Back in. the 1980’s my father would cover the Penguins. Usually Wednesday or Thursday night game he was there. Back then taking photos was an art and science. The cameras were film, not digital. All the settings were manual.
The Art
Film stock came in numbers like 400 iso. And it was key to taking a photo. You would set the iso on your camera to this number. So you are already take photos. Yes and no. You need to check your light meter. First set the Light Meter to your film iso. The light meter would tell you the aperture setting. Now you are ready to take photos.
Game of photography
Now comes the fun part, you have to be quick and lucky. Watch the game through the camera and deciding when to shot. But you only have 36 pictures per roll! Make them count. Dad usually shot 3 rolls per game. 36×3= 108 photos. On average Dad would submit 5 photos. From those 5 photos 1 would make it into the Newspaper. In other words 1% of his photos made it into the Pittsburgh Press.
The Science
So now you have your photos taken. But you are not done. You need to develop them. Everything goes back to the film stock number. The stock number tells you how to develop your film. What chemicals to use. At what temperature and for how much time. And one last thing, you do this in the dark.
Penguins vs Boston Bruins 1987.
The photos below are from my collection. After my father passed away I found boxes of photos and negatives.None of these photos have been viewed in over 30 years.
