Dinosaur Provincial Park - Eroded Butte

This is a scan of another recently processed negative.  This is a shot from the fall trip with the Monochrome Guild.  On one of the days we headed out to Dinosaur Provincial Park.  The fall light was absolutely gorgeous, and the weather was very mild.

This is a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320, rated at 250iso and given N-1 development in D23 two bath.  The first bath was D23 stock for 6:00 minutes, followed by a second bath in Borax for 4:00 minutes, all at 24C.  I ran a batch of a dozen sheets on January 25th, and this is one of the better ones.

I took this photograph on October 21st at about 12:00 noon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  A #25 Red filter lowered the value of the blue sky and bumped up the contrast.  The exposure was for 1/4 second at F22.0.

Outcrop

This is a scan of another Agfapan 25 negative.  I cropped this one to panoramic proportions...  Partly because I like the composition that way, but also because I was careless with my wide lens, and the bed of the camera was visible at the bottom edge of the frame.

I'm still amazed that this ancient film stock yields decent results.  Unlike the previous shot of the rail car, this one showed no evidence of any emulsion issues, despite being over 35 years past its expiry date.

I rated the film at 32 iso and developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 13:00 minutes at 22c.  This was part of a batch of 20 sheets that I ran in the Adox APH-09 version of Rodinal, on February 2nd.

This limber pine is out near Whirlpool Point in the Kootenay Plains.  I was exploring there last summer, with my friend Mike, who was visiting from Prince George.  My daughter Ryan and her boyfriend Braeden were also out with us for the day.

I shot this on August 30th 2025, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and an ultra wide Nikkor 65mm lens.  A #8 Yellow filter pumped up contrast a bit.  The exposure was for 1/2 second at F18.0.

Helena's Roundhouse Shot

This is a scan of a negative taken during the fall trip by the Monochrome Guild.  This is similar to a previously posted shot and was taken at the old roundhouse in Big Valley.  My daughter Helena was along on the trip, with four old guys.  It was me, Arturo, Gord and Nigel, and Helena really enjoyed their company.  She is 17 and was out of school at the time due to the teachers strike.  A short time after we returned, the teachers were forced back to work and her grade 12 studies resumed.  I helped her to set up the camera and focus it, and to meter the scene.  But she chose this composition.

This is another of those ancient sheets of Agfapan 25 that expired nearly four decades ago.  The film was rated at 32iso and developed in Rodinal 1:50, for 13:00 minutes, at 22C.  I used the Adox version of Rodinal, APH-0, and ran the batch of 20 sheets on February 2nd.  This one didn't show any mottling, like the other one from the same batch of the railway coach.

Helena took this photograph on October 20th 2025 at about 2:20 in the afternoon.  She used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Rodenstock 90mm lens, with no filter.  Sadly I neglected to record exposure details.

Broken Ladder

This is another test shot.  I thought the scene was very contrasty so I attempted Minus development with Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 in D23 two bath developer.

I found this old ladder laying in the trees at the Nordegg Historic Site, during one of my many private tours.  I metered the scene with my spot meter.  The low values in the shadows were 7 stops below the brightest highlights.  I exposed for the mid tone values of the ladder and some of the leaf litter, and then held down the high values in development.

This is a 4" x 5" negative shot on Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 rated at 250 iso.  Development was N-1... so a one stop contraction.  This was for 6:00 minutes in D-23 stock followed by 4:00 minutes in Borax, at 24C.

I shot this image on July 29th 2025, at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a wide 90mm lens.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F25.0.

Big Valley Coach

This is a scan of another negative from the Fall Photo Trip taken with a group from the Monochrome Guild.  This one is a sheet of Agfapan 25.  This film has not been manufactured for decades, and the company that made it, Agfa, has long since gone out of business.

I bought a number of boxes of this film from a seller on Ebay.  The seller claimed that it had been properly stored in a freezer, but obviously that was not the case.  All of the boxes smelled musty and old, and some of them had mould on them.  I have been shooting the film every since I bought it, around the turn of the millennium.  Most of it worked just fine, although the boxes that were open and partially used had become mouldy and had to be discarded.  This particular negative, although it didn't come from an open box, was showing a little mottling in the sky, and may have been beginning to mould.  This really is not a surprise as the expiry date of the film was July of 1990, so it was probably manufactured sometime around 1986.  I have now just about run out of this film.  I have a few sheets left in some film holders, that will likely be exposed and developed sometime in 2026... so forty years after being manufactured.

I developed 20 sheets of this stuff on February 2nd.  I rated the film at 32iso and developed in Rodinal 1:50, for 13:00 minutes at 22C.  The original Rodinal developer was manufactured by Agfa as well.  When Agfa went out of business a number of other companies started producing developers based on the old Rodinal formula.  The one that I used in this case was Adox APH-09.

I took this photograph on October 20th 2025 at about 1:15 in the afternoon.  This is an old railway coach in the town of Big Valley.  I shot this with my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a 125mm lens.  I added a #8 Yellow filter to bring up the contrast a little, and lower the value of the sky.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F20.0.

Battered and Beaten - Minus Development in D23 two bath.

The contrast of a Black and White negative is partially dependent upon how long it is developed.  When I refer to "Normal" development, it is negatives that are developed to provide a normal contrast range.  This is usually a subject brightness range of about six stops.  Plus development is when a negative is given extra time to increase the contrast.  This is usually reserved for images shot when lighting is rather flat.  Minus development is when a negative is given less development, in an attempt to hold down the highlights.  I have never had much luck with minus development, and largely ignored it in recent years.  I found that although it held the highlights reasonably well, the mid tones and low values looked really flat and muddy.

A photographer on Flickr recently shared with me his technique for minus development with Kodak Tri-X Pan film.  I saw some examples of his work and was quite impressed with the mid tone contrast.  The process uses a two bath developer.  The first bath is Kodak D23.  This is an old and well know Kodak formula, but it was never offered as a prepackaged developer.  You have to make it yourself from Metol and Sodium Sulfite.  Most of the development occurs in this D23.  It is a soft acting developer that reduces grain size.  After several minutes in this developer, the film is moved to a second bath of Borax.  This second bath is highly alkaline.  The film has absorbed the developer in the first bath.  The alkaline bath acts as an accelarator, causing the development to continue.  It is quickly exhausted in areas where there is a lot of exposed silver to develop (the highlights), but continues working for some time in areas where there is less silver (the midtones and shadows).

The result is that the negatives demonstrates full contrast and in the middle and lower values, while the highlights are restrained from being blown out.

I thought I would give this a try, so through the summer and fall of 2025, whenever I ran across a contrasty scene where the highlights needed to be tamed a little, I shot a sheet of film and set it aside.  Finally I accumulated a number of sheets and set about giving this development a try.  I mixed up the chemistry and ran twelve 4" x 5" sheets of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320.  In most instances I slightly overexposed the film to make sure the shadows had adequate exposure.  This was achieved by rating the film at 250iso.

This particular shot was taken last fall when the Monochrome Guild was out on our annual fall trip.  We found a number of old vehicles abandoned in a coulee in the badlands.  The low fall light was creating harsh highlights on the old car, but I wanted to retain adequate contrast in the mid tones and shadow areas.  The two bath technique seemed to work really well.

I took this photograph with my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a 250mm lens.  It was taken on October 22nd 2025 at about 2:30PM.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F25.0, with the film rated at 320 iso.

Two Bath Compensating development, first in D23 stock for 6:00 minutes, then moved to second bath in Borax accelerator for 4:00 minutes.  All at 24C.

Roundhouse

This one is the last of the Kodak T-Max 100 negatives that I recently processed and scanned.  Going forward into the coming days, the images that I post will be different film and developer combinations.  I had quite a backlog of T-Max 100 and ran several batches shortly before the holidays.

This 4" x 5" negative is a shot of the remains of the railway roundhouse in the town of Big Valley.  I stopped here last fall, with a group of photographers from the Monochrome Guild.  We were on our annual fall trip, and last year we elected to visit the Drumheller area.  This was a stop that we made on our way there.  The teachers were on strike at the time and my youngest daughter Helena was along on the trip.  There were five of us, and we stayed at a rental house in East Coulee, and explores for several days in the badlands and surrounding area.

This sheet was developed on December 19th, in 510 Pyro Developer, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.  I shot this image on October 20th 2025 at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide 75mm lens.  I chose not to use any filters.

The exposure was for 1/4 second at F32.0.

Lamp Charger

A couple days ago I posted an image of some lamp batteries.  This image shows the charging unit that was used for those batteries.  It is in the lamphouse of the Nordegg Mine Site.  I don't understand much beyond basic wiring, so I'm not sure exactly how this unit functioned.  It appears that there were means to control the voltage and duration of the charge.

This photograph was taken on a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100, 4" x 5", rated at 80 iso and developed in 510 Pyro.  This sheet was in a batch of 20 sheets that I developed on December 19th.  I gave the batch normal development, which was 1:100 dilution for 8:00 minutes at 24C.

I shot this image on July 29th 2025 at about 1:15 in the afternoon, during one of my many private tours of the historic site.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 180mm lens.  Due to the very low light levels in the old lamphouse, the exposure was very long; 60 seconds at F20.0.

David Thompson Country Calendar 2026 - February Image

This is the image I selected for the February page of my 2026 David Thompson Country Calendar.  I think there are still a couple of copies of this calendar left at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg.

I find this image fascinating, and will likely use it in my Apparitions project.  This is the wall of one of the hoist houses at the Nordegg Historic Site.  I was on one of my many private tours of the site when I captured this image.  Except for the more modern graffiti at the bootom of the image, all of the other stuff dates back 70 years or more.  There are notes about weather conditions on certain dates back in the 1950's.  A one from the day that the mine closed for good in 1955.

I suspect that the coal company closed the mine due to low demand, with the expectation that things would improve at some point, and they would start up again.  Well, that never happened, and everything remains in place as it was left back on that day.

Reynolds Truck

This is an older image.  Arturo and I were out on a day trip, looking for subjects to photograph for our Apparitions project.  We ended up at the Reynolds Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin.  We were more interested in some of the old, unrestored junk that was outside, than we were in the display items in the museum.  This old truck was parked along with several others, awaiting the day when it might be restored.

This is a scan of a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 that I developed in a batch on December 18th.  The film was rated at 80 iso and given Normal Development in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.

I shot this photograph on July 5th of 2024, at about 2:45 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide 90mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter lowered the value of the sky, and increased overall contrast.  The exposure was for 1/4 second at F16.0.

Lamp Batteries

This is another image from the Nordegg Historic Site.  These are old batteries, in the lamp house.  The batteries were used to power the lamps on the miners helmets, so that they could see underground.  Everyday when they started their shifts, each miner would pick up their helmet with a freshly charged battery, and leave their tag at the lamphouse.  Each miner had a tag with a number on it.  This was the way that they kept track of exactly who was in the mine at any given time.  If you take the guided tour of the mine, you can visit this building for yourself and the guides will explain in detail how everything functioned.  I was on a private tour of the mine when this photograph was taken.

This is a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 that I developed on December 19.  The film was rated at 80 iso and given normal development in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes, at 24C.

I shot this image on July 29th 2025, at about 1:45 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a 180mm lens.  The exposure was for 1 minute at F25.0.

Calendar Image - February 2026

This is the image that I selected for the February page of my 2026 Fine Art Calendar.  I've just finished distributing the two dozen copies of this calendar that I had printed.  Sadly a couple of them went out pretty late, so some people will miss having the January image on their wall for a month.

On our way home from some Beer Parlour Project outings in Saskatchewan last year, Arturo and I found an old abandoned schoolhouse.  It had been converted over to a community hall after it ceased to be used as a school.  Inside was a ping pong table, and a lot of pigeon shit.  This was the last shot I took at that location, after we found the ball over in a corner.

Success - Dry January Challenge

I challenged myself to give up alcohol for the month of January.  No particular reason, just wasn't happy with how often I was indulging.  As the month went on I lost about 5 to 7 Lbs, and found that I slept better and generally felt better.  I don't plan to quit altogether but will definitely slow down going forward.

I actually cheated a little.  Margarit and I went out on the evening of January 31st to see a performance of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at the Winspear Center.  After the show we stopped for a bite to eat a local pub, and catch the end of the Oilers game.  The game wasn't worth watching as the Oilers played terribly and lost 7-3 to the Minnesota Wild.  It was about 10:30PM when we ordered our food and I thought I could indulge, and I ordered one beer.  So technically it was an hour and a half early.  But in my defense I started my period of abstinence almost a week early, on Boxing Day.

Sunflower Heads

This is another version of a field of sunflowers near Gywnne, Alberta.  I posted another shot taken on the same date and from this same spot, several days ago.

This one is from a batch of 4" x 5" Kodak T-Max 100 that I processed on December 19th.  Development was in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.

I shot this on September 14th 2025 at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a 125mm lens.  A #8 Yellow filter lightened the value of the sunflower heads a little, and created some separation in the sky.  The film was rated at 80 iso and exposed for 1/8 second at F25.0.

Brothel Highlights

This interior shot is from the Nordegg Historic site.  This building was rumoured to once be a brothel.  I'm not sure if that's true or not...?

This image is from a batch of Kodak T-Max 100 4" x 5" that I developed on December 22nd.  This batch was processed in 510 Pyro developer, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.

I shot this on June 25th 2025, at about 4:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti camera and a super wide Nikkor 65mm lens.  The film was rated at 80 iso and was exposed for 8 seconds at F25.0.

Fan House

This is the fan house for the Number Three Mine Shaft at the Nordegg Historic Site.  The harsh summer sun was nicely showing the texture of the rivets and steel.  This fan moved air through the mine to provide fresh air for the workers, and to exhaust any buildup of explosive gases, like methane, that came off the coal face.  Despite the fact that it has not been used for 70 years, the drum fan still spins on its shaft.  There must be an intake somewhere up above on the hillside, though I have never been able to locate it.  I was photographing at the mine during a private tour, as this site is only open to the public by guided tour.

I messed up a little when I shot this.  I used a very wide lens to record this scene.  Normally when I use my really wide angle lenses with my view camera I need to make a bunch of movements on the standards of the camera.  The bed of the camera needs to be dropped, the rear standard needs to be tilted back, and the front standard needs to be raised and tilted back towards the film.  The bellows extension for wide lenses is minimal and the front standard ends up pushed right back towards the film plane.  These movements are necessary to prevent getting the bed of the camera into the bottom edge of the field of view.  In this case I only raised the standards and didn't do the bed and standard tilts.  As a result the out of focus bed of the camera is visible at the bottom of this image.  I cropped most of it out of this scan, but a little bit of it is still visible, if you look for it.  Live and learn... I should have known better as I have made this mistake multiple times before.

This is a sheet of 4" x 5" Kodak T-Max 100 from the batch that I developed in 510 Pyro on December 19th.  The film was rated at 80 iso and developed at 1:100 dilution, for 8:00 minutes, at 24C.

I took this photograph on July 26th of 2025, at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Nikkor-SW 65mm lens.  This focal length is approximately equal to a 21mm lens on a full frame digital camera, or a 35mm SLR.  I added a #25 Red Filter to increase contrast, and create some separation between sky and clouds.

The exposure was for 1 second at F20.0.

Alsike Corner

This old service station sits beside Highway 39, between Drayton Valley and Leduc.  At this time of this photograph, it had only been abandoned for a short time.  In fact, I remember passing by, about a year prior, and it was still in business.  I shudder to think at how vandalized and looted it must be now, over a year later.

This is one of the sheets of Kodak T-Max 100 that I developed on December 18th.  The film was rated at 80iso and given Normal Development in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes, at 24C.

I shot this on September 1st of 2024, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a somewhat long 200mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter was added.  This significantly lowered the value of the clear blue sky and popped up the contrast of the highlighted storefront and fuel pumps.  The exposure was for 1/2 second at F29.0.

Anyone that has been paying attention to the write ups about my photographs may notice that the aperture that I use for most of them is between F16 and F32.  These small apertures are generally necessary to hold adequate depth of field.  The focal lengths needed for large format photography are much longer than those for 35mm or most digital cameras.  The longer the focal length of the lens, the shallower the depth of field.  Also, the closer to the subject, the less depth of field.  The combination of these two factors is what dictates my longer exposures.  Fortunately, most of the subject matter that I shoot is stationary, so the resulting long shutter speeds don't generally pose any issues.  The exception is the Beer Parlour Project photographs, which always include a person or group.  The long focal length, close subject distance, low lighting in the beer parlours, and motion all combine to create some issues.  I try to compensate by pushing the film to higher iso speeds, opening the lens up as much as I dare, and instructing my at times inebriated subjects to hold still.  Shutter speeds are often between 1/4 and 1 second, so this is not always successful.

Coal Car

This is not a fantastic image, but historically it is significant.  There are a number of old coal cars, including this one, which originally came from the coal mines in Canmore, Alberta.  These were donated to the Nordegg Historic Site and currently remain there.  It is my understanding that they were not used in the Nordegg mine.

This is another sheet of Kodak T-Max 100, rated at 80iso and developed in 510 Pyro.  I shot this one on September 9th of 2024, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  I added a #58 Green Filter with the intention of lightening the value of the foliage and grass, and increasing the separation in the rusty red steel of the mine car.  The exposure was for 4 seconds at F20.0.

Company Store

This is a scan of a 4" x 5" sheet of T-Max 100, rated at 80 iso and given Normal development in 510 Pyro.  Development was at 1:100, for 8:00 minutes, at 24C.

This is another of my shots from up at the Nordegg Historic Mine Site.  I continue my project to document the buildings and artifacts that remain at this site, with the permission of the County.  The mine closed 70 years ago, in 1955. 

This is the interior of the company store, the oldest building on the site.  It survived the big fire in the early 1950's that saw many of the other buildings destroyed and reconstructed.  The miners had to provide all their own tools and supplies.  Being such a remote location, they had no choice but to buy from the company store, and the cost was deducted from their paycheque.  I have no idea how fair the mine was in their pricing but one would hope they had to be somewhat reasonable about it, if they wanted to retain their workforce.  But historically most mines were notoriously cheap, so it seems doubtful that the miners were treated overly well.

I shot this on August 26th of 2024, at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  The exposure was for 60 seconds at F20.0.  I chose to use the pyro developer for this shot as I knew that the resulting stain would help to retain highlight value in the windows.

Dead Trunks

This is a scan of a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak T-Max 100.  I developed this batch on December 18th in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes, at 24C.  The film was rated at 80iso and given Normal development.

This is a spot near my cottage in Nordegg.  There was once a beaver dam on this small creek, but in recent months the dam was breached and the water level dropped.  That left these bleached dead tree trunks that had drowned in the high water.  I'm not sure if the dam was blasted out by humans or just naturally deteriorated and collapsed.  This creek is some distance away from any roads or infrastructure, so it seems unlikely the dam was blasted?

At one time I thought that I might have accidentally fogged a number of sheets of this film.  I discovered as I was loading some film, that I had left a power bar plugged in and turned on, and there was a small LED light glowing.  At the price of film, I didn't want to throw away a dozen or so sheets of film, and so I took a chance and used it.  I labelled the film holders as I loaded and used this stuff, and made a point of not shooting anything that was irreplaceable.  I also shot duplicates on another type of film, as I usually do.  This is one of those sheets that I suspected of being fogged, but I can't see any evidence of a problem.

I shot this image on August 18th 2024 at about 4:30 in the afternoon.  Chris and Connie were visiting us out at Nordegg that weekend, and this was during an ATV ride when Chris and I went out exploring.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a long 300mm lens.  The exposure was for 1 second at F58.0.

A Few Days in Nordegg

I took Margarit out to Nordegg for a few days of rest and recovery.  We headed out from the city on the afternoon of Sunday January 18th.  Sadly we were only able to stay until Thursday the 22nd.  During that time we did not do a lot... mostly just relaxed and let Margarit's shoulder heal from her recent surgery.

I spent a little time working on my old jukebox.  I have been sourcing some parts from suppliers in Germany and California.  This included some card holders, to replace the ones in mine that were missing and broken, and the top glass.  The glass in mine was broken and I managed to take the frame apart and remove the old glass and install the new.

When we arrived there was almost no snow.  We went out for a walk a couple of times, but there was ice on the roadways where traffic had packed down the snow.  Then on the 19th we got about half an inch of fresh snow.  This covered the old ice and made walking somewhat treacherous.  We took a very careful and cautious walk around the subdivision.  We can't afford to have Margarit fall and injure her shoulder, so we put a stop to that after the one walk.

On Wednesday morning I went down to the rink in town and helped a few of the neighbors sweep the ice and give it a flood.  The ice held up remarkably well considering the recent mild spell.  I understand that the guys flooded it a few times in recent days, but did the work after 9:00PM when it was a little colder.

That afternoon Margarit and I took a short drive over to the dump to get rid of some garbage.  I made her a lunch that afternoon, and then in the early evening I headed back over to the rink for the weekly hockey game.  A LOT of people showed up, and the rink was TOO crowded.  We had two goalies and at least 16 skaters.   The ice surface is smaller than regulation size and even playing four on four it is pretty crowded.  It meant a lot of standing around and getting cold, and not much skating.

When I got back to the cottage I found that Margarit had taken off her sling, done a bunch of food prep, and all the dishes.  So much for getting her to rest her arm.  I scolded her and sent her up to the living to watch a movie while I made us a couple of pizzas for supper.

And Thursday it was snowing lightly and was heavily overcast.  I set about the usual clean up routine in advance of our departure.  We would stay longer, but Margarit has an appointment with the Bone and Joint Clinic to follow up on her surgery.  We also have tickets to the Folk Club and the Symphony in the coming days.  Once those events are behind us, hopefully we can return.

All things considered, Margarit's recovery is going remarkably well.  She says the pain is a lot less than what she was expecting.  Initially she had trouble getting comfortable and falling asleep.  But as the days pass that is becoming less of an issue and she seems to be sleeping better.  A return visit is in order as it is more relaxing out in the mountains, and the fresh air makes a person sleep better.

BP29.0 Waldorf

While I'm on the topic of Beer Parlour Project outings, here is another photograph.  This is a scan of a sheet of Ilford FP4+125 developed a couple of months back.  The film was rated at 160 iso and given Normal Development in Perceptol Developer, 1:1 for 11:45 minutes at 24C.  I processed this batch of 4" x 5" sheet film on my Jobo Processor back on October 29th.  I had originally intended to give this sheet plus development, to increase contrast, hence the slight underexposure at 160iso.  But I mixed up the sheets when unloading them, and this one only got normal development.  It turned out alright, all things considered.

We were at Beer Parlour Project outing number BP29.0 at the Waldorf Hotel in Drumheller.  Margarit and I were there, along with Chris and Connie.  Arturo and Sharon joined us as guests for this weekend, and my friends Frank and Chriss tagged along for a beer, and to experience the vibe.

I took this photograph on June 14th 2025, at about 9:15 in the evening.  I shot it with my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a long 300mm lens.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F20.0.  This sign must have looked pretty impressive back in the day when all the neon was still working.

BP31.0 Amisk Hotel

This is a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 that I developed, along with 19 others, back on December 19th.  The film was rated at 80iso and given normal development in  510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.

It was a showery afternoon last summer when the Beer Parlour Project team stopped in at the Amisk Hotel, in Amisk, Alberta, for outing number BP31.0.  Chris and Arturo and I were out for this visit.  This was one of three old hotels, and the only one on the Alberta side, that we visited during our stay in Macklin, Saskatchewan.

I shot this on July 20th 2025 at about 4:45 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a 240mm lens.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F18.0.

Mild January

Since Margarit had her shoulder replacement surgery back on January 9th we have taken things pretty easy.  The weather has been really mild the past couple of weeks, and all the snow that we got back in December is really settling down.  In fact day time high temperatures have been above freezing for days on end, with some days seeing high temperatures approaching double digits.

Officially we were told that Edmonton received 72cm of snow in December.  This works out to a little over 28 inches.  I call bullshit on that one, as we only got about half that amount at our place.  I understand that there was some melting and settling and drifting, but still...!!!  I think the city uses that statistic as justification for their shitty snow removal services.  Despite the fact that significant melting has occurred, they are still farting around with snow removal.  I agree that it is important on the main roadways.  But the side streets that they are now attempting to clear are not necessary.  It is a waste of time and money and just makes parking on the streets virtually impossible.  All they really need to do is run a plow through and smooth out the ruts.  But there are too many whiners that all bitch and complain that more needs to be done.  No doubt these are the same whiners that will complain when the next tax bill arrives.

The recent mild temperatures have turned everything to a skating rink.  The snow is all glazed and crusted over and walking around can be treacherous.  The stores are all sold out of ice melt and snow shovels and scrapers.  Margarit has to be particularly careful as she can not afford a fall onto her recently repaired shoulder.

We had a belated family Christmas dinner with my brothers and their families on January 17th.  All of the cousins managed to attend and it was the first time that everyone got together in quite some time.  We had the dinner at my Mom's place, and this will almost certainly be the last time there as the house is up for sale and Mom now lives in long term care.

The next day I took Margarit out to Nordegg.  She is not even allowed to drive for six weeks so the girls and I have been looking after all the household chores.  I figure she will be less inclined to try to do something out at the cottage, and hopefully will just rest and do her strength exercises.  In contrast to the city, there is virtually no snow out at Nordegg.  Nordegg received much less to begin with, and has experienced the same mild temperatures in recent weeks.  While there is still at least a foot on the ground back in Edmonton, there is nothing in Nordegg save for a few patches in shady spots.  Hopefully we receive a bunch of snow over the next couple of months to mitigate the risk of spring forest fires.

These two shots were taken in our back yard in the city, just a couple days ago.  Helena's snow man, and his snow dog, are melting and falling over as a result of the mild temperatures.

Broken Door

From the batch of Kodak T-Max 100 4" x 5" that I processed on December 22nd.  This batch was given normal development in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes, at 24C.  

This old door is in one of the buildings up at the Nordegg Historic Site.  I have been working up at the site for over a year documenting all the buildings and artifacts.  It is an unofficial position that is unpaid, but I have the permission and support of the staff.  I have built up an archive of dozens of images and will continue to add to it in the coming months.  Some of the images are on display as large prints at the Discovery Center.

I shot this one on June 25th 2025 at about 4:15 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a wide, 90mm lens.  The film was rated at 80 iso and exposed of 16 seconds at F20.0.

Sunflower Field

I took this shot last fall on my way out to Ferintosh.  I was making a return visit to the Ferintosh Hotel.  During my previous visit, for Beer Parlour Project outing number BP36.0, I had left behind one of my film holders.  On this day I took a drive out, had a nice visit with hotel owner Darlene, and then stopped on my way back home to photograph this field of sunflowers near Gwynne.

This is a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 4" x 5" film, rated at 80iso.  I developed this on December 19th in 510 Pyro, diluted 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.

I took the photograph on September 14th 2025, shortly after 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a long 400mm lens.  A #8 Yellow filter lightened the value of the leaves a little, and deepened the small shadow areas.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F25.0.

Vancouver House

My previous post of the door handles was taken up at the Nordegg Historic site.  They were on the door of one of the old cars left behind on the site.  This shot is also from the mine site, though not from the same visit.  There are two houses like this, and they are referred to as the Vancouver Houses.  They were kit houses shipped in pre-fabricated, from a supplier in Vancouver.  This is similar to my previous post called Earlsfield, which was a kit house supplied by Eatons.  The two Vancouver Houses on the mine site were residences for senior staff at the mine back in the coal mining days.  These likely date from the latter days of the mining operations.  The mine closed for good in 1955.  I took a very similar shot previously, but had some difficulty printing it.  In that shot the house was backlit and the sky was kind of blown out.  This time around I shot later in the day, hoping for a better negative to print.  I haven't attempted a print yet, but one of these days I will get around to it.  

This is a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 rated at 80iso and developed in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.  I ran this batch before Christmas, and December 22nd.

I shot this photograph on June 25th 2025 at about 2:30 in the afternooon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a wide 90mm lens.  I didn't bother to use a filter as most of the subject was not in direct sun.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F18.0.

Door Handles

I really liked this shot when I first saw the negative as it came out of the wash.  But then after I scanned it I realized there is an area of lens flare by the lower crank handle.  That ruins the image for me, though I decided to include it here on my blog anyway.

This is a sheet of 4" x 5" Kodak T-Max 100.  I rated the film at 80iso and developed it in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.  I developed this batch just before Christmas on December 23rd.  I shot this with my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Nikkro AM 120mm Macro Lens.  The photograph was taken on April 18th 2025 at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  The sun was behind the subject and I must have caught a little direct light on the front lens element, to result in the flare.  The exposure was for 4 seconds at F36.0.

Earlsfield

This is another recently processed 4" x 5" negative.  This is a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100, rated at 80iso and developed in 510Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.  I ran this batch on December 23rd.  This was actually a sheet from a Kodak Readyload Packet.  These film packs are no longer available.  They were rather costly, even back in the days of much cheaper film.  But they were really convenient as each sheet of film was flawlessly dust free and factory loaded in a cardboard packet.  You only had to carry one film holder, and then insert the individual packets as you used them.  It made for much lighter hiking.  I still have a few left in stock, and have them reserved as back up film on longer trips, or when I'm doing a hike and want to lighten my pack.  In this case Chris and I were on an extended road trip in Saskatchewan and I brought along a few Readyload Packets in case I ran low on film.  That proved to be the case when I went to shoot this old building.

We found this abandoned farm house along a side road in Saskatchewan, not far from the town of Vera.  This was an Eaton's catalogue home.  People could purchase these homes in kit form from Eatons and have the materials package with instructions sent out to their property.  This particular model was called the Earlsfield, and it was probably the most popular one.  We have seem many of them on our travels throughout the prairie provinces.

I took this photography on May 8th of 2025, at about 2:45 in the afternoon.  I shot it with my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a longer Nikkor 210mm lens.  A #22 Orange filter increased the contrast a little and created some separation between sky and clouds.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F18.0.  The expiry date on this pack of film was June of 2009, so it held up pretty nicely 16 years later.

Ditch Dodge

My brother Shawn and I found this old Dodge out in Lamont County one day last spring when we were out exploring.  I was shooting large format and Shawn was doing a little digital shooting with a new to him DSLR.  This is from one of my recently processed batches of Kodak T-Max 100, rated at 80iso and developed in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.  I ran this batch just before Christmas, on December 22nd.

I took this photograph on May 26th 2025 at about 5:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a Schneider 135mm lens.  I didn't bother to add a filter as any one that I could have selected would have made little difference.  The exposure was for 1/4 second at F16.0.

Shoulder Replacement

On Friday January 9th I took Margarit in for her shoulder replacement surgery.  She had been waiting for several years for this day, and when it finally arrived there was some nervous anticipation.  I dropped her off at the clinic at 6:45AM.  Her's was the first surgery of the day with her surgeon.  She was in the operating room by 7:30AM.  At about 10:30 I got a call advising that she had been in recovery for around half and hour, and I should make my way down to pick her up.  I arrived at the clinic around 11:15.  They monitored her oxygen levels for a bit, and then ran through all the medications and stuff that she has to deal with in the coming days.  By shortly after 12:00 noon I had her back home and resting.

I had mixed feelings about the fact that she waited years for a procedure that took a couple hours.  We are grateful that her pain issues have finally been addressed, but a little disappointed that she had to wait so long.

The operation was done at the Alberta Surgical Center, a private clinic that is funded by Alberta Health.  It was very organized and efficient and she was treated very well.  I have no issue with a private clinic such as this being run for profit, as long as it is covered by our health system and everyone has equal access to it.  There are mixed opinions about this concept but anything that improves access and takes some of the load off the overburdened hospitals is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.  The only things we had to pay out of pocket for were her prescriptions, and a sling.

The procedure that Margarit had done is a Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty.  In a healthy shoulder there is a ball at the upper end of the humerus [arm bone] that fits into a socket on the scapula [shoulder blade].  The standard surgery involves replacing these components with artificial ones.  In her case the joint was so badly deteriorated that they had to do the reverse process, and put an artificial ball on the scapula, and a plate on the humerus.  It makes me wonder that if they had done the surgery sooner, perhaps the more traditional hardware could have been used.  In any event, this process is supposed to work well and eventually will provide her with near normal range of motion.

She tells me that the pain is a little less than she had expected.  She has been resting for a couple of days now and is in generally good spirits.  She can't really lay down to sleep yet so she is in bed, in a partially sitting position, trying to catch a little sleep.  Mostly she just dozes for short stretches but this should improve over the coming days and weeks as the healing progresses.  Later today I will take her in for a follow up x-ray to make sure that everything is properly in place.  She will also start doing some daily exercises.

Winch House and Mine Cars

The batches of 4" x 5" sheet film that I recently processed included some shots taken up at the Nordegg Historic Site.  I have permission to tour the site and photograph all the buildings and artifacts.  I make my images available to the County at no charge, and I have a number of prints displayed in the Discovery Center.  I will continue to document the site in the coming months and years.

This was another sheet of Kodak T-Max 100, rated at 80iso, and given Normal development in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.  I developed this batch just before Christmas, on December 22nd.  I took this photograph on June 25th 2025 at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 300mm lens.  This is a long focal length for this format and is equivalent to about a 100mm lens in full frame digital or 35mm film format.  A #25 Red Filter increased overall contrast.  The exposure was for 1 second at F25.0.

Badlands Pontiac

Back to some recent scans of 4" x 5" negatives.  This is yet another sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 developed in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.   This is from a batch that I processed on December 22nd.

This old Pontiac is abandoned in the badlands of the Rosebud River Valley, not far from Drumheller.  I shot this back on June 14th, at about 1:00 in the afternoon.  I was in the area with Margarit, Arturo and Sharon, and Chris and Connie.  We were visiting the Rockyford and Waldorf Hotels for the Beer Parlour Project.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45Tu view camera and a 110mm lens.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F29.0.

First Nordegg Visit of 2026

On New Years Eve I headed out to Nordegg.  None of the girls wanted to come along this time, so I went out by myself.  I've never been one to celebrate the arrival of the New Year, so it was all very low key.  Mostly I hung around the cottage and watched the World Junior Hockey Championship on TV.  I could see the fireworks in town from my living room window so I never bothered to leave the cottage for the festivities.

I elected to do the Dry January challenge and haven't had any alcohol since around Boxing Day.  I feel energized and have been sleeping better so it is worth it to me. I'll keep it going for at least the month of January, and maybe longer.   There wasn't much of a party atmosphere around me for the holidays this year...!  

It had been quite cold through most of December and I wanted to check and make sure that everything at the cottage was OK.  I had previously had an issue with the furnace in our guest cottage, and although I monitor the thermostat remotely, I still wanted to check that everything was OK... and it was.

I found an original glass top for my Rockola Jukebox through an Ebay seller from California.  That arrived over the holidays so I took it out to the cottage to replace the broken one that I have.

On January 2nd it warmed up significantly and that evening I visited with some neighbors around an outside bonfire.  The temperature only dropped down to about -4C that evening, where in the days and weeks prior we had a long stretch of -15C and colder.  At times it was much colder, approaching -30C without the wind chill effect factored in.  On Saturday the 3rd I helped the locals do a flood down at the rink.  It was pretty cold that morning... about -18C with 98% humidity.  That evening we had the weekly shinny game, and it was still pretty cold.  This was my first time skating since the staples were taken out of my leg.  It was a little sore and raw, but it felt good to be back on the ice, less than a month after my surgery.

There is hardly any snow around Nordegg.  There was a dump of about six inches when Ryan and Braeden and I drove in out mid December.  But a warm spell after that saw most of it disappear.  Since then there has been virtually no new snow.  Quite the contrast to Edmonton.  I heard on the news that Edmonton received 72cm [over 28 inches] of snow in December.  I certainly don't have that much in my yard... probably only half that amount... and am a little skeptical of that claim.  But the wind blew some away, and it settled somewhat, and there was a little melting.  All the city folks are whining about poor service on the part of the City of Edmonton in removing snow from the streets.  These are the same people that complain about taxes being too high.  I would just as soon see the snow removal kept to a minimum.  Once they run the graders and snow plows through it just creates big windrows on the sides of the road making it difficult to park.  It would be better to just let it get packed down, and then maybe just blade it a little to get rid of the ruts.  Of course that won't happen.  The City will cater to the whiners, and our taxes will continue to go up.

Congratulations

Chris and I found this old abandoned school house out in eastern Alberta.  We were passing through the area in the spring of 2025, visiting several hotels for the Beer Parlour Project.  This school district had celebrated it's 100th anniversary at some point prior to our visit.  Since that time, many visitors have scribbled their names, and the date, on the old blackboard.  Sadly we could not find any chalk, so we could not make a note of our own.

By this point in our trip I was starting to run low on film, and resorted to using some of my backup supply of Kodak Readyload film packets.  These are no longer manufactured, and well out of date, but I save them for situations like this, and for longer hikes when I need to lighten my load.

This sheet was in the batch of Kodak T-Max 100 that I developed on December 23rd.  The film was rated at 80iso and given normal development in 510Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.

I shot this on May 10th at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a 125mm lens.  The exposure was for 1 second at F11.0.

Sharples

This is the old Parrish and Heimbecker grain elevator at Sharples.  I shot this last summer when we were in the area for some Beer Parlour Project outings.  I shot it again when the Monochrome Guild was out for our fall trip.  This is a scan of the earlier negative, shot on a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak T-Max 100.  The rail line that goes past the elevator has been abandoned for some time, and the rails have been pulled up.  A trail society now owns the right of way and there has been ongoing talk that the elevator will be coming down.  It seems to me the society would be better served to spend their money on upgrading the trail, not wasting it on demolition.

I rated the film at 80 iso and developed it in 510 Pyro, 1:100.  This was part of a batch that I processed on December 22nd.  This shot was taken on June 15th 2025, at about 1:45 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a 135mm lens.  A #8 Yellow Filter created a little separation in the sky.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F16.0.

David Thompson Country Calendar - January Image

This is the image I selected for the January page of my 2026 David Thompson Country calendar.  These calendars are available to purchase at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg.  This year I printed a larger square format calendar, that allowed me to use images in both landscape and portrait orientation.  Although I took some photographs of the ice bubbles on Abraham Lake in late 2025, I did not have the film developed in time to consider them for this calendar.  This one is actually an older one, that dates back to 2017.  I've used similar images in the past, but never this one in portrait orientation.

BP23.0 - Stettler Hotel

One of the batches of Kodak T-Max 100 that I recently processed, included these two images from the Beer Parlour Project visit to the Stettler Hotel, in Stettler, Alberta, last spring.  This was the outing that we refer to as BP23.0.  It was back on April 25th of 2025, and both of these images were taken around 7:30 in the evening.

Margarit and I stayed in the hotel that night, and then carried on to another Beer Parlour Project outing the next day.  Both images were shot on 4" x 5" sheet film with my Ebony view camera.

Mount Michener

This is a scan of a 4" x 5" negative that I shot last year.  This is a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 that I developed on December 23rd, along with a bunch of others.  The film was rated at 80iso and given Normal development in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.

This is Abraham Lake and Mount Michener, not far from my place in Nordegg.  This photograph was taken on March 30th 2025, at about 2:45 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a wide Schneider Super Angulon 90mm lens.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F25.0.

BP12.0 - Viking Hotel

This is yet another older photograph, from one of the batches that I processed before Christmas.  I managed to catch up on most of my backlog of undeveloped Kodak T-Max 100.

This is a shot from almost two years ago.  This was our Beer Parlour Project outing to the Viking Hotel, in Viking, Alberta.  We refer to this one as BP12.0.

This is a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak T-Max 100, rated at 80 iso, and processed in 510 Pyro Developer.  Development was at 1:100 dilution, for 8:00 minutes,at 24C.

I shot this one on April 13th 2024 at about 6:45 in the evening.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera [one of three Ebony's that I shoot with] and a Fujinon-W 125mm lens [one of two that I have].  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F22.0.

Anyone reading this, that is not familiar with my documentary project, may want to check out the project website.  We are visiting, experiencing and documenting small town hotel taverns in Western Canaada.   www.beerparlourproject.com

Happy New Year - January Calendar Image

With this the first day of 2026 I thought I would share the first image from my 2026 Fine Art Photography calendar.  I took this shot about a year ago down along Shunda Creek.  This one was taken with my big 8" x 10" view camera.  I got my batch of calendars back from the printer about two weeks ago and I'm still in the process of distributing copies to friends and family.