In Focus 2018

Last night I attended the opening reception for InFocus 2018.  Margarit and my Mom joined me.  The opening was really well attended.  I didn't get a particularly accurate count of how many people were there, but it had to be well over 100.  I ran into a number of friends and acquaintances at the event.  The wall panels that I helped build looked really good and the photographs were well received.  The show will be on display through the month of February.  I encourage anyone that is out at the Edmonton International Airport to step over to the connected Renaissance Hotel and check out the work.

Rob's Millwork Shop

I spent a bunch of time at my shop again this weekend, working on some projects for our cottage.  We got quite a bit of snow in the past week... about 6 to 8 inches... so the snowmobile should get out soon.  But, it's been really cold, with overnight lows around -25C and the daytime high temperature only making it up to -15C or so.  Seems there is always a breeze, making it feel worse...

On Saturday I picked up some plywood from the lumber store and took it to the shop.  I only grabbed three sheets so far but need to get back there and grab some more.  These will be cut up and used to make the body of the cabinets I am building.  This will be a vanity for our bathroom, a free-standing pantry, and the kitchen cabinets.  The plywood exposed on the interior of each cabinet will be lacquer finished.  On the exterior the plywood will be completely concealed by the hardwood that I will be using.  I ordered a small lift of "rustic hickory" which I will be picking up this week.  It is all still as rough boards so I will need to plane it all down before fabricating anything.

My work is somewhat at a standstill right now as I am waiting for several things needed to continue.  We haven't found any more antique windows, so I can not continue with anymore of the interior doors.  The first one is just about finished and I'm in the process of pre-hanging it into the jamb, and installing the door latch.

I bought a large slab of fir that is about 3" thick, 20" wide and 11 feet long.  This will make the lunch counter that will be installed in our bay window.  I can't really work on it yet either, as I need final dimensions after drywall in order to cut it to size.  Today I rough cut it to the 8 foot length that we will need, which left me a 3 foot long piece for our coffee table.  I can now begin work on finishing this smaller slab, but eventually need to come up with some sort of base for it.

I cut up one sheet of plywood and made all the pieces for the body of the bathroom vanity.  I had to stop at this point and can not assemble it yet.  I'm waiting for an order of some plastic laminate that needs to be glued to the inside floor of the cabinet, before I can go any further.  Even with this laminate material I can't proceed beyond basic assembly as I'm still waiting for the hardwood.

Over the course of this next week I should be able to round up most of what I've been waiting for and continue with my cabinet making.  But, if the weather improves we may take a spin out to the cottage, which would put this millwork on hold yet again...  Most of it isn't needed until later this summer.  I'm just trying to make use of these cold winter days and accomplish something so that I have less to do later in the summer.

We went out for brunch today to the Blue Chair.  The guitar teacher that Anna and I have been taking lessons from was playing there with a friend of his.  It was a really nice morning, and fairly busy.  The food was really good and we enjoyed the background music.  We didn't get a chance to talk to our teacher Gary, but will see him again tomorrow at our regular lesson.

Still Life Photography

With the recent spell of cold weather it has not really been an option to venture outdoors for any photography.  At least I haven't felt motivated to do so.  But I'm anxious to have some new film to process and some new images to work with.  The other day I was in the grocery store and saw some nice bosc pears.  They seemed to have some character with their slightly irregular shape and their long curving stems.  So, I bought three of them and took them home with the intention of photographing them.  I've had them for a few days now and if I waited too much longer they would have become over ripe.  Last week I set up and photographed them.  I cleared a section of our kitchen table, set up a background stand, and put up a white paper backdrop.  I set up one studio light and a reflector.  I didn't bother with a softbox or an umbrella as I wanted some more direct light to provide some distinct shadows.  I took several shots with my 4x5 view camera.  This included a few on typical black and white film... I used Ilford Delta 100, Kodak Tri-X Pan and Foma Retro 320 soft.  I also took a couple shots on some of my last remaining Polaroid 55, as well as a couple of color negatives.  Then I switched to my big 8x10 view camera and shot a few more larger negatives.  These I will use for some alternative process work, if the images turn out.  I've included a couple of snapshots below of the set up, and the subject.

Free and Clear

One of the conditions attached to the purchase of our lot in Nordegg, by Clearwater County, requires that we build a cottage to the lock up stage within three years of possession.  If this condition is not met, the County takes the lot back and refunds the purchase price less $5000.  If this were to happen the owner would forfeit the value of any work done to date.  We obviously had no intention of testing the resolve of the County and proceeded with construction in the spring 2017, after possession.  I understand that the County has taken back at least two lots in the subdivision in the past.

Yesterday an inspector from Clearwater County went out to Nordegg and carried out a review of our project, as well as a couple others in the subdivision.  Our project was deemed complete to lockup, even though there are a couple little odds and ends remaining to touch up.  We are now free and clear to do what we want and work at our own pace.  We could choose to sell the property now if we wanted to... but we do not.  There are no conditions attached and no deadline to completing the interior of the building.  We want to get it over and done with relatively quickly, so that we can begin to use and enjoy the place. 

From the date of possession on July 1st 2016, to the date of inspection on January 31st 2018, exactly19 months elapsed.  So we were just over half way to the deadline.  Its nice to have this over with and not hanging over our heads.  We can now work to our own schedule, at our own pace.

Framed Print for InFocus

I've been so busy the last little while that I sort of neglected getting my print ready for the InFocus exhibition.  I printed the negative back in early January, but just never got around to the finishing part.  While I was helping Aaron and Alexis with some of the preparations for the show I was reminded that the framed prints needed to be delivered last weekend.  I spent two evenings helping build 17 wall panels that will be used for the show and this took away some of my finishing time.  I was granted an extension, and finally finished my print last Sunday.  I dry mounted it, cut over matts, did a little spotting, and cut up and assembled a frame.  On Monday night I had my weekly guitar lesson with my daughter Anna, followed by a late hockey game.  On Tuesday evening I was finally able to deliver my finished print.  When I arrived Aaron and Alexis were just in the process of unloading the wall panels from their trailer, into their garage.  I helped unload them and stacked them all up so that the exposed edges can be painted.  The faces of the panels were prefinished white hardboard.  They sure are putting a lot of time and effort into this show.  Hopefully it will be appreciated and well attended.  I've always enjoyed taking part and don't mind helping out as much as I can.

New Telephone

Last weekend the girls and I took a drive out to the town of Calmar.  There is an antique store there... Loganberries... that we wanted to check out.  The store did not disappoint and had a lot of really nice stuff.  Mostly I was looking for old windows, so that I could continue with the construction of the interior doors for our cottage.  They didn't have any that I liked, but they had a lot of other cool stuff.  Margarit bought an old floor lamp that will eventually end up out at the cottage.  I bought an old vintage telephone.

I talked to my friend Chris, who is a bit of an expert with respect to old telephones.  He tells me that this one dates back to the 1910's.  He says he could set it up so that it works on a modern land line.  I opened up the cabinet to have a look at the innards and it turns out that some previous owner had wired in a rotary dial and had been using it.  I bought this with the intention of putting it on the wall in our cottage.  We aren't likely going to bother to get a phone line out there so we will probably never hook this up.  It was interesting to find out that we have that option. 

In Focus Exhibit 2018

Once again I am taking part in the annual InFocus Photography Exhibition here in Edmonton.. This one is the fourth annual, and I have shown at least one print in each of them.  The show runs from February 5th to March 2nd and this year is at the Renaissance Edmonton Airport Hotel.  The official promotional card is included below, as is a link to the website.

This year I volunteered to help with some of the preparations.  I spent a couple of evenings at my shop with Aaron Chute and a couple of his friends.  We fabricated some wall panels and support bases that will be used to display the prints.  Last Friday we put together sixteen of these walls and got them ready for the show.  This left me kind of scrambling to finish my print.  I actually made the print several weeks ago but have procrastinated in getting it mounted, spotted, matted and framed.  I just finished that last night, so I can now deliver my print this week.

I encourage everyone to come and check it out...!!

http://www.infocusphoto.ca

Spring Break in the Gulf Islands

In the spring of 2016 the girls and I took a trip out to Vancouver Island in British Columbia.  I wrote extensively about that trip on our return and some detailed blog postings and snapshots can be found here by scrolling back.  A few weeks ago, back on December 30th, while we were in the midst of that cold snap, I processed a batch of Infrared 4" x 5" sheet film.  That batch included seven sheets from the trip at Spring Break of 2016.  This image is one from that batch.  It is of some eroded rocks at Tribune Bay Provincial Park on Hornby Island.  It was taken with a wide angle 80mm lens and a #25 Red Filter.

Frigid Photography

On Sunday morning my friend Court and I set out for a road trip.  We met at my place at 9:30AM and after a brief stop for fuel, we hit the road.  As was our usual routine we pointed the truck up to the northeast.  The forecast was calling for it to be very foggy in the morning, then to clear, with the afternoon high to peak at about -3C.  All of that came true, except for the clearing part.  It remained heavily overcast and the sun never broke out.  To make matters worse there was a stiff breeze out of the southeast that made it rather uncomfortable to be out in the open.  These were far from the worst conditions that I have ever endured, but in combination with the ugly flat light it left us rather uninspired.  We drove around for most of the day and had a great visit chatting about all sorts of things, including an upcoming group photo project.  We managed to get out with the camera a couple of times and I did come home with a few sheets of exposed film.  We also found a couple of locations that seem worthy of a return trip under better conditions.  The sun finally broke out a little, just as it was setting in the late afternoon.  The temperature peaked at about -4C, but with that breeze it felt a lot colder than that.  I suppose there is no option but to endure these kind of conditions for a couple more months.  Before we know it spring will arrive and we will be visually refreshed to get out again for some more serious work.

Guitars for Christmas

Margarit and I bought our middle daughter Annelise an acoustic guitar for Christmas.  We bought it new from the Long and McQuade music store here in Edmonton.  It is a Simon and Patrick guitar made in Quebec.  Quite a simple but nice guitar.  I had planned on buying a guitar for myself and learning to play.  I have no great aspirations to become a rock star or anything like that, but would like to learn to strum chords well enough to have sing alongs around the campfire.  My plan was to buy one after Christmas and then sign up to take lessons together with Annelise.

Well... the girls bought me a guitar for Christmas.  It is a lightly used Takamine acoustic with electric pickup.  I don't have an amplifier to plug it into yet, but it is a nice sounding acoustic.  I signed us up for lessons starting at the beginning of January, at Long And McQuade.  Every Monday evening at 8:00PM Anna and I go for a lesson with Gary Myers.  So far it is really basic, but lots of fun.  I actually took several years of piano lessons when I was a young child.  When I was about 12 years old... the same age as Anna is now... I switched to guitar and took a couple of years of lessons.  That was over 40 years ago and I've forgotten most of the little bit I knew.  But a few chords and notes are starting to come back to me.  I need to make a point of practicing every day and working at learning it.  Part of the challenge is getting Anna to practice as well.  I remember what it was like when I was young.  There is an impatience wanting to be able to play right away, and a lack of commitment to the required practice time.  I'll try to keep her in line.

Completion Near

Our project with Shunda Creek Contracting in Nordegg is approaching the end.  Our cottage and garage up at Nordegg are just about finished to the lockup stage.  That's all that our agreement with Scott of Shunda Creek includes at this time.  The last of the siding was just installed over the past few days.  There are only a few odds and ends remaining to look after.  Some soffit material is yet to be installed, some caulking, eavestroughs, downpipes, chimney, plumbing vent, and two skylights to put on.  We will get Scott back in the spring to do some site work and to trench in the utilities.  The bulk of the work from now on will be up to me.  I am hiring trades to do some things, and others I will be doing myself.

The basic schedule is to get electrical rough in done this winter, so that we can install insulation and vapor barrier in the early spring.  My friend Rob is going to do the electrical work for me, and I'll be helping.  I will do the insulating myself.  Then I have a drywall crew hired to do the boarding, taping, texturing and priming starting in the spring.  Once drywall is complete the girls and I will paint everything.  We have a mechanical contractor, a friend of my cousin, based out of the Rocky Mountain House area, that will be installing our furnaces and the pressure system.  Once that is all complete, hopefully by summer, we will have a unfinished but somewhat functional cottage.  We can then take our time and look after flooring installation, interior trim, cabinets and fixtures, railings, appliances, etc.

There will be no shortage of work for some time to come.  Not only is there all of this interior construction stuff to look after but I also intend to build some of the furniture and maybe the cabinets.  Then there is exterior stairs and landings.  Site work outside includes building permanent firepits, splitting firewood, general cleanup after all the construction.  Seems my time is committed for the next several years.

I will say that we are quite happy with the job that Scott has done for us to get the buildings to this point.  I designed the cottage myself and he turned my plans into a functional building, with some sound advice and input along the way.  We are finally beyond the rough construction stage and now have something real to work with.  Exciting times indeed....

Forgotten Prairie at Foothills Camera Club

On Tuesday January 16th the "Forgotten Prairie" short documentary was shown at the Foothills Camera Club in Calgary.  They have a great venue at the Loose Moose Theatre Company in the Crossroads Market.  Turns out that Byron Robb, who is in the film and was part of our entourage out to the ghost towns last spring, is on the executive at Foothills.  He set the whole thing up and invited producer Rueben Tschetter to show the film.  All of those that were involved in the project were invited to attend.  I left work just after lunch on Tuesday and made the run down to Calgary to arrive in time for the event.  Connie of the BigDoer team was able to attend but unfortunately Chris had a prior commitment and could not make it.  Byron even went so far as to invite myself and Rueben for dinner, and to stay the night at his place. 

The showing was well attended and I would guess there were around 50 people present.  It was a regular camera club meeting and the documentary made up the "guest speaker" part of the evening.  It brought back a lot of memories from my days in several camera clubs here in Edmonton.  This included Images Alberta Camera Club and Crossroads Camera Club.  I fondly recall all those meetings with guest speakers, competitions and projects.  I left the club scene when the photo world went digital and it was at that time, back in 2002 that I founded the Monochrome Guild.  We have continued as a somewhat informal collective of photographic artists working in film, and do not have the structure of a typical camera club.  All the same it was kind of fun to watch the proceedings at a club meeting.

After the showing there were a number of questions from the audience about the making of the film and about my photography.  I included a few prints from the trip out to the ghost towns.  After the meeting we headed to a nearby pub with a few club members and continued our photographic discussions over a couple of cold, foamy ones.  Later still we returned to Byron's place and continued the visit between Rueben, Byron and myself.  It was well into the wee morning hours before I finally retired to bed.  The night before had been much the same due to a late hockey game and by this point I was running on fumes.

We slept in a little the next morning and went out for breakfast together.  After that we said our goodbyes and I hit the road north to Edmonton, arriving back at work just after lunch on Wednesday.

Winter Harvest

This image was taken just over a year ago, in February of 2017.  Winter arrived early in the fall of 2016 and many farmers were caught by surprise.  All over the province crops were left in the fields through the winter, unharvested.  This shot was of some snowed in canola swaths in a field up in Two Hills County.

At that time I had switched over some of my older lenses, that I had been using for some years on my Sinar F1.  I found this bulky monorail camera too heavy to carry around out in the field so I switched to lighter and more compact Ebony folding field cameras starting in 2012.  The Sinar uses a large lensboard about 5-1/2" square, while the Ebony requires a much smaller Linhof board.  I have an adapter to mount the Linhof boards onto the Sinar, but nothing that works in reverse.  Gradually I have been purchasing additional Linhof boards and switching over my 20+ large format lenses.  I have a Nikkor convertible telephoto lens.  It includes three interchangeable rear elements.  Depending on which rear element is used, the focal length is either 360mm, 500mm or 720mm.  The 720mm focal length will not work on the Ebony as the bellows are not long enough, and the extension of the camera is insufficient to properly focus the lens.  It works on the Sinar as I am able to add extension rails, extra standards and extra bellows to achieve adequate length to focus.  The 500mm is borderline for the Ebony, so in the past I refrained from using it and stuck to using my Fujinon-T 400mm.  But back in early 2017 I started using the 500mm Nikkor and found that it was workable for all but close focus distances.  Of course the 360mm focal length is not an issue.  I still have several Sinar F1's and will continue to use them.  I keep them for studio work as the movements are more precise and technical.  I also have the option of taking them out when I want to use the 720mm focal length.  I have several other lenses that I use primarily for 8x10, that can also be used with this camera in 4x5 format.  This includes a Fujinon-C 450mm, and a second Nikkor T-ED convertible set that, depending on the rear element, provides focal lengths of 600mm, 800mm or 1200mm.

I used the 500mm configuration for this shot to compress the near-far relationship and create a somewhat abstract perspective.  Just recently I made time to process this batch of film.  This image was shot on Kodak High Speed Infrared film, rated at 100 iso.  The Nikkor T-ED 500mm lens was used with a #25 Red Filter.  The film was processed in Kodak T-Max developer, diluted 1:6, for 6:45 minutes at 24C.  

Carpentry Projects Continue

The frigid cold snap has finally come to an end.  It was really cold through most of last week but by Friday and into Saturday it really warmed up.  On Sunday it was slightly cooler but the mercury still managed to expand to about -7C.  

For some reason I just didn't feel like getting out and doing much.  I could have taken a drive out to Nordegg, where the temperatures were slightly milder still.  I just didn't feel like spending six hours driving for a couple of hours out at the property.  I probably could have taken the new snowmobile out for a spin, but snow conditions are still a little sparse out there.

Instead I spent a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon, working at my shop.  I began the process of applying lacquer to the tongue and groove pine panelling that I bought for our project.  These will be installed on the vaulted ceiling portion of the cottage.  They can't go up until after the drywall is finished.  But, I'd much rather be prepping them now... during these short winter days... than later in the summer.

I've also been continuing with the ongoing door construction project.  The jambs are now all complete and I'm ready to start building the doors themselves.  The door frames are constructed and ready to go.  I've been waiting to find some antique windows to install into these doors.  Margarit picked up the first one on the weekend at an Antique Store in northeast Edmonton.  It is approx. 17 x 20 inches and includes some leaded glass.  I framed out an opening of this size in the first door, which will allow me to set this window into it.  Then I proceeded with the application of tongue and groove pine panelling to the surface of the door.  I got one side installed, and now just need to flush trim everything with my router.  Then it will be ready for me to panel the other side.  After that I can build the moldings to secure the antique window, and sand and finish the door.  By the time I have all of that accomplished, hopefully we have secured a second antique window and I can continue with the next.  We have a total of four interior doors that are needed, and would like to have an old window mounted into each of them.

January Sunday Drive

I spent most of my day on Saturday running some errands and doing some odd jobs.  This included working for a few hours in the afternoon at my shop.  I worked on sanding and staining the interior door jambs that I'm building for our cottage.  In the evening I printed in the darkroom.  Sunday dawned sunny and mild so I decided to head out for a drive.  None of the girls wanted to go this time so it ended up a solo trip.  At the beginning of the year I'm always anxious to get out and take the first photographs of the year.  It gets my archive started and sometimes stirs my creativity for the winter season.  Usually there is a break away from photography over Christmas with all the family activities on the go.  On this day I just headed up to my favorite nearby destination.  This is not a particular spot but rather a general area.  The rural counties of Lamont, Two Hills and Smoky Lake, to the northeast of the city have a lot of scenic churches, old buildings, and sometimes some interesting landscape elements.  Success of failure is dependent upon light and seasonal conditions.  On this day I managed to set the big camera up twice and got a start on my archive of images for the 2018 calendar year.  I also took a few snapshots with my digital camera.  I played around a little more with the 180 degree 12mm fisheye lens that I recently bought.  In the low winter light it was a challenge to keep my shadow out of the image.