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.

Battered and Beaten - Minus Development in D23 two bath.

The contrast of a Black and White negative is partially dependent upon how long it is developed.  When I refer to "Normal" development, it is negatives that are developed to provide a normal contrast range.  This is usually a subject brightness range of about six stops.  Plus development is when a negative is given extra time to increase the contrast.  This is usually reserved for images shot when lighting is rather flat.  Minus development is when a negative is given less development, in an attempt to hold down the highlights.  I have never had much luck with minus development, and largely ignored it in recent years.  I found that although it held the highlights reasonably well, the mid tones and low values looked really flat and muddy.

A photographer on Flickr recently shared with me his technique for minus development with Kodak Tri-X Pan film.  I saw some examples of his work and was quite impressed with the mid tone contrast.  The process uses a two bath developer.  The first bath is Kodak D23.  This is an old and well know Kodak formula, but it was never offered as a prepackaged developer.  You have to make it yourself from Metol and Sodium Sulfite.  Most of the development occurs in this D23.  It is a soft acting developer that reduces grain size.  After several minutes in this developer, the film is moved to a second bath of Borax.  This second bath is highly alkaline.  The film has absorbed the developer in the first bath.  The alkaline bath acts as an accelarator, causing the development to continue.  It is quickly exhausted in areas where there is a lot of exposed silver to develop (the highlights), but continues working for some time in areas where there is less silver (the midtones and shadows).

The result is that the negatives demonstrates full contrast and in the middle and lower values, while the highlights are restrained from being blown out.

I thought I would give this a try, so through the summer and fall of 2025, whenever I ran across a contrasty scene where the highlights needed to be tamed a little, I shot a sheet of film and set it aside.  Finally I accumulated a number of sheets and set about giving this development a try.  I mixed up the chemistry and ran twelve 4" x 5" sheets of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320.  In most instances I slightly overexposed the film to make sure the shadows had adequate exposure.  This was achieved by rating the film at 250iso.

This particular shot was taken last fall when the Monochrome Guild was out on our annual fall trip.  We found a number of old vehicles abandoned in a coulee in the badlands.  The low fall light was creating harsh highlights on the old car, but I wanted to retain adequate contrast in the mid tones and shadow areas.  The two bath technique seemed to work really well.

I took this photograph with my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a 250mm lens.  It was taken on October 22nd 2025 at about 2:30PM.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F25.0, with the film rated at 320 iso.

Two Bath Compensating development, first in D23 stock for 6:00 minutes, then moved to second bath in Borax accelerator for 4:00 minutes.  All at 24C.

Roundhouse

This one is the last of the Kodak T-Max 100 negatives that I recently processed and scanned.  Going forward into the coming days, the images that I post will be different film and developer combinations.  I had quite a backlog of T-Max 100 and ran several batches shortly before the holidays.

This 4" x 5" negative is a shot of the remains of the railway roundhouse in the town of Big Valley.  I stopped here last fall, with a group of photographers from the Monochrome Guild.  We were on our annual fall trip, and last year we elected to visit the Drumheller area.  This was a stop that we made on our way there.  The teachers were on strike at the time and my youngest daughter Helena was along on the trip.  There were five of us, and we stayed at a rental house in East Coulee, and explores for several days in the badlands and surrounding area.

This sheet was developed on December 19th, in 510 Pyro Developer, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.  I shot this image on October 20th 2025 at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide 75mm lens.  I chose not to use any filters.

The exposure was for 1/4 second at F32.0.

Lamp Charger

A couple days ago I posted an image of some lamp batteries.  This image shows the charging unit that was used for those batteries.  It is in the lamphouse of the Nordegg Mine Site.  I don't understand much beyond basic wiring, so I'm not sure exactly how this unit functioned.  It appears that there were means to control the voltage and duration of the charge.

This photograph was taken on a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100, 4" x 5", rated at 80 iso and developed in 510 Pyro.  This sheet was in a batch of 20 sheets that I developed on December 19th.  I gave the batch normal development, which was 1:100 dilution for 8:00 minutes at 24C.

I shot this image on July 29th 2025 at about 1:15 in the afternoon, during one of my many private tours of the historic site.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 180mm lens.  Due to the very low light levels in the old lamphouse, the exposure was very long; 60 seconds at F20.0.

David Thompson Country Calendar 2026 - February Image

This is the image I selected for the February page of my 2026 David Thompson Country Calendar.  I think there are still a couple of copies of this calendar left at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg.

I find this image fascinating, and will likely use it in my Apparitions project.  This is the wall of one of the hoist houses at the Nordegg Historic Site.  I was on one of my many private tours of the site when I captured this image.  Except for the more modern graffiti at the bootom of the image, all of the other stuff dates back 70 years or more.  There are notes about weather conditions on certain dates back in the 1950's.  A one from the day that the mine closed for good in 1955.

I suspect that the coal company closed the mine due to low demand, with the expectation that things would improve at some point, and they would start up again.  Well, that never happened, and everything remains in place as it was left back on that day.

Reynolds Truck

This is an older image.  Arturo and I were out on a day trip, looking for subjects to photograph for our Apparitions project.  We ended up at the Reynolds Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin.  We were more interested in some of the old, unrestored junk that was outside, than we were in the display items in the museum.  This old truck was parked along with several others, awaiting the day when it might be restored.

This is a scan of a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 that I developed in a batch on December 18th.  The film was rated at 80 iso and given Normal Development in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.

I shot this photograph on July 5th of 2024, at about 2:45 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide 90mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter lowered the value of the sky, and increased overall contrast.  The exposure was for 1/4 second at F16.0.

Lamp Batteries

This is another image from the Nordegg Historic Site.  These are old batteries, in the lamp house.  The batteries were used to power the lamps on the miners helmets, so that they could see underground.  Everyday when they started their shifts, each miner would pick up their helmet with a freshly charged battery, and leave their tag at the lamphouse.  Each miner had a tag with a number on it.  This was the way that they kept track of exactly who was in the mine at any given time.  If you take the guided tour of the mine, you can visit this building for yourself and the guides will explain in detail how everything functioned.  I was on a private tour of the mine when this photograph was taken.

This is a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 that I developed on December 19.  The film was rated at 80 iso and given normal development in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes, at 24C.

I shot this image on July 29th 2025, at about 1:45 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a 180mm lens.  The exposure was for 1 minute at F25.0.

Calendar Image - February 2026

This is the image that I selected for the February page of my 2026 Fine Art Calendar.  I've just finished distributing the two dozen copies of this calendar that I had printed.  Sadly a couple of them went out pretty late, so some people will miss having the January image on their wall for a month.

On our way home from some Beer Parlour Project outings in Saskatchewan last year, Arturo and I found an old abandoned schoolhouse.  It had been converted over to a community hall after it ceased to be used as a school.  Inside was a ping pong table, and a lot of pigeon shit.  This was the last shot I took at that location, after we found the ball over in a corner.

Success - Dry January Challenge

I challenged myself to give up alcohol for the month of January.  No particular reason, just wasn't happy with how often I was indulging.  As the month went on I lost about 5 to 7 Lbs, and found that I slept better and generally felt better.  I don't plan to quit altogether but will definitely slow down going forward.

I actually cheated a little.  Margarit and I went out on the evening of January 31st to see a performance of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at the Winspear Center.  After the show we stopped for a bite to eat a local pub, and catch the end of the Oilers game.  The game wasn't worth watching as the Oilers played terribly and lost 7-3 to the Minnesota Wild.  It was about 10:30PM when we ordered our food and I thought I could indulge, and I ordered one beer.  So technically it was an hour and a half early.  But in my defense I started my period of abstinence almost a week early, on Boxing Day.

Sunflower Heads

This is another version of a field of sunflowers near Gywnne, Alberta.  I posted another shot taken on the same date and from this same spot, several days ago.

This one is from a batch of 4" x 5" Kodak T-Max 100 that I processed on December 19th.  Development was in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.

I shot this on September 14th 2025 at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a 125mm lens.  A #8 Yellow filter lightened the value of the sunflower heads a little, and created some separation in the sky.  The film was rated at 80 iso and exposed for 1/8 second at F25.0.

Brothel Highlights

This interior shot is from the Nordegg Historic site.  This building was rumoured to once be a brothel.  I'm not sure if that's true or not...?

This image is from a batch of Kodak T-Max 100 4" x 5" that I developed on December 22nd.  This batch was processed in 510 Pyro developer, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes at 24C.

I shot this on June 25th 2025, at about 4:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti camera and a super wide Nikkor 65mm lens.  The film was rated at 80 iso and was exposed for 8 seconds at F25.0.

Fan House

This is the fan house for the Number Three Mine Shaft at the Nordegg Historic Site.  The harsh summer sun was nicely showing the texture of the rivets and steel.  This fan moved air through the mine to provide fresh air for the workers, and to exhaust any buildup of explosive gases, like methane, that came off the coal face.  Despite the fact that it has not been used for 70 years, the drum fan still spins on its shaft.  There must be an intake somewhere up above on the hillside, though I have never been able to locate it.  I was photographing at the mine during a private tour, as this site is only open to the public by guided tour.

I messed up a little when I shot this.  I used a very wide lens to record this scene.  Normally when I use my really wide angle lenses with my view camera I need to make a bunch of movements on the standards of the camera.  The bed of the camera needs to be dropped, the rear standard needs to be tilted back, and the front standard needs to be raised and tilted back towards the film.  The bellows extension for wide lenses is minimal and the front standard ends up pushed right back towards the film plane.  These movements are necessary to prevent getting the bed of the camera into the bottom edge of the field of view.  In this case I only raised the standards and didn't do the bed and standard tilts.  As a result the out of focus bed of the camera is visible at the bottom of this image.  I cropped most of it out of this scan, but a little bit of it is still visible, if you look for it.  Live and learn... I should have known better as I have made this mistake multiple times before.

This is a sheet of 4" x 5" Kodak T-Max 100 from the batch that I developed in 510 Pyro on December 19th.  The film was rated at 80 iso and developed at 1:100 dilution, for 8:00 minutes, at 24C.

I took this photograph on July 26th of 2025, at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Nikkor-SW 65mm lens.  This focal length is approximately equal to a 21mm lens on a full frame digital camera, or a 35mm SLR.  I added a #25 Red Filter to increase contrast, and create some separation between sky and clouds.

The exposure was for 1 second at F20.0.

Alsike Corner

This old service station sits beside Highway 39, between Drayton Valley and Leduc.  At this time of this photograph, it had only been abandoned for a short time.  In fact, I remember passing by, about a year prior, and it was still in business.  I shudder to think at how vandalized and looted it must be now, over a year later.

This is one of the sheets of Kodak T-Max 100 that I developed on December 18th.  The film was rated at 80iso and given Normal Development in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 8:00 minutes, at 24C.

I shot this on September 1st of 2024, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a somewhat long 200mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter was added.  This significantly lowered the value of the clear blue sky and popped up the contrast of the highlighted storefront and fuel pumps.  The exposure was for 1/2 second at F29.0.

Anyone that has been paying attention to the write ups about my photographs may notice that the aperture that I use for most of them is between F16 and F32.  These small apertures are generally necessary to hold adequate depth of field.  The focal lengths needed for large format photography are much longer than those for 35mm or most digital cameras.  The longer the focal length of the lens, the shallower the depth of field.  Also, the closer to the subject, the less depth of field.  The combination of these two factors is what dictates my longer exposures.  Fortunately, most of the subject matter that I shoot is stationary, so the resulting long shutter speeds don't generally pose any issues.  The exception is the Beer Parlour Project photographs, which always include a person or group.  The long focal length, close subject distance, low lighting in the beer parlours, and motion all combine to create some issues.  I try to compensate by pushing the film to higher iso speeds, opening the lens up as much as I dare, and instructing my at times inebriated subjects to hold still.  Shutter speeds are often between 1/4 and 1 second, so this is not always successful.

Coal Car

This is not a fantastic image, but historically it is significant.  There are a number of old coal cars, including this one, which originally came from the coal mines in Canmore, Alberta.  These were donated to the Nordegg Historic Site and currently remain there.  It is my understanding that they were not used in the Nordegg mine.

This is another sheet of Kodak T-Max 100, rated at 80iso and developed in 510 Pyro.  I shot this one on September 9th of 2024, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  I added a #58 Green Filter with the intention of lightening the value of the foliage and grass, and increasing the separation in the rusty red steel of the mine car.  The exposure was for 4 seconds at F20.0.

Company Store

This is a scan of a 4" x 5" sheet of T-Max 100, rated at 80 iso and given Normal development in 510 Pyro.  Development was at 1:100, for 8:00 minutes, at 24C.

This is another of my shots from up at the Nordegg Historic Mine Site.  I continue my project to document the buildings and artifacts that remain at this site, with the permission of the County.  The mine closed 70 years ago, in 1955. 

This is the interior of the company store, the oldest building on the site.  It survived the big fire in the early 1950's that saw many of the other buildings destroyed and reconstructed.  The miners had to provide all their own tools and supplies.  Being such a remote location, they had no choice but to buy from the company store, and the cost was deducted from their paycheque.  I have no idea how fair the mine was in their pricing but one would hope they had to be somewhat reasonable about it, if they wanted to retain their workforce.  But historically most mines were notoriously cheap, so it seems doubtful that the miners were treated overly well.

I shot this on August 26th of 2024, at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  The exposure was for 60 seconds at F20.0.  I chose to use the pyro developer for this shot as I knew that the resulting stain would help to retain highlight value in the windows.