BP36.0 Ferintosh Hotel

On Thursday August 28th I blasted out to the airport, shortly after noon, and picked up Margarit, Hailey and Helena.  They were returning, two days late, from their trip to Austria.  The return flight was supposed to be on the 26th, but it was delayed due to an issue at the airport in Edmonton.  They were forced to return to Montreal that day, and spend two nights there, before eventually making it home.

Right after I dropped the girls off at home I loaded up my camera gear and hit the road.  Chris and I learned that the Ferintosh Hotel, in Ferintosh, Alberta, was going to be closing for good at the end of August.  We had made arrangements to visit it just before they shut down.  Sadly this got very rushed due to the late return of the girls.  But there was no option to re-schedule, so I headed out.  I met Chris at the hotel, and later Arturo and Camillo joined us for the evening.  We had a great evening visiting with everyone in attendance and taking a few portraits with the big camera.  This particular beer parlour was very dark, and I neglected to bring along my studio lights, so the photography was a little limited.  But I managed to shoot a bit.  A lot of photos were also taken with digital and smaller cameras.  Chris did the usual interviews with some of the people there.  Things wound down about 10:00 and I hit the road for home.  The next day I needed to be in Nordegg to meet my friend Mike, who was passing through from Calgary, on his way back home to Prince George.  He was picking up a dry mount press and print washer from the lot of darkroom equipment that I was selling.

Chris ended up staying for two nights at the hotel in Ferintosh.  The next night, Friday the 29th, was the big send off party.  A band was playing, and a lot of people were out.  Sadly I missed that part of the event, and of course, as a result, the big view camera was not there.  But our colleague Byron blasted out from Calgary and joined Chris and they made the best of it.  I guess it was pretty crazy and hectic keeping up to all the people and all the goings ons.  Hopefully the two of them got a bunch of digital photographs to round out the event.

Old Store

Here is another scan of a recently processed Fuji Neopan Acros 100 negative.  This sheet of 4" x 5" film was processed a week ago or so, in Rodinal Developer, 1:100.  I shot this one last fall when Margarit and I were touring around southern Saskatchewan.  I assume that this old building was one a store of some sort.  There were a handfull of residents remaining in this small town, but not much else.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide 90mm lens.  A #8 Yellow filter created a little separation and contrast, without losing any detail in the shadow side of the building.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F18.0.  The image was taken in a small town in the Rurual Municipality of Wood River No. 74, on September 21st 2024, at about 11:15 in the morning.

Willow

My previous post showed a large thunderhead building in advance of a strong storm.  This photograph was taken the next day... the aftermath.  It was still blustery and cloudy and very humid.  There was debris washed over the roads in many places, and the ditches and fields were flooded in low areas.

I shot this image on a sheet of Fuji Neopan Acros 100 and developed it together some some of my previously posted images.  I shot this with my Ebony view camera and a long 400mm lens.  A #25 Red filter pumped up the contrast and created some separation in the sky.  The exposure was for 1/2 second at F250.0.

I took this shot on September 18th 2024 at about 2:45 in the afternnon.  This big tree, which I believe is a willow, was found in the Rural Municipality of Pinto Creek No. 75, down in southern Saskatchewan.  

Before The Storm

This is a scan of another negative from my trip to Saskatchewan last fall.  Margarit and I toured around for about a week last September.  This was a 4" x 5" sheet of Fuji Neopan Acros 100 that I recently developed.  The film was rated at 80 iso and developed in Rodinal developer, 1:50, for 11:00 minutes at 24C.  I shot this on September 17th 2024 at about 4:20 in the afternoon, using my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  A #25 Red filter deepened the value of the sky and created some separation of the thunderhead.  The exposure was for 1/4 second at F18.0.

Margarit and I had been touring the west block of Grasslands National Park.  As we left the park in the afternoon we made our way north, through the Rural Municipality of Mankota, towards the rental that we were staying at in Cadillac.  We spotted this old school, which later became a community hall, and thought it made a nice foreground for the big thunderhead that was building.  As it turned out this became quite a massive storm.  By the end of our drive back to Cadillac the rain was coming down in sheets and we could barely see the highway ahead of us.  I can't recall the rainfall total but it was something like 6 or 7 inches that came down in less than 24 hours.  There was some hail, and the storm spawned a tornado that touched down north of where we were staying.  The next day there was evidence of the storm everywhere.  Fields were flooded and there were numerous places where water had been running over the highways and roads.  I think it was the most intense storm that I have every personally experienced.

Most Photographed Car in Saskatchewan

Well.... my absolute distrust of airlines was confirmed... again...!  Margarit and the girls were supposed to arrive home last night.  Their flight was on schedule, and they were more than half way back... somewhere over Manitoba, when there was a problem.  One runway at Edmonton International is under construction, and there was a damaged plane stuck on the second runway.  So their flight got diverted back to its starting point in Montreal.  Now they are stuck there for a couple of extra days before they can finally return home.  This is why I don't fly...!

This car is probably the most photographed car in Saskatchewan.  It sits at the edge of a small ghost town in southwestern Saskatchewan.  It is a British import.. an Austin.  I believe the model is an Astro, but I'm not certain of that.  There were a large number of these brought into Canada back in the 1950's and 1960's but they proved unreliable in our harsh climate and on our rough roads.  They more or less disappeared shortly afterwards, except for a few abandoned ones left lying around.

This is a scan of one of the sheets of Fuji Neopan Acros 100 that I recently processed in Rodinal Developer, 1:100, for 11:00 minutes at 24C.  The film was rated at 80 iso.  I shot this with my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Nikkor 210mm lens.  A #11 Yellow Green filter lightened the value of the grasses.  I took this shot on September 19th of 2024, at about 4:30 in the afternoon.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F20.0.  This town is in the Rural Municipality of Coulee No. 136.

Cloverly and First

Margarit and the girls are returning home from their visit to Austria, later this evening.  They have been away for most of the month of August.  While they were away, I stayed in the city and kept my middle daughter Ryan, and her boyfriend Braeden, company.  Initially, when the girls left, the other kids didn't have a drivers license so I had to drive Braeden to and from work every day.  But Ryan practiced driving, and went for her road test on the 18th.  She passed, and right after that I signed over our old SUV to her, and the two registered and insured it.  Since they have this new found freedom they are out and about all the time, and I don't see them as much.

I also got caught up on a bunch of chores around the house...  cleaned the eavestroughs, cut the grass, watered the plants, looked after the pets, got all of the vehicles serviced, the list goes on.  In between all of that I spent a bunch of time in my darkroom.  I developed over 125 sheets of 4" x 5" film, as well as several rolls.  I never did get around to any printing, as I had hoped, but I put a significant dent in my backlog of film processing.  That said, I still have 21 sheets left from 2022 to be processed, and 24 from 2023.  But this is an improvement of the previous situation.

One of the batches that I processed was 20 sheets of Fuji Neopan Acros 100.  Sadly this film is no longer made in sheet format, so when I current stock runs out, I will no longer be able to shoot it.  I really like the way that it renders mid tones, so I will likely ration my last few sheets for suitable special occasions.  Most of the images in this batch were from my trip last fall to southern Saskatchewan, with Margarit.

This old abandoned service garage was in a small town in the Rural Municipality of Arlington No. 79.  I shot this on September 16th 2024, at about 11:00 in the morning.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a slightly wide Fujinon 125mm lens.  The film was rated at 80 iso and exposed for 1/4 second at F16.0.  Development was in Rodinal 1:50 for 11:00 minutes at 24C.  This yielded a slight push in contrast, which was further enhanced by the use of a #25 Red Filter.  I may have posted another version of this image in the past...?  But I really like the way that this one turned out.

The Next Beer Parlour Project Outing

The Beer Parlour Project team is heading out to visit the Ferintosh Hotel in Ferintosh, Alberta.  This will be destination number 36 on our growing list of hotels visited.  So... BP36.0.  Most of the team will be there on Thursday August 28th, starting at about 4:00 in the afternoon.

The hotel is potentially closing at the end of the month and they are having a last blow out before they are done.  This will carry over with a celebration on Friday August 29th.  I will be in attendance on the 28th with my big view camera, but sadly I have a prior commitment on the 29th.  My colleague Chris will be staying for the festivities on the second night and it will be part of our visit, though the big view camera will not be present on the second evening.

Darlene, the owner of the hotel is working on a plan to try to keep the hotel operating.  It remains to be seen if that is successful.  So this may be the end... or it may not...  If you are in the area on either evening, please feel free to stop by for a visit.

Hank

Margarit, Hailey and Helena travelled to Austria in early August.  They are visiting with family there.  They will be coming back home in a couple of days.  I stayed behind in the city with Ryan and her boyfriend Braeden.  It has been a really busy time.

Initially Braeden needed a ride to and from work everyday.  But then, after extensive practicing, Ryan took her road test last week.  She passed and got her Class 5 drivers license.  I signed over our old Honda Pilot to her, and she now has it registered and insured in her name.  Braeden has had his Ontario license for a number of years, so now they are both able to drive.

That newfound freedom and independence has seen them out and about doing all sorts of stuff.  With this milestone behind her, Ryan can now focus on finding work.  She has a few applications in, but nothing has come through yet.

I've also been catching up on a bunch of chores at home.  The list is long and includes cleaning eavestroughs, cutting grass, pruning trees, servicing vehicles, paying bills, looking after paperwork, repairing the dishwasher, etc.  We have also been looking after the rabbits and Hank while the other girls are away.  We have been watching baseball and football on TV, heading out to play trivia at the pub, and I've started to catch up in the darkroom on processing film.  I also squeezed in a couple of Beer Parlour Project outings.

Every couple of days Helena has been asking me to send her pictures of Hank.  I guess she misses the little guy.  So I've been taking phone snapshots from time to time and sending them to the girls.  

BP33.0 - Blue Saloon

This is a portrait of Doris.  She visited with us at the Blue Saloon in Carseland, Alberta, on July 25th.  This is the outing that was recorded by CBC News out of Calgary, and the one that we refer to as BP33.0.  Chris interviewed her and I look forward to hearing what she had to say.  Generally while Chris is interviewing a patron or staff at a hotel, I'm busy taking portraits with the big camera.  Chris records the interviews with a laptop, and then transcribes that interview, using a software program, which converts it to a text file.  From there he selects a few interesting quotes and tidbits to add to the write up that he puts together for each hotel.  Chris does the bulk of the work on this part of the project, as he also does the research into the history of each hotel.  I try to help out a little bit, and convert his notes to a rough draft of an essay, that he then further refines and adds the quotes.  It all seems to work out just fine.

This scan is from a 4" x 5" negative, Kodak Tri-X Pan 320.  This is one of the eight sheets that I recently experimented with.  The film was pushed to 1600 iso and given 2-1/2 hours of development in highly diluted HC-110 developer.  It seemed to work pretty well, so I'll continue to experiment with this combination.  The only downside is that it takes a LONG time to process any quantity of film.

BP32.0 - Marengo Hotel

This shot is from the Beer Parlour Project visit to the Marengo Hotel, in Marengo Saskatchewan, back in July.  This is Kaila, the daughter of owner Penny, and Ronan, the son of Kaila.  It seemed kinda weird to see a little kid in the bar.  But, aside from being family of the owners, the bar also serves as a restaurant and a small convenience store.  They sell a few snacks and pop to the locals as there are no other services in the town.  So kids are allowed in until some point in the evening, when it switches over to just a bar.  I can't recall... around 8:00PM or something like that.

This one was somewhat of an experiment for me.  So far I have been using two large format films for my Beer Parlour Project portraits.  Those are Kodak T-Max 400 and Ilford HP5.  They both work reasonably well, but I've been investigating other options.  This shot was taken on Kodak Tri-X Pan 320, rated at 1600iso.  The development was in highly diluted Kodak HC-110 developer, 1:100.  The development time was for 2-1/2 hours, with very minimal agitation.  I just gave the film very gentle agitation for a few seconds, every 30 minutes.  I have a plastic cover that I put over the tank of developer, that had the film and stainless steel hangers in it.  This allowed me to open the door and leave the darkroom after the development had started.  I slipped back in every half hour to agitate the film.  Then after two and half hours I returned to the darkroom, left the lights off, removed the cover, and continued with the stop, fixing and clearing baths.

The idea of this extremely long development time is that the dilute developer becomes quickly exhausted in the areas where there is a lot of exposed silver (the highlights), but continues to work in the areas with little exposed silver (the shadows).  It seemed to work quite well and the eight sheets that I developed on the afternoon of August 12th all turned out reasonably well.  Once I process the duplicate shots taken at the same time, on one of the other two film types, I will be able to compare and form a more realistic opinion.

Merlin

These little falcons are pretty common in our part of Alberta.  They are really skittish and active and rarely let you get close to them.  I've never been able to get a close up photo of one.  This is not the way that I wanted it to happen.  This poor little guy crashed into the picture window of my Mom's house and was killed.  What a beautiful little bird... so sad...

CBC News

Here is a link to the CBC News article about the Beer Parlour Project and our visit to the Carseland Hotel, on July 25th.  This was outing BP33.0.  I missed the news story when it originally aired the day after our visit, but its nice to see it was finally up on the CBC website.

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6872937

BP35.0 Wabamun Hotel

Chris came up to Edmonton on Friday August 15th to attend the BP outing in Andrew, and be part of the CTV feature.  Connie was unable to make it, as she had to work.  An air mattress in my living room provided a place to crash.  On Saturday morning Connie came up on the bus, and we picked her up just before lunch.  Later that afternoon we headed out to the village of Wabamun, west of Edmonton.  We visited the Hotel and Bar in the village as the 35th destination of our project.  This one is officially BP35.0.  There was a good crowd in attendance and we had the opportunity to interview and photograph a bunch of the locals.  There was also a young guy there playing guitar and singing as the evening entertainment.  Byron hung around for this one and joined in again as a guest photographer.

Ryan and Braeden weren't able to make it out to this one as Braeden had to work on Saturday afternoon.  We visited with them a bit later in the evening, back at home, and the Chris and Connie crashed in the living room.  On Sunday morning, after breakfast, we said our goodbyes and Chris and Connie headed for home.

BP34.0 Unwind Bar and Grill

On Friday August 15th the Beer Parlour Project team visited the Unwind Bar and Grill at the Andrew Hotel, in Andrew, Alberta.  This was our 34th outing, therefore we refer to it as BP34.0.  This one was pretty special because a report from CTV news joined us to do a feature on the Beer Parlor Project.  Chris drove up from Calgary to attend, and my middle daughter Ryan and her boyfriend Braeden tagged along.  Guest photographer Byron Robb also ventured up from Calgary.  We had a great evening and carried out the usual interviews and portrait sessions.  This time around we were also the subject of some interviews as CTV reporter Connor did the same with Chris and I.

The kids had a lot of fun, and hung out at the bar running up a big tab for me.  There were hurting a bit the next morning, but really enjoyed themselves.  Braeden had to work the next day, and I had to be up early to give him a ride, so it was particularly challenging for him.

BP24.0 - Big Bubba's Bar and Grill

We were visiting Big Bubba's Bar and Grill and the Alix Hotel, back in April.  This was our Beer Parlour Project outing number 24... or BP24.0, as we like to call it.  The saloon is named after the late pet dog Bubba, of hotel owner Barb.  The restaurant next door, Sally's kitchen, is named after another of her departed pets.

Margarit convinced these two big burly biker dudes, Greg and Ryan, to pose at the bar with girly umbrella drinks.  They were really good sports about it and very cooperative.  They did not know each other and had never met until about 2 minutes before I shot their portrait.  This was taken on a sheet of Kodak T-Max 400, rated at 1250 iso, and developed in T-Max Developer.

BP23.0 - Kimberley

I recently processed a batch of 4" x 5" T-Max 400 film, that I rated at 1250 iso and developed in T-Max Developer, 1:4.  These were all from various Beer Parlour Project outings this spring.  This shot was taken at the Stettler Hotel, back in April.  Margarit and I stayed in the hotel the night of our visit.  This is a portrait of Kimberley, the owner of the Hotel.  She is also a piano instructor, and keeps a grand piano in the tavern.  She gives lessons, and can sometimes be convinced to play.  She played for us on the evening of our visit, and thought that she was terrible.  It sounded amazing to us.  It seems everyone is the own worst critic.

Beer Parlour Project hits the Road

The Beer Parlour Project will be on the road again.  We have three upcoming outings booked, which will be hotels 34, 35 and 36.

On Friday August 15th we are travelling east of Edmonton to the Unwind Bar and Grill in the Andrew Hotel, in Andrew, Alberta.  A reporter from CTV news is supposed to be joining us to do a feature on our project.

Then on Saturday August 16th we are heading west of Edmonton to the Wabamun Hotel and Bar in Wabamun, Alberta.

And finally, on Thursday August 28th we are visiting the Ferintosh Hotel in Ferintosh, Alberta.  Sadly this hotel is closing at the end of the month, and we are managing to sneak in an outing there, before they close for good.

Anyone reading this is welcome to stop by and join us at any or all of these outings.  Stop by, say hello, have a cold beverage with us...!  We celebrate and support these historic places and are thrilled when others feel the same way about them as we do.

Witch House

A somewhat non-traditional view of the infamous "Witch House" in southern Saskatchewan.  I shot this one back in the spring of 2024, when Chris and I were touring the area for the Beer Parlour Project.  This was taken on a sheet of Ilford HP5+, developed in 510 Pyro.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I use this film for some of my Beer Parlour Project portraits, but when it is underexposed and pushed to 1250 iso, it requires an extended 35:00 minute development time, which is very tedious.  I often only run six or seven sheets at this extended development time, and make up the rest of the batch with film that has been given normal exposure.  That was the case with this image.  

I shot this on June 16th of 2024, at about 6:15 in the evening.  I used a wide 80mm lens on my 4x5 view camera.  A #25 Red Filter created some separation in the sky, and increased contrast a little.  The film was rated at 320 iso and developed for 7:45 minutes.

BP27.0 Edgerton Oasis Hotel

This is a scan of another sheet of Ilford HP5 that was exposed at 1250iso and developed in 510 Pyro.  Development was extended to 35:00 minutes to compensate for the severe underexposure.  This seems to be working reasonably well.

Back in May, Chris and I took a trip out to Macklin, Saskatchewan.  We stayed in a rental house there and spent about four days exploring in the area.  During our time there we visited three old hotels for the Beer Parlour Project.  This one was number 27, or as we prefer to refer to it...  BP27.0.

We stopped in at the Edgerton Oasis Hotel, in Edgerton, Alberta.  This is just a short distance west of the 110th meridian and just on the Alberta side.  These two guys, Doug and Rod, were hanging out and visiting.  They filled us in with a few stories about goings on at the hotel back in the day.

BP24.0 Big Bubba's Bar and Grill - Alix Hotel

This is another negative from the recently processed batch of HP5 film.  This is also another shot from our recent visit to Big Bubba's Bar and Grill at the Alix Hotel, in Alix, Alberta.  This is Roberta, a patron that visited with us while we were enjoying our outing to the hotel.  This was outing number 24 towards our eventual goal of one hundred hotels.  So BP24.0.

BP24.0 Patti and Robin

Margarit and Hailey and Helena went to Austria to visit family.  They left on August 6th.  Ryan and Braeden stayed behind and I'm hanging out with them.  I've been spending a bunch of time in my darkroom, getting caught up on my backlog of film processing.

Recently I processed a batch of Ilford HP5+ in 4" x 5".  When I shoot this stuff at close to its rated speed, I develop in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 7:35 minutes.  When I shoot it for the Beer Parlour Project I push the film to 1250 or sometimes even 1600 iso.  This underexposure requires significant extra development.  I use the same developer, 510 Pyro, but have to develop for 35:00 minutes.  Needless to say it is rather tedious standing in the dark for over half an hour, agitating the film hangers once per minute.  I usually do three batches at a time, but this would take almost 2 hours, and by the end the developer would be getting exhausted.  Instead I usually do two batches of normally exposed film, then then a final batch of six or seven sheets from the Beer Parlour stuff.  That's what I did this last time around.

This shot is from BP24.0, our outing last April to the Big Bubba's Bar and Grill in the Alix Hotel.  This portrait is of servers Patti and Robin.  They did a great job looking after us during our fantastic visit to the hotel.  So far it is one of the oldest we have visited, and dates back to 1904.  So that would have made it 121 years old at the time of our visit.

Third Jerseys

A couple of years back my Renegades Hockey Team won a free set of jerseys.  Our team was the one in our division with the fewest penalty minutes.  We were entered into a draw with all the other teams, from the other eight or nine divisions, that also had the lowest penalty minutes.  We won the draw... and finally collected on it.

We were shocked and dumbfounded to learn that we had the fewest penalty minutes in our divisioin.  That year was certainly an anomoly, as we usually have among the highest penalty minute total.  My friend Matt Perin owns a company called Rock Star Sports Apparel and he donates a set of jerseys to the league every year.  Matt is a goalie, and used to play on our Renegades team years ago when we first started out.

We got 16 jerseys, one for each of the full time players on our roster.  This is what the new jerseys look like.  We chose white jerseys, so that when we play in them, any players beyond our 16 can just wear our old white jerseys and be a close enough color match to satisfy the league.

More Game Camera Photos

On July 31st I pulled the memory card from my back yard trail camera at the cottage.  It had been recording new photos since the end of June.  There was nothing out of the ordinary this time around.  Mostly night time infrared photos, with only a handful captured during daylight hours.  Lots of shots of the White Tail Deer, and a few of the Red Fox.  The bucks have their antlers in full velvet now.

Its really busy out in the subdivision at this time of year.  Lots of people around, particularly on weekends.  Lots of dogs and ATV's too.  The deer don't come around as much as they do in winter.  Mostly I suppose because I always put out a few oats in the winter.

A Walk to the Mine

On July 29th the skies were sunny and there was no rain, for a change.  It was very warm and very humid.  I decided to take yet another tour of the Nordegg Historic site with my big view camera.  This time around I turned my attention to the upper part of the mine site.  I haven'ts spent a lot of time in this part of the site in recent months.

I photographed at the lamphouse, and then at the entries to Level 2 and 3 of the mine.  There are also fan houses in these locations and I shot here as well.  At level three there is still an opening into the ventilation shaft, covered with a steel grate.  Beautiful cold air comes out of that opening and it is like air conditioning on a hot summer day.  Obviously there is another opening somewhere else on the site that allows the air to get in.  The mine entrances themselves have been barricaded and there is no access to the coal workings.

Four Hundred Thousand

Sometime right around the beginning of August my blog hit a milestone with 400,000 page views.  I have been posting my ramblings for 15 years, and there are over 3200 individual posts.  Thanks to all of you that have been following along for all these years.  Hopefully you enjoy some of my mindless nonsense and my photographs.

August Image - David Thompson Country Calendar 2025

This is the image I selected for the August page of my 2025 David Thompson Country calendar.  This little waterfall is on Shunda Creek, not far from my cottage in Nordegg.  I was fascinated by the way the bubbles swirled around in an eddy at the base of the falls, and captured that with a long exposure.  The vertical highlight is from the reflection of some trees on the surface of the water, and I find it a little distracting.  I should probably go back and try it again on a cloudy day.  Right now the water in the creek is really high as there has been a lot of rain in the mountains in recent weeks.  

Nordegg Visit - Late July

I awoke in my trailer in East Coulee, the morning after the visit to the Blue Saloon in Carseland for BP33.0.  I tidied up a few things, packed my gear, and hit the road.  After a fuel stop in Drumheller, I headed across country to Red Deer and then on to Rocky Mountain House.  I picked up a few groceries in Rocky Mountain House and then headed on to Nordegg, arriving in the evening.

The first thing I did was check the sump pump as there had been a lot of rain recently.  The switch must have malfunctioned or the float hung up on the side of the sump, and the pump was burned out.  I had a backup pump and put that down the hole.  Soon all of the accumulated water was pumped away.  Fortunately it never got to the level that there was any water in the crawl space.

I spent over a week out at the cottage and mostly just relaxed.  I got in three rounds of golf.... one solo, one with my friend Eric, and one with my neighbor Rob.  A managed to pick up a set of used left hand clubs for Braeden for 20 bucks at the clubhouse.  I made a trip up to the mine site for a day and took a bunch of photographs.  I cut up and split a bunch more firewood, including the dead tree that I cut down last time I was out.  Other than that it was just a little visiting with neighbors, catching up on some chores, and relaxing.

It was a very enjoyable week and I look forward to the time that I can return for another extended visit.  Sadly, Gary the Jukebox technician was not able to drop by this time, as I now have the needed parts for the old Rockola.