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.