers used extensively by photographic and graphic arts professionals, came from Portland to demonstrate the Wacom products and show ways of using the tablets effectively. His presentation was attended by both Photographic Technology and Graphic Communications students and staff, as well as a number of other NAIT people. Our Photographic Technology computer labs have 18 tablets available for student use.

• Wednesday, Nov. 18th - - two events today:
• a second year field trip to ION Printing Solutions, a large printing operation, in Nisku, AB;
• "NAIT Night" with the Professional Photographers of Canada-Alberta. This annual event / meeting of the Northern Branch of the association invites the students to attend a meeting to mingle with the pros and see what the association is all about. The format this year is a "businesss blender" and fun print competitition with the meeting at "The Nest" on the NAIT campus.

• Thursday, Nov. 19th - - another of the professional photographic organizations, CAPIC, is holding an evening event and have invited the program students / staff to come to their mixer, with a "Clip Up" photo on the theme of "The End" being a part of the event.

Watch for an announcement of our upcoming Annual Print Sale and Display, Nov. 26 & 27!

PHT 350 Portrait I Student Assignment – Couple Portrait

The latest theme for the second years portrait assignment was “Couples Portrait”. Interpretation to “Couples Portrait” was left open to each student and could be shot in studio or on location.  I have displayed several of students with the highest grades images below for your enjoyment.

Gord Heatley

Kristen Bass

Miriam Dan Oudsten

Bobbi Ryan

Jeanette Janzen

Second Year PHT 350 Portrait I Assignments

The second year students are enrolled in a portrait class that teaches them the fundamental basics of portraiture that include studio lighting, posing, environment, available light and combining flash with available light. Core areas of portraiture that are highlighted throughout the term include: Studio 4 light review, outdoor, couple, low, high key and editorial portraiture. To measure whether or not the fundamentals being taught are being understood bi-weekly assignments are assigned and marked. It is my intent to display some of the top submissions for each category that is taught. The most recent category  - outdoor portrait is displayed below for your viewing. Congratulations to each of the students whose image is shown below:


Jessica Loughlin

Karmen Meyer

Ashley Urban

Miriam Den Oudsten

Oct 26th – 30th – Second Year Students participate in one week Work Experience

Our second year students had a break from regular classes last week to participate in a one-week work experience exercise. They each had the choice of discipline and locale for the studio they wanted to visit for the week. Although many of them stayed in Edmonton some travelled to Calgary, Saskatoon, Vancouver and even Las Vegas to participate. It was a great opportunity for them to get a taste of the real world of studio photography. The staff would like to thank all those individual studios that sponsored our students, your involvement is greatly appreciated. A list of website links for the participating studios is listed below:

www.kimberleyfrench.com/
www.3tenphoto.com/
www.burchphoto.com/
www.cwhillphoto.com/
www.laughingdog.ca/
www.edmontonjournal.com/
www.fredkatzphotography.com/
www.curtistrent.com/
www.dgphotographics.com/
www.helgaphotography.com/
www.klyment.com/
www.kevinclarkphotography.com/
www.knphoto.ca/
www.emmalovephotography.com/
www.waynewallacephotography.com/
www.trogphoto.com/
www.scadephotography.com/
www.purephoto.ca/
www.bluefishstudios.ca/

October 5th - NAIT Students and Staff treated to a Phase One training session

On Monday, October 5th all of the Photographic Technology staff and second year students were treated to an educational Phase One and Capture One Pro session presented by Walter Borchenko of B3K Digital (www.B3KDigital.com) out of Toronto. Walter is a Canadian Partner of the Phase One organization and he flew in to educate us on the new P21+ Phase One back, cameras and lenses that our department purchased from him. Students and staff were amazed with the quality of the Phase One RAW files and the ease of use of Phase Capture One software and digital camera platform. We look forward to continuing to work with Walter as we educate our second year students on the benefits of capturing images with a medium format system using the Phase One camera system.

The image below was taken during the session and demonstrates a B&W conversion through the Capture One software. One of our second year students, Jessica, posed for the demonstration.