Sunday Drive

When I got up in the morning on January 22nd there was a couple of inches of fresh snow.  It made everything look really clean and refreshed after living with the old, dirty, crusty snow for the last few weeks.  By around noon the clouds lifted and sun came out.  The temperature was just a couple of degrees below freezing, but once the sun came out it felt warmer than that.  With the work in the cottage taken as far as I can go, I took Sunday off.  I made a run over to the dump and dropped off a couple of bags of garbage.  Then I headed for a drive down the Trunk Road.  I got about 15km north before eventually turning around.  There was slightly more snow as I got further north and higher up.  I stopped at a couple of places along the way and took some photographs.  

For the first time in years I also took out my Russian panoramic camera.  This one uses 35mm film and has a rotating lens.  The resulting negatives are about double the width of a standard 35mm frame.  So I played around with that a little too.  Later I drove south of the highway on the truck road, as far as the industrial park.  I saw a couple of wild horses here, but they were too skittish and wandered off before I could set up the big camera.  I shot a landscape here, and then made a final stop near the cottage along Shunda Creek and shot again.

By this time it was getting to be late afternoon so I just tidied up around the cottage, and then dug out the BBQ.  I made a nice steak for dinner... the first one I've had this year I think....  In the evening I watched some TV for a bit and then continued cleaning up.  I did the dishes and got stuff organized for an earlyish departure on Monday morning.

Apparitions Project - Old Shoes

I shot this image back in September of 2022 with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a 200mm lens.  This was in the interior of an old cobbler's shop, at the old museum.  I took quite a number of photographs at this location and I'm certain that some of them will be considered for the "Apparitions" exhibition and publishing project.  This particular one was also part of the recent batch of T-Max 100 developed in 510 Pyro.

Running out of Work

On Saturday January 21st I went back to work in the guest cottage.  Once again I thought about going out for an afternoon drive, but it remained overcast for most of the day.  The temperature was very mild, and got up to +7C late in the afternoon.  For the last hour or two before sunset the skies cleared in the west and it became sunny.

I spent the day assembling the second section of the kitchen cabinets.  The first one was fairly easy as it was only 33" long.  The second was a little more challenging as it is 48" and getting a little awkward to set together by myself.  But, this section didn't have any interior dividers, so that helped to make assembly for one a little easier.  The third section will be bigger yet, at around 70".

This second cabinet goes in the corner of the L-shaped section.  That's why there is a large blank panel on side of it.  The third section, which includes the sink, will butt up to this panel.

With this section essentially done, I was kind of running out of things to do.  I didn't have enough hardwood with me to finish the face of the exposed part.  I did have more plywood for the next section, but don't have any plans drawn up yet.  So, I decided to brush paint the face of the first cabinet.

Then I spent some time taking dimensions for the next cabinet.  It will be a little more complicated in that it is not only larger, but also needs an opening in the bottom and the back to allow the plumbing to enter.  I also have to take into account proper spacing for the installation of the kitchen sink.  I confirmed all these measurements and made some rough sketches.  I will take these back to the city with me and prepare some proper plans for the third section.  I should probably also do some for the bathroom vanity at the same time.

I spent the late afternoon preparing a batch of my beef stroganoff.  I left that ready for a later supper and went over to the rink to play hockey.  The ice was in surprisingly good shape considering the mild temperatures during the day.  Once again we had two goalies and about a dozen skaters, and played for a couple of hours.  After the game I went back home, warmed up my dinner, and then caught the end of the Oilers game on TV.

Broken Glass

I found this old workshop, with this pile of broken glass.  This was during a day trip when I was out exploring last September.  Arturo was along with me on that occasion, and we were looking for subject matter that was suitable for the Apparitions project.  I shot this with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a 125mm lens, with no filter.  It was taken on Kodak T-Max 100 film, processed in 510 Pyro.

Parts Ready for Number Two

I thought about going out for a drive with my camera on Friday January 20th.... but the sun only busted out for a little while in the morning, and then it clouded over.  The temperatue wasn't bad, and it got up to about +2 in the afternoon.  There was almost no wind, so it was quite pleasant, the light just wasn't great.  Rather than waste time and fuel driving around and not accomplishing much I decided to spend the day working in the guest cottage.

I flush trimmed the plastic laminate that I had glued on the floor and shelf panels the day prior.  Then I put a coat of the pastel blue paint on all of the surfaces that will be exposed to the interior, on all of the parts that I previously cut.  Once that paint had dried, I dug out my router, and cut all the rabbets and dados.  It is a little challenging to visualize how all the pieces go together in three dimensions.  The AutoCad drawing that I prepared back home, before I came out, was very helpful.

Once I had all the routing finished, I gave all the panels a second coat of paint.  It is much easier to paint them when they are laying out flat on a work surface, as opposed to trying to do it inside an assembled cabinet.  Not to mention that it prevents getting spills and brush marks on the plastic laminate.  I'm hoping I have a chance to put this second cabinet together before I have to head back to the city.  If the weather is nice and the sun pops out, it will be a toss up between millwork and photography...!

Whiskeyjacks

We have always had Whiskeyjacks around our place at Nordegg.  They are also know as Gray Jays, Canada Jays, and Camp Robbers.  They don't hang around, but are transient, and regularly pass through.  The past couple of years we've had a group of three that came and went.  On Janauary 19th, as I quit work for the day in the guest cottage, I noticed a group of four.  I promptly got some nuts out of the garage and tried to get them to come and eat out of my hand.  In the past if I let out a few whistles, and held the nuts in my outstretched hand, some of them would come and perch on my hand and feed.  Even then, some were skittish and would only come to my feet and pick up anything that was dropped.

This time they came very close... and swooped by me... and would feed right at my feet.  But none would land on me and eat from my hand.  I put the nuts out on a log by our bird feeder... and then added another big handful.  Within 20 minutes or so they were all gone.  They pack them away and hide them up in trees.  I'm not sure how many they actually eat, and how many get stolen by the squirrels.

I understand that these birds mate for life.  Groups of three are the most common and it is usually a mated pair, plus last year's offspring.  I'm not sure if this group of four is the same couple... perhaps with twins from last summer... or if it is a different group.  In any event, I sure like to see them come around.  I haven't fed them much in recent months so if I stick to it the next little while, I'm sure I'll have them eating out of my hand again, sooner rather than later....

Sunshine Gospel Mission

I shot this old abandoned church in July of 2022.  It is in central Alberta, and I was passing nearby on my way home from Nordegg.  This one may be worthy of consideration for the Apparitions project.  I shot this with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a wide 110mm lens.  I used a #25 Red filter to deepen the value of the sky, and make the clouds stand out.  This also dropped the shadow values a little, thereby increasing the overall contrast.  This is part of the recently processed batch of Kodak T-Max 100 developed in 510 Pyro.

Second Cabinet

On Wednesday January 18th, after working for the day in the guest cottage, I went over to the rink in town.  There is regularly scheduled drop in hockey every Wednesday and Saturday evening at 7:00PM.  It was really mild all day, and got up to about +4C.  The skies were mostly overcast, and there was a light breeze, so the snow didn't melt much at all.  The rink in town is very shaded by trees, so the ice stands up pretty well.  By game time the temperature had dropped off a little, to right around zero.  The turnout was good and we had two goalies and about a dozen skaters.  A bunch of the younger players were from Frontier Lodge, and students of Prairie College in Three Hills who come out here to do their outdoor training.  One of them was Isaac... the son of our next door neighbors back in Edmonton.  Hockey was fantastic, and by the time we quit two hours later, the temperature was still hovering a degree or two below freezing.

On Thursday I was up at the crack of dawn... which is not very early at this time of year.  Official sunrise in Nordegg is at about 8:45AM... but by the time the sun breaks over Eagle Peak, it is usually 30 minutes or so later than that.  I had a shower, morning coffee, something to eat, and then got busy.  I had my neighbor Dan give me a hand to lift the first cabinet down off of my sawhorses and make room for the days work.  After that, I put it on a furniture dolly so that I could move it around as needed.  I set and filled all the nail holes, and left the filler to dry.  Then I used my skilsaw to cut the last piece of plywood for cabinet number two from a full sheet of birch plywood.  I then set about applying a coat of primer to all of the pieces that I had cut for the next cabinet.  Once the filler had dried on cabinet one, I sanded it out and then applied some primer to the hardwood face that I had installed the day prior.  Eventually the exterior of this cabinet will be painted pastel blue, just like the interior.

By mid afternoon I was winding things down.  I glued plastic laminate onto the floor and the intermediate shelf of the second cabinet.  Then I kind of shut things down for the day and organized the workspace for the next day.  When I return to work I will have to flush trim the plastic laminate, and then use my router to cut the dados and rabbets into these pieces that all got primed today.  Once that is done, then I can paint all the interior exposed surfaces in pastel blue.  And once that paint is dry, I can assemble the body of the second cabinet.

There will be one more cabinet section to build after that, and then later the bathroom vanity.  The main cabinet in the kitchen will be an L-shaped section comprised of cabinet 2 and cabinet 3.  The sink will be installed into the middle of this, beneath the kitchen window.  The fridge and the range butt up to either end of this L-shaped section.  Beyond the range is another short section of cabinet, which is number one.  The microwave oven will be placed on this one.

Later still I have to build a tall, narrow pantry which will be in the corner, beyond the fridge.  It will only be about 16 inches wide or thereabouts... but will be about 6-1/2 feet high.  This will be built to cover up the exposed main vent stack from the plumbing system.  Once all this cabinet work, and the related painting is complete, I will be able to clean up and start on installation of the floor tiles.

First Shot of 2023

This is the first sheet of 4x5 film that I exposed in 2023.  I took this shot up at Abraham Lake, on the 2nd of January.  The wind was a lot lighter this day, than it had been when I attempted to visit a couple of days prior.  I managed to get down to the shoreline and took a number of shots with my view camera. It was very busy along the lake with lots of cars parked along the highway, and people all over the ice.  I managed to find a spot where there was no one around, and I had the place to myself for a while.

I shot this with a very wide 75mm lens fitted with a #25 Red Filter.  The film was Kodak T-Max 100 and this was also part of the recently processed batch done in 510 Pyro Developer.

Sweeper

I saw this old street sweeper in a roadside junkyard and just had to stop and shoot it.  I really should get permission to go in and explore the place, as there is lots of other interesting stuff further back off the road.  I'm sure some of it would work for the Apparitions project.  

I shot this in July of 2022 with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a long Nikkor 300mm lens, with no filter.  The film was Kodak T-Max 100 and this was part of the recent batch processed in 510 Pyro.

Work Continues

I returned to Nordegg on Monday January 16th.  I actually left the house at about 10:30AM, but didn't make it out to the cottage until around 6:30PM.  That's because I gave my friend Scott a ride out to Nordegg.  Scott is the contractor that built both my cottage and guest cottage.  I only hired him to do the site clearing, put in the foundations, frame the buildings, and finish the exterior to lockup.  Then I took over and am doing everything else myself.  Scott had to bring a dump truck up to Edmonton and needed a ride back home.  While he was in the city, we also ran a bunch of errands and picked up some supplies.  This included some hardwood and a water pump that I picked up for myself, plus some stuff for Scott.

On Tuesday I was kind of lazy and slept in a bit.  Then I lounged around not doing much of anything until late morning.  I went over to the guest cottage and assembled the first section of cabinet.  I had cut and finished all the pieces the last time I was out.  There will be three sections of cabinet required in the kitchen, plus a vanity for the bathroom.  In sticking with our 1950's diner theme, the cabinets are all painted pastel blue.  I pre-painted all the interior surfaces of the wood pieces that I fabricated last time.  So on Tuesday all I did was put them all together.  Surprisingly everything fit perfectly.  I missed one rabbet in the floor panel, but it was easy to add that, and once I did the bottom dropped right into place.

The horizontal interior surfaces are finished with a light grey plastic laminate.  All the rest of the surfaces are painted.  I got everything all glued and nailed together, and then left it to dry over night.

On Wednesday I got up a lot earlier.  I moved around a few things in the garage and put away the water pump that I brought out.  This will be needed later, when my plumber comes out in the spring to finish up all the mechanical stuff in the guest cottage.  I also hooked up cables onto the batteries of the ATV and Snowmobile so that I can keep them on maintainers over the winter months, or when not in regular use.  It was a beautiful winter day and it started out sunny, then clouded over later in the afternoon.  The sun came out again late in the day, while the temperature made it up to +4C.

I dug out my table saw and cut a bunch of hardwood to width for use on the face of the cabinets.  I also cut up most of the plywood pieces for the second cabinet.  I was short one piece, and didn't have any small leftovers to work with.  So that piece will have to be cut out of a full sheet.  But I couldn't handle a large 4x8 sheet of 3/4 playwood by myself on the tablesaw.  So I will have to cut that last one with the circular saw.  But I need to get the first cabinet out of the way in order to make room for that sheet, and for fabrication of the panels for the next one.  I spent the rest of the afternoon fitting and installing all of the hardwood strips to the face of the first cabinet.  I wanted hardwood as it is a lot more resistant to bumps and dings than plywood or particle board.  I used some maple, but it won't actually be seen, and will get painted blue.

I won't bother to paint the exterior surfaces of the first cabinet until I have the other two sections ready.  That way, when I dirty a paint roller, I can just finish everything all at once.  I had some rough 3/4" plywood left over from construction, and I'm using that up on the backs of the cabinets where it won't be visible.  For all the exposed surfaces I am used cabinet grade birch plywood.  I brought more sheets out with me this time, but won't unload them and take them in until I get the first cabinet out of the way and clear some space to continue working.

Apparitions Project - Tenth End

I quite like this shot, and think it is an ideal image for the "Apparitions" project.  The official definition of our project is, "A Photography exhibition of black and white silver gelatin prints depicting scenes from Edmonton and Alberta that conjure human presence from the past."  I think this image does exactly that.  I found this old broken curling stone in an abandoned building.  The broom was nearby, so I just set it down beside the stone and took this photograph.

I shot this last summer, in August.  This is from one of the recently processed batches of Kodak T-Max 100, developed in 510 Pyro.  I shot this with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a somewhat long 200mm lens, with no filter.

Print Changeover at Mimi's

On January 12th I spent the day in the darkroom.  I worked on printing four negatives, to changeover most of the prints at Mimi's pub.  The owner, Shanaz, selected these four from a number of scans that I previously sent to her.  I'm pretty satisfied with the way that three of the four turned out, but the fourth one is not up to my standards.  It looks really flat and blah and does not have enough contrast.  It is a shot of Crowfoot Mountain in spring, with a covering of snow.  I have two negatives taken at the same location, at the same time and I tried printing both and they are both the same.  Unfortunately the mountain was in afternoon shadow, and the snow does not print white enough.  I'm going to dig back into my archive and see if I can find some other images to use instead.  I know I have another shot of the same mountain, taken a few years prior, that is much better.  I also have a similar shot of the Colin Range in Jasper, that is also much better.

In the meantime I will continue with the three that turned out.  These prints now need a second fix, a clearing bath, and toning in Selenium.  Then they will hit the washer for an extended wash.  I will finish all this up before I take off to Nordegg next week.  When I return from a few days working at the cottage, the prints will be dry and I can cut mats and mount them.  Then at that point I will deal with coming up with something for the fourth print.

In early February I will take down some of the prints that are currently on display.  The five that are presently at the restaurant have been there since before Covid, so a change is long overdue.  One at a time I will take the old ones down, take the frames apart, and put in the new prints.  Then I will return them to the restaurant and hang them up again, shuffling around the order.

I really appreciate that Shanaz allows me to display my work in her restaurant.  This exposure recently led to a print sale.  Hopefully with some new work on display, further interest will be forthcoming.

Abandoned Hotel

This old hotel was in a ghost town in Saskatchewan.  We found it when we were on our road trip last July.  The floor had rotted out badly and collapsed so it was not safe to enter the building.  We had to be satisfied just shooting it from the exterior.

I shot this one on Kodak T-Max 100 film with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a slightly wide 135mm lens.  A dark red filter deepened the sky value a little, and pumped up the contrast.  Development was in 510 Pyro.  Originally the intent was to consider this one for Apparitions... not sure if it quite fits though.

Apparitions Project - Drill Press

This old drill press was in the same blacksmith shop that the workbench was in.  I posted a shot of that workbench a few days ago.  The large drive belt visible in the background would have been looped onto the flywheel on the face of the drill.  The other end of the belt was on an overhead drive shaft, that was powered by a gas engine.  A most fascinating place, and it looks as though the owner just took his gloves and safety goggles off and left for the day... but I'll bet they've been laying there a lot longer than that...!  

I shot this in June of last year with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a wide 90mm lens.  Light levels were pretty low inside the old shop, and no filter was necessary.  The film was Kodak T-Max 100, developed in 510 Pyro.  I shot this with the intention of including it for consideration in the Apparitions project.