PHOTOGRAPHS
My earliest recollection of making photographs was with my childhood friend Curtis Enerson at the summer home of his parents in Waterton Lakes National Park. We photographed Cameron Falls, scenes along the lake shore and the good ship "International". I had a hand-me-down Clix DeLuxe camera, a little plastic box, shaped to resemble a rangefinder camera. The first camera I purchased new was a Kodak Brownie Six-20 Model D and its Kodak flash bulb unit. Both of these cameras are still in my possession.
I became quite involved in photography in high school, being appointed president of the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute photography club, and helped provide photographs of school events to the yearbook and newspaper. At age 16, I was hired for the summer by John and Helen Porter to take photographs at the top of Banff's Mount Norquay chairlift. The chairlift ran all summer in those days, carrying untold numbers of tourists to the top of the lift where they could enjoy the wonderful panorama. The photographs we made showed a person suspended in their chair below the chairlift cable with Mount Rundle and the town of Banff in the background. As an enterprise, this was a highly lucrative venture for the Porters. As an immersion experience in volume hand-processing of black and white photographs, this was unsurpassed for me.
As often happens, "one thing led to another". Returning to school in the fall, I was hired for a part-time job at the Lethbridge Herald to print glossy photographs of pictures that had appeared in the pages of the paper. On reporting for my first afternoon of work, Orville Brunelle, the Herald's Chief Photographer, thrust a camera into my hands and told me to be at the Elks Club at 3:00 p.m. to photograph a cheque presentation. From that moment, I became an official newspaper photographer, trying my best to finish high school while enjoying the "key to the city" that being a Herald photographer provided.
In my second year of full-time employment with the Herald, I decided to enrol in the Photographic Technology program being offered by the brand-new Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). This was an intensely creative experience for me and I greatly enjoyed the instruction I received under the leadership of Robert Alexander, the director of the program, and his highly experienced teaching colleagues. At the end of the two-year program, Alexander asked me to join the photography program teaching staff. I would gladly have done so but, as it turned out, I didn't have enough education. My days of neglecting school studies to enjoy being "Tim from the Herald" had caught up with me.
I returned to the Herald for a year and then enrolled at the brand-new University of Lethbridge to pursue a career as a teacher. In three years, I earned a four-year Bachelor of Education degree and set out teaching with the Lethbridge Public School District. I have Bob Alexander to thank because, without his belief that I could be a teacher, I can't predict what path my life would have taken.
My teaching career in Lethbridge lasted ten years and then I was appointed to the executive staff of the Alberta Teachers' Association. For 30 years, I travelled the province, Canada and a good many places overseas working with teachers. Photography was an important facet throughout my career, especially in my role as editor of the ATA Magazine.
My cameras have changed considerably over the years and with each one I experienced new capabilities and growing enjoyment of the craft. The current camera is a high-end digital Nikon with high-end lenses, quite a stretch from the Clix DeLuxe.
Computers made all of my hard-earned experience with film and chemicals essentially obsolete. My "darkroom" is now a combination of a wonderful Mac desktop computer and a fine Epson printer.
I invite you to take a look at some of my photographs from the last few years. More can be found before the travel journals and published stories elsewhere on this site.
I trust there are some that will please.
I became quite involved in photography in high school, being appointed president of the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute photography club, and helped provide photographs of school events to the yearbook and newspaper. At age 16, I was hired for the summer by John and Helen Porter to take photographs at the top of Banff's Mount Norquay chairlift. The chairlift ran all summer in those days, carrying untold numbers of tourists to the top of the lift where they could enjoy the wonderful panorama. The photographs we made showed a person suspended in their chair below the chairlift cable with Mount Rundle and the town of Banff in the background. As an enterprise, this was a highly lucrative venture for the Porters. As an immersion experience in volume hand-processing of black and white photographs, this was unsurpassed for me.
As often happens, "one thing led to another". Returning to school in the fall, I was hired for a part-time job at the Lethbridge Herald to print glossy photographs of pictures that had appeared in the pages of the paper. On reporting for my first afternoon of work, Orville Brunelle, the Herald's Chief Photographer, thrust a camera into my hands and told me to be at the Elks Club at 3:00 p.m. to photograph a cheque presentation. From that moment, I became an official newspaper photographer, trying my best to finish high school while enjoying the "key to the city" that being a Herald photographer provided.
In my second year of full-time employment with the Herald, I decided to enrol in the Photographic Technology program being offered by the brand-new Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). This was an intensely creative experience for me and I greatly enjoyed the instruction I received under the leadership of Robert Alexander, the director of the program, and his highly experienced teaching colleagues. At the end of the two-year program, Alexander asked me to join the photography program teaching staff. I would gladly have done so but, as it turned out, I didn't have enough education. My days of neglecting school studies to enjoy being "Tim from the Herald" had caught up with me.
I returned to the Herald for a year and then enrolled at the brand-new University of Lethbridge to pursue a career as a teacher. In three years, I earned a four-year Bachelor of Education degree and set out teaching with the Lethbridge Public School District. I have Bob Alexander to thank because, without his belief that I could be a teacher, I can't predict what path my life would have taken.
My teaching career in Lethbridge lasted ten years and then I was appointed to the executive staff of the Alberta Teachers' Association. For 30 years, I travelled the province, Canada and a good many places overseas working with teachers. Photography was an important facet throughout my career, especially in my role as editor of the ATA Magazine.
My cameras have changed considerably over the years and with each one I experienced new capabilities and growing enjoyment of the craft. The current camera is a high-end digital Nikon with high-end lenses, quite a stretch from the Clix DeLuxe.
Computers made all of my hard-earned experience with film and chemicals essentially obsolete. My "darkroom" is now a combination of a wonderful Mac desktop computer and a fine Epson printer.
I invite you to take a look at some of my photographs from the last few years. More can be found before the travel journals and published stories elsewhere on this site.
I trust there are some that will please.