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.

Fractures and Bubbles

Here is another shot of the ice bubbles up at Abraham Lake.  This was taken early in the season, and the level of the reservoir has dropped significantly since then.  We have also had some really mild weather that resulted in a lot of melting.  The lake was open in places back in late January and early February.  Since then it has been colder, and we've seen a little snow.  I have not been back recently, so I'm not certain what current conditions might be like.

This is another 4" x 5" sheet of Fuji Neopan Acros 100.  The film was rated at 80iso and given N+1/2 development in Rodinal 1:50.  I used the Adox APH-09 version of Rodinal, and developed for 11:00 minutes at 24C.

I took this shot on December 4th 2025 at about 1:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter lowered the value of the sky and the ice, and increased contrast.  Fortunately it was a relatively mild day with little wind, generally not the case at this location, and I was able to use a rather long shutter speed.  The exposure was for 1/2 second at F25.0.

Fan Motor

This is what's left of the motor the once powered the ventilation fan up at the Nordegg Mine Site.  There are two fan houses remaining, and this one is from Nordegg No. Three mine.  Of course the site has been looted and copper thieves have damaged a bunch of equipment to steal copper wire.  

This was taken on a 4" x 5" sheet of Fuji Neopan Acros 100.  I rated the film at 80iso and gave it N+1/2 development in Rodinal [APH-09] developer, 1:50, for 11:00 minutes at 24C.  This is one of a batch of 20 sheets that I developed on February 1st.  In hindsight that plus development was probably not a great choice.  I was hoping it would support contrast in the midtones.  It did, but it kinda blew out the highlights in the opening behind the motor, and in the clear corrugated panel on the left side.  I had to burn these down in the scan, and would have to do the same in the darkroom if I print this negative.

I shot this photograph on July 29th 2025, at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a 90mm Schneider Super Angulon lens.  The exposure was for 16 seconds at F20.0.

On The Road Again

The Beer Parlour Project team will be heading out on the road at the end of the month.  This will be our first road trip and first outings of 2026.  

On Friday February 27th we will visit the Texas Gate Bar and Grill at the Cochrane Hotel, in Cochrane, Alberta.  We will arrive around 4:00PM and stay through the evening.

Then on Saturday February 28th we will head north to Barley's Pub in the Dominion Hotel in Carstairs, Alberta.  Once again, we will arrive around 4:00 and stay through the evening.

Anyone interested in our project, and in the area on those dates, is welcome and encouraged to stop by and visit, and to say hello.

I haven't taken a single photograph with my view camera yet in 2026.  Needless to say I am going to be somewhat out of practice.  If the weather warms up a little I may go out for an afternoon just to get re-accustomed to the camera.  I don't want to waste a bunch of film and ruin some opportunities when we head out next weekend.  These will be Beer Parlour Project outings BP40.0 and BP41.0.

Badlands Butte

This image was taken on the fall trip by the Monochrome Guild.  We had a wonderful day last fall at Dinosaur Provincial Park.  I shot this on a 4" x 5" sheet of Fuji Neopan Acros 100.  When I saw this scene I composed it with the intention of cropping it to panoramic, as I did here.

I rated the film at 80 iso and gave N+1/2 development in Rodinal 1:50.  Development was for 11:00 minutes at 24C.  This was part of the batch that I developed on February 1st.

I took this photograph on October 21st 2025 at about 1:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Rodenstock 90mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter lowered the value of the sky and the shadows, increasing contrast.

The exposure was for 1/4 second at F20.0.

Grader

Here is yet another scan of one of the photos I took up at the Nordegg Historic site.  I'm not sure how long this old grader has been "resting" up there, but it probably dates back to around the time the mine closed, in 1955.

This is a negative from the batch of Fuji Neopan Acros 100 that I developed on February 1.  Those 20 sheets of 4x5 film were given N+1/2 development in Rodinal [Adox APH-09] 1:50 for 11:00 minutes at 24C.

I shot this on June 25th 2025 at around 3:00PM, during one of my many tours of the site.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 180mm lens.  A #8 Yellow filter lightened the value of the yellow grader.  The filter increased contrast even further than the half stop that the extended development provided.  The exposure was for 1 second at F16.0.

Mine Cars

This is another shot testing the possibilities of N-1 developement in D23 two bath developer.  This scan is one of the 12 sheets of 4" x 5" film that I developed on January 25th.  The film is Kodak Tri-X Pan 320, rated at 250iso.  The N-1 development is intended to contract the highlights by one stop, so they aren't blown out.  It seems to have worked as there is printable detail in the brightest highlights, while the mid tones still retain a good range of values.  Development was for 6:00 minutes in Kodak D23 stock, followed by 4:00 minutes in Borax, both at 24C.

This shot is from one of my many visits up to the Nordegg Historic Site.  These mine cars actually originated at one of the mines in the Canmore area and were relocated to Nordegg as display artifacts.  I shot this in the middle of a bright summer day, and the light was very high and very harsh.  It seemed like a good subject to use to test this development.

I shot this image on July 29th of 2025 at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera.  The lens was a very old Fujinon 150mm that I've had for many years.  It is somewhat worn out and I have to look the shutter open on the Bulb setting to compose.  But the shutter speeds seem reasonably accurate, and the glass is still good.  The exposure for this one was 1/30 second at F20.0.  As with most of my images a small aperture was needed to hold depth of field from near to far.

Nordegg No3

This is another photograph from the Nordegg Historic Site.  I shot this on one of my many visits to the mine.  This is a scan of one of the 4" x 5" sheets of Fuji Neopan Acros 100 that I developed on February 1st.  I rated the film at 80iso and developed in Rodinal 1:50, for 11:00 minutes, at 24C.  This is N+1/2 development, which provides a half stop boost in contrast.  I used the Adox APH-09 version of Rodinal this time.

I took this photograph on July 29th 2025 at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a wide Schneider Super Angulon 90mm lens.  The exposure was for 1/2 second at F18.0.

This was the mine entrance to coal seam number three.  The mine was in operation until 1955.

Ice Bubbles

I recently processed a batch of Fuji Neopan Acros 100.  Sadly this film has been discontined in sheet formats.  I still have a few sheets left in 4x5, and even a handful in 8x10, so I'm slowly using it up, but saving it for good opportunities.  It exhibits really smooth and sometimes glowing midtones.  Great for female portraits.  I developed a batch of 20 sheets on February 1st in Rodinal 1:50 for 11:00 minutes at 24C.  I used the Adox APH-09 version of Rodinal and rated the film at 80iso.  I find that this development time gives a moderate increase in contrast, by about half a stop... thus N+1/2.

I took this shot of the ice bubbles in Abraham Lake back on December 4th, at around 1:00 in the afternoon.  We actually just drove up to the lake earlier today.  The lake level is way down, and the ice is somewhat frosted over and partly snow covered.  As a result of the recent mild weather, the lake is now partly open, around Windy Point.

I shot this photograph with my Ebony SV45Ti and a Fujinon 180mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter increased the contrast between the bubbles and the darker ice.  The exposure was for 1/2 second at F20.

Game Camera Photos - November 2025 to January 2026

When I was out in Nordegg in late January, I pulled the memory card from my game camera.  I have the camera on a tree behind the cottage, about 50 feet from the window.  The camera had been taking photos since early November.  

I finally got around to going through the 2500 images recorded during that time and selected and edited a handful of them here.  Mostly there was just shots of the deer.  It has been a very mild winter so far with many days well above freezing.  Most of the images in this selection show snow but in fact for much of the time there was little to none..  In November we had very little snow.  Then in December there was some accumulation.  That melted away completely in January, and was followed by a couple more light dumps of snow.  As I write this now, I am back at the cottage, looking out the window, and watching it snow.  Yesterday everything was completely bare, and there were only a few little patches of snow in the shady spots.  It started snowing early this morning, and we've had about an inch so far.

We had a lot of apples on our tree in the city and I brought all the bruised ones out to the cottage.  Over the fall months I was feeding them to the deer.  There were still a few left back in early November and I fed the last of these then.

Dinosaur Provincial Park - Eroded Butte

This is a scan of another recently processed negative.  This is a shot from the fall trip with the Monochrome Guild.  On one of the days we headed out to Dinosaur Provincial Park.  The fall light was absolutely gorgeous, and the weather was very mild.

This is a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320, rated at 250iso and given N-1 development in D23 two bath.  The first bath was D23 stock for 6:00 minutes, followed by a second bath in Borax for 4:00 minutes, all at 24C.  I ran a batch of a dozen sheets on January 25th, and this is one of the better ones.

I took this photograph on October 21st at about 12:00 noon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  A #25 Red filter lowered the value of the blue sky and bumped up the contrast.  The exposure was for 1/4 second at F22.0.

Outcrop

This is a scan of another Agfapan 25 negative.  I cropped this one to panoramic proportions...  Partly because I like the composition that way, but also because I was careless with my wide lens, and the bed of the camera was visible at the bottom edge of the frame.

I'm still amazed that this ancient film stock yields decent results.  Unlike the previous shot of the rail car, this one showed no evidence of any emulsion issues, despite being over 35 years past its expiry date.

I rated the film at 32 iso and developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 13:00 minutes at 22c.  This was part of a batch of 20 sheets that I ran in the Adox APH-09 version of Rodinal, on February 2nd.

This limber pine is out near Whirlpool Point in the Kootenay Plains.  I was exploring there last summer, with my friend Mike, who was visiting from Prince George.  My daughter Ryan and her boyfriend Braeden were also out with us for the day.

I shot this on August 30th 2025, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and an ultra wide Nikkor 65mm lens.  A #8 Yellow filter pumped up contrast a bit.  The exposure was for 1/2 second at F18.0.

Helena's Roundhouse Shot

This is a scan of a negative taken during the fall trip by the Monochrome Guild.  This is similar to a previously posted shot and was taken at the old roundhouse in Big Valley.  My daughter Helena was along on the trip, with four old guys.  It was me, Arturo, Gord and Nigel, and Helena really enjoyed their company.  She is 17 and was out of school at the time due to the teachers strike.  A short time after we returned, the teachers were forced back to work and her grade 12 studies resumed.  I helped her to set up the camera and focus it, and to meter the scene.  But she chose this composition.

This is another of those ancient sheets of Agfapan 25 that expired nearly four decades ago.  The film was rated at 32iso and developed in Rodinal 1:50, for 13:00 minutes, at 22C.  I used the Adox version of Rodinal, APH-0, and ran the batch of 20 sheets on February 2nd.  This one didn't show any mottling, like the other one from the same batch of the railway coach.

Helena took this photograph on October 20th 2025 at about 2:20 in the afternoon.  She used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Rodenstock 90mm lens, with no filter.  Sadly I neglected to record exposure details.

Broken Ladder

This is another test shot.  I thought the scene was very contrasty so I attempted Minus development with Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 in D23 two bath developer.

I found this old ladder laying in the trees at the Nordegg Historic Site, during one of my many private tours.  I metered the scene with my spot meter.  The low values in the shadows were 7 stops below the brightest highlights.  I exposed for the mid tone values of the ladder and some of the leaf litter, and then held down the high values in development.

This is a 4" x 5" negative shot on Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 rated at 250 iso.  Development was N-1... so a one stop contraction.  This was for 6:00 minutes in D-23 stock followed by 4:00 minutes in Borax, at 24C.

I shot this image on July 29th 2025, at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a wide 90mm lens.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F25.0.

Big Valley Coach

This is a scan of another negative from the Fall Photo Trip taken with a group from the Monochrome Guild.  This one is a sheet of Agfapan 25.  This film has not been manufactured for decades, and the company that made it, Agfa, has long since gone out of business.

I bought a number of boxes of this film from a seller on Ebay.  The seller claimed that it had been properly stored in a freezer, but obviously that was not the case.  All of the boxes smelled musty and old, and some of them had mould on them.  I have been shooting the film every since I bought it, around the turn of the millennium.  Most of it worked just fine, although the boxes that were open and partially used had become mouldy and had to be discarded.  This particular negative, although it didn't come from an open box, was showing a little mottling in the sky, and may have been beginning to mould.  This really is not a surprise as the expiry date of the film was July of 1990, so it was probably manufactured sometime around 1986.  I have now just about run out of this film.  I have a few sheets left in some film holders, that will likely be exposed and developed sometime in 2026... so forty years after being manufactured.

I developed 20 sheets of this stuff on February 2nd.  I rated the film at 32iso and developed in Rodinal 1:50, for 13:00 minutes at 22C.  The original Rodinal developer was manufactured by Agfa as well.  When Agfa went out of business a number of other companies started producing developers based on the old Rodinal formula.  The one that I used in this case was Adox APH-09.

I took this photograph on October 20th 2025 at about 1:15 in the afternoon.  This is an old railway coach in the town of Big Valley.  I shot this with my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a 125mm lens.  I added a #8 Yellow filter to bring up the contrast a little, and lower the value of the sky.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F20.0.