Dealership 3

This is my third negative from the Massey Ferguson dealership in Saskatchewan.  Perhaps ruined slighlty by the flare from the window on the right edge...?  I might be able to burn that down somewhat in printing, if I was to choose to make a fine art print from this one.  I was drawn to the jacket and cap hanging on the end of the bins.  I'm virtually certain these belonged to Al's Dad, and have probably been hanging there for four decades.  I wish I would have attempted another shot.

Dealership 2

This is another shot from the abandoned Massey Ferguson dealership in Saskatchewan.  This is from a recently processed batch of Ilford HP5 sheet film.  This is the service counter in the front of the shop.  Ashtrays and old calendars scattered about.... parts displays, and in the backgrounds, bins full of parts that were never used.

Dealership

In June, when Chris and I visited southern Saskatchewan, we stumbled upon an interesting old building in a small town.  It looked like it had once been a service shop or dealership of some sort.  When we peeked in through the windows we could see parts bins and catalogues and similar stuff in the front part of the building.  

We headed over to the local post office and explained to the clerk what we were doing.  That we were photographers documenting historical stuff.  We asked if she knew who owned the building, and if he might let us inside.  She responded that the owner was a gentleman named Al, and that he farmed just outside of town.  She graciously provided us with his phone number.

We contacted Al and explained again what we were doing, and asked if it might be possible to tour the interior of the building.  He agreed, and we arranged to meet him there a couple of days later.

When we arrived at the agreed time, we found an elderly gentleman there, trying to unlock the door.  Introductions were made and he told us he hadn't actually been in the building for about ten years.  It was in fact a former Massey Ferguson Dealership that had been operated by his father, and shut down in the mid 1980's.  

Al explained that his key was turning in the lock, but that the latch was not releasing.  He pointed to the door and told me to "Kick it right here".  I refused, and we explained that as much as we would like to see the interior, we were not going to damage his property.  He insisted that he wanted me to kick the door, but I continued to refuse.  So we moved over to an adjacent boarded up window.

We didn't have the right size screw driver to remove the plywood that covered the window.  So Al called over to his farm, and had his hired hand run down with a cordless drill and the correct driver bit.  The young farmhand crawled in through the window, and then opened the large rolling door at the back of the shop.  We went inside and began our exploration.

It was spectacular, and it looked as though it had been untouched since Al's dad retired about 40 years prior.  There were still a few old tools and supplies in the back shop.  Up in the front there were still parts in many of the bins, even including bigger stuff like bias ply tires and mufflers.  We told Al that he had a goldmine of vintage parts here and that he should look into trying to sell them.  He didn't seem very technologically savvy, and had little to no interest in doing anything on  the internet.  Perhaps someone will help him out with this.

Al and his young farm hand watched us for a few minutes, and were only mildly interested when I dug out my big camera.  They quickly got bored with what we were doing, but obviously we posed no threat.  They told us to spend as much time as we wanted, and close the place up when we left.

We spent a couple hours and took a bunch of photographs.  We were able to roll the back door shut and have the latch drop behind us, when we left.  Then we placed the plywood back into place over the broken window.  We called Al and thanked him for his cooperation, and let him know that we closed things back up.  We told him that he should send his hand back over there to screw the plywood back into place.

Sadly, the place will probably not survive for much longer.  The roof was in poor condition and had been leaking badly.  The cash drawer of till at the front counter was full of water.  I think Al viewed it as more of a liability, then something of historic significance.  Out of respect for private property I will not post any images of the exterior of the building, nor provide any specifics as to where it is.  But we are very thankful for having had the opportunity to document it.

I recently processed a batch of Ilford HP5 film in 510 Pyro Developer.  This included the four images that I shot with my view camera at the dealership.  I will be posting them all here on my blog over the coming days, starting with this one of the workbench in the back shop.

January Calendar Image

For over ten years now I have been printing a calendar of my photographs.  I don't sell this one, as I do with the David Thompson Calendar.  Rather I give this one away to friends and family.  It's getting a little costly on a retired guy's budget and I spend around $400 per year plus some mailing costs.  But everyone seems to really like the calendars, and I actually get requests for them.

I've actually had the calendars for a couple of weeks now, and have only managed to distribute a handful of them.  First there was the strike by Canada Post that crippled the shipping industry,  With the union ordered back to work deliveries are now beginning to get back on track.  But, I'm laid up with this busted leg of mine and can't get out and about to do too much right now.  I hope to get them all distributed within the next week or two.

Below is the cover of this year's calendar, as well as the January image.  The cover is a shot of the rocks along Horseshoe Lake in Jasper National Park.  I shot this a couple years ago on a Monochrome Guild outing.  I understand that the big forest fire in Jasper this past year started right in this area and that much of the area surrounding the lake was burnt.  I haven't been back yet to check it out.

The January image is a grove of aspen trees on the shore of Abraham Lake.  These trees are inundated with water every fall when the level in the reservoir peaks at its maximum.  Then over the late fall and through the winter, the water is let out of the dam, and the level drops way down.

Happy New Year...!

My first post of 2025.  I must say I'm going a little stir crazy being laid up with this busted leg of mine.  Can't wait until I can get the surgery needed and get on the road to recovery.  I'm sure I won't get the call today, being New Years Day... but hopefully soon.  In the mean time, something a little more cheerful.

This is the cover of my 2025 David Thompson Country calendar, and the image I selected for the month of January.  The cover is a detail shot of some pebbles along the Blackstone River.  The January shot is a winter image of Mount Michener at Abraham Lake.  These calendars are available to purchase at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg.

I'm really missing Nordegg as this is the first year since we finished our cottage, that we have not spent part of the Christmas holiday out there.  It was a brown Christmas up until a couple days ago, when they got a dump of fresh snow.  Here's hoping I can make it out there sometime soon.

    

Ouch

Well.... I went in to the clinic on December 30th and got my ankle x-rayed.  As soon as the technician saw the x-ray she immediately sent me to emergency.  It turns out that I have a broken fibula, and it is being displaced by having walked on it for the past two weeks.

Margarit took me to the emergency ward at the Grey Nuns Hospital.  Initially we had to sit there for almost two hours with a room full of sick people, hacking and coughing.  But soon after I was taken in and my injury was partially dealt with.  The doctor put me down under a general anesthetic and reset the bones in my leg.  He was expecting it to be very painful when he gently held my ankle and demonstrated what he was going to do.  At this stage of the game I have discovered that I must have a very strong pain threshold.  I played hockey for almost 45 minutes and then walked around on a broken fibula, including going up and down stairs multiple times, over a period of two weeks.  After re-setting the break a temporary cast was put on my leg and I was sent home. Surprisingly it only took about 4-1/2 hours from the time we arrived at emergency, until I was discharged to go home and stay off my feet.

After the last two weeks I feel as though I could easily walk on my cast leg.  But I am following doctors orders as much as possible and using crutches to bash my way around the house.  I've learned that it is really challenging to carry a hot cup of coffee while on crutches.

It really doesn't hurt much anymore and the worst part is dealing with the itching skin under the cast.  I have to wait for a couple of days to get in for surgery and have the break more permanently repaired.

So, needless to say there will be no New Years Eve celebrations for me tonight, and I will not be playing hockey again for a while.  But it is nice to know that the end is in sight now.

This will be my last post for 2024.  I was hoping to be able to upload an image of the x-ray but they would not provide me with one.  It looked rather hideous, in a painful sort of way.  I'm not really expecting a call from the hospital tomorrow as it will be New Years Day.  But hopefully I can get in and get the surgery over with very soon.  Last night I struggled with what I think we side effects of the anesthetic and I was jittery and sleepless for most of the night.

A Visit to Chipman

This is a scan of a recently processed 4" x 5" sheet of Ilford HP5+.  Just before Christmas, while nursing my sprained ankle, I retreated to the dark room and processed a batch of film.  In hindsight it wasn't such a great idea as it forced me to stand on me feet for about 90 minutes, making my ankle quite sore. In any event, I never claimed to be all that smart.

I shot this one way back on February 2nd of 2024, at about 8:40 in the evening.  Chris and Connie and I were visiting the Chipman Hotel for episode 10.0 of the Beer Parlour Project.  It had been a rather mild day, and a fair bit of snow melted.  By evening heavy fog rolled in and yielded this eerie mood.  I shot this with a really wide 75mm lens on my Ebony view camera.  It was difficult to focus in the dark but I made the best of it.  The short focal length helped and I stopped the lens down to F14 and hoped for the best.  The exposure was 16 seconds.

The town of Chipman should really give some thought to their dink-shaped Christmas decorations...!

Walking Wounded

I last played hockey on December 18th.  That was a morning game with my Vintage league.  About half way through the game, I chased a loose puck into the corner.  I lost my footing and my leg buckled underneath me.  I rolled down over my ankle with my entire body weight, and it bent in a way it's not supposed to.  No on was near me and I did not collide with anything, other than myself and the ice.  That inch or so of frozen water on top of a slab of concrete is not very forgiving.

My ankle was badly sprained, but I hobbled to the bench and tried to walk it off.  I tightened up my skate and then kept playing for another 45 minutes.  After the game I hung around for a holiday luncheon for a couple of hours.

Getting in to see my doctor and get it checked was problematic.  First it was a weekend, and then it was the Christmas break.  I was finally able to reach my doctor and had a telephone appointment yesterday.  My ankle is slowly improving, but my leg remains very bruised and swollen and is getting worse.  My doctors thinks I may have broken my leg, and I am scheduled to go in for X-rays on Monday.  In the meantime he told me to put on one of these walking boots.  When I wear it, and my leg has some support, it feels better.  When I take it off, within an hour or so my leg becomes very raw and painful and starts throbbing.  It seems the doctor's suspicions about being broken are likely correct.

I find this a little surprising as I continued to play on the leg for over half and hour.  Then for the next several days I hobbled around the house, ran some errands, visited my Mom, and went up and down the stairs repeatedly to my darkroom and my computer.

It seems I will not be getting back out on the ice for a while and am going to have to give this some time to properly heal.

Back to the Darkroom

On December 15th I spent a couple of hours in the darkroom and made a bunch of unsharp masks.  This is essentially a sheet of film, with a slightly out of focus positive image.  When it is properly registered with the negative from which it was made, the two are printed together.  I use a pin registration jig which punches some very small holes on the edge of the negative, to insure perfect alignment.  When the two pieces of film are printed together, it gives the illusion of increased sharpness due to the edge effects between light and dark areas.  It is very difficult to explain, and to understand, but it's real.

On December 16th I returned to the darkroom and printed three negatives using those unsharp masks.  The first one is a shot of Bryce Canyon down in Utah, that I photographed back in 2013.  This one will be included at the upcoming InFocus exhibition in early 2025.  The other two were both taken in the same abandoned house, back in the summer of 2023.  There is a pair of pants hanging on the wall, and a bunch of neckties, strewn on an old bed.  I am considering one or the other or perhaps both of these for the Apparitions project.  

Below are some phone snapshots of the three prints, sitting in a tray of fixer.  They still need a second fixing bath, hypo clearing agent, selenium toner, and final wash.  I will have to get after this right away and finish these prints.

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone all the best for Christmas and in 2025.  Thanks to those that continue to revisit my blog.  Looking forward to even more fun stuff next year...!

The Beer Parlour Project - Eckville Hotel - BP 17.0

Here is one more negative from that batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 that I processed on December 5th.  This sheet was rated at 320iso and given Normal development.  That was 9:35 minutes at 20C on my Jobo Processor.  

This is the Eckville Hotel, and I took this shot just after an evening thunderstorm had rolled through, on August 19th.  I was there with Chris and Connie, visiting for the Beer Parlour Project.  This was outing number BP17.0.

Briquette Press

This is the last image.... for now... from the Nordegg Historic Site.  During the various tours that I took part in last fall, I shot quite a bit of film.  I haven't processed much of it yet, so there will undoubtedly be some images shared in the future.

This was from a batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 that I processed on December 5th.  The film was rated at 320 iso and given Normal Development in PMK Developer, on my Jobo CPP-3 Processor.

This is one of the briquette presses at the mine site.  Pulverized coal was treated with steam and mixed with a binding agent and then pressed by this machine into briquettes.  They were very similar in appearance to the Charcoal briquettes that are used on BBQ's.  But these were coal, not charcoal, and were mostly used for home heating.

I shot this on September 30th at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a wide 75mm lens.  The exposure was for 8 seconds at F16.0.

Upper Bins - Company Store

This is yet another photo from my recent tour of the Nordegg Mine Site.  These parts bins are located in the Company Store, the oldest building on the site.  I tried this lower angel shot, facing upwards, to try and eliminate some of the glare and highlights that were coming from the windows.

I shot this on Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 film, rated at 400 iso.  I processed on Decembe 5 with my new Jobo CPP-3 processor in PMK Developer, for 16:40 minutes at 20 C.  This was Plus development, intended to boost contrast by one stop.

The photograph was taken on August 26th at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a Nikkor 210mm lens.  The exposure was for 8 seconds at F20.0.

Pegs

This simple image kind of intrigued me when I stumbled upon it.  I only shot one sheet of film of this composition, and fortunately it was not lost in a recent darkroom mishap.  I mixed my developer incorrectly while running a batch of Tri-X Pan 320 in PMK and lost ten images.  I had shot doubles of them all, with the exception of this one.  But it did survive, and ended up getting processed in the next batch, on December 5th.

This is the wall of the blacksmith shop at the Nordegg mine site.  I was on a private guided tour of the site on August 20th last summer when I photographed this.  The wall panelling here is sheet metal, as it was in close proximity to the forge.  Whatever hung on that nail must have been there for many years, to wear that swirled pattern into the steel.  Perhaps it was the wind blowing in through the open windows, or maybe earlier, is was the blowers of the forge.  In any event, it is now a mystery, as only the marks remain.

This was 4" x 5" sheet film, rated at 400 iso and given plus development in PMK.  The shot was taken with my Ebony view camera and a 125mm lens.  The exposure was F41.0 and a shutter speed of 30 seconds.

Tuckered

On December 9th we took Hank out for a walk at Nordegg.  Our friends Shelley and Eric joined us.  We were actually out for a couple of hours on a nice winter day.  The sun was shining for most of the afternoon, and the temperature peaked at about -1C.  Hank ran is stumpy little legs off and had a lot of fun out in the snow.  Afterwards we came back to the cottage for a coffee and visited for a bit longer.  Hank curled up in front of the fireplace and was pretty beat.  His stumpy little legs probably have to take ten steps to equal one of ours.  Plus he never runs in a straight line and always goes all over the place, exploring new sights, sounds and smells.  I checked my phone after the walk and we did a little over 3000 steps.  So Hank must have done at least 30,000...!!