A Quick Trip to East Coulee - Springfest 2026

On Friday May 1st I packed up some of my stuff and hit the road for East Coulee.  Hailey stayed behind at the cottage in Nordegg as she had a couple of shifts scheduled at the Miners Cafe.  I met up with Helena and Margarit at the shop in East Coulee in the early evening.  Frank and Chris were there and we got settled around a small fire in the chiminea... roasting some hot dogs and having a few drinks.

On Saturday Margarit and Helena and I went out walking in a nearby coulee.  The snow was all gone, and although things weren't really turning green yet, the prairie crocus' were in bloom all over the place.

Later in the day we picked up tickets to the Springfest going on in town.  Margarit and I checked out a couple of bands in the afternoon, and Helena went to see a couple as well... one on her own and another with her Mom.

Last year the Springfest was a big disappointment because it was very poorly attended.  This time around they again did a really poor job of promoting it.  There was no online advertisement, no signage or promotion in Drumheller, and the line up of artists was not announced until just a couple of weeks before.  Even in East Coulee, all they had was a sandwich board sign on the side of the highway, and when we drove by, the wind had blown it over.

Frank and I ended up spending most of the afternoon sitting around in the yard at the shop.  It was clear and sunny and the temperature got up to about +23C.  In between the white wall of the shop, the light colored trailer, and the white fences, it was quite a bit hotter due to everything being so reflective and the area being so sheltered.  I got a sunburn, and we both ended up with mild heat stroke.  In the early evening, after a dinner of smokies and burgers, I ended up lying down for a while.  Frank was tired as well, and he ended up going home early.  Chris used my Springfest ticket and she and Helena and Margarit went and checked out some of the evening performers.  They said it was pretty well attended and they enjoyed themselves.

On Sunday morning we packed up all our gear and tidied every thing.  We locked up the trailer and hit the road.  After a brief stop at WHIFs restaurant for breakfast, we went for a walk out in the badlands.  Helena was happy because she found a few fossils and lots of rocks.  By this time it was mid afternoon.  We said our good byes and the girls hit the road back to Edmonton.  I set off across country to the west and headed back to the cottage in Nordegg.  Hailey and I hung out that evening and had a nice visit.

David Thompson Country Calendar 2026 - May Image

This is the image that I selected for the May page of my 2026 David Thompson Country calendar.  This is a shot of Mount Stelfox, along the David Thompson Highway, near Abraham Lake.  I like the way the clouds create a spin drift behind the mountain peak and this always fascinates me.

It was a spring day back in May of 2023 when I took this photograph.  My brother-in-law Shawn was with me out at Nordegg and we went for a drive.

Keeping Busy

On Wednesday April 29th I mostly just kept myself busy around the cottage.  I puttered around inside until about noon, waiting for it to warm up a little.  It had been mostly sunny in the morning and the temperature rose up to about +9c.  Right about the time I was planning to head outside and get to work a shower rolled in.  The rain didn't amount to much and although it was relatively heavy, it only lasted for a few minutes.  It did cool off a bit, and the clouds kinda rolled in for most of the rest of the day.

I did a run up to the dump and hauled away some of the garbage that we had accumulated.  We also had a bunch of cardboard, mostly packaging from various items that we recently purchased.  This all hit the recycling bin up at the transfer station.

Later in the afternoon I dug out the chainsaw and cut up a couple more logs.  Then I set up my splitter and set to work splitting a bunch of the stuff that I had recently cut up.  I think I did something like seven or eight wheelbarrow loads of split wood.  I finished up the woodpile beside the driveway, and then set about replenishing the one behind the garage.  That one got completely used up over the past winter and spring, so I am starting out from scratch and rebuilding that one.  There remains a lot of wood still needing to be cut and split so I shall continue with that in the coming days.

Hailey had a couple of days off work so she blasted home to Edmonton on Tuesday.  She returned to the cottage on Wednesday evening, and brought the new TV out with her.  We got that set up as we nibbled on some nachos during the evening.

First Visit of 2026 - Nordegg Historic Site

On Tuesday April 28th I decided to take a break from yard work.  It was a beautiful day, mostly sunny and by afternoon the temperature got up to about +15C.  What a change from the winter weather we had a couple of days prior.

I was able to book access to the Nordegg Historic Site.  The staff are just starting to clean up the site and preparing for their official opening in a couple of weeks.  I headed on up and wandered around with my camera for a few hours.  It was nice to see that nothing has been disturbed since last fall, and there is no new vandalism or damage.  

Most of the photography that I have done so far this year has been on Beer Parlour Project outings.  I think I've exposed almost 90 sheets of 4x5 film so far this year.  Except for about ten of some old buildings in Saskatchewan, and these few today at the mine site, all the rest were images for the Beer Parlour Project.  This time around it was a dozen sheets, over five different camera setups, and included a couple of sheets of Infrared.  It was a nice change of pace.

There is evidence of packrats up at the mine site, but I've never seen one until this visit.  You can see nests of sticks and junk in and under some of the old buildings, and their little turds are all over the place.  They have a very distinct and pungent odor.  This time around I saw one outside by some of the old vehicles.  He was too quick, and I couldn't get a photograph of him.  They are actually not true rats, as Alberta is rat free.  These are Bushy Tailed Wood Rats, more commonly known as Pack Rats.  They inhabit old buildings, mines and caves and are known for collecting junk and trinkets.

Even though there is still a fair bit of patchy snow up at the mine, in the shade, in the bush and behind the buildings, I also saw my first butterflies of the season.  These were a couple Mourning Cloaks, always the first ones to come out in the spring.  They over winter after hibernating through the cold months.

From Wikipedia...

R.B. Forbes - U.S. Department of Agriculture

Tattered Curtain

This is another sheet of Infrared film that I processed in the mixed batch, way back on March 20th.  This is a sheet of Kodak High Speed Infrared film, in 4" x 5" format.  In my not so humble opinion this was the best Infrared film ever made.  Sadly it was discontinued around the late 1990's.  This sheet is from a batch that expired in August of 2001.  I loaded the film the day before I exposed it, and stored the exposed sheet in my fridge until I finally developed it.

Development was in Kodak T-Max Developer, 1:6, for 6:45 minutes at 24C.

The infrared effect is not as obvious in this image.  That is because there is no sky, no open water and no living vegetation.  These are the things the usually show the most obvious tonal differences.  If I compare this one to a similar image, shot on typical panchromatic film, there are some subtle differences.  I may do a comparative post at some point in the future.

This one was also taken while I was ont on that day trip with my brother-in-law Shawn.  I think of him a lot these days as he is about to go in for heart surgery.  On May 7th he is scheduled to have an LVAD, an artificial heart, installed.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a long 300mm lens.  I used a #25 Red Filter, with no filter factor.  This would eliminate many of the visible wavelengths and expose mostly with the infrared part of the spectrum.  I took the photograph on May 26th of 2025, at about 4:00 in the afternoon.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F16.0.

BP 39.0 Pre-Scount - Rosedeer Hotel

A year ago Margarit and I were down in East Coulee for the Springfest Music Festival.  We met up with my friend Rob, and he dropped off a whole bunch of darkroom equipment at my shop, that I later sold for him.  At the end of the weekend, Margarit and I headed over to Wayne, to pre-scout the Rosedeer Hotel for the Beer Parlour Project.

We are well aware of the hotel, and have been there numerous times.  It is a tourist destination, and almost everyone that stops in over the summer months, is from somewhere else.  This is not really the type of clientele that we want to interact with for the Beer Parlour Project.  So, despite having it recommended to us over and over and over again by well meaning followers, we have avoided visiting.  This time around Margarit and I were just checking out the hotel.  We were considering making a return visit late in the season, when the tourists are gone, and that eventually happened last November.

I took this photograph a year ago to the day, when Margarit and I stopped by.  I was experimenting with some old Maco IR820C Aura film.  This is an infrared film that ceased to be manufactured over twenty years ago.  This particular sheet came from a batch that had an expiry date of April 2007.  I loaded the film holder in February of 2025, exposed the film in May of 2025, and developed it in March of this year.  The negative was a little thin, because I messed up the development time and only processed for 7:00 minutes, when it should have been for 8:30.  Nonetheless, the image can be salvaged.  

I rated the film at 12iso and exposed with a #25 Red Filter, and no filter factor.  This would have blocked much of the visible light spectrum, and exposed mostly with Infrared wavelengths.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera with a Fujinon 125mm lens.  The exposure was for 1/4 second at F20.0.

The guy in the left chair is Carlos, and that is his ATV parked out front. He was visiting with his friend in the other chair.  Carlos is a local resident and friend of the owners.  I photographed him again when we returned for our official visit in November of 2025.  That was our Beer Parlour Project outing number BP39.0.

BP31.0 - Amisk Hotel

I processed a couple of batches of color negatives in C-41 chemistry, back in late March.  I've posted some of the results here on my blog in recent weeks, but there are still more.

This one is from a Beer Parlour Project outing last summer.  We have now made three trips into west central Saskatchewan and east central Alberta.  All three times we used a short term rental house in Macklin Saskatchewan as our base.  The most recent trip was just a couple weeks ago.

On this trip, our second to the area, we visited the Amisk Hotel, on the Alberta side of the border.  I shot this photograph on a sheet of Kodak Ektar 100 film.  Unlike much of the color film that I shoot, this particular sheet was not all that outdated, only hitting it's expiry date in 2022.  This was the second of my two batches of C-41 chemistry, run on March 23rd.

This was the 31st hotel that we visited for the Beer Parlour Project.  The place was pretty quiet that night with just the owners and a couple of patrons.  Mostly we visited with Jacqui and Lee, the couple that owned the place.  It was a low key, quiet kind of outing, and much different from the hectic atmosphere of some of the places that we visit.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a Nikkor 150mm lens.  No filter was used.  I took the photograph on July 20th of 2025, at about 5:00 in the evening.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F20.0.

May Calendar Image

This is the image I selected for the May page of my 2026 Fine Art Photography calendar.  This was taken during that spring day trip with my Brother-in-law Shawn, about a year ago.  We found this old Dodge on the side of the road, and the door was unlocked, so I took this photograph.

Back to Work

By Monday April 27th... or should I say January 117th... it finally quit snowing.  It warmed up nicely and the melt was on.  By the end of the day most of the 3 inches or so of snow that we got in the days prior, was gone.  It was still pretty cool in the morning, but by afternoon it had warmed up nicely.

I dug out my chainsaw and got to work outside.  During recent stormy weather this spring, several trees came down on our property.  I set about cutting a bunch of these up for firewood.

I realized that I'm pretty out of shape, and after a couple hours of this I was getting pretty tired.  Later in the afternoon, after Hailey got home from work, I made some chicken wings, and then put a couple of steaks on the BBQ.  It was the first time that I've fired up the grill in quite a while.

Trapped Inside

The first few days of my stay out at Nordegg were spent indoors.  Hailey was out with me, as she was training for her summer job at the Miner's Cafe.  While she was at work, I spent my days indoors, trying to keep myself busy.

I got my Dad's old bucksaw.  This dates back to when I was a little kid and I remember Dad using it, as well as me using it, to cut up firewood at our cottage at Pigeon Lake.  It was laying around Dad's old shop when my brothers and I were cleaning up some stuff, and I claimed it and hung it on the wall.

I bought a second rack for firewood and set that up beside our wood stove in the main cottage.  Whenever it rains or snows our outdoor firewood piles get wet, and sometimes it is hard to get a fire going.  I like to keep quite a bit inside, so it has a chance to dry a bit before we burn it.

I also worked on one of my line wash drawings of an old hotel from the Beer Parlour Project.  This time around it was the now closed Cadillac hotel, outing number BP14.0 to Cadillac Saskatchewan in June of 2024.  I finished the sketching part and now will start to apply the wash of colors.  After that I will detail it all in with pencil and ink.

One of the girls busted my TV.  I never did quite get the full story on who was responsible and how it happened.  Maybe someday the truth will come out.  Last time I was out I hung up a TV on the wall of the guest cottage.  This time around I got it all connected to the internet so I could stream some shows.  This allowed me to watch some of the Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup Playoff games.  I would have been even more upset if I wasn't able to watch.

BP24.0 - Big Bubba's Saloon

This is a scan of another color negative from one of our Beer Parlour Project outings.  This sheet of 4"x5" film is from the second batch of C-41 color chemistry that I ran on March 23rd.

Unlike most of the film that I shoot, this was actually a sheet from a moderately fresh batch, and was not grossly outdated.  This stock expired in 2024, so mere months, rather than years or decades, before I exposed it.

This was our BP24.0 outing to Big Bubba's Saloon at the Alix Hotel.  Margarit and Connie were out for this one, with Chris and I.  It was the day after we visited the Stettler Hotel, just down the highway.

I took this shot on April 26th of 2025... almost exactly a year ago.  It was at about 8:00 in the evening.  If you look closely you can see that big palooka Chris, walking up the sidewalk at the right edge, in his red T-shirt.

I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a slightly wide Fujinon 125mm lens.  The exposure was for 1/4 second at F20.0.

January 116th

Is winter ever going to end...?!  This is what I woke up to out at Nordegg on April 26th... aka January 116th.  The snow has been completely gone at least four times now in 2026, only to be followed by yet another snowstorm.  I suppose its good in that there will be lots of moisture for the trees, and the risk of wildfires will be low, at least for a while.  We had virtually no snow all winter and most of what we received in these several waves has been in the spring.  At this point I would rather have milder temperatures and see the moisture come as rain.  It was -8 overnight and was still -4 when I took this photo at about 10:00AM.  If you look really closely, near the center of the picture, you can see a deer resting under the trees.

Pontiac

Last spring I went out on a day trip with my brother-in-law Shawn.  Sadly he is not in good health, less than a year later.  He is in the Mazankowski Heart Institute in Edmonton, awaiting surgery to implant an artificial heart.  Wishing him all the best, as I reminisce about our outing 11 months ago.

We went out exploring to the northeast of Edmonton.  Shawn had never gone on a photo day trip with me before, so this was a first for him.  He was plunking around with a digital camera that he had recently started using.

We found this old Pontiac, overgrown in the bush at the edge of a farmers field.  Obviously it had been there for quite some time.  I'm not sure of the vintage of this one.... 1970's I would guess....?

This shot was taken on a sheet of Kodak High Speed Infrared film.  Kodak stopped manufacturing this film in the late 1990s.  I still have several boxes of 4"x5" left in my freezer and have been slowly trying to use it up.  This particular sheet hit its best before date in August of 2001.  I loaded it into a film holder on May 25th last year, and exposed it the next day.  After exposure I unloaded the holder and stored the exposed sheet in my fridge until I developed it on March 20th this year.  I find that now that this film is getting really old, I only get reasonable results if I don't let it lay around too long at room temperature or warmer.  So I will make a point of making the best use that I can of the stock that I have left.  Development was in Kodak T-Max Developer, 1:6, for 6:45 minutes at 24C.

I shot this image on May 26th 2025, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a wide 110mm lens.  A #25 Red filter blocked much of the visible light, so that the film was exposed mostly by IR wavelengths.  As a result I did NOT compensate with any filter factor, and the film was rated at 100iso.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F22.0.

War Wounds

My Renegades hockey team elected not to sign up for the summer season this year.  I signed up to play the Spring/Summer season in my Vintage league.  Starting in early April there is a hockey game scheduled every Thursday morning at 11:15, running until the end of June.

There are a few guys on my team that I played with during the past winter season.  And there are a number of guys that I played with last summer, plus a few new ones.

The first game of the season was last week and I missed it as I was away in Saskatchewan for the Beer Parlour Project.  The second game of the season was on April 16th, and I made it out to that one.  It was a fun game and the skill level and the pace is slightly higher than the team I played with last winter.

I got clipped by a wrist shot as I was defending in front of the net.  There are only a couple of spots on your body that are not protected by padding.  One is the stomach and the other is the inside of the thighs.  The shot clipped in a very small area below the hockey pants and above the shin pads where there is no protection.  It was simply a shot on goal, which I blocked, at the expense of this ugly bruise.  I felt the burn right away and knew it would be a good one.  By the time the game ended and I changed out of my gear it was getting pretty red.  By evening it turned dark purple.  Unless you've played the game you can not imagine the pain of being hit by a puck in a lightly protected or unprotected area.  Those frozen pucks are really hard, and travel with a lot of speed and force.

The next day, it was even worse, and a lot more purple.  It looks worse than it feels, and although it's a little tender, it doesn't really hurt that much... anymore...

Heading for Home

Monday April 13th was check out day at the rental house in Macklin.  After morning coffee Byron, Chris and I packed up all of our gear, and tidied things up around the house.  By late morning we said our goodbyes, and Chris and Byron headed off towards Calgary.

It took me slightly longer to get my gear packed up but I hit the road a short time later.  I headed back up Highway 13 towards Edmonton, and made a few stops along the way.  First I stopped at the Amisk Hotel and dropped off some history books that we had borrowed from the town library.  

I took my time, and wandered around on a few backroads a little.  I found the North Rosyth School and took a photograph here with the view camera.  I also stopped in Lougheed, hoping to photograph the old hotel.  But the light wasn't right and all the good angles were backlit, so the view camera never came out at this stop.

It's interesting that the tallest portion of the hotel, on the highway side, was once the hotel in the nearby town of Sedgewick.  It was loaded up and moved to Lougheed many years ago.  In the years following there were additions made to the hotel.  It has been closed for some time, which is rather sad, as it would have made a great location for the Beer Parlour Project.

The rest of the drive was somewhat uneventful, though I did make note of a couple of interesting old farmyards in the Camrose area.  I will likely take a day trip out that way in the not too distant future.  I arrived back home by early evening and saw another successful BP trip come to an end.