Last of the Season for the Bubbles

Later on Saturday, after we got Hank dried off and warmed up, we headed out again.  This time we left Hank back at the cottage, to snooze by the fire.  The girls and I took a drive west.

We made a brief stop at Dry Haven Creek and took a short walk.  It was quite icy and slippery, and the creek was still completely frozen over with ice and snow.  So we continued on up to Abraham Lake.  It was warm, but very windy and not all that pleasant to be outside.  There were still a few "Bubblers" trying to make their way onto the ice and catch a glimpse of the bubbles.  The ice is badly deteriorated, and dusted with snow.  There are puddles of water on top of the ice, and a large area of open water at Windy Point.

It was neither safe nor pleasant to wander onto the ice, and not really much to see in the way of bubbles.  The spectacle is best viewed early in the season right after the lake freezes over.  So, we ventured back to the cottage and put a roast in the oven for dinner.  Hank was really happy to see us return.

Beaverdam

On Saturday March 7th Margarit, Helena, Hank and I took a drive over to nearby Beaverdam Lake.  The temperature got up to about +11 at one point, but it didn't feel as warm as the thermometer suggested.  It was quite heavily overcast for most of the day, and there was a bit of a breeze.

We went for a walk on the shore of the lake, and down along Shunda Creek, where it exits the lake.  We were startled and surprised to see a small flock of ducks on a little patch of open water.  There is a lot of sulphur in the water, I assume from some of the nearby coal seams, and except for periods of extreme cold, there is often open water on the lake.

As we walked along the creek, Hank got a little too close to the edge of the ice, and broke through into the creek.  It was in a spot that was deep enough that he was fully submerged.  You could see the panic in his eyes as he hit the cold water.  The girls immediately tried to pull him out with his leash, but his collar slipped off.  Margarit had to quickly kneel down and grab him before the current pulled him away.  Needless to say that put a quick end to our stroll as he had to take Hank back to the cottage and get him dried off and warmed up.

Half A Million

Last night my blog reached a milestone.  It hit half a million page views....!  Since the middle of 2010, so 15-1/2 years, I have been posting my photographs and lots of other mindless schlock, here on my blog.  I know that some of my friends and family follow along just to see what I'm working on.  I'm not sure where all the other views are coming from, but Thank You to everyone that takes the time to check out what I'm doing.

Another Apparition

This is another of my images that has been included in our gallery submission package for the Apparitions project.  I took this photograph on one of my two trips to southern Saskatchewan in the summer and fall of 2024.  Hopefully this one does the subject justice and implies a human presence.

Apparitions

I haven't mentioned much about my Apparitions project in recent months.  It is still limping along quietly... in the background.  Arturo and I have been working together on this project since 2020.  This is a portion of our Artist Statement, that describes the project.....

The title Apparitions was selected for our exhibition as all of the silver gelatin photographs presented adhere to a common theme or thread; the images all portray evidence of a human presence.  At times that evidence is in times past, while on other occasions it is remarkably current.  Visual clues are presented as to what may have transpired, but the performers are not included in the scene.  The viewer is to interact and engage with the images and determine what has come to pass.  The apparition of the outcome is called upon by the image, but the audience is left to draw their own conclusions.  Undoubtedly diverse viewers will derive their own tale and conclusion, at least partially based on their own life experiences. It thus becomes an introspective journey of sorts.

In 2024 we received an Edmonton Arts Council grant that funded preparation and presentation of the selected exhibition prints.  We have selected 32 prints that are framed and ready to be displayed.  Since the production phase of the project was completed, we have been making gallery submissions to line up some exhibitions.  I've lost count exactly, but we have submitted to something around 15 galleries so far, with more upcoming.  We are hopeful and anxiously waiting to see if the project will be accepted for exhibition.  We are hopeful that the finished prints can go on a gallery tour for two or three years so that our efforts can be appreciated.

This is a sample of one of the images that is included in both the submission package, and will also be presented in the exhibition.  Both Arturo and myself are equally represented.  We have included ten sample images in our submission package, and this is one of mine.

Lots more Hockey

Yesterday I played hockey twice...  At noon I had a game with my Vintage League.  A bunch of the old retired guys that usually play are away on holidays, mostly to Mexico, at this time of year.  So we only had ten skaters per side, plus the goalies.  It was a great time and I really enjoyed it.  My Red squad won both games... 5-1 and 9-3.

In the afternoon I had a bit of a nap... then in the early evening I watched the first two periods of the Edmonton Oilers hockey game against the Ottawa Senators.  They played terribly and blew the lead a couple of times, though they did eventually win the game in overtime.

Then later still I headed over to the Argyll Arena for another hockey game, this time with my Renegades team.  This was the last game of the regular season, against a team called the Boomsticks.  We've defeated these guys in the past by this was not our night and we ended up losing by a score of 8-2.  We finished the regular season in 5th place and the playoffs start on the weekend.

In between I hung all my gear up on a drying rack, hoping to air it out and let it dry off before having to drag it to another rink and wear it again.  There's nothing worse than putting on wet gear...!

Today I drove out to Nordegg.  I slept in a bit after being up late from all the hockey.  After making a stop in Rocky Mountain House for some groceries I arrived at the cottage around 4:00.  I will play hockey one more time, this time on the ODR (outdoor rink) later tonight.  It's much warmer out here in the mountains than it was back in the city.  The daytime high temperature peaked at around +6C, while back in the city it only made it up to -9C.  I'll be hanging around out at the cottage for a few days, and will play hockey again on Saturday.  Then, when I return to the city there are yet more games with my Vintage League... every Tuesday until the end of the month, and then every Thursday until the end of June.  And there will be some playoff games to be played with the Renegades as well.

David Thompson Country Calendar 2026 - March Image

This is the image that I selected for the March page of my 2026 David Thompson Country calendar.  There are still a couple of copies of this calendar available to purchase at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg. 

This is a view of Coliseum Mountain, taken from the Forestry Trunk Road just outside of Nordegg.  The foreground area was burned by a forest fire a number of year ago.

March Calendar Image

This is the image that I selected for the March page of my 2026 Fine Art Photography calendar.  I had over two dozen of these calendars printed last fall, and handed them out at Christmas time to friends, neighbors and family.

This is a shot taken in the spring of 2024 at the Abraham Slabs area, along the David Thompson Highway.  In the fall, when the reservoir is full these trees are standing in water.  By spring, the lake level has receded and they trees are some distance from the shore.  This was taken with my 4x5 view camera on a blustery spring day.

Beer Parlour Project - BP41.0 Dominion Hotel

On February 28th the Beer Parlour Project team visited the Barley Pub, in the Dominion Hotel, in Carstairs, Alberta.  This time around it was Chris and myself and two guest photographers.  Byron Robb and David Clarke also joined us on this outing.

I started out the day with a brief return to the Rockyview Hotel in Cochrane.  This was not really out of my way, as I was staying in Cochrane.  The winter storm had passed, the sun was out, the sky was blue, and the temperature had risen to about -8C.  After I took a couple of photographs there with the view camera, I headed north to Carstairs.  When I got there, I did the same thing, and took a couple of exterior shots of the hotel.

A short time later Chris and David arrived and we packed all of our gear into the hotel, and made our introductions.  Byron joined us a short time later.  We stayed from about 3:30 in the afternoon, until around 10:00PM.  

When we first arrived there was a pool tournament wrapping up.  This establishment has a full kitchen and restaurant, so by late afternoon the supper crowd started to roll in.  Later in the evening, as the dinner guests began leaving, the Saturday night crowd started to arrive.  We were kept busy visiting with everyone, conducting interviews, and taking photographs.  This particular establishment had no windows, and the light was limited at best.  But I managed to shoot around a dozen sheets of 4" x 5" film with the big camera, plus some 35mm stuff as well.

It was another great outing, but by the time the evening was winding down, I was pretty exhausted.  Just being wound up and meeting everyone and taking photographs and touring the premises is very tiring, in a good sort of way.  But after two nights in a row, I was drained and so just headed back to the suite in Cochrane, unwound for a little, and then crashed.

I'm not sure exactly when we might get out for more Beer Parlour Project outings.  We have a trip to Saskatchewan planned in April.  It seems unlikely we will get out before then, but you never know.

Beer Parlour Project - BP40.0 - Rockyview Hotel

On the morning of February 27th I loaded up a bunch of gear and hit the road for Calgary.  This was a solo trip as Margarit decided not to join me.  She has a new found freedom now that her shoulder has healed and she is cleared to drive.  That clearance came just a couple of days ago so she decided to stay home and catch up on some stuff. 

The weather was less than ideal and the temperature hovered between -15 and -20C all day.  As I got south to around Red Deer, it was snowing and blowing and visibility was poor in places.  The wind polished the highway and there were icy sections as well.  As I got closer to Calgary conditions improved a little, but the snow got a little heavier and continued all evening.

I rented the basement suite of my colleagues Chris and Connie's kids, located in Cochrane.  This was really convenient as this was also our destination for the day.  I stopped in at the suite and dropped off some gear and then continued into the downtown.  The old Rockyview Hotel in the old downtown of Cochrane dates back to the turn of the last century, and is among the oldest hotels we have visited so far.  The tavern is called the Texas Gate Bar.

I met up with Chris and guest photographer Byron Robb at the hotel around 3:00 in the afternoon.  Connie was unable to join us this time as she is in the midst of some cancer treatments.  She is doing really well, but is supposed to avoid crowds of strangers due to her reduced immunity.

This was our first outing of 2026 and in fact I haven't shot any film with my view camera since our last outings, almost three months ago, back in early December.  It was also a milestone outing as this was number 40.  Our goal is to visit 100 old hotels, so we still have 60 to go.

Despite the weather the place was really well attended and we got some great photos and interviews.  I ended up shooting 14 sheets of film, plus a bunch of stuff with my 35mm cameras.  One of the guys that stopped in for a visit and to say hello was Trevor.  We had previously met and photographed him at the Edgerton Oasis Hotel last summer.  We joked that he is our first repeat offender.... to be photographed twice with the view camera at different hotels.

We wrapped things up a little after 9:00 and I headed over to the suite and settled down for the night.  We plan to visit the Carstairs Hotel on Saturday for outing number 41.

Open Door - D23 Two Bath Development

This is my final scan from the batch of Tri-X Pan given N-1 Development.  I am really pleased with how the twelve negatives in this batch turned out.  In years past I had very little success reducing development time to control highlight values.  The images always turned out really muddy and dull with no mid tone contrast.  This was not just with one film... I attempted minus development with several different film/developer combinations and none were successful.  This two bath development seems to really nail it.

This is the last scan from the batch that I processed on January 25th.  Two bath development was in D23 Developer, undiluted, for 6:00 minutes, followed by a second bath in Borax for 4:00 minutes.  Agitation was normal in the first bath and minimal in the second, all at 24C.  The film was slightly overexposed, achieved by rating it at 250 iso, rather than the 320 iso box speed.

This shot was taken at a historical site that included a number of relocated and preserved buildings.  The site no longer functions as a museum and the buildings are all being relocated again.  This is the interior of the funeral home.  I was drawn to the textures of the peeling paint, the light spilling in the open door, and the leaves scattered on the floor.

I shot this on June 1st 2025 at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a wide 80mm lens, with no filter.  The exposure for this 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak Tri-X Pan was for 1 second at F18.0.

I like this one a lot and the next time that I do some printing I will attempt to print this negative.  If it turns out as well as I hope, then I may consider adding it to the Apparitions project.

Carbon House - D23 Two Bath Development

This is my second last scan from the batch of film I developed on January 25th.  I was experimenting with a medium sized batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320.  All the scenes were images that showed a relatively high subject brightness range.  I experimented with giving N-1 development in D23 Two Bath.  The N-1 part simply means that development time is reduced to prevent the highlights from getting blown out and rendering them difficult to print.  The minus one part refers to a contraction of one stop.  Normally reducing development also reduces the overall contrast of the image, and the mid tones can suffer.  This two bath method helps to prevent that.  Without getting in a long technical description, the second bath increases mid tone and low value development to retain contrast, while restraining the highlights.  I think it worked very well, and I will continue to use this method going into 2026.

This is an old ranch house near the town of Carbon.  It sits on private property, right beside a road.  The property is posted, so I took this shot from the road.  Even while I was there shooting, which took me 15 minutes or so, the owner drove up to see what I was doing.  She was fine with me taking the photograph from beside the fence but did not want me to enter the property, so I respected that.  I came away with a pretty good image.

I rated the 4" x 5" Tri-X pan film at 250 iso.  Development was for 6:00 minutes in D23 followed by 4:00 minutes in the second bath.  I took this photograph on June 15th 2025, at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  We were in the area at the time, having just photographed a couple of Beer Parlour Project outings.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a Schneider 135mm lens.  A #25 Red filter created some separation in the sky, and added a little contrast.  The exposure was fo 1/8 second at F22.0.

School Desks

I have three more scans of my experimental D23 two bath development and this is one of them.  The development is N-1, so a contraction of one stop in subject brightness range.  This is achieved by developing first in Kodak D23 developer, undiluted, for 6:00 minutes.  Then the film is transferred to a second bath of a borax solution, for 4:00 minutes.  Both solutions were at 24C.  This provides good mid tone separation while restraining highlights.  This was my first attempt at this, and I ran a batch of a dozen sheets of Kodak Tri-X Pan that I shot last summer.  Some examples from this batch were posted here several days ago, and now I will present three more.

This one was taken in the abandoned Quiet Nook School.  I thought is was a good test opportunity as the interior was in low light, and the exterior, visible through the windows was quite bright.  The film was slightly over exposed, achieved by rating it at 250 iso, rather than the box speed of 320 iso.

I shot this on June 1st 2025 at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a Schneider 135mm lens.  The exposure was for 1 second at F14.0.  The exterior, visible through the windows, was spot metered and had an exposure value of around 10.  The darkest areas around the desks were a full seven stops lower, with an exposure value around 3.  The upper walls and the brighter areas of the desks were metered at an exposure value around 6.  The exposure used rendered these values as middle grey.  The contracted development held the windows down 1 stop, so that they fell 3 stops above middle grey [Zone 8] rather than 4 stops above [Zone 9].

Lots of Hockey

There has been a lot of hockey going on the last little while.  Of course the Winter Olympics just wrapped up and I watched a lot of games that team Canada played in, both on the men's side and the women's.  Sadly we came up short in both, and came away with silver medals.  On the men's side, our NHL squad was goalie'd by a really hot American goaltender.  Otherwise I thought team Canada dictated the play.  I questioned a couple of the roster choices, but mostly it was a solid squad.  The officials missed a number of penalty calls that mostly would have gone in team Canada's favor, but we came up short when the puck hit the ice.

I play hockey every Tuesday when I am in the city with the Edmonton Vintage League.  This is a group of guys that are all 55 years old and older.  It is a bit refreshing for me as when I play with this group, I am one of the better players.  Sadly I missed the game last week, as I was out in Nordegg, and will miss it again today, as I have to take Margarit to an appointment.  She is getting a follow up checkup for her recent shoulder joint replacement surgery.

Whenever I am out at Nordegg I try to play drop in hockey at the ODR.  The Out Door Rink...!!!  There is nothing like skating outside, under the stars, with the mountains around you.  At those games it is just drop in shinny.  We usually have two goalies and anywhere from 4 to 20 players.  But there is no equipment and the rink is only about 60% of the official size.  Games are played twice a week, and in between I always help out with shovelling and flooding the ice.

For something like 22 years now I have been playing hockey with my team the Renegades.  For the past several years we have been playing in the Alberta Men's League.  The name is old school, but there are a few women that play in the league, including one on our team.  I started the team over twenty years ago and I'm the last holdout from the original roster.  Most of the players in this league are between 20 and 35 years old, so at 62 I have trouble keeping up.  I won't be playing here much longer, hence the transition to the Vintage league.  

This year the Renegades started in Division 8, but got moved down to Division 9 for the last part of the season.  We had two back to back games on the weekend and I played both.  On Saturday evening we defeated the Legacy Heating team by a score of 11-4.  Then on Sunday afternoon we played a rather rough and undisciplined team called the Ticklers, and beat them 10-6.  We will finish the season in 5th place.  There is one regular season game left in early March, and then the playoffs start.

As for Vintage Hockey, it is more of a recreational game, and we don't keep score beyond in the moment, there are not stats, and no standings.  The winter season ends at the beginning of March.  Then starting in April I will play on Thursdays in the summer season that runs until the end of June.  I'm hoping that the Renegades can also ice a team for the summer league.

Below is a snapshot of my #87 Sidney Crosby jersey from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.  I wore this while I was cheering on team Canada this year...!

Nordegg in February

Someone from our family has been out at Nordegg for most of the month.  This helps to cut down on the power bill as we heat with wood when we are there, and have to run our forced air electric furnace when we are not.  We only keep the furnace turned on very low when we are not around, but it still adds up to a sizeable bill when it gets really cold.  And in winter, with snow cover at times and short days, our solar panels don't generate very much power.

Hailey was out for a week or so in early February.  A day or two after she got back to the city Margarit and I went out.  We arrived on the 11th of February and stayed until the 19th.  It had been really mild at the end of January and into the first part of February.  At one point the daytime high reached +15C.  There was virtually no snow left when we got there, and there is great concern about the upcoming fire season.

During the first couple of days that I was there I helped some of the neighbors to restore the ODR... the Out Door Rink.  The mild weather had almost destroyed it.  The hard work of neighbors Darrell and Shauna saved it, and when I got there I helped them to flood it four more times.  Other than that it was was mostly a time to relax and rest.  Margarit is still recovering from her shoulder surgery and being out there keeps her away from all the chores she thinks she needs to do.  I did bring out a shelf unit that she bought and she set it up in the master bedroom of the guest cottage.  I puttered around a little more on the old jukebox... painting and installing the coin door.

Over the family day long weekend Ryan and Braeden came out and brought Hank, our dog.  Braedon and I played against each other at the weekly community hockey game on Saturday night.  The ice took a beating with all the people skating over the holiday, and further work is in order.  Towards the end of our stay it got really cold, with night time lows dropping down to -33C, and a dump of about four inches of fresh snow.  Braeden and Ryan went back to the city just before the snow fall, which I understand was more substantial in the city.

Shortly after Margarit and I got home, Ryan and Breaden went back out, and they are out there now.  Braeden got to skate on the ODR again.  It seems colder weather will prevail for the next little while so perhaps we will get to skate on the outside ice a few more times this seaon.