Saturday, November 29, 2014

Friends and Family Show - The Monochrome Guild

I thought that the Fall Friends and Family Show, put together by The Monochrome Guild, went pretty well, all things considered.  It has been a hectic few days for me trying to get everything together, but it went off without a hitch.  There were over 50 prints on display, as well as another 25 or so loose prints put out for people to shuffle through.  I'm proud of the way everyone pulled together and helped to get this show ready.  The only downside was the weather....
The day before the show a winter storm rolled in and it started to snow.  By the evening of the show the snow was beginning to taper off, but not before it had dumped nearly 16 inches of snow on the city.  And as the snow ended and the sky cleared, the temperature plummeted.  By the time that we got the show underway the temperature had dropped to about -23C, and with the wind chill factored in it was well below -30C.  Needless to say attendance was lighter than what we have experienced in the past.  Nonetheless I estimate that between 50 and 60 people stopped by to check out our work.  And there were a few pieces that sold.  Thanks to everyone that dropped by and encouraged the Guild to push forward with events like this.  This won't be the last and we vow to continue and organize more evenings like this in the future....









Thursday, November 27, 2014

Preparations for the Show

Last night after work I picked up all the refreshments for the Monochrome Guild show.  Then I came home and worked on framing my two new prints, as well as pulling together all my supplies, small prints, and some previously framed work.  This morning I packed everything into my truck and took it with me to work.  I stepped out briefly and dropped off everything at Arda's office this morning.  Then right after work I headed back over to help with preparations for the show.  Gary, Mark and I spent a couple of hours hanging up all the prints and organizing the office space.
Whew.....!!!  It has certainly been a busy few days, but finally we have everything ready.  The weather has taken a real turn for the worse and we are in the midst of a winter storm.  About 8 inches of snow has fallen so far today, with more to come.  The temperature is falling, with a forecast high of about -20C for tomorrow.  Obviously we did not choose the best possible day, but we have to push forward.  Hopefully of the several hundred people that we sent out invitations to, a few will have the desire to brave the cold and come out tomorrow night.   Fingers crossed....

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Friends and Family Show 2014



The Monochrome Guild is hosting our semi-annual "Friends and Family" show this Friday.  All are welcome to attend.  Mostly this is just an opportunity for friends, neighbors and family to see what we've been up to.  Though at past shows there was always the question asked... "Are the prints for sale?"  The answer is "Yes" they are... but that is not really the focus of the show.  We just want to have a chance to get together with friends and show off what we've been working on.  So, please feel welcome to stop by, and please don't feel obligated to buy anything...!!!
I've just been working on spotting, mounting and matting a couple of new prints tonight.  I will get them into frames tomorrow, so that the installation of our show can take place on Thursday, in advance of the show.  This might be our last one for a little while as this venue is not going to be available to us in the future.  One of the Guild members graciously offered up his office space for these shows in the past, but he is down sizing his engineering business and will be moving out of this location in the new year.  We will have to come up with some alternative venue for future events.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Winter Photography

On Saturday around lunch time, before my hockey game, I packed up my gear and headed down to the river.  I hoped to be able to photograph the ice bloom that had started here in Edmonton on the North Saskatchewan River.  It had started a couple of weeks ago, when it first turned cold.  This was right around the time of our Monochrome Guild Fall Photo Weekend in Jasper.  Shortly after that weekend the river was beginning to get choked up with ice. It was looking as though it might freeze solid before the weekend and I might not get a chance to shoot it again this year.  But then conditions got milder and I was optimistic that the bloom would be delayed enough for me to capture it on my days off work.  I found a great spot down by the river, with some good overviews available from this pedestrian bridge.  But, the weather had been too mild, and despite the recent fresh snow, most of the ice had melted off of the river, except for the crust forming at the edges.  So I took a couple of record shots with my 4x5 and am hopeful that the next cold snap won't hit until a weekend, and I will have an opportunity to get out and capture it.
Here is a shot from November of 2009 to give some idea of the natural spectacle that I am hoping to capture.  And here are a couple of iPhone snapshots of the location that I went to this weekend.  Perhaps next weekend conditions will improve...





Sunday, November 23, 2014

Winter Hockey - Game 12

The Renegades played game 12 of the winter season on Saturday afternoon.  For a change we got a good ice time, with the game starting at 5:15PM.  This time we faced off against the last place Juggernauts.  Games against these guys have always been rough, penalty filled affairs, and this one was no exception.  The game was moderately tame until late in the third period when one of their players two handed one of our wingers in the head with his stick.  A fight broke out and there were a bunch of penalties and ejections, which will no doubt be followed by suspensions and fines....
But, the important part was that we played a solid game, shutting them down defensively.  We only gave up one goal, and that was when we were short-handed.  We managed to score four times on their goalie, who was really solid and made some great stops.  A 4-1 Renegades victory keeps us near the top of the divsional standings...

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Back to the Darkroom.... Print Session... Unsharp Masking

On Tuesday night I headed back down to the darkroom to get started on some printing.  I had spent the evening prior making a bunch of unsharp masks and now I was ready to get started...
Unsharp masking is a technique that is difficult to explain and comprehend.  The traditional method is a darkroom technique.  But it has found it's way into digital photography and is also one of the filter tools that can be utilized in PhotoShop.
The traditional method involves creating a slightly out of focus positive transparency of the negative to be printed.  The negative and the positive are then sandwiched together in prefect registration and used to create a print.  The mask [out of focus positive] is not fully developed resulting in an image that is a little thin and weak, as well as being out of focus.  When this is combined with the original negative it basically results in a very fine dark outline around highlights, and a very fine light outline around shadows, when the two are projected together onto a piece of photo sensitive paper.  This creates the illusion of increased sharpness and contrast.
The most critical factor is to have perfect alignment between the negative and the mask.  This is virtually impossible to achieve with small roll film negatives.  But with large format sheet film, and the use of a pin registration jig, it is relatively straight forward.  The pin registration set includes a number of components.  First there is a punch, that punches two very small holes in the edge of the film.  This is used first to punch the edge of the original negative, and then a piece of film which will become the mask.  Then, there is an easel, with two pins that are spaced at the exact same distance as the holes that the punch creates.  This allows the original negative and the film that will become the mask to be held in a set position for exposure.  The exposure is done with a separator of a piece of clear film stock, which is used during exposure to separate the mask from the original, resulting in an out of focus image.  The thickness of this separator affects the degree of focus, and the amount of time that the mask is developed affects the density of the mask.  These factors dictate the strength of the effect.  Once the mask has been exposed, processed, washed and dried, it is stacked with the original negative to expose the paper of the final print.  This requires a film carrier with pins that also line up to the holes of the punch and the easel.  This allows for perfect alignment of the mask and the negative.
I use orthocromatic film for making my masks.  This type of film is sensitive only to blue light.  This allows me to work under red safelight when exposing and developing the mask.  I tray process the film by inspection, and pull the film from the developer, moving it to the stop bath, when I feel the density is adequate for the masking process.
I made masks of 8 or 10 different negatives on Monday evening, and on Tuesday I headed down to the darkroom to print two of them.  I made large 16" x 20" prints of these two negatives.  If these prints turn out as I hope, I will display them at the upcoming Monochrome Guild Friends and Family Show.  I may also consider them for inclusion in the Procession West project.
The snapshots below show the two negatives as I worked on printing them.  There is an image of the negative and the unsharp mask sitting beside the negative carrier.  Note the small holes at the edge of the negative and the mask, and the pins in the carrier.  I have also included an image of each negative projected down onto my 16"x 20" easel.  The easel itself is yellow in color and it is this that makes the image look the color it is.  Finally I have included snap shops of the prints being fixed in a tray.  This work was all completed during my darkroom session that lasted for about 5 or 6 hours.  At the end of the evening I left the prints in a holding tray of water and tidied up the darkroom.
The next evening I went back down to finish the prints.  They were given a second fix in a tray of fresh fixer.  This was followed by a water rinse and then a clearing bath of hypo clearing agent.  From there the prints went into a toning bath of selenium.  Selenium reacts with the silver in the emulsion of the print and results in a print that is more archival.  It also provides a slight deepening and cooling of the image tone.  Toning was followed by a quick rinse and then the prints were moved to a vertical print washer for final washing.  I usually wash my prints for about 24 hours, a combination of prolonged soaks with periodic changes of water, and some shorter times with the washer running and water circulating.  After this extended wash the prints are hung briefly to drip dry, and are then laid out on drying screens to fully dry.  After the prints have dried there is usually some spotting and finishing work required.  Sometimes the prints have to be re-wet to undertake some localized bleaching of highlights, which may be the case this time around.  If that proves necessary, the prints will need to be washed and dried again.
A rather long and involved process to create what I consider to be a work of art.... or at least I hope it will be a work of art.  Between the original taking of the photograph, the processing of the original film, and then this elaborate printing procedure I sometimes feel that I invest more time in a finished print than a painter might in creating an oil painting or a water color.  Digital photography has jaded the public's perception of the skill and dedication required on the part of traditional photo artists I suppose because it is relatively easy to make a few quick digital manipulations to an image file and then hit the "send to print" button.  A traditional fine art print is a lot more work and leaves a lot of the subtleties of the look of the finished piece in the hands of the artist.  This is reflected in the price that I ask when I offer my prints for sale.








Monday, November 17, 2014

Day 4 - Fall Photo Weekend

We got up in the morning, on Tuesday, Remembrance Day.  There were four of us remaining on the Fall Photo Weekend trip as the others had headed home yesterday.  It was very cold overnight, with the temperature dropping down to around -25C under clear skies.  When we got up in the morning we packed up all of our gear and checked out of the hotel.
We decided to head up the Pyramid Lake Road one more time.  Our first stop was at Patricia Lake.  The clear morning light was looking pretty good on Pyramid Mountain, though it was a little flatter than the evening sidelight from our last stop here.  But this time ice was beginning to form on the edges of the lake, and there was a mist rising off the open water.  It looked a lot warmer than it really was... with the temperature hovering around -19C while we attempted to work with our cameras.
After this stop we continued on up the road to Pyramid Lake.  Here conditions were much the same, but there must have been a breeze overnight as there were ice formations all over the shore, and a hoar frost in the trees where the mist coming off the lake had settled into the forest.  We shot here for quite a while before eventually heading back down into the valley.
We made a brief stop along the Athabasca River near Old Fort Point before eventually hitting the road for home.  We stopped briefly to check out a small herd of Bighorn Sheep, and made one stop to photograph the Athabasca Valley in mid day light.  
We left the park a little after noon and continued on to Marlboro.  Like the other half of our group had done the day prior, we made a brief stop here to explore the old abandoned cement plant.  After this last stop we just headed for home, and arrived back in Edmonton by early evening.
For a more detailed run down of the weekend events please check back to my previous blog posting from a few days ago.  I have attached a number of digital snapshots taken on this last day of our outing...







 








Sunday, November 16, 2014

Busy Weekend

This has been a very busy weekend....  I think I need to go back to work to get some rest!!!  Friday night we were able to relax a little, but after that it was go, go, go...  I had to get up early on Saturday morning for the Renegades game.  I enjoyed the game a lot more than any other I have recently played in, but was pretty tired when I got home.  
When I got home Margarit was out with her Mom and the girls were home alone.  I was pretty tired and knew that I had a busy evening coming up so I had a nap for a couple of hours.  I woke up a couple hours later when Margarit got back and we got ready to go out for the evening.  We had tickets to go see Fleetwood Mac at Rexall place.  We met up with Margarit's best friend Shelley, and another friend of hers, at Brewsters.  We had a couple of beers and something to eat and then caught the train to the show.  It was a great concert and I'm a big fan of Fleetwood Mac.  Lindsay Buckingham the lead guitarist is one of the best I have ever seen and the whole band put on a great show.  
We got home from the concert about midnight.  Margarit's mom had been having some issues with her dog, but there was nothing that we could do about it at the concert.  But, on Sunday morning Margarit went with her Mom and took the dog to the vet.  Everything turned out OK and a short time later, the two oldest girls and I caught the train to go and see the Canadian Football League Western Semi-Final game betweeon our hometown Edmonton Eskimos and the Saskatchewan Roughriders.  The Riders fans are very dedicated, vocal and obnoxious and the stands were full of them....
I had tickets for the girls and I to attend the game, but at the last minute we were able to upgrade to some better seats, on about the 20 yard line, in the 11th row.  I have an opportunity to take over the seasons tickets on these seats for next year so we sort of gave them a test drive.  I tried to find someone to take the ones that I had purchased but on such short notice they went unused.
It was a great game, with our Eskimos defeating the Riders by a score of 18-10 to move on to the Western Final next weekend against Calgary.  But it was very cold sitting in the stands for three hours in -10C temperatures with a bit of a wind...



Saturday, November 15, 2014

Winter Hockey - Game 11

The Renegades played a game at 9:00 this morning against a new team, STankey.  Not sure what the name means or how it is supposed to be pronounced.  These guys won all of their games down in the lowest division, before being moved up into our Division with the first realignment.
It was a challenge to get enough guys out to the rink for this game as several of our regulars were away, and two are suspended.  Despite some last minute cancellations I managed to get 9 forwards, 5 defense and our goalie out for the game.  
It was a penalty filled affair with a total of 21 minor penalties,,, 12 for them and 9 for us.  I took one for roughing when I dumped one of their guys heavily along the boards.  We outshot them 32-16 and won the game by a score of 6-4.  I think the score could have been a lot more lop-sided was it not for the fact that they had a hot goalie, and ours had an off game.  Kris let in 4 goals on 16 shots, and a couple of them were pretty soft.  But the win is what matters as is puts an end to our losing streak and we can hopefully gain some confidence and turn things around.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Day 3 - Fall Photo Weekend

The third day of the Monochrome Guild weekend in Jasper was Monday November 10th.  When we got up in the morning the snow had let up but it was cold.  We packed up and headed out after breakfast.  Our first stop was up at Portal Creek, near the Marmot Road.  This was a spectacular spot with the opening water still tumbling down the creekbed over all the boulders.  There was fresh snow on the rocks and ice forming all over... and to make matters better the clouds were beginning to lift and the sun was coming out.  In hindsight I should have brought my medium format Hasselblad system as it would have allowed me to explore many more compositions and then go back to the one or two best ones with the slower view camera.  But, I had only brought the 4x5 on this tirp so I spent the morning with that and set up four different compositions.
By about lunchtime half of our group had to pack up and hit the road home to Edmonton.  Arda, Tom, Margarit and Andrea were on their way while Court, Peter, Mark and myself stayed behind.  By the time we finished up here is was mid-afternoon.  We headed back down the hill to the Icefields Parkway and made two more stops.  The first was at the Athabasca River bridge with a spectacular view of the river and Pyramid Mountain.  The wind was brisk, the humidity high and photographing here was very uncomfortable.  I didn't even attempt to set up the 4x5 and only shot here with the digital.  Later we moved north to the Miette River bridge and shot here for a while.
Once we packed up here the day was just about done but we made a quick side trip up the Pyramid Lake Road and shot Pyramid Mountain from the shore of Patricia Lake in the beautiful early evening light.  This was the last stop as our day of shooting came to an end.  We headed back to our room after that, then went out for supper, and then settled down for the evening.  The next day would be our last in the mountains for this years Fall Photo Weekend.  I've attached six of the digital snapshots that I took during the course of day three....









Thursday, November 13, 2014

Day 2 - Fall Photo Weekend

What a difference a day makes.  When we got up on Sunday morning there was 6 to 8 inches of fresh snow on the ground, and the temperature had dropped to around -15C.  Quite a change from the +10C temperature we had enjoyed just a few hours earlier.  After breakfast we packed up and bundled up and headed out of town. 
In a meadow on the edge of town we came across a herd of elk.  Mostly they were cows, the harem of a big mature bull.  A slightly younger and smaller bull was challenging his reign, and we pulled over to the side of the road as the battle began.  It was quite the spectacle, particularly for Tom who had recently moved to Canada from Ireland, and never seen anything like this before.  I think that the larger bull was the same one we saw yesterday beside the Pyramid Lake Road, as this was very close to the same area, and his antlers appear to have the same tine pattern.
Eventually we headed up the Maligne Road.  The snow was pretty deep and there were only a couple of tracks ahead of us on the road, in the fresh snow.  Eventually we came upon a van that was stuck in the snow at the edge of the road.  We stopped and helped to push him out before continuing along on our way.
Our first photo stop was along the Maligne River and the conditions here were just beautiful.  We photographed here for a while before continuing further up the valley to Medicine Lake.  
Conditions at Medicine Lake were not all that great.  The clouds were very low in the valley, there was a lot of snow, and the water was still a little high.  Not nearly as good as the conditons were when we shot here a year ago.  On our way back down the road we came across a couple of Mule Deer in the fresh snow and managed a few snapshots.  After that we carried on over to Horseshoe Lake on the Icefields Parkway.  We shot for a while here as well before eventually calling it a day and heading back into town.  Here are a few digital snapshots from some of the stops during the day. 








Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Winter Hockey - Game 10

While I was away in Jasper on the Fall Photo Weekend the Renegades played Game 10 of the winter season.  This was a Saturday night game against the Trojans.  I understand that it was a penalty filled affair, instigated by some poor officiating.  The team ended up with a couple of guys susepended and lost by a score of 8-5.  I spent some time today writing e-mails to the league officials protesting the suspensions and pleading for a reduced sentence.  I'm feeling very much like a lawyer.  This loss has left the team near the bottom of the standings in a tight Division VIII.  Hopefully we can turn things around next game and put an end to this losing streak.

Day 1 - Fall Photo Weekend

The first day of the annual Fall Photo Weekend was Saturday November 8th.  Driving through the snow and then the rain after leaving Edmonton early in the morning we arrived in Jasper National Park before lunch time.  Our first stop was the dunes along Jasper Lake.  Initially I thought is was an abnormally calm day, but once we got loaded up and hiked down into the dunes it was evident that the ever present wind was yet again... ever present.  It was more of a stiff breeze on this day, and with the temperatures well above the freezing mark, photography was possible, and reasonable.  These images were all taken with my new Nikon D810 digital camera, which I have been using and getting comfortable with since late summer.
After spending a good part of the afternoon shooting out at the dunes, we headed into the Jasper townsite and on up to Pyramid Lake for a while where we explored a little up a Pyramid Island.  After that we stopped along the road to take some images of an aspen grove in late day overcast light.  For some reason I only shot the aspens with my 4x5 and didn't take any snapshots with the Nikon.  I guess I'll have to wait until I process my film to see what I ended up with.  On the way back down into town at the end of the day we came across this majestic bull elk and his harem of cows.  After taking a few shots of him continued down into town and checked into our hotel, settling down for the evening.  Refer back to my previous post for a more complete rundown of the weekends events.