10th Annual Fall Photo Weekend

 

For ten years now I have been taking an annual fall photography trip with some of my friends.  In past years we have explored Jasper, Banff, Kananaskis, and most recently the Red Deer River badlands.  My friend Jon has been out with me on the previous nine trips dating back to 2001.  This year he was away on a holiday in England and couldn't join in.  During the trip I reflected on the fact that this is the first time that Jon was not able to join me, and I missed his company.  In later years the trip evolved to include the members of The Monochrome Guild.  That was the focus this year as well.  Initially we were hopeful that all eight active members of the group would be able to join us.  One by one the guys kept bailing out until we were finally down to four.  Arda, Court, Fred and myself set out early Saturday morning, arriving in Drumheller shortly after sunrise.  We set off down the valley and spent the late morning and early afternoon exploring a Cottonwood grove along the river.  Later we moved on to the East Coulee area and photographed in a small group of hoodoos.  In the late afternoon and early evening we moved on up the valley from Drumheller and photographed at both the Orkney and Horse Thief viewpoints.  The day was perfect with the temperature rising up to around +12C by late afternoon, with mostly clear skies, and only a light breeze.  By evening we went for dinner and then checked in to a local hotel.  Some visiting, a little scotch, some beer, and the Oilers game in the backgound and we caught ourselves all fading and ready to crash.  We awoke early in the morning to overcast skies, foggy and wet conditions, and cool temperatures.  We headed over to a local restaurant for breakfast, mostly to check out one member's recollection of an attractive waitress from last year's trip.  We were not disappointed.  After breakfast we met Frank over at the Palcoprep shop and the guys got a tour of current projects.  After that we set off in the general direction of home.  We made our way north and stopped for a while in Rowley.  This townsite was the set for the "Bye Bye Blues" movie shot here in the 1980's.  Some of the local buildings were used, and others were constructed just for the movie.  The town lingers on, attempting to be a tourist attraction, but struggles to live up to expectations.  It is a great photo location, particularly for black and white shooters such as we Monochrome Guild members.  I found a mummified cat in the abandoned grain elevator that was reminiscent of Egyptian mummified animals.  After shooting in Rowley for a couple of hours, we went our separate ways.  Court and Fred headed towards Highway 21 and in the general direction of their homes in east Edmonton and Sherwood Park.  Arda and I continued on across country.  We stopped in Rumsey and photographed an old abandoned store, as well as a ramshackle kids treehouse.  Then we continued north and shot briefly at the Roundhouse Historical Site in Big Valley.  After that we pounded the pavement back home as we both had evening plans.  Arda had a soccer game and a photo shoot and I was scheduled to play hockey with the Renegades.  Despite showing up at the rink and taking the warmup, my game ended up getting rescheduled due to poor ice conditions.

Largest Ammonite...??

Palcoprep just delivered the second Ammonite Cast to Sparwood, British Columbia.  This cast, fabricated by Palcoprep, was donated by Teck Coal to the Sparwood and District Chamber of Commerce.  It is now on display in their Information Center.  Everyone seems pretty excited about this.  While he was there delivering the cast my business partner Frank checked out an even larger Ammonite.  This one was found, in the side of a mountain, over 60 years ago.  It is even larger than the one found in their mine by Teck Coal.  This one will not be scientifically recognized unless it is collected and turned over to a museum or similar institution.  It is slowly weathering away and being vandalized.  Palcoprep wants to make a proposal to collect it.  This will involve cutting it out of the rock face that it is in, and transporting it to a museum or institution.  Frank hiked up to it to get some idea of the remoteness of the location, and the logistics involved to get it out.  We intend to put together a proposal to collect it, and then see if there is any interest and funding to move forward.  This fossil, if not missing a section on one side, would be nearly 2.0 meters [6'-7"] in diameter.  The present record holder is the Ammonite that we just constructed the cast of, which is approx. 1.5 meters [4'-11"] in diameter.  We are presently evaluating the whole project and will work towards presenting it to the Government of British Columbia, as well as local interest groups in the Elk Valley.

Renegades - Game 8

A solid performance by the Renegades today.  We played the Ice Hawks at Canadian Athletic Club this afternoon.  Despite being outshot 33 to 31, we managed to trade goals with the Ice Hawks through the game, and then poke in an extra insurance goal late in the game.  They rallied, and pulled their goaltender, in addition to the fact that we had a man in the penalty box.  We weathered the storm and hung on for a 7-5 victory, which put us solidly in First Place!!

Titanites - back in the darkroom

The folks at Teck Coal ordered a couple of extra prints of the Titanites Ammonite cast.  Once mounted and framed, these will be presented to Richard Budd, Teck Coal shovel operator that found the original fossil, and to another individual that lobbied for the collection, casting and presentation of this enormous fossil.  The attached photo shows the prints clearing in fixer, under the safelight of my darkroom.

Last 4x5 Color Negatives... for a while.

I scanned more of the 4"x5" color negatives that I recently processed.  These date back to 2009.  Since it will be a while before I accumulate another batch of negatives for processing, these will be the last that I have to share for some time.  There are a couple of good ones here.... I think.  I am also months behind on processing some of my Black and White film and when I finally get around to my backlog, don't be surprised if some of these don't eventually end up as monochrome prints.

Renegades - Game 7

While I was away on the Thanksgiving Long Weekend the Renegades played a game at Clare Drake Arena at the University of Alberta.  We beat the Icebreakers soundly by a score of 12 to 4!!  Way to go guys!!  I can't wait to get back out with the team next weekend.

Last Camping Trip...!!

 

This weekend was definitely the last camping trip of the season.  We bailed out on family Thanksgiving Dinner to head out one last time.  We left the city Saturday morning and headed for Jasper.  The weather was nice... warm with a mix of sun and cloud.  I was really tired from a lack of sleep during the week so we took our time getting to Jasper, and made a number of rest stops along the way.  When we finally arrived the girls wanted to go shopping.  So, I took a short nap and the girls hit the souvenir shops.  After they ran out of money, they came back to the trailer and woke me up.  We headed over to Earls for a nice dinner.  The girls got their first taste of Calamari... which grossed out Hailey, but Annelise thought it was pretty good.  After dinner we headed out to the Whistlers Campsite where we had a spot reserved.  It was already dark when we checked in and settled down for the night.  It showered through the night and when we awoke it was  still overcast and drizzling.  After a pancake breakfast we set off down the Icefields Parkway.  The Park was busy, but nothing like the summer months.  It was overcast and cool and showered most of the day.  We made a brief stop at Tangle Falls to take some photos and explore.  Then we continued to the campsite at Wilcox Creek, just beyond the Columbia Icefields.  This campsite is near the treeline, and the temperature was noticeably cooler.  We took a brief walk in the afternoon in the drizzle and then retired to the trailer to make Thanksgiving Dinner.  The oven in our trailer is not big enough for a turkey so we settled for Prime Rib Roast, steamed potatoes, corn, gravy and salad.  This will be a Thanksgiving that I always remember.  When we awoke the next morning it was cold, and there was a skiff of snow on the ground.  The furnace in our trailer ran nearly continuously through the night so this is what I expected.  But the morning dawned clear and sunny and it soon warmed up, relatively speaking.  After breakfast we packed up and continued down the Icefields Parkway into Banff National Park.  We stopped briefly by Cirrus Mountain to take some photos and then continued to Saskatchewan Crossing.  We eventually stopped for lunch at the Kootenay Plains.  It was sunny and pleasant but pretty windy.  We enjoyed a walk together, had some lunch, and then eventually hit the road for home.  We arrived back in the city after dark, at around 8:00PM.  After this weekend we will winterize the trailer and put it away for the season.  But... I'm already anxious to get out again in the spring.  I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with some day trips until the spring arrives....

More Color Negatives...

I've been scanning large format 4"x5" color negatives the past couple of evenings.  These were all taken in 2009.  There are a few that I really like, and I've attached them.  Still have more to go, so there should be some additional images posted in the coming days.

4x5 Color Negatives

On Monday evening I mixed up the balance of my C-41 Color Chemistry.  I spent the evening in my darkroom developing all the 4" x 5" negatives that I'd been accumulating since the middle of 2009.  I can process ten sheets at a time with my Jobo Processor and Expert Drum.  I had saved up 50 sheets of film so it took the entire evening to run through those five batches.  The film is all now washed, dried and filed away.  I'm going through it all and scanning some of the best shots.  The ones included with this post are all from 2010.  Over the next week or so I'll try and go through all the 2009 images and post some more.

Rob and Jon... just like old times!

My friend Jon and I went out for a day trip on Sunday.  Jon and I have known each other for over 15 years and have been photographing together for that entire time.  We've explored many a mountain stream, abandoned farmyard, badlands vista, not to mention more than a few small town "beer parlors".  We just haven't been able to get out together much the last year or so.  This past Sunday we made a point of it.  It was a warm beautiful fall day with just a light breeze.  The temperature must have got up to around 20C.  We left the city at 9:00AM and headed east.  We took our usual side trip through Elk Island National Park and then set off exploring our old stomping grounds, the backroads of Lamont County and Two Hills County.  This area is very rich with old homesteads, churches, stores and schoolhouses, not to mention a fair bit of wildlife.  We saw a large herd of Plains Bison in Elk Island National Park in the morning.  As we continued our travels we saw several coyotes, a covey of Hungarian Partridges, lots of Canada Geese, one high-flying flock of Snow Geese, a couple Swans and on several occasions we saw and heard flocks of Sandhill Cranes circling on the thermals.  The harvest was in full swing and the grain fields were ripening and being swathed everywhere.  The light gets lower at this time of year and that fall "warmth" was apparent.  We spent the entire day exploring and I came home with a couple of good images.  I've attached a few color shots for now, but will post some of the Black and White work as I get around to processing the film.

Renegades - Game 6

The unofficial pre-season is now over, and game six is the first one that really matters.  We played the Oil City Wings at Grand Trunk Arena on Saturday night.  Our regular netminder was away, so we called on one of our forwards to play in goal.  Brian has goalie equipment, but has only played goal for about a year, and only at the shinny level, never in an organized league game.  He normally plays at center or on the wing with the Renegades.  He did a commendable job and held the Wings to five goals.  We had all of our best skaters out to play and managed to shovel in 10 goals for the victory, and a share of first place to start the regular season.