Fence Post and House

This is another scan of a 4" x 5" color negative from the recently processed batch.  On March 23rd I mixed up a second batch of C-41 chemistry and ran my Jobo Processor again.  I finished up the last of my 4x5 film in that batch, and also ran a little 8x10 and 35mm stuff.

This one is also from the trip down to southern Saskatchewan in 2024.  This house was out on the open prairie, north of Grasslands National Park.  Chris and I were exploring in the area on June 15th of 2024, and I took this photography at about 3:30 in the afternoon.

I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a somewhat wide 110mm lens.  A Blue/Orange color polarizing filter increased saturation.  This sheet of film, like some of the previous ones, was outdated, having expired in August of 2013.  It was a sheet of Kodak Ektar 100.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F25.0.

Which House

One more from the recent batch of color negatives that I developed on March 22nd.  This is a scan of a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak Ektar 100.  The film reached it's best before date in August of 2013.  I loaded it into a film holder in October of 2023, exposed it in 2024, and developed it in 2026.  Despite this, it turned out alright.

I really like this composition and I have printed the Black and White version of it in the darkroom.  I am considering the print for exhibition in the Apparitions project.  I have a lot of prints to select from and have to somehow narrow things down to the final 16.  The issue is that in addition to the 30 plus prints that I already have done, I keep taking new ones that should be considered.

This old house sits all alone down in southern Saskatchewan.  It is well known among photographers as the Witch House.  I like to refer to it as Which House.  There have been a number of Halloween shots taken here over the years, and it is often used a foreground for astrophotography.  My approach is more straightforward and traditional.

I shot this on June 16th of 2024 at about 6:00 in the evening.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a 135mm lens.  A Blue/Orange color polarizing filter increased saturation.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F16.0.

See Saw

Another scan of a 4" x 5" color negative from the batch that I processed on March 22nd.  This time around the film was not really outdated... at least not when it was exposed.  This is a sheet of Kodak Ektar 100, which had an expiry date of July 2024.

I shot this one on June 14th of 2024 at about 11:00 in the morning.  Chris and I were out exploring while on our trip in southern Saskatchewan.  This old school has been purchased and is in the process of being restored and converted to a private residence.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a wide 80mm lens.  The Blue/Orange Color polarizer was used to saturate the colors.  The exposure was for 1/15th second at F25.0.

Land of Living Skies

This is another scan of a 4" x 5" color negative, from the batch that I processed on March 22nd.  This is another sheet of Kodak Portra 160VC, also with an expiry date of January 2008.  The shot of this old house was taken in the same general area as the previous post of the old truck.

I took this shot on June 13th of 2024, at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a Schneider 135mm lens.  A Blue/Orange Color polarizing filter was used to make the colors a little more saturated and unreal.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F22.0.

Old Truck

This is a scan of one of the 4" x 5" color negatives that I developed on March 22nd.  I set up my Jobo CPP-3 Processor, and mixed up a batch of C-41 chemistry.  This was a sheet of Kodak Portra 160VC.  The film expired in 2008, I loaded into a film holder in 2023, I exposed in in 2024, and I processed it in 2026.  The colors shifted a little, and I played around with the scan in Photoshop a little bit.  But considering its age, it turned out pretty well.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a 135mm lens.  The photo was taken on June 13th of 2024, at about 2:15 in the afternoon.  The exposure was for 1/60 second at F25.0.

Chris and I were exploring in southwestern Saskatchewan in the spring of 2024.  I was looking for subject matter for my "Apparitions" project and we were both visiting old hotels for the "Beer Parlour Project".  We found this old truck in one of the towns that we visited, and just had to photograph it.  It says J Kluzak Canuck on the door.  Canuck was a town in the same general area, that no longer exists.  Gord Kluzak was a professional hockey player in the NHL who grew up in the area.  This truck probably belonged to a relative of his.  Gord was drafted first overall by the Boston Bruins in 1982, and is about a year younger than me.  He was forced to retire from playing at the age of 27, after only 299 games, as a result of numerous knee injuries.

April Calendar Image

This is the image I selected for the April page of my 2026 Fine Art Monochrome calendar.  This is the personal calendar that I make every year, and give away to friends and family.

This shot was taken last year up at Beaverdam Lake.  This is essentially just a widening of Shunda Creek, not far from my cottage.

This shot was taken with my big 8" x 10" view camera.  This is a scan of a sheet of Ilford HP5+ 400 rated at 320iso and developed in 510 Pyro.  I took the shot with my Chamonix 810V view camera and a slightly wide Nikkor 240mm lens.  A #25 Red filter lowered the value of the sky, the water and the shadowed trees.  I took this photograph on April 22nd of 2025, at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F32.0.

Fenders

This is another scan from the mixed batch of film that I processed on March 14th.  I ran a batch of twenty sheets of 4" x 5" film in Kodak HC-110 Developer, Dilution B.

This particular image was on a sheet of J&C Classic 200 film, which I gave N+1 development.  This was for 8:30 minutes at 20C.

I took this photograph up at the Nordegg Historic Site last fall.  It was on September 3rd 2025, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I shot it with my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and an old Fujinon 150mm lens.  The lens does not function well, and you have to lock the shutter open on the "B" setting in order to compose the image.  But the shutter itself seems reasonably accurate, and the glass is good.  The exposure for this one was 1/8 second at F20.0.

Grader

This scan if from the mixed batch of film that I ran on March 14th.  This is a 4" x 5" sheet of J&C Classic 200, rated at 200iso and given N+1 Development in HC110 Developer, dilution B, for 8:20 minutes at 20C.  

I took this shot on one of my many visits up to the Nordegg Historic Site.  This old grader remains up at the mine and obviously hasn't run for a long time.  It likely dates back to the final days of the mine, in the mid 1950's.  

This photograph was taken on September 9th of 2024, at about 1:20 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide Rodenstock 90mm lens.  A #8 Yellow Filter lightened the value of the grader, which was painted in Caterpillar yellow.  The exposure was for 1/2 second at F25.0.

End of the Seasons

Winter Hockey is done for 2026.  I played my last game in the Vintage league on Tuesday March 24th.  This level of hockey is much slower and more relaxed than the beer league hockey I have been playing with my Renegades team.  After a couple of seasons, I'm now getting to know a bunch of the guys a little better and really enjoying this.  I will be playing in the Spring/Summer season which starts in early April and runs until the end of June.  It will be mostly a bunch of different players that I will play with for the summer, though there are a handful that I know and have played with before.  I will be away in Saskatchewan for some Beer Parlour Project outings at the beginning of April, and will miss the first game.  But I expect to make most of the games after that.  We play every Thursday morning at 11:15AM.

The Renegades just wrapped up our season in the Alberta Men's Hockey League.  We made it to the playoffs after finishing the regular season in 5th place.  We played the best of three quarter final against the fourth place Gamblers, and beat them in two straight.  Then we moved on to the best of three semi-final against the first place Outlaws.  We took it to three games but came up short and did not advance to the final.  I am now scrambling to see if I can get enough guys to commit to summer hockey with the Renegades, though its not looking very good.  The summer season in this league runs from May until August.

Of course outside hockey in Nordegg has been finished for a few weeks already.  The mild spell in mid March ruined the ice and its too late in the season to consider working on it, despite the recent cold snap.  March sure is going out like a lion this year.  There was about a foot of snow in late March and it has been very cold.  It bodes well for the upcoming wildfire season.

These are two of the retro jerseys that I wore when I played outside hockey this winter.  One is a Montreal Canadiens - #9 Maurice Richard.  The other is a Charleston Chiefs #16 - one of the Hanson brothers from the movie Slapshot.

Butte End

This is a scan of another 4" x 5" sheet of Efke PL25M film that I developed in the mixed batch on March 12th.  This was in Rodinal Developer, 1:50, for 7:00 minutes at 24C.  Agfa went out of business years ago so the true Rodinal formula is no longer available.  But several other manufacturers produce the formula under various names.  I used the Adox APH-09 version for this batch.

This is a shot from the fall trip last year with the Monochrome Guild.  This is the trip that my youngest daughter Helena came along on... together with a bunch of old geezers...  Me, Nigel, Arturo and Gord.  She had a good time, as we all did.  We really enjoyed the afternoon spent at Dinosaur Provincial Park.  The weather was mild, but not hot, and there was some glorious clear fall light.

I took this shot on October 21st 2025 at about 3:20 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Nikkor 200mm lens.  No filter was used.  The exposure was for 1 second at F32.0.

C-41 Processing

A few days ago I set up my Jobo Processor, and mixed up some C-41 chemistry.  C-41 is the process that is used to develop color negative film.  It is pretty straight forward, but needs to have the temperature maintained at 38C for the entire process.  The temperature controlled water bath of the Jobo processor is ideal for this.

C-41 is also used with chomogenic black and white films.  I believe that the only one that is still made is Ilford's XP-2.  The silver particles in the emulsion are converted to dye during the development process and this results in virtually grainless negatives.  I wish they still made this film in 4" x 5" format, but sadly it is only made in 35mm and 120 roll formats.

I don't shoot a lot of color film, and I generally save up the exposed film in the fridge until I have a large enough batch to justify mixing up the chemistry and setting up the processor.  I generally only shoot about 20 sheets per year of 4x5 and around 5 of the larger 8x10.  The film has become very costly and I am mostly just using up old stock that I have on hand.  New stock costs about $12 per sheet for 4x5 and $45 per sheet for 8x10, and the chemistry is about $65 per 1L kit.  Obviously I have to be very selective about what I shoot.  This time around I had accumulated 45 sheets of 4" x 5", five sheets of 8" x 10", and three rolls of 35mm.  One of those 35mm rolls was some XP2 black and white that I shot on a Beer Parlour Project outing.  I used two 1L kits to process all of the film.

The Expert Drums that I use on my Jobo hold 10 sheets of 4"x5"... and I have a larger one that holds 5 sheets of 8" x 10".  So this was five drums to run the 4x5 stuff, plus 1 for the 8x10, and a third tank to run the 35mm.  It took me a couple of days to get through all this stuff.

This scan is a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak Portra 160VC.  This is the North Saskatchewan River, upstream of Abraham Lake, on the Kootenay Plains.  I took this shot almost two years ago, in 2024.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 180mm lens.  No filter was used.  I took the shot on May 13th of 2024 at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  I seem to recall that my brother in law Shawn and I were out on an afternoon drive from the cottage.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F29.0.

Dry Haven Creek

This is a recent photograph, taken last fall.  When I was running a batch of Rollei film on March 12th, I added a few sheets of Efke PL25M to fill the tanks.  This is one of those sheets.  I was using Rodinal Developer, the Adox APH-09 version, diluted 1:50 at 24C.  The Efke stuff was developed for 7:00 minutes.

Margarit and I were out for a walk along Dry Haven Creek, west of Nordegg, last fall.  It is a really interesting time as ice was starting to form on the creek, but there really wasn't much snow yet.  I took this shot on November 6th 2025, at about 1:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a 180mm lens.  The exposure was for 8 seconds at F29.0. 

Alsike Corner

This old service station was in operation for many years.  I remember driving by a few times, in the not too distant past, and it was still in operation.  By the fall of 2024, when I took this photograph, it appeared to have been closed for a little while.  A competitor had set up not far away, and it seems the old place couldn't survive.  This place sits at the junction of Highway 20 and Highway 39.  There is no town there, just a couple of businesses.  There are much larger centers to the east and to the west.  Even the old phone booth has been out of service for many years.  It seems we don't need these any more and the only functioning ones I have seen in recent years were in Saskatchewan.

I took this photograph on September 1st of 2024, at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  This is a sheet of Rollei RPX-25 that I processed on March 12th, in part of that mixed batch.  This was in Rodinal Developer, 1:50, for 11:30 minutes.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide Rodenstock 90mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter significantly lowered the value of the clear blue fall sky.  The exposure was for 4 seconds at F25.0.

Dinosaur Provincial Park

This is a scan of a negative processed on March 14th.  This was a mixed batch, developed in Kodak HC-110 Developer, dilution B.  This particular 4" x 5" sheet was Ilford FP4+, given N+1 development.  The film was rated at 160iso and developed for 14:20 minutes, to boost contrast.

I took this photo last fall when my daughter Helena and I travelled with some of the guys from the Monochrome Guild on our annual fall trip.  We stayed in East Coulee, and explored around the Drumheller area, as well as at Dinosaur Provincial Park, near Brooks.

I took this shot on October 21st at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a long 250mm lens.  A #8 Yellow filter added a little extra separation of tone.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F22.0.

Miner's Grafitti

This is a scan of another negative from that mixed batch of film I processed on March 12th.  Like the previous shots, this is also a sheet of Rollei RPX-25.  I rate the film at 12iso, and develop in Rodinal 1:50 for 11:00 minutes at 24C.  It works well enough, but I find the film a little contrasty, and the exposures often become really long.  I'm undecided whether to keep shooting it after my current stock runs out.

I found these names and dates scratched and pecked in the wall of one of the buildings at the Nordegg Historic Site.  I toured the site with permission numerous times over the past couple of years.  I've been in this building at least a dozen times before, and never noticed this until the light hit it just right.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 180mm lens.  A swing on the front standard helped to hold the image plane a little better in focus.  This photograph was taken on September 24th of 2025 at about 1:45 in the afternoon.  The exposure was for 4 minutes at F20.0.