Blackstone Pebbles

I'm a little undecided about this one.  I took this detail shot out along the Blackstone River last fall.  Margarit and I were out for a day trip and headed west on the Chungo Road.  We made a stop down along the Blackstone and I liked the way the low fall light was showing texture and contrast on the riverside pebbles.  I'm not sure if I like the Color or the Black and White version better.

The color version is from the batch of E-6 color transparencies that I processed on my Jobo on March 16th.  I shot this on October 8th 2023 at about 1:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a long 300mm lens to get in tight on the pebbles.  This required a little extra exposure as a result of the long bellows draw of the close focus.  This was a sheet of long expired Fujichrome Velvia 50, rated at 40 iso.  Despite the film being a dozen years past its best before date, the color balance held up nicely.  Probably because I chose not to use the goofy color polarizing filter like I often do.

The Black and White version was a sheet of Ilford FP4, rated at 160 iso and given plus development in HC-110 Developer.  The exposure for this one was F25.0 and 1/15 second.  I neglected to write down the exposure that I used on the color version, but at two stops difference in film speed it was likely just a reduction in shutter speed to 1/4 second.

Beer Parlour Project - Warspite Hotel - BP 11.0

On April 12th Chris travelled up from Calgary.  Connie was unable to make it as she had to work, but she would catch up with us the next day.  Margarit wanted to see a show at the New Moon Folk Club so she did that.  Chris and I headed out together for another episode of the Beer Parlour Project.

This time around we would visit the Warspite Hotel.

The hotel is the last surviving business in the town that has perhaps 50 to 100 residents.  It has had many different owners over the years, and for a while it was closed.  Several months ago it was purchased by Sunny, an immigrant from India.  He now runs the place with the help of his brother in law.  Sunny was amazingly friendly and super supportive of our project.  Along with his brother in law Milan they were very gracious hosts, and welcomed us to their establishment.  The locals are very grateful that their town focal point has re-opened and strongly support the business.

Many of them were there at the time of our visit and we got to meet with most of them.  I managed to take portraits with my big camera, of those that were interested.  

As is always the case with the Beer Parlour Project we met a lot of really interesting people.  There was a young lady, out for a beer with her grandmother.  A middle aged guy that had been born and raised in the area, and knew much of the history.  There was a couple that were not from the town but from the immediate area, and they made a point of touring around to small town hotels, just like we do.  Their's was just a personal interest and they visited places just to experience the vibe.  They were able to give us suggestions on a bunch of other places that we could consider.  And they graciously bought us a couple of rounds, before inviting us to their upcoming wedding, later this summer.  I even met a lady who was a painter.  She lives in Edmonton a few blocks from my house and frequents Mimi's Pub.  She has friends in the area and uses studio space in Warspite for her painting.  Its such a small world.  A long time resident purchased the old auto dealership in town and uses it to store his classic car collection.  The list goes on and on.

A few weeks back I made up some stickers for the Beer Parlour Project.  The Warspite Hotel was the first recipient of one of these and Sunny proudly displayed it on his beer tap.

I only captured a couple of phone snapshots while we were there, and these are included here.  I did expose a lot of film with the big camera and once I get around to processing that, the resulting negatives will eventually be displayed here on my blog.  They will also be added to the project website, which is now up and running at...   beerparlourproject.com

Three from 2022

Here are scans of three more color transparencies, from the recent batch of E-6 Chemistry that I ran on my Jobo Processor.  This was back on March 16th.  These images came out a little harsh, particularly the first two.  I'm not sure the reason for this... perhaps it was the type of film, or maybe there was color shift due to the age of the film.

The first shot was some aspen trees in fall color down in Ranchland County in southern Alberta.  The gold color of the fall leaves didn't really come through very well.  This was taken on September 25th 2022, at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  I used a long 400mm telephone lens on my Ebony view camera.  A Blue/Yellow Color polarizer was used to saturate the sky, but I think that took away from the gold of the leaves.  The exposure was F18.0 and the shutter speed was 1/8 second.  This 4x5 sheet of film was Fujichrome Velvia 50, rated at 40 iso.  The film was loaded from frozen storage in August of 2022.  It was stored refrigerated after exposure until March of 2024.  The expiry date of the film was October of 2012.

I believe that this row of trees was associated with what was once an old farm yard.  This was taken down in south central Alberta in Stettler County.  I took this shot on October 17th 2022, at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  I used a long 400mm telephone lens on my Ebony view camera.  A Blue/Yellow Color polarizer was used to saturate the sky, and I think that resulted in the banding of tones in the sky.  The exposure was F20.0 and the shutter speed was 1/4 second.  This 4x5 sheet of film was Fujichrome Velvia 50, rated at 40 iso.  The film was loaded from frozen storage in August of 2022.  It was stored refrigerated after exposure until March of 2024.  The expiry date of the film was October of 2012.

This last one was taken on the annual Fall Photo Weekend outing with the Monochrome Guild, to Jasper National Park.  Of the three shots, this one shows the most realistic colors.  Perhaps not surprisingly it was shot on a different type of film, that was not nearly so far our of date.  I took this shot on October 23rd 2022, at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  I used a moderately long 250mm lens on my Ebony view camera.  A Blue/Yellow Color polarizer was used to saturate the sky.  The exposure was F25.0 and the shutter speed was 1/8 second.  This 4x5 sheet of film was Fujichrome Velvia 100, rated at 100 iso.  The film was loaded from frozen storage in November of 2021.  It was stored refrigerated after exposure until March of 2024.  The expiry date of the film was December of 2020.

A visit to Nordegg

The last time I was out at the cottage in Nordegg was when Margarit and I spent the Family Day long weekend.  I finally made it back, this time as a solo trip, on April 8th.  Almost two months passed between visits, and I think this is the longest I have ever been away.

This time it was my intention to bring out the old jukebox that I bought over a year ago.  I want to get it restored and functioning and set it up in the guest cottage.  The guy that I have lined up to work on it, lives in Lake Louise, so I thought I would bring it to the cottage, and he could assess it there.  But, I was unable to load the jukebox by myself, as it was just too heavy.  I had a two wheeler and some planks, but even at that, it was too much for one.  So instead I loaded up a reclining chair and a bench and brought that out instead.

I only stayed at the cottage for a little over three days, and was generally pretty lazy.  It was really quiet out there as none of our neighbors were around, so I just enjoyed relaxing.  I did get the recliner and the bench unloaded and set up.  The bench used to belong to my brother's family, and it was made by my Dad.  My brother's family no longer has space for it in their house, so I claimed it for the cottage.  I cleared out a spot beside our entrance door in the main cottage, that had essentially just become a junk pile, and put the bench there.

The weather wasn't great while I was out there and it snowed heavily off and on for the first day after I arrived.  Aside from setting up the furniture that I brought, I also managed to move my big chop saw out of the guest cottage.  Before putting it away in the garage I used it to cut up a bunch of picture frame stock for some upcoming projects.  After that I made a run to the dump and got rid of a little household garbage and a bunch of cardboard for recycling.

There were lots of birds and a few deer around.  I put out the last little bit of oats that I have left from the winter feedings.  Now that it has warmed up and the bears will be active again, the feeding has to come to a stop for the summer.  The Red Fox that we have seen in the yard for many years now made his or her appearance at one point as well.

Maligne River

Having finished up all the 4" x 5" black and white sheet film that required processing on the Jobo, I moved on to color.  On March 16th I mixed up a Unicolor Rapid E-6 kit and set about processing the 18 sheets of color transparency film that I had been accumulating.  The processing regimen is fairly simple and straightforward.  It all starts with a 1 minute prewash, followed by the first developer for 7 minutes.  Then there is a water wash, after which the color developer is run for 5 minutes.  Yet another water wash and then the Bleach/Fix is run for seven minutes.  The film is then rinsed and washed and that's it.  The process temperature is quite high, at 38C, so this is what makes the Jobo Processor ideal.

This image was taken last year during the Monochrome Guild Fall Photo Weekend.  This was a weekend in November spent out in Jasper, with several of my colleagues from the Monochrome Guild.

This shot of the Maligne River is a classic example of when color photographs are a little more effective than the black and white shots that I usually take.  Taken late in the afternoon, the valley was in shade, and the colors very muted.  There was very little contrast in the lighting, and with the exception of the bright sky, there was only about four stops variation between the brightest snow and the deepest shadows.  The black and white version of this shot looks rather drab and boring.  The color shot is quite a bit better as there is a very cool mood that is imparted as a result of the evening winter light.

I shot this on November 12th 2023 at about 2:45 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a long 240mm lens.  A blue/yellow color polarizer enhanced the color tone already present in the scene.  This is a sheet of Kodak Ektachrome E100G.  The exposure was F32.0 and a shutter speed of 1 second, which created a nice blur in the water.  The film held up reasonably well considering it hit its best before date in December of 2006.  I also included a scan of one of the sheets of black and white film that I exposed moments before this color one.  That black and white shot was on Kodak T-Max 100 film.  I used a six stop neutral density so that a long 30 second exposure would accentuate the motion in the water.  The film was developed in 510 Pyro.  But none of that really salvaged the image and the result is still rather bland.

Outlaws - Beer Parlor Project - BP 4.1 Big Valley

These are scans of the last two negatives from the batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 4" x 5" that I processed back on March 2nd.  Development was for normal contrast, in PMK, for 9:35 minutes at 20C. 

I took these photographs on our return visit to Big Valley.  This was for the Beer Parlour Project, and we wanted to do this shot of the Reynolds Raiders.  This local family are the group of outlaws that ride up to the steam train on horseback, and rob the passengers.  The building is their own private "Saloon" where they hang out before and after the robbery, and keep their horses corralled.

I shot these images, one immediately after the other, on July 22nd 2023, at about 4:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a long 240mm lens, with no filter.  The exposure was F20.0 and a shutter speed of 1/60 second.  In hindsight I should have given a little more exposure.  The outlaws further back in the shadows are little underexposed.  

Chungo Creek

This is another scan from that batch of 4" x 5" Kodak Tri-X Pan film that I developed back on March 2nd.  This batch was developed on my Jobo Processor, in PMK Developer.  The film was given Normal development, for 9:35 minutes at 20C.

Margarit and I went out for an afternoon drive last fall.  We set out from the cottage and headed north on the Forestry Trunk Road.  Normally we head up to the Blackstone River and explore around there.  This time around we decided to head west on the Chungo Creek Road.  This road travels generally west and eventually crosses the Blackstone River, upstream from our usual destination, before heading further west into the front ranges of the Rockies.  We headed out for quite some distance, but as it was getting late in the afternoon, we eventually turned around and headed for home.  The road appeared to keep going for some distance and sometime we will need to return and explore even further to the west. 

Earlier in the day we made a stop at Chungo Creek and explored around there for a little while.  It was really beautiful on this gorgeous fall afternoon and we had the place entirely to ourselves.  I used my Ebony view camera and a wide 90mm lens to take this shot down along the creek.  It was taken on October 8th 2023, at about 2:45 in the afternoon.  The exposure was F32.0 and the shutter speed was 1/4 second.

More April Showers

On April 17th I woke up to fresh snow... about two inches of the stuff.  The forecast was calling for snow in much of the southern and western parts of Alberta.  Some places were supposed to get over six inches, though I'm not sure if that materialized.

This day is also my 61st birthday.  I can remember lots of birthdays when I was young, and it was mild enough and dry enough that could have my birthday party outside.   But not this year.....  I seem to recall that when we have had these really mild El Nino winters, as we did this year, that the spring that followed it dragged on for what seemed like forever, and we got significant amounts of snow.  That certainly seems to be the case this year.

We got a bunch of new furniture delivered to the house on April 16th, so there is definitely no space for a party, even if I wanted one.  We got a new sofa and chair for the living room, and two mattresses with box springs.  The old sofa and chair are still in the living too.  So everything is pretty jammed up until we can deal with it all.  We timed this to happen after the weekend, as we had our friends Chris and Connie visiting from Calgary, and they were crashed on the living room floor.

Our old sofa has to be moved out and hauled away.  We actually plan on taking it down to East Coulee and setting it up in the boardroom, at the shop.  Our old living room chair has to go down into the basement, once we clean up and organize down there.  The mattresses and box springs are all for the guest cottage, so at the first opportunity they need to be hauled out to Nordegg.  In the meantime we will have to live in the cluttered mess.  But we lived with the dinette furniture, and a bunch of other Nordegg stuff stored in our living room last year, for many months, so we are somewhat used to it by now.  

I checked the cameras out at Nordegg and there was snow out there too.  I expected that out in the mountains there might have been a lot more than here in the city.  It seems that is not really the case, though the accumulation appears to be a little heavier.  The last of the images below is from out at the cottage this morning.

Printing for BP

Since it was snowing all day on April 5th I decided to spend the afternoon in the darkroom.  I made a bunch of prints for the Beer Parlour Project.  I printed four different negatives from BP 8.0.  This was our visit to the Fanny Bay Inn out on Vancouver Island, last October.  Here are a couple of snapshots from the darkroom, as I worked on those prints.  The first is obviously under the safelight, and it shows the still light sensitive prints in the process of going through the stop bath and being fixed.  The second shot was later, and shows the prints in room light.  Here they are in the process of being cleared and toned.

I promised Ken and Sebastien, the subjects in the photos, that I would send them some prints.  I also promised that I would send some to the Inn.  Our server that day was a young lady named Starr, and she was particularly helpful in getting our subjects to cooperate.  So I'll include a couple of extra prints in case she wants one too.  I hope to finish these and get them mounted and matted in the next week or so, and then get them on the way.

Card Game

This is another sheet of 4" x 5" Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 film, from the batch that I developed in PMK on March 2nd.  I ran this batch on my Jobo Processor for 9:35 Minutes at 20C.

My colleague Arturo and I were out exploring and came across an old, abandoned Community Hall.  Inside we found this old table and chairs, and part of a deck of cards.  It made for the perfect subject for our Apparitions project, and we both shot it from multiple angles.  It's likely one version of this will end up being included in our project.

I shot this on June 26th 2023, at about 1:45 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a wide 110mm lens.  A filter would not have made much difference given the subject and lighting conditions.  The exposure was F20.0 and a shutter speed of 1/2 second.

Cool Idea

I saw this post on Instagram a few days ago and took a screen shot.  Where do I sign up....?

Compressor Building

Same batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan as the last one I posted, and same trip.  This was also taken during our tour of the Turner Valley Gas Plant.  This is the Compressor Building.

I shot this on June 19th at about 11:00 in the morning.  I used my Ebony view camera and a wide 90mm lens, with no filter.  The exposure was F20.0 and a shutter speed of 1/.2 second.

Coolers

Back on March 2nd I continued with developing yet another batch of film on my Jobo Processor.  This time around it was the last of my exposed sheets of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 in 4" x 5" format, that required development in PMK.  This batch was given normal development, which is 9:35 minutes at 20C.

This shot was taken at the Turner Valley Gas Plant, last summer.  Arturo and I booked an all day private tour of the site, and photographed it for our Apparitions project.  I'm not sure exactly what the function of this apparatus is, but our guides referred to them as coolers.  I think I ended up with a couple of pretty good shots from our tour, and hopefully one of them ends up being included in Apparitions.  Our wives were along for the four day trip and we really enjoyed touring around southern Alberta together. 

I took this shot on June 17th 2023, at around 12:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a wide-ish 110mm lens, with no filter.  The exposure was F18.0 with a shutter speed of 1 second.

Color verses Monochrome - Bunchberry Blossoms

Here is another color shot, from the batch of E-6 processed on my Jobo on March 16th.  I used a Unicolor Rapid E-6 kit, which is actually quite simple.   The three chemical steps are simply a first developer for 7:00 minutes, a color developer for 5:00 minutes, and a bleach/fix for 7:00 minutes.  Before, after and in between there are just water rinses.  The process temperature is quite high, essentially body temperature, at 37C.  This is easily maintained with the heated water bath of the Jobo.

These bunchberries were blooming in the yard out at Nordegg, late last spring.  I dragged my big view camera out and took a few photographs of them, including this shot on a sheet of the now discontinued Fujichrome Velvia 50.  This film has been a favorite of mine for many years and I shot countless rolls of 35mm slides with it.  This particular sheet is old stock that has been sitting in my freezer for many years.  It hit its best before date over a decade ago, in October of 2012.

Like many photographers used to do, I rate this film at 40 iso.  The box speed of 50 iso tends to yield underexposed images.  Even with the extra exposure, the images tend to be very contrasty.  The film yields beautiful saturated colors so I will continue shooting with this old stock of mine until it runs out.  The largest of these blossoms would be just a little more than an inch across.  So I had to position my Ebony view camera and the 150mm lens that I was using, very close to the subject.  The close focus resulted in a long bellows draw of about 9 inches, and required exposure compensation of one added stop.  The exposure for this color shot was F19.0 and a shutter speed of 2 seconds.  Its a good thing it was a sheltered spot, and a calm day with no wind.

This is the black and white version of the same shot, and I really like it as well.  I've used this image on my calendar for this year, and also included it in a submission package for a gallery exhibition with the Monochrome Guild.  I printed a copy of this one and it currently hangs in Mimi's Restaurant.  I made some small contact prints of this negative, and they are offered for sale in small frames, or on greeting cards, at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg.

This one was taken moments before the color version.  The date was June 11th 2023, and it was about 10:15 in the morning.  For this shot I exposed a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 and developed it in 510 Pyro Developer.  The exposure for this one was F14.0 and a shutter speed of 1 second.

Ice Formations, Beaverdam - Ilford Delta 100 in PMK

This is the last of my scans from the batch of Ilford Delta 100 that I processed on the day of the Leap Year.  It is also the first of the sheets that I shot in the new year, 2024.  I gave these 18 sheets of 4" x 5" sheet film normal development for 11:45 minutes, at 20C, in PMK Developer, on my Jobo Processor.

This is a shot of the ice formations on Shunda Creek, at the spot where the creek spills out of Beaverdam Lake.  This is about a ten minute drive away from my cottage.  I shot this on January 2nd 2024 at about 1:30 in the afternoon.  I remember that it was a really mild and pleasant day, though down in the shade, by the open water, it was very humid and cold.  I fitted a long 300mm lens on my Ebony view camera in order to get in a little tighter on the ice formations.  A small aperture of F64.0 accomplished two goals.  It held depth of field from near to far, and also permitted a long 8 second exposure the nicely blur the water.  I think the rocks and ice stand out really crisply against that soft flowing water.