A Few Days in East Coulee - Sunday

It was a very late night on Saturday night, sitting around the fire and visiting with our friends Frank and Chris.  Margarit and Chris bailed out a lot earlier, while Frank and I stayed up visiting and drinking beer until nearly 3:00AM.  Needless to say we slept in quite late on Sunday.

By mid day Margarit and I set out exploring.  We headed south down the valley to Dorothy, and stopped there first.  When the girls were young we spent a lot of weekends down in Dorothy.  The girls loved that old retro playground, and we loved exploring and photographing the old buildings.  This included a couple of houses, the elevator, two churches, an old store, and more.  Since those early days the ghost town has been developed a bit, with the churches and the elevator restored,   The locals have also built a new cook shelter, fixed up the day use area, and put in some washrooms.

We headed north out of Dorothy up into the Hand Hills.  We continued from there to the east and made a brief stop at the old cemetery near Homestead Coulee.  From there we headed south to Finnegan, and took the ferry across the river.  To the best of my knowledge there are only five ferries left in Alberta.  Crowfoot, Bleriot, Finnegan, Klondike and one up by High Level.  On this weekend we crossed on two of them.  After crossing the river we did a big loop around to the south and eventually came back into the valley at East Coulee.  We stopped a number of times along the way and admired the wildflowers, explored and took some photographs.

That evening we met up with Frank and Chris and their daughter Sabrina at the Roadhouse in Rosedale.  We had a nice dinner and visited again for a while.  It ended up being an early night for all of us as we were all still tired from the night before.

Hank Turns Four

Our little family dog Hank turned four on June 15th... I suppose that's 28 in human years.  Hank is a cross between a Cairn Terrier and a Jack Russel Terrier.  He has the look of a Cairn and the energy and attitude of a Jack.  He has become a huge part of our family and is adored by everyone.  He is rarely left home alone more than a couple hours as there is almost always someone around in our busy household.  When we travel to Nordegg or East Coulee, he often comes along.  Here he is guarding the rawhide treat that he got as a birthday gift.

A Few Days in East Coulee - Saturday

On Friday June 12th Margarit and I headed down to East Coulee.  We left the city about lunch time and made our way down.  We stopped for fuel and groceries along the way and had a late lunch in Drumheller.  By the time we got out to the shop in East Coulee it was already late afternoon.  We offloaded our stuff and settled down in the trailer.

The next day, Saturday the 13th, we headed out for a drive.  We traveled north of town on the Dinosaur Trail.  We made a brief stop at Horsethief Canyon, and then crossed the river on the Bleriot Ferry.  Once we got across we realized that the south Dinosaur Trail was closed due to a washout.  We drove as far as we could, and wandered around a little at near the Lions Club campsite.  Then we had to backtrack and make our way back to Drumheller by way of Morrin.

Once we got back to Drumheller, we headed back out towards East Coulee.  We made a stop along the Raymond Hill Road and I took a couple of photographs with the big camera, in evening light.  Then we headed back to the shop.  We met up with our friends Frank and Chris and got a fire going in the yard.  We baked some potatoes, grilled some steaks and drank way too much beer.  I think it was something like three in the morning before I finally crashed.

Guess Who

On June 10th Margarit and I went to see the Guess Who at Rogers Place in downtown Edmonton.  The two original frontmen, Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings were there, with a younger backup band.

Randy is 82 and Burton is 78 and although they looked their age, they still rocked it pretty well.  They played all their hits, as well as three Bachman Turner Overdrive songs.

Just a day or two before the show the warm up band was announced.  It was Don Felder, former guitarist with the Eagles.  A very pleasant surprise to say the least.  Although his vocals were never great, his guitar playing was spectacular.  Sent chills down my spine more than once.... particularly when he played Hotel California on the double neck.

Shower Building

This is the last of my color transparency scans for the next little while.  I have to get around to editing some more before I can add them.  My main desktop computer just got retired, so I have been working from my old laptop while a new desktop is being set up for me.  As with everything that involves technology, it is taking longer than expected.  Soon I will have to replace my laptop as well.  I can't remember exactly how old it is, but I recall having it with me on a work trip to Estevan, Saskatchewan back in 2012, and it wasn't new then.  It's still running (sort of) Windows 7, and nothing really works as it should.  But that is an issue for another day, after I get the new desktop up and running properly.

This is a scan of a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak Ektachrome E100G,  This one hit its best before date in December of 2006.  I loaded it in a film holder three years ago, in June of 2023.  It was exposed last spring, and I developed it on May 16th when I ran a batch of E-6 chemistry on my Jobo Processor.

I took this photograph in the wash building at the Nordegg Mine Site.  I'm not sure what this broken fixture once was... probably a hand sink, but perhaps a drinking fountain.  I took this photograph on April 18th 2025, at about 3:40 in the afternoon, during one of my many tours of the historic site.  

The photograph was taken with my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 180mm lens.  The exposure was for 30 seconds at F18.0.

Shoreline Trees

Here is another scan of a large format color transparency.  This one is a 4"x5" sheet of Fujichrome Velvia 100.  This time around the film was not quite as out of date as some of the stuff I have been shotting.  This one expired in January of 2019, was loaded into the holder in September of 2023, exposed in April of 2025 and developed on May 16th of this year.  This was the batch of E-6 chemistry that I mixed up and ran on my Jobo.

This is Abraham Lake out by our place in Nordegg.  In the early spring the reservoir is at it's lowest level.  The dam captures the mountain runoff and by fall the lake is completely full.  Then the cycle repeats and the water is slowly released to generate power over the fall and winter.

I took this shot on April 20th of 2025 at about 1:30 in the afternoon.

I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 150mm lens.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F32.0.

Saskatchewan Yard

Back on May 16th I mixed up a batch of E-6 chemistry and set up the Jobo Processor to run a bunch of color transparency film.  I previously posted a couple of 8x10 scans from that batch.  

This one is a scan of a 4"x5" sheet of Fujichrome Velvia 50.  Like most of my color film stock, this one was quite out of date.  The best before date was October of 2012, and it sat around loaded in a film holder since January of 2023.

I took this shot while Chris and I were visiting Saskatchewan for some Beer Parlour Project outings.  This shot was taken on May 11th of 2025, at about 12:15 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  I added a Blue-Orange color polarizing filter.  This increased the satruation of the blue sky, and warmed the overall tone of the image somewhat.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F20.0.

Dinosaur Provincial Park

This one is also from the batch of Tri-X that I processed on May 17th.  A 4"x5" Sheet of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 developed in PMK.  As with the others, rated at box speed and given normal development on my Jobo.  

This one is from the Monochrome Guild fall trip to Dinosaur Provincial Park back in 2024.  That landscape is so spectacular, particularly in the low and clear light of fall.  I'm anxious to get back there again sometime soon... after the summer tourist season.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TE and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  I actually have two of these lenses and keep one with my TE, and the second one in my kit out at Nordegg, with the Ebony SV45Ti.

I shot this on October 17th at about 12:30 in the afternoon.  I added a #25 Red Filter to increase contrast and create separation between the clouds an the sky.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F25.0.

Iron Palladium Printing

Iron Palladium prints are an alternative to more costly Platinum printing, and are also know as Ziatype prints.  The process was created by Pizzighelli and refined by Richard Sullivan of Bostick and Sullivan, in Sante Fe, New Mexico.  Bostick and Sullivan is a supplier of alternative process chemistry and materials.

An emulsion is prepared by mixing together several chemicals.  Mostly this is Ferric Ammonium Oxalate, and Lithium Palladium.  Additives such as Ammonium Dichromate, Sodium Tungstate or Gold Chloride may be added to control contrast and image color.  Just a few drops of each... about 40 in total... are whisked together to create enough emulsion to coat a piece of paper suitable for one 8"x10" print.  In the dry climate of Alberta a page of fine art paper must first be steamed to impart enough humidity.  Then the emulsion is coated on...  I used a brush, but some use a glass coating rod.

Once the emulsion has dried, a negative is placed in contact with the paper, and the two are sandwiched into a split back contact printing frame.  This is then exposed to a UV light source.  Sometimes the sun is used, but I used some compact fluorescent black light bulbs in a mirror lined box that I fabricated.

This is a printing out process and no developer is needed.  The emulsion slowly darkens with exposure to the UV light.  The split back frame allows me to partially open up the printing frame, without shifting the alignment, and inspect the print as it darkens.  Once it is as dark as I want it to be, I wash it in water, give it a clearing bath in a mix of EDTA and Sodium Bisulfite, followed by a final water wash.  Then it is hung to dry.  Exposure varied from about 10 minutes to over 40, depending on the mix of the various chemicals, and the density of the negative I was printing.

I used 8"x10" negatives that I had taken with my big view camera over the past few years.  Some people work with digital inter-negatives created from smaller format images.  I am a purist and prefer not to include digital technology in my work.

I've done some of this printing in the past, but it has been a while.  I had to purchase some fresh chemistry recently in order to take another stab at it.  It worked out well, though I did have a couple of minor coating issues.  I will be attempting further printing work in the coming weeks and months.

Mostly this has demonstrated to me that I need to do more shooting with the big 8x10 view camera!

School's Out

This old abandoned school is in East Central Alberta.  I visited it twice, when I was in the area with Chris, exploring some old hotels for the Beer Parlour Project.  This shot was taken during my first visit to the area in the spring of last year.  The intention was to consider this one for the Apparitions project and I may in fact print it and see if it is worthy of inclusion.

This is a scan of a 4"x5" sheet of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320, from the batch processed on May 17th.  I rated the film at box speed of 320 iso and developed on my Jobo Processor in PMK.  It was developed for normal contrast for 9:35 minutes at 20C.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide Rodenstock 90mm lens.  A #8 Yellow filter was added to bump the contrast up slightly.  I shot this on May 10th of 2025 at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F25.0.

Blue Whale

For the past couple of years the crew at Dinosaur Valley Studios has been working on the skeleton of a Blue Whale.  Unlike many of the projects that are worked on in the shop, this one is not a prehistoric beast.  Rather this is a modern Blue Whale, the largest animal to have ever lived on earth (by weight).  It is believed to have perished as a result of a ship impact some years ago.  The carcass was left for the flesh to decay off of the bones, and the skeleton was eventually recovered.  

Dinosaur Valley Studios was contracted to prepare the skeleton for exhibit.  The skull was badly damaged as a result of the ship impact, so a new one was recreated from steel and foam with a urethane skin.  The rest of the bones are pretty much all natural, save a few that were repaired or partly reconstructed.

Once all the bones were prepared a steel armature was fabricated to support everything in a realistic pose.  Recently my friend and business partner Frank traveled down to Newport Oregon to install the finished mount.  It is on display outdoors at the Hadfield Marine Center, which is part of Oregon State University.  

Frank sent me these two photos that were taken shortly after the installation was completed.  It is nice to have this project done, and a lot more shop space back in East Coulee, now that all these bones are out.

Lockers and Wheelbarrow

I shot this one over a year ago, up at the Nordegg Historic Site.  This was on one of my many tours of the Mine.  This is a 4"x5" sheet of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320, from the batch that I processed back on May 17th.  The film was rated at box speed, 320 iso, and developed for normal contrast in PMK.  I ran this batch on my Jobo Processor and development was for 9:35 minutes at 20C.

I shot this on March 31st of 2025, at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  The lower angle of the spring sun probably helped, and provided the highlights in the center of the image.  I shot this with my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a wide 90mm Super Angulon lens.  No filter was used.  The exposure was for 1/2 second at F20.0.

Originally I thought that there was no connection between the old wheelbarrow and the miner's lockers.  But I'm reconsidering that initial opinion and may attempt to print this one for the Apparitions project.  It seems that although the project is supposed to be complete, I still keep coming up with new work that fits the theme.

David Thompson Country Calendar 2026 - June Image

This is the image I selected for the June page of my 2026 David Thompson Country calendar.   These backlit trees are at the historic Alexo Cemetery.  Alexo was once a coal mining community east of Nordegg.  It is along the rail line and there was once a big tipple, an operating mine, and a small town.  Today nothing remains but parts of the tipple foundation, and the cemetery.

Corb Lund at the Starlight Room

On Friday May 31st Margarit and I went to the Starlight Room in downtown Edmonton to see Corb Lund.  This was the first of three shows he was playing, and at each show he played two of his albums, in their entirety, in order.  The night we went it was Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier, and Cabin Fever.

I remember the Horse Soldier album particularly well as I used to play it all the time for the girls when I drove them to their riding lessons.  It also features a song called Hard on Equipment, which was kind of the anthem to the guys in my shop, back in the day when I was in business.

The lead guitarist had quite a collection of guitars and played two telecasters, a jazzmaster, some custom electric that I didn't recognize, an old beat up resonator blues guitar, and a steel guitar.  He was really good.

The building that currently houses the Starlight Room has quite a bit of history.  It was once a Citadel for the Salvation Army and even to this day the interior layout is rather church like, with the floor sloping up towards the altar/stage.  Lady it went on to become the home of Edmonton's theatre company.  They later moved to a new building on Churchill Square, now called the Citadel Theatre.

Later it became a night club... first the Bronx, later the Rev and now the Starlight Room.  Some bands that later went on to become famous have played here.  There is no seating so you have to stand for the entire show, and its far too crowded to dance.  We managed to get within about 20 feet of the stage so had a good view of the stage, and quite enjoyed it... at least I did...

Another Version

I posted another version of this same shot a number of months ago.  If I'm not mistaken that one was on Rollei RPX25 film.  This time around the shot was taken on 4"x5" Kodak Tri-X Pan 320.  This is part of the batch that I recently processed, back on May 17th.  The film was rated at 320 iso and given normal development in PMK.  I ran the batch on my Jobo Processor and development was for 9:35 minutes at 20C.

This shot was taken on the Monochrome Guild fall trip back in 2024.  These rills are at Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta.

I shot this with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a longish Nikkor 210mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter pumped up the contrast and created some separation between clouds and sky.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F19.0.