Christmas Show and Sale

The show was a great success.  Not from a sales perspective, but that was never the intention.  Court sold one of his prints, and I sold a couple books, but I think that was the extent of it.  But the show was very well attended, and well received.  Once again, in the mad rush to prepare for everything, we forgot to put out a guest book.  By my informal count there were probably about 150 people that came through.  It was after midnight by the time the last of us packed things up and headed out.  These shows are always such fun and so encouraging.  I had a great time and we have a couple of leads for future exhibitions, and on a couple of potential new members.  A great success by all accounts...

Preparing for the Show

The Monochrome Guild members are preparing for our semi-annual Friends and Family Show.  This time around it is a "Show and Sale".  At past shows many of our guests have questioned why we did not have our work available for sale.  The focus of these shows has always been just to have a fun evening, enjoy time with friends and family, and allow everyone to see what we have been working on.  We decided that this time we will also include a selection of prints that are available for sale.  

I have spent the last couple of evenings cutting mats, drymounting prints, and preparing a selection of work that I will have available for sale.  I will also offer signed copies of my Procession West book.  And, I will also display four or five of the large framed prints from that show.  Mostly I am looking forward to a great social evening with friends and family.  Just the way to start the festive season.  Everyone is encouraged to stop by and check it out.

Winter Hockey - Games 13 and 14

The Renegades played two games over the past several days.  On Friday we played a game against the Canadians, at CAC Arena.  This was not one of our better games.  Our backup goaltender hurt his back early in the game and struggled to continue to play.  We ended up losing by a score of 11-5.

Then on Monday night we played a game at the new Terwillegar Recreation Center against the Banana Hammocks.  The last time we played these guys they tuned us by a score of 8-1.  This time around, we were playing with the same backup goaltender, out to avenge his effort on Friday.  He stood on his head for us this time and despite being outshot, we were leading 3-1 late in the game.  They scored a questionable goal, that we thought was kicked in, late in the game.  This gave them some momentum and they rallied to tied the game with less than a minute left on the clock.  Overtime didn't settle anything so we went to the shootout. Unfortunately we did not execute in the shootout and lost the game by a score of 4-3.  But, as a team this was one of the strongest games we played all year.  And, it was a really fun game to play.  We will build on this and see if we can go on another winning streak as we move into the second half of our season.  We should be tied for first place in the standings but lost 8 points in the divisional realignment.  This leaves us solidly in playoff contention, but only in fourth place.  Our challenge moving forward will be to re-establish ourselves.

J&C Classic

Several years ago there was a small on-line film supplier in the St. Louis area... Overland Park, Kansas to be precise, that was importing and distributing European made large format film.  This was J&C Photo and John Anderson was the owners name, I believe. His company was a great supplier, providing alternatives to the main stream manufacturers, for the fine art photography market.  He was one of the first to bring Efke films to North America.  He also had a line of film branded with his own company name.  This was J&C Classic, and the emulsion was available in three speeds... 100, 200 and 400 ISO.  I experimented with the 200 ISO version as there was no other film of a comparable speed available.  A couple of years later J&C was forced to cease operation.  Partially this was because they lost the exclusive North American distribution rights to some of these products, but I also heard that there was a "frivolous" law suit of some sort launched against the company.  In any event it was sad to see them go.

I bought a number of boxes of the 200 speed version and have been shooting a little of it every year.  Each time that I process a batch I am encouraged by how good the negatives look, and vow to shoot it more often.  I have been saving up my exposed film for a number of years and now find that I have 50 sheets to process.  I use my Jobo processor and Kodak HC-110 developer with this film, and develop a little longer than normal to increase constrast.  The film has a nice grain structure and a bit of a gritty look to it.  I quite like it and it works really well with certain subjects.  I still have a few boxes left in my freezer, but once that's gone I'm not sure what I'll do.  Freestyle Photo in California sells a film that is branded with their own Arista name, and is available in a 200 ISO version.  Maybe this is the same emulsion, or at least similar.  I think I need to give it a try.

Earlier this week I processed the first batch of 20 sheets.  That film is now dry and I scanned the negatives this morning.  Here's what I ended up with...

These first three are from various camping trips and day trips back in the fall of 2009

Aspen Trunks, Tolman Bridge

Twice Fallen

Beach Grass in Wind

In the fall of 2009 the Monochrome Guild headed down to the badlands around Drumheller for our annual Fall Photo Weekend.  These two images were taken on that trip.  Both are detail shots, taken with a long lens, viewing downward onto some badland exposure.

Rills

Hoodoo Layer

These two images were taken at an old abandoned farm up in Lamont County in the spring of 2010.

Porch

 

Windows and Trunks

Hailey and I headed out for a Dad and daughter camping weekend back in the mid-summer of 2010.  We ended up in Beauvallon, northeast of Edmonton, and spent some time photographing there.

Old Chevy

And another in my "Playground Ghost" series.

On the May Long Weekend this past summer, we took our new trailer down to Southern Alberta.  These next two images were taken at Red Rock Coulee Natural Area.

Red Rock Boulders

Slab

Later in the spring we ended up down at Tolman Bridge for the annual Dad and Kids camping weekend.

Fence Line

Fence Post

When my cousin and her family were visiting from Germay last summer we travelled to the badlands and the mountains with them.  These two shots of the old Elevator at Dorothy were taken on that trip.

On this past September Long Weekend we went out with the trailer and headed to Southeastern Alberta and eventually over into Saskatchewan.  My Mom came along with us on this trip.  It was while we were away camping that my father passed away.  On the first day of that trip we stopped at the Mud Buttes.

Mud Butte Rills

Twin Buttes

Just a few weeks ago the Monochrome Guild headed out to Jasper for the 2013 version of the Fall Photo Weekend.  This was the trip that Hailey came along on.  These two shots were taken of the ice beginning to accumulate on the rocks of Portal Creek.

Ice Bells

Portal Creek

100 T-Max - Plus Development

A couple days ago I processed the last of my exposed Kodak 100 T-Max sheet film.  Once again this was in 4" x 5" format.  This time around the film was processed in Perceptol developer and given plus development to increase contrast.  This small batch includes a selection of images takes over the last several years...

Aspen Grove, Elk Island National Park, 2011

Grain Auger, 2012

Spring Runoff, Blackmud Creek, 2013

Alberta Badlands, 2013

Chevrolet, 2012

Prairie Coulee, 2011

Spring Grasses, 2011

Abandoned House, 2012

The Mud Buttes, 2013

Ram Canyon, 2012

Abandoned Snowplow, 2010

Aspen Trunks, Elk Island National park, 2013

More 100 T-Max Negavtives

Earlier this week I processed another batch of 100 T-Max negatives in Perceptol developer.  Once again this was 4" x 5" sheet film.  This is the last of my exposed film of this type that requires Normal development time.  The film was all dried and I scanned some of the best ones yesterday.  These were all taken in 2012.

Badlands Wash, TL Bar Ranch

Bellevue Mine, Crowsnest Pass, 2012

Burmis Tree, Crowsnest Pass, 2012

Chungo Creek, 2012

Blackstone Chungo Confluence, 2012

Pond Detail, Kananaskis, 2012

Maintenance Shop, Brazeau Collieries, 2012

Elk Island National Park, 2012

Ram Falls, 2012

Stumps, Second Vermilion Lake, 2012

Winter Hockey - Game 12

The Renegades played a hockey game on Friday evening at Canadian Athletic Club Arena.  We faced off against the third place Thunder.  This is a team of very young, very small, very fast, mostly Asian guys.  Our goalie Kris had a rough start and was not seeing the puck well.  Our team was also not playing particularly well in front of him.  We spotted the Thunder to a first period lead of 7-0.  Even though our play improved as the game wore on, that was too big a deficit to get out of.  The score ended up 8-2, and our winning streak came to an end.  Early in the third period I was defending in front of the net and a slap shot was rifled in from the point.  It was a good one, travelling about waist high, and the shooter got all of it.  It caught me right in the glove, on the fingertip of a slightly open hand, where of course there is no padding.  I managed to finish the game, but couldn't grip my stick very well.  The finger is now extremely sore and swollen and very purple.  Not sure if it's broken or not, but it might be.  I'll have to see if it heals well enough to play next week.