Thursday, June 28, 2012

School's Out....

The two older girls wrapped up the school year yesterday.  Hailey finished Grade 4 and Annelise completed Grade 1.  They both brought home report cards with straight A's !!!!!
Hopefully things will be a little more relaxed for the summer.  We are into the home stretch of our home renovations now, and there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
I was out last night playing in Game 13 of the Renegades Summer Hockey Season.  Unfortunately we were badly beaten by the Gators by a score of 7-1.  Two more games left in the regular season and then we are into summer playoffs.  By mid July hockey will wrap up for the summer and then there is a bit of a break before the winter season gets underway in September.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Stress Level Rising....

The home renovations are well underway.   Margarit has the painting pretty much under control...
This past weekend was our 11th Anniversary.  We went out for dinner, and then spent the night at a downtown hotel.  My brother-in-law Shawn and his kids stayed at our place with the girls while we were away.  It was very nice to have a few hours to ourselves, and we are very appreciative of Shawn's time.  But, it was very short lived.  By noon Sunday we were back home, and back at the renovations.  Shawn used to work doing drywall taping and texturing.  Though he has been away from the trade for about 15 years, he offered to help us re-spray the ceilings in our living room and dining room.  We bought the spray gun necessary to do the work, as it only cost marginally more than a one day rental.  By the time we returned from our anniversary weekend, Shawn had the living room and dining room all masked off and ready to spray.  By late afternoon we were done, and into clean up mode...  We took Shawn and his kids out for dinner, in a gesture of appreciation for his help...
Now we continue to try and get things wrapped up.  As the two older girls are winding down into the last couple of days of the school year, Margarit is trying to finish the last of the painting.  I am looking to line up materials to install the subfloor that needs to go in prior to installation of new laminate flooring.  This is all complicated by the fact that we are attempting to get ready to head out for the long weekend.  After that the girls will spend a week out at Pigeon Lake with their cousins.  Add to the mix the usual hockey games and riding lessons and it makes for very busy times....  While the girls are out at the lake I hope to have enough time to complete the preparations necessary for installation of our new flooring.  Once that goes in, and our new refrigerator gets delivered, there will only be minor details to look after.
Hopefully we can get this all wrapped up and behind us, just in time for our Austrian relatives to arrive in early August, and spend three weeks with us....
I struggle to find time to get to my photography.... I need to make a 16x20 print of "Anna's Swing" for the VAAA Open Photo exhibition, as well as to work on printing for the Procession West project.  Now that we have been accepted at two venues, it is time to get serious about this work...
It's a good thing I can get by on five or six hours of sleep.
God hates a coward.....

Friday, June 22, 2012

Summer Hockey - Game Twelve

We played a tough one tonight against the first place Raccoons.  These guys really don't belong in this division.  Most of their players are very young, and very fast.  They beat their opponents handily almost every time out.  Tonight was no exception.  It didn't help any that my team doesn't show much commitment.  I had a couple players that never let me know whether or not they would make it out to play, and then in the hour or two just before the game, five players bailed out.  I think this was the shortest bench that we ever played with.  We had four forwards, three defense and a goalie.  It sure was a lot of ice time for old guys like me as I was out there for two thirds of the game.  I think I must have been nearly triple the age of some of the kids on the other team.  We put up a good fight, and were only down by a score of 6-4 at the end of the second period.  Not only were they young and fast, but there was a lot more of them.  They had nearly a full roster with 12 or 13 players.  By the third period we just plain ran out of gas and they shovelled in six unanswered goals, outshooting us 43-20 and coasting to an easy 12-4 victory.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Fathers Day

This past weekend was Father's Day... or as I prefer to call it, "Farters Day".  I briefly saw my Dad, but most of the weekend was spent with my kids.  All three of my girls, and my fourth girl Margarit, went camping with me out to Brazeau Dam.  Margarit's brother Shawn and his kids came along with us.  I salvaged his tent for him after the "Dad and Kids" weekend and he rather sheepishly reclaimed it, so that he and his kids could join us for the weekend.  Margarit's camera-shy best friend Shelly, her husband Eric, and their three kids joined us for the day on Saturday afternoon.  Mostly we just relaxed in the camp site, spent some time down on the beach with the kids, had an evening fire, and enjoyed the weekend.  It was a little abbreviated as we were not able to leave home until Saturday morning, and the others weren't able to join us until later that day.  But we really enjoyed the weekend spent in good company, and outside.  The weather was reasonably cooperative, and although it was a little overcast and breezy, we only got hit by a few brief showers....













Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Summer Hockey - Game 11

The Renegades played Game 11 of the summer season last night at Kenilworth Arena.  We faced off against the Avengers.  These guys have really struggled this year and are winless through their first eleven games.  The really need to be in a lower division, matched up against teams of a similar skill level, but unfortunately for them, there are no lower divisions and no other teams.  Despite our usual short bench we defeated these guys by the decisive score of 14-4.

Art Gallery of Regina

When I arrived home from work yesterday, there was a letter in the mail for me from the Art Gallery of Regina.  I was expecting it to be another rejection letter...  To my surprise it was another acceptance for the Procession West project.
Thank you for your submission to Art Gallery of Regina on behalf of yourself and Robert Michiel.  I am interested in your Procession West photography proposal...
I can book your show next summer from June 24 to August 24, 2013.
So, we now have two shows scheduled for next summer, and still numerous other proposals either under consideration, or about to be sent out.
Looks like things will be getting even busier.....


Friday, June 15, 2012

Procession West - first acceptance!!!!!

I received great news in the form of an email this morning, from the McMullen Gallery here in Edmonton.  The "Procession West" project that Rob and I have been devoting so much time and energy to, has been accepted for a gallery exhibition...!!

I am pleased to inform you that your exhibition was selected by our jury for the 2013 – 2014 season.  I will be mailing a formal letter to you with some important information, but wanted to make sure these dates (as per below) would work for you.
 Your show is tentatively scheduled for August 17th – October 20th, 2013.
Installation will take place from August 14th – 16th, 2013.
The opening reception will take place on August 22nd, 2013.

So, we have one rejection letter and one acceptance so far.  Several more submissions packages are still out there awaiting responses.  And, although we have been a little lazy of late...  we are continuing to submit this project to other galleries.  Our next round of submission packages will be going out to various galleries in British Columbia.

Sure feels good to get accepted this early on and know that we have something concrete to work towards!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Summer Hockey - Game Ten

The Renegades played Game 10 of the Summer Season last night at Londonderry Arena.  Our opponents were the Gators.  We started out fairly strong and despite our now routine short bench, the game was tied 3-3 near the end of the second period.  But then we seemed to lose all focus, stopped back checking, and somehow the wheels fell off the Renegade machine.  We gave up three goals in less than a minute right at the end of the second period.  Then we gave up four more in the third period, and only managed to respond with two.  So we went down to defeat by the decisive score of 10-5.  Two games coming up next week so hopefully we can turn things around as the season winds down.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Rainy Day Trip...

My girls had their year-end dance recital this weekend, plus the weather forecast was not great, so we did not make any plans to go away on the weekend.  I did sneak out of the house for a while on Saturday afternoon with my camera.  The skies were heavily overcast and somewhat ominous.  It rained several times during the afternoon, at times heavily.  I took one shot of an abandoned industrial site on the edge of the city, and then continued out to Elk Island National Park.  The light was very soft and muted, and everything was wet, so I focused my attention, and my camera, on detail shots.  Some bunchberry blossoms, aspen trunks, pond lilies, etc.  I don't think I ended up with anything really spectacular, but it was nice to get out again with my 4x5.  This was my first time shooting with it since the Spring Photo Weekend with the Monochrome Guild guys, back in early May.  I pulled the couple of sheets of Polaroid 55 that I shot, and have scanned and attached the best one.  I call this one "Group of Seven"...


Replacement for APX 25...??

Rumor has it that the currently available Adox CHS Art 25 is the same emulsion as the now discontinued Afgapan APX 25.  I still have some old stock of APX 25 in 120 roll film format.  Unfortunately this film was never produced in sheet format.  So, I bought a roll of the Adox material and decided to carry out a little experiment.  The currently available Efke PL25 emulsion also appears very similar to the APX material, and it is available in sheet format in both 4x5 and 8x10.  The quality control of the PL25 material is not the best as I often get negatives with coating flaws and emulsion issues.  Despite this, it is one of my favorite films and I use is on a very regular basis.  The newly available Adox material is hopefully very similar and perhaps of a little better quality.  It too is available in sheet format...  Onward with the experiment.  I loaded two film backs for my Hasselblad camera, one with Adox CHS and one with APX 25.  Then over the course of the last few months, whenever I was shooting medium format, I would take two identical shots, one on each film.  I recently finished shooting these two rolls and set about processing them.  I always loved the smooth tonality of APX 25 developed in Rodinal 1:50.  So, back home in my darkroom I loaded the two films onto reels and put them in a developing tank.  They were processed together with Rodinal developer, diluted 1:50, for my standard time.  I am not convinced that the new emulsion is identical to Agfa.  It is certainly very similar.  The Adox negatives look a little brighter and have a bit more contrast.  I suspect that this is at least partially because the Adox film was fresh, while my old APX stock expired seven years ago.  The base fog is noticeably a little higher in the old film.  The conclusion is that the emulsion is at the very least, quite similar.  It appears as though development time may have to be reduced slightly to produce a negative of the same contrast.  I've attached scans of a number of the images from these rolls.










Summer Hockey - Games 8 & 9

The Renegades played Game 8 of the Summer Season on the Friday of the Dad & Kids Weekend.  Obviously I was not able to play.  The guys managed to defeat the winless Avengers by a score of 7-3.
Then, this past Friday [June 8th] we played the Raccoons.  This is a really dominant team of young, fast players.  I was able to return to the rink for this game and help our team go down in defeat.  We were beaten by a score of 9-3 [again].

Monday, June 4, 2012

Dad and Kids Weekend 2012

This one was a little better attended that others in recent years.  I was there with all three of the girls.  My brother-in-law Shawn was there with his two kids, my friend and business partner Frank was there from Drumheller with his daughter and her friend.  And my employee John from Mac Plastics made it out for part of the weekend with his three kids.  Most of us headed out on Friday right after work.  As in past years we camped at the TL Bar Ranch, along the Red Deer River.  I arrived at about 8:30PM and Frank and Shawn were already there setting up.  We got a fire going and enjoyed the evening.  When we finally gave up and succumbed to the beer by a little after midnight, we all just bailed out to our trailers and tent.  In the middle of the night the horses all wandered into our campsite and made short work of all the peanuts, marshmallows, hot dog buns and potato chips that we had carelessly left out on the picnic table.
The next morning, we shook off the cobwebs and got breakfast going for the kids.  As we were sitting around outside, Annelise noticed a white gopher out in the pasture.  None of the other guys were around when we initially saw it and of course were convinced that it was some sort of beer induced hallucination.  But, I actually managed to get a couple of pictures of it, and then later in the weekend the others saw it too.  I'm not convinced that it was an albino, as the eyes look rather dark in color...??  But it is definitely a gopher [Richardsons Ground Squirrel] and it is most definitely white.



It was overcast, breezy and very humid all day, but quite warm.  Later that afternoon, John arrived with his kids and the two boys instantly headed for the river to do some fishing.  A little later the rest of us went out for a trail ride.  We were late getting started, as the ranch was running behind with the groups ahead of us.  Eventually, as we all got saddled up and ready to go, it started raining.  Initially it was just spitting, but by the time we got a couple miles back into the hills, it was raining fairly hard.  By the time we got back to the barn, everyone was soaked, but still in good spirits after an enjoyable ride.  As we walked the half mile back over to where our trailers were set up it was beginning to clear in the west and we could see that in a short time the weather would improve.
We got back to the campsite around 5:30 and decided that we would wait for a little while before rustling up the evening meal.  Then, just to keep us on our toes, mother nature gave us one last blast of spring squall.  A front blew through and it got very windy.  We were pelted with a brief by rather heavy shower.  Shawn collapsed his tent so that the wind would not destroy it, as had happened to him on a camping trip a couple of years prior.  But, he wasn't careful enough keeping it covered up when he let it down, and a lot of rain got into the tent.  All of his sleeping bags got soaked, and he became very annoyed and frustrated.  The rest of us tried to calm him down and offered to make room in our trailers, and find some space to dry things off.  But, by this time he was too angry, and just threw his stuff in his vehicle and headed for home, leaving his tent in a pile on the ground.  It seems as though it is becoming a tradition for someone to have a melt down at these trips every year.  Last year it was John's turn and this time around it was Shawn.  I wonder who's number will get drawn next year.  Sure adds to the entertainment value for the rest of us!!!
Sunday dawned clear and sunny and we went from being wet, to getting sunburnt.  Only a few cobwebs again this morning, as no one over indulged... at least not too much.  We did keep all the kids up until after midnight... again... so we all slept in a little the next morning... except those over zealous fishermen!! Some of us went out for another trail ride, while Frank went for a hike in the hills, and the boys kept fishing.  All in all a very enjoyable day and a fitting end to a great weekend.  Somehow, even though I never really fished, and my girls didn't catch anything in the few minutes that we tried, I ended up with all the fish in my fridge.  I think that between them the boys must have caught about 15 goldeye.  I'm grateful that Sabrina's friend Dakota cleaned them all, but now I need to deal with them.  I guess I need to find some time to get them into my smoker this week.
Here are a few snapshots from our Sunday trail ride.  I was thrilled that little Helena was willing to try riding this year and went out both days, for an hour each time, in a buddy saddle.  The trail guide Marissa was really good with her and Helena just loved it.  I know that I now have a third horse-crazy girl on my hands.  One of the snapshots below is an overview of the river valley from high up on top of the bench.  Our trailers are visible as little white spots down in the pasture below.






Next year we'll do it all over again!!!  This has now become an annual tradition, and I think that this must have been the fourth or fifth year in a row.  We don't always get a big crowd, and don't always get out on the same weekend every year, but Frank and I haven't missed on yet.

Snapshots from the Jasper Family Reunion

I continue to catch up on posting snapshots from recent events.  At the end of May my brothers and their families, and my parents, and my girls and I all spent a weekend together up in Jasper.  We have been doing this in recent years, while by father is still able to travel.  Mostly we just took it easy, visited, relaxed and watched the cousins have fun together.  Margarit and I went for a walk along the river... some of us went for a trail ride up in the forest, and we generally just enjoyed the spectacular spring weather in the mountains.  I got up early one morning and went for a walk down along the Athabasca and Miette rivers with my Hasselblad.  I haven't processed any of that film yet, and did not have my little digital snap-shooter with me at the time.  I hope that I captured some reasonable images on film and can share them later.  In the meantime, here are a few from that weekend...








Spring Blossoms

We have an ornamental apple tree in our front yard that I think is some sort of crab apple.  It produces significant quantities of small, woody apples, that really don't fall off of the tree until late in the fall or even early the follow spring.  They sure make a racket the first couple of times the grass gets cut and the lawnmower sucks them all up.  Fortunately they are not soft or mushy and don't make too much mess.  A couple years ago a big wind storm took down almost half the tree down, and left the main truck badly damaged and broken open on one side.  I think this problem was made somewhat worse by the fact that some carpenter ants had invaded the tree as well.  But, it has such beautiful blossoms every spring and I just couldn't bring myself to cut it down.  Well that, and I'm kind of lazy to boot.  I know the tree is not long for this world, but we just want to enjoy the spring display a few more times.




Riding Lessons at Kel-J-Do

Its time to get around to posting some snapshots from recent activities.  Back on May 24th, my father's 83rd Birthday, and the day before our family trip to Jasper, I took the girls to their riding lessons at Kel-J-Do Stables.  Finally spring is arriving and they are able to enjoy the lessons outdoors, in better weather.  While Hailey and Annelise were riding, Helena spent her time feeding and petting the two ponies, Charlie and Dottie...
The next lesson, a week later on May 31st, I wasn't able to take the girls as I was frantically getting the trailer ready for the Dad and Kids camping weekend.  The girls still managed to go riding, it was just that Margarit had to take them while I got the trailer organized and picked up weekend groceries.