Les Amis de la Montagne, Feb 21, 2013

Thursday night, Feb 21st, 2013 was the first event I photographed for 3BAM that sort of reminded me of my days in the 2nd Field Regiment, (1982-1991), chiefly because it was cold, dark,and everyone except me was dressed as they might have been on a wintex. 3BAM provided a starting gun for an annual snowshoe race on Mount Royal and was invited for food, drinks and entertainment in the chalet on the summit afterwards. The race itself started near Smith House, and two youngsters selected by the organizers were to fire the two starting shots.  Unfortunately, just like in my old army days, things didn't go quite according to plan....

The first young gunner seems to have frozen up at the moment of truth and seemed from where I was standing to be unable to find the firing ever.  WO (ret) Michel Lepage  eventually had to fire the gun as seen here. Not our best moment, but something was learned along the way. The second youngster managed to get his hand in the right place, but needed a couple of tries before he could pull the firing lever back with enough force to fire the gun.

One thing I kind of like about the 3BAM events, is that they tend to provide me with challenging shooting situations that help sharpen my skills at event photography in sometimes difficult environments. Those who know my work already know that I'm usually shooting under far more controlled circumstances. with these guys however, everything is uncontrolled most of the time. Most shoots take place outdoors. The weather often sucks or the light is too harsh and filled with contrast, or there isn't enough of it, or there are too many different coloured light sources getting into the frame. Countless civilians run around either getting into the shot when I don't want them there or coming dangerously close to knocking over some piece of expensive photo equipment. Gear has to be supervised, and the unexpected or unplanned often happens.  So despite my very considerable experience and preparation for each shoot, I usually walk away from each event with more knowledge and a better understanding of potential problems than I did when I unpacked my camera at the beginning of the shoot.

After firing, the crew packed up and headed back to the armoury to wipe down the gun and store the equipment, and then it was back to the chalet for food and drinks. Not having had the chance to eat supper, I think most of us were famished when we eventually got there. The food seems to have been chiefly a buffet of traditional and perhaps not-so-traditional Quebecois dishes, served with ice-cider or imported beer. Unfortunately, the best of the imported beer, the Stella Artois, beer of my Belgian ancestors, was predictably the the first to run out, leaving only lesser lagers and ales for consumption. Still...I managed to get three of them down before the good stuff ran out.  I have to admit that I was so hungry, that I ate and drank too fast and gave myself a bit of a tummy-ache. Eating late was yet another thing that reminded me of going in the field in army days as did drinking a lot of beer at the end of the ex.


Whatever the occasion though, it's always a pleasure for me to spend time with 3BAM, to be among fellow gunners, and people who volunteer their time and skills to making this little operation work. From what I've observed thus far, 3BAM's participation in any event, is always deeply appreciated by the organizers and 3BAM never fails to make a lasting impression. Aside from the occasional free meal, the only reward anyone gets is the one that is the pleasure of serving and of doing a good deed and a good job.

Ubique!

Gary Menten,
Photographer

Cadet Mess Dinner Support

CWO (ret) Aubé also serves as the quartermaster for cadet corps #2719, which is affiliated to our regiment, serves a source of future recruits, and from whose ranks a few of the regiment's future commanding officers have come. The corps is commanded by 2/Lt  Francois Bélec.  In December, they celebrated their 50th anniversary with a mess dinner, and 3BAM took on the task of supporting the event. My job: shoot the group photo. They'd of course tried doing this sort of thing before themselves, but Cote- des-Neiges Armoury is a cavernous that's well-nigh impossible to properly light up at night with the little flashes on a point-and-shoot camera. My solution:bring along my trusty 1000 Watt/Second Dynalite power pack and a couple of flash heads, two reflective umbrellas and crank the ISO on my D800 up to 800 ISO. Voila! Plenty of light. In fact, as it turns out, I would have been fine at 400 ISO.

The guest of honour at the event was the 2nd Field Regiment's honourary colonel, Colonel Charles de Kovachich, whom I've known since I joined the 2nd Field Regiment in 1982.  There were supposed to be two gun shots that night, but owing to a burst pipe at home, 3BAM's artificer and tractor-driver, WO (ret) Gilles Pelletier was unable to attend and so the salute was as cancelled and 3BAM participation was limited to CWO (ret) Aubé, Piper Wolf Poll, and myself in my still unofficial capacity as photographer. The cadets still had a lot of fun though as did the guests at the table of honour. After the dinner, there were magic tricks, performed by one of the members of the parents committee, Mr, Louis Jutras . It as another long night and of the shoots I'd done so far for 3BAM, the one that required the most equipment on my part, shooting at times with my Dynalite pack-and-head system, at others with on-camera portable flash (yuck) and at others without any flash, the ISO cranked up to 3200 and the my lens wide open at f.2.8, and for many shots, a tripod. Good job I brought all this stuff.

Ubique!

Gary Menten
Photographer

Remembrance Day Weekend

3BAM was very busy on the Remembrance Day weekend. Both guns were deployed to separate locations on both the 10th and 11th. I deployed with CWO Aubé's group on both days, spending Saturday the 10th in Ste-Therese, then going out to the Field Of Honour in Pointe Claire on the 11th. Though I shot a fair number of photos on the 10th, my main mission, as far a I was concerned was to start shooting some video so that I could assemble a short film, as this was something Gilles had asked me about right from the beginning. I got just enough film of the guns firing to make a short that combined both the moving images I'd shot that weekend with others that I'd shot on all the events I'd participated in since September.

The folks in Ste-Therese were very hospitable. After the parade and services, we were invited to the legion hallfor drinks and dinner. The legion president, a well decorated former member of the R22eR and the Canadian Airborne Regiment is pictured here, while our honourary gunner for the occasion was another former Vandoo /  paratrooper and veteran of the Korean War.

Aside from 3BAM, other units parading in Ste-Therese included the local legion post, a detachment of 5RALC from Valcartier, the local air and sea cadets, the Navy League and detachments of the local police and fire departments.  I rode in the back of the gun tractor during the parade itself. I'm not sure i this was because CWO Aubé thought this was where I'd get the best view (it wasn't) or because unlike the rest of his entourage who were were wearing the old Canadian combat uniform that day, I was of course dressed in civilian clothes complete with my trademark grey fedora and stood out like a sore thumb. 

As I knew he would of course, Gilles tried to convince me again that day, this time while we were at dinner in the legion hall. Again I refused, but seeing his point, I countered by offering instead to wear an armband identifying me as the unit photographer, the only role I would agree to play at any rate. That kept him satisfied, for about a day at any rate, though to be fair, I'd been starting to notice that I had to resist the notion to salute rather than merely tipping my hat when meeting or being introduced to officers, or when the national anthem was being played, or some other occasion where everyone else was saluting. 

The flip side of this is that today I'm a photographer and want others to see me as a photographer with a knowledge of artillery, not a gunner with a knowledge of photography. Whatever event I show up at, my job is to get the photo, not fire the gun or yell "fire!" Still the idea began to form in my head that I might agree to wear some sort of distinct uniform that would identify me as part of the 3BAM entourage but at the same time, make it clear that I'm the unit photographer. 

I digress. The next day, Sunday, the detachment I was assigned to cover was deployed to the Field Of Honour, a military cemetery in Pointe Claire. Aside from firing two shots as part of the ceremony, we were joined by another pro-photographer who's father had served in the artillery in WWII and who wanted to donate his well-preserved service dress tunic and helmet, complete with camouflage net, also well-preserved.  These will now be kept and hopefully displayed in the artillery museum on Ste-Helen's Island. Despite the generally poor weather, a lot of people came to the ceremony. Elements of several local reserve units were paraded for the event and 3BAM fired two shots in salute. As always, the 25-pdr gun drew a lot of attention from the spectators, many of whom were prone to wander just a bit to close without ear protection, just prior to firing. Safety is always an issue at these events, but CWO Aubé has been doing this for a while and deployed everybody not strictly necessary to shoot the gun (or the video) at intervals around the perimeter to keep unwitting civilians from having their eardrums perforated. 

We hung around for a while after the ceremony was over, allowing spectators to come and ask questions and get a bit of a lesson in history. One who stood out among the others, was a young British army captain, in full service dress, accompanied by his wife and young infant in his pram.  He was a charming and polite young officer, who asked a lot of questions and who frankly remarked that they had nothing like 3BAM back home in the UK.  I found this kind of odd, given Britain's long and illustrious military history and tradition, and given the fact that a number of private citizens own surplus armoured vehicles in the UK, and was surprised that none of them might be firing blanks with old field guns.

Still, it's nice to have a serving regular come and express his admiration. 

Ubique!

Gary Menten
Photographer

 

Canada Company Event, Nov 7, 2012

On November 7th, 2012, 3BAM provided support for the Canada Company event held a the Cote-des-Neiges Armoury. The event was a fundraiser for Operation Husky 2013, a commemoration of the liberation of Sicily, in which our regiment partook.  Many member of the business community were present and the guest of honour, was Canada's minister of national defense, the Hon. Mr. Peter MacKay.  A number of the civilian guests, including Mr. MacKay were invited to fire the 25-pdr gun outside the armoury. All seemed to take great pleasure in doing so.  All in all, 12 blank shots were fired. The event gave me the opportunity to shoot some spectacular night photos of the gun in action. Also, I had the pleasure of running into a number of people I hadn't seen in years, starting with Colonel de Kovachich who as a captain, was my course commander on my gunner's course when I joined the regiment in 1982. I also had the opportunity to chat a bit with my former CO, LCol Michel Pronkin, as well as another former CO of the regiment, LCol Michel Bourque. who was a captain the last time I saw him.  Another face I hadn't seen in many years, was CWO Normand Roberge, another RSM of the unit, and former BSM to me.  Another old regimental hand I had not seen in many years was Sgt (ret) Laurent Langlais.

A couple of the folks to shoot the gun that night were ladies. They seemed to really enjoy the experience. Lets be honest: it's not something the average civilian gets to do...at least not unless you have a friend who owns a howitzer or two.
It was a big event, with a lot of brass, the minister, and about 200 guests. There was support from the DND and as usual they sent a photographer, as did the newspapers but as always, 3BAM never got a single photo out what any of them shot, which is why I get called out to cover these things for 3BAM. 

Frankly, aside from being assured of getting the photos, it was a pretty good idea that was called out to do this. For one thing, I knew from CWO Aubé what the program would be and about the night firing. For another, I came up in the artillery and knew instinctively what I'd have to do and what equipment I'd need to properly photograph the gun firing at night. The other photographers present were all blissfully unaware of what I knew and unprepared to do the job the way I did it. To be true...I did botch a couple where I didn't realize that the brim of my trademark fedora hat was interfering with the pop-up flash on my Nikon D800 as triggering the main flash, which was off-camera. So yep! I learned something too that night. For the record however, if you want to do this correctly, you need a tripod, shutter release and also to set your shutter speed at about 1/15th of second to properly capture the muzzle flash from the gun. My aperture was f.8. at 1250 ISO with a Nikon SB700 Speedlight set on a stand off-camera to camera right. The lens was my workhorse 24-70 f.2.8, worth every penny I paid for it.

3BAM had its own display, including vehicles, the unit's other 25-pdr, equipment and a table with a lot of photos, most of which, I was pleasantly surprised to had been shot by me in September. There was a lot of booze being served, and better still, free booze, but as always when I'm on the job, paid or not, I don't drink any alcohol until the job is done. That would probably have been around 2300 or so, when I was finally able to down a couple of glasses of good Italian vino. Somewhere in between not drinking, and freezing my caboose off outdoors on that cold November evening, I managed to get a few photos of the Mk1 gun we used to shoot that night, and the unit's two gun tractors. I will post more photos of the equipment in a subsequent post dealing strictly with the equipment of the unit.

Ubique!

Gary Menten
Photographer

Old Port, Labour Day Weekend 2012

How did I get involved with 3BAM? It started a couple of years ago, while walking down Queen Mary Rd. in the course of an exercise walk. I saw a flatbed truck going up the road, and on the back of the flatbed was an old WWII Chevy gun tractor with a 25-pdr gun behind.

Given the proximity to the Cotes-des-Neiges Armoury, where my old artillery regiment, (2nd Field RCA) is headquartered, I should have thought nothing of it, except that the 25-pdr gun on the back of the flatbed was a different one from the one that's been sitting one parade square there for decades, having a muzzle brake. So I did what everyone else does today, I posted the news along with my puzzlement on Facebook. The answer came quickly, and from around the world...Afghanistan to be precise, where my old battery commander, David Patterson, now a colonel in the regular army was serving a tour. He informed me of the existence of 3BAM, that it was headed by a former RSM of mine, CWO (Ret'd) Gilles Aubé, and that they fired and maintained both the regiment's 25-pdr gun and the one I'd seen going up the hill.

I was intrigued, but for many months did nothing, until providence intervened again, again through Facebook when it suggested I become friends with Gilles Aubé, somewhere in April of 2012, I think. I did. Along the course of exchanges, I told Gilles that I was a photographer these days and that possibly I could help them out by shooting photos for them or that sort of thing. Gilles was pretty interested but it wasn't until the Labour Day weekend that I was able to show up for an event.  Aside from CWO Aubé, present that weekend were a few old faces I had not seen in over 20 years, including MWO (ret) Tom Savoie, my old BSM, and WO (ret) Gilles Pelletier, who I had not known very well but still remembered.  Also present, L/Sgt Marc-Antoine Hotte, son of Sgt (ret) Robert (Bob) Hotte who I had done my gunner's course with in 1982.

It was a four-day event, I showed up late on the second day, shot a few photos, then came back the next day, armed with a few large prints I'd made to present to the group, including one of the #7 Dial Sight that Gilles absolutely loved. I have to say that 'm pretty fond of it myself. I stayed with them the whole day this time, shooting more photos, and when the crowds got big and there were too many spectators on the position asking questions and wanting to know about the equipment, I found myself jumping in to help explain things, despite my photographers black civilian clothes and trademark fedora hat. You can leave the artillery, but it never really leaves you.

From the moment I gave Gilles his photo, my services were pretty much in demand and my fate was sealed. More missions came up and each time, Gilles gave me a shout asking if I could come by and shoot more photos for them. Each time, I said "yes." I don't get paid for this; 3BAM is a non-profit group, but it's a pleasure to help them in any way I can for the simple reason that as a living history group, they help preserve the traditions of our corps, and our regiment. The story they tell, is OUR story.

Ubique!

Gary Menten
Photographer