New one from the recent Badlands Trip...

This one is from the recent trip down to the Drumheller badlands at the beginning of October.  My friend Rob and I spent four days down there shooting.  It was kind of by default, as the poor weather conditions had forced us to cancel our plans to head to some remote badlands further to the southeast and as a compromise we hung around the Drumheller area instead.  It had been raining heavily the first day of our trip and we were not really expecting to be able to get out into the badlands.  For anyone that has ever been in the area after a rain you know very well that the bentonite and cretaceous clays turn to grease after a rain.  Walking on anything but a horizontal surface is almost impossible.  On the morning of October 2nd we headed over to the Hoodoos near Cambria and tried our best to stay upright.  Every step was measured and we were very careful to avoid any surfaces with any slope at all.  As the sun began to intensify by about 10:00AM when this shot was taken, it was beginning to dry out the saturated surfaces.  The humidity must have been almost 100% as the morning sun was creating a steam that was rising off the hills.  Backlit in the morning sun this was quite a spectacle.  I attempted to capture it with my camera but had to avoid direct back light and the resulting lens flare.  I think this one worked fairly well.  I shot this on Kodak T-Max 100, exposed at 80 iso, and developed in 510 Pyro.  This one was captured with a 240mm lens, a slightly long lens for this format.

Winter Hockey Update

The Renegades are now 11 games into the 30 game winter season.  We started out with five straight wins and quickly jumped out into first place.  Then, we started playing tougher teams and had our challenges in getting enough players out to some of our games.  We lost the next five games, one of them in a shootout.  Last night we played our 11th game of the season against a team called the Rack Monkeys.  We finally put an end to the losing streak and beat these guys by a score of 5 to 3.  Hopefully this is the start of our next winning streak.  We now sit in 5th place out of eight teams in our division.  I understand that the league will consider some divisional moves to balance things out and consider moving dominant or consistently losing teams up or down.  We certainly won't be moved but it is possible that one or perhaps two of the teams in our division could be moved up.  Next game comes up on November 9th and after that we play a series of games against some of the teams in Division Seven in the north conference.

Asters, Gog Creek

Here is yet another image from the September trip to Mt. Assiniboine.  This one was taken on the last full day at Mt. Assiniboine Lodge.  It was cool, overcast and rainy on this day and my images certainly were not as strong as some of the earlier ones taken in spectacular light.  All the same I quite like the quiet mood of this one.  Though there had been a snow storm just a couple of days before our arrival, these Asters on the edge of the creek were clinging to the remnants of the season and were still blooming.  This one was taken with my big view camera and 110mm lens.  The 110 is a moderate wide angle lens for this format.  I used Kodak T-Max 100 film exposed at 80 iso and developed in 510 Pyro.  I set the aperture at F20.0 and used a shutter speed of 1/15 of a second.  I did another one with the lens stopped down to F41.0 and a shutter speed of 1/4 second.  Often I like the dreamy, blurred look of flowing water with a longer shutter speed.  In this instance because there was so little water visible between the rocks, it really didn't add anything, and it showed a little more movement in the flowers.

Junk Yard

On October 22nd my friends Chris and Connie from Calgary, drove up to central Alberta to meet me at a junk yard.  We spent the better part of a day poking around in the acres of junk that was lying around.  A lot of it was just that... junk...!  A lot of scrap metal, including a mountain of rusty old tin cans.  There seemed to be a certain amount of order to it all as the aluminum was separated from the iron and the stainless steel.  The appliances were all in one general area, old propane tanks in another.  Scattered about through the yard were a bunch of interesting old vehicles.  This was the focus of my attention on this day as I had my view camera along with me and took a bunch of photographs.  Rather interesting that over in one corner was an old process camera.  Too bad it had been abandoned out in the elements as the bellows were falling apart and there was probably no salvage value in it.  All the same I will look into this a little further.  By mid afternoon we finished up in the junk yard and hit the road for a while.  After driving for some time we ended up in the village of Botha.  The old store here is pretty interested and we stopped to admire it.  On this day we weren't able to get access to the interior but perhaps some day we can return.  Later still we headed over to a small town pub for a beer and something to eat.  Eventually we said our good byes and headed off home in opposite directions.

Cottonwood Trunks

Here's one from the recent trip down to the badlands at the beginning of October.  This one, of a couple dead cottonwood trees, was taken from the side of the road, down along the bottom of the Red Deer River valley, south of East Coulee.  This was in the early evening as my friend Rob and I were returning to East Coulee after a rainy day of shooting out on the prairie.  The dead trunks were wet from the days rain, and offered a nice contrast against a tapestry of fall leaves, and the badlands slope on the far shore of the river.  This one was taken with my Ebony view camera and my Fujinon 400mm lens.  It was taken on Kodak T-Max 100 film, processed in 510 Pyro developer.  I quite like the soft mood of this image and will seriously consider taking the time to make an exhibition print from this negative.

Blast from the Past

Over the past couple of weeks I have attempted to catch up on developing my backlog of unprocessed film.  Most of this is from 2015 and 2016, but there are still a couple dozen sheets from 2014.  Most of the old stuff is Ilford Delta and Kodak Tri-X that requires development in PMK.  As this developer works best with constant agitation, I find it well suited to the Jobo processor.  A few weeks ago I dug mine out of storage and set it up to begin processing all of this film.  There are over 100 sheets of Kodak Tri-X alone, so this will be an ongoing process for some time to come.  As I work through processing all of this stuff I will also be scanning and posting some of the better images.  Many are duplicates of previous images that were taken on other types of film and processed in other developers.  But some are new... so at the very least I will be sharing those.

This particular one goes back to November of 2014.  This was the annual Fall Photo Weekend, an annual outing with some of my friends from the Monochrome Guild.  This is an Edmonton-based group of film photographers that I found over a decade ago.  We get together casually about 10 times a year to discuss photography, share our work, and work on group projects.  One of our major projects is a fall outing every year, usually to the mountains, where we get away for a few days to make photographs.  This particular image was taken with my Ebony 4x5 view camera on Kodak Tri-X Pan film.  I exposed it at 400 iso and gave plus development in PMK.  PMK is a staining pyro based developer created by California photographer Gordon Hutchings.  I find that many of my best negatives and those that more often than not get printed for exhibition, were created with this combination.  This particular shot shows some sand patterns created by small plants in the blowing wind.  The wind is constant here on the dunes along Jasper Lake in Jasper National Park.

50,000 Page Views

The counter on my blog today hit 50,000 pageviews.  This is all time, since I started posting about six years ago.  I typically see about 1000 pageviews per month.  This is up and down a little, depending on how active I am in updating.  This past month there has been a real surge in interest, with over 4500 page views in October alone, mostly out of the United States.  Not sure exactly where this is all coming from, but it seemed to start when I began posting all my recent images from Mt. Assiniboine.  Perhaps this is just coincidental...?  Whatever the reason, I am pleased that so many people keep stopping by to check out my work.  Hopefully I can continue to present meaningful and interesting images to keep all these visitors interested.

A Couple More

Here are two more images from Mt. Assiniboine.  I don't feel that these are quite as strong as some of those that I've previously posted... but they're not bad.  This first one was taken on our last full day at the Lodge.  This was the day of overcast skies, cool weather, and on and off drizzle.  We started out the day with a group hike up to the Niblet.  Later Margarit and I found our way down to a couple of waterholes in a meadow.  This shot shows one of those waterholes against a backdrop of fall larches and Sunburst Peak.  It's too bad the sky was so empty but perhaps that could be cropped out somewhat in a print.  This one was shot on September 17th at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my 110mm lens and a #25 Red Filter.  This was Kodak T-Max 100 developed in 510 Pyro.

I've included this next image because it was a first attempt at something different for me...  Obviously this is Mt. Assiniboine.  After dinner on September 18th, as we walked back to our cabin, Margarit and I noticed that the moon was rising and that the illumination on the peaks was quite intense.  I set up my camera on the front deck of our cabin, and used a 200mm Nikkor M lens to key in on Assiniboine, with a bit of Magog Lake and the surrounding peaks visible through the trees.  This was shot on Fuji Neopan Acros 100 film, processed in Rodinal developer 1:50.  I took a spot meter reading of the moonlight that was glowing of the snowcapped peak of Assiniboine.  Based on that I made a guess as to what the exposure might need to be.  Then as the last glow of daylight in the sky began to fade, I realised that a little more exposure might be in order.  I ended up using a aperture of F16.0 and a shutter speed of 45 minutes.  This obviously showed the movement in the overhanging tree branches but yielded an image that is quite different.  You can see a couple of faint star trails in the sky... or maybe those were passing aircraft... not sure.  Though I do seem to remember seeing a bright star in the location of one of these trails.

Last of the Good Ones...

I think this is the last of the really strong images from Mt. Assinboine.  I have more, but they are not compositionally as strong.  I will post a batch of the out takes in the coming days, once I finish scanning them all.  They are OK, and provide a little bit of a feel of the place, but are not exhibition quality images.

This one was once again taken on September 16th during the hike up to Wonder Pass.  This was by far the most productive day of the trip.  This image was taken near the end of the hike, as we were on our way back down to our cabin.  It was at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  I noticed these grasses in a flooded meadow beside Gog Creek, with Nub Peak visible in the background.  I used my Schneider Super Symmar XL 110mm lens to capture this scene.  This is a moderately wide lens for large format, and roughly equivalent to a 35mm lens used with small format roll film or with full frame digital SLR.  I added a #25 Red Filter to increase contrast and create some drama in the sky, and separation of the clouds.  Exposure was at F22.0 and a shutter speed of 1/4 second.  Development was in 510 Pyro.  I'm really pleased with this composition and think it is among the best images of the trip.

Gog Lake... and a couple more good ones...

Seems that many of my best shots from the Assiniboine trip were taken on September 16th.  This day the skies were clear and the light spectacular.  Margarit and I set out on our own and hiked up along Gog Creek to Wonder Pass.  We were on our own as the others had set off in other directions.  It was a spectacular day that I will long remember.  This particular shot is of Gog Lake, at the outlet, where Gog Creek continues on its journey down to Magag Lake.  Shot through some shoreline larches, just beginning to turn color, with a backdrop of Naiset Peak to the right, and The Towers to the left.  This one was on Kodak T-Max 100 and was shot with my 110mm lens.  I used a #8 Yellow filter to lighten up the fall larches, and to create a little separation in the sky. I have one or two more strong images from this trip, which I will be posting in the coming days.  I'm quite pleased that this trip yielded about a half dozen really strong images, worthy of exhibition quality prints.  I will continue with processing the last of my negatives, all of which a duplicates of the ones I have already processed and posted.  I thought this would be a once in a lifetime experience and something that I could check off my bucket list.  Now I'm thinking I want to return at some point in the future, and build on that experience.  If anyone reading this has the opportunity to experience Mt. Assiniboine... I encourage you to do it...!!

Winter Hockey - Games 5 to 7...

I can't believe that we are already seven games into the "winter" hockey season.  Perhaps that's why we've been blessed with all the snow lately!  The guys played Game 5 while I was away down in the badlands at the beginning of October and won over the Benders by a score of 11-3.  Since I've returned we played two more games, and unfortunately the Renegades lost both.  The then third place Mighty Ducks throttled us on October 6 by a score of 12-1.  Then we moved on to play the first place and undefeated Griffins on October 11.  We played a much better game but still lost, this time by a score of 7-3.  We are still in second place in our division with a record of 5 wins and 2 losses.  Game eight of the regular season is scheduled for later tonight.  Hopefully we can turn things around and start a new winning streak...!

Treeline

I have finished up processing most of my negatives from the recent Assiniboine trip.  I think there are something like four T-Max 100 negatives left to go.  I need to wait until I shoot some more of this film, so that there is a large enough batch to justify mixing up the chemistry.  I still have about 20 sheets of Fuji Neopan Acros left to do, but these are basically just duplicates of the T-Max ones.  Minor differences of shutter speed and filtration, so perhaps some will be slightly stronger than some of the images I have shared so far...

Over this past weekend, with the onset of more snowy and winter like conditions, I retreated to my darkroom and continued processing my backlog.  This weekend I set up my Jobo Processor and began running some Ilford Delta 100 and Kodak Tri-X Pan in PMK developer.  Most of this stuff dates back to 2014 and 2015, but there is a little bit of newer stuff mixed in.  I've already processed 40 sheets of film, and there are still about a hundred to go.  Once these are done, I will return to the last of the stuff from Mt. Assiniboine.  In the mean time there are a few more negatives that I have processed and scanned that are worth a closer look.  I think this is one of them....

This is a shot taken at tree line on the shoulder of the Nublet.  Assiniboine in visible to the left, and the dark face of Sunburst Peak dominates the right center.  In the foreground there are some outcropping rocks, and a scattering of alpine larches, just beginning to turn color.  This was taken with a 150mm lens on my Ebony 4x5 view camera.  This is considered a normal lens for this format.  I used a #8 Yellow filter to brighten up the larches a little, to intensify the shadows slightly, and to darken the sky a bit and create a bit of separation from the clouds.  I think it worked fairly well.

I've been getting a lot of positive feedback on my recently posted Assiniboine Panorama image and I think that negative will be brought out in the coming weeks to try and achieve a fine print.  I'll see what sort of response this image gets.

I also have about 20 sheets of color transparency film that I shot on the Assiniboine trip.  While I have the Jobo processor set up I will also mix up some E-6 chemistry and process these.  

Krummholz

From the Oxford English Dictionary...

Krummholz [noun]:  stunted windblown trees growing near the tree line on mountains.  Origin:  early 20th century, German, literally meaning crooked wood.

These two shots are from the recent trip to Mt. Assiniboine.  I can't decide which I like best... or even if I like either...  These were taken on Saturday September 17th at about 11:00 in the morning.  This was our last full day spent in the area,  The two previous days had been sunny and warm but this one turned out to be cool, overcast and drizzly.  It was really blustery and windy up on the exposed edge of the Niblet, the spot where these shots were taken from.  Sunburst Lake is visible on the left, and Sunburst Peak is prominent on the right.  Had it been a clear day, Mt. Assiniboine would have been visible near the center of the image.  On this day the low cloud obscured the high peaks and resulted in some pretty flat light.  I used my Ebony view camera and my Schneider Super Symmar XL 110mm lens to make expose both of these negatives.  This is a slightly wide lens for this format.  The first image was taken on Kodak T-Max 100 film, exposed at 80iso and developed in 510 Pyro.  This staining developer helped to hold down the high values in the sky.  The second images was taken on Fuji Neopan Acros film, exposed at 80iso and developed in Rodinal.  A #8 Yellow filter was added for this shot.  The T-Max image was taken at an aperture of F18.0 and a shutter speed of 1/8 second.  For the Acros image the lens was stopped down and a 1 stop filter factor added, resulting in an exposure of F36.0 at 1 second.  I think I like the way that the long exposure has shown the motion in the krummholz, resulting from the brisk wind that was blowing that day.  I also find it interesting, that aside from the motion, and despite the fact that the exposure given was the same, there is quite a pronounced difference between these two images.

Assiniboine Panorama

Back to showing some of the stronger images from the recent trip to Mt. Assiniboine.  Weather conditions have remained poor here in central Alberta.  We got hit with yet another dump of snow, this time around 4 inches.  Local farmers are struggling as about 1/3 of the crop remains in the fields to be harvested.  This is going to set things back for them at least a couple of weeks.  Also not much opportunity to get out and do anything photographic with such overcast and flat light.  Instead I've been working in the darkroom processing my backlog of film.  This one, in my opinion, is one of the stronger images from Assiniboine.  I shot it with my 4x5 view camera, but cropped it to panoramic proportions.  It was taken on September 15th, with an 80mm lens and a #25 Red Filter.  The red filter eliminates blue light.  Shadows are predominantly blue light reflected from the open sky so these are darkened by the filter, increasing contrast.  Haze is mostly blue and UV light, which is also eliminated with this Red filter, making the distant peaks sharper.  I shot this one on Kodak T-Max 100 film, and processed in 510 Pyro developer.

During our stay up at the lodge Margarit and I shared a dinner table with a group of six ladies.  We got to know them reasonably well over the four days we were there and enjoyed their company.  They were all friends and were out together on the trip to do some hiking.  Four were from Seattle, one from Denver and one from Phoenix.  They were all curious to see some of my images from this trip so I gave them my card with a link to my blog and to my Flickr account.  Hopefully they have found it and are getting a chance to see some of the work that I am posting.

Badlands Snapshots

Here is a selection of snapshots from the trip to the Red Deer River badlands at the beginning of October.  I have begun processing some of the large format negatives from this trip, together with the remaining negatives from the Mt. Assiniboine trip.  I will continue to post these every few days, as I get time to scan them.