Renegades - Game 14

The Renegades played a game this afternoon, right smack dab in the middle of the Grey Cup game.  Despite the fact that we had to miss the football game to play hockey, we managed to get 15 guys out to play.  Our game was at Canadian Athletic Club against the Icebreakers.  They had a short bench, and we seemed to have more drive and determination.  We won the game by a score of 7-3 and outshot them 45 to 26.  Despite the fact that we have the best record in our division, we are in 4th place.  This is partially due to the fact that one of our earlier games got postponed due to poor ice conditions and as a result we have a game in hand.  But, it is also as a result of the earlier divisional moves and the fact that every teams score got reset back down to zero after the first five games.  We now have a layoff of nearly two weeks, followed by back to back games in mid-December, and then a break for the holidays.  Final divisional moves will take place before the holiday break.  We look forward to the second half of the season following the holidays, and hopefully can start out somewhere near the top of the standings.

Ice Bloom 2010

Every year when the North Saskatchewan River starts to freeze up we experience the Ice Bloom.  Large ice pads form in the river and drift along with the current.  Eventually they jam up and the river freezes over.  This phenomenon usually only lasts for a couple of weeks each fall.  I have attempted to photograph this spectacle many times in the past, with limited success.  Every year I have great intentions of trying again, from new vantage points, and with new techniques.  This year was no exception.  In mid November I witnessed the ice bloom starting to form.  It would have been at it's peak about a week ago, but then the temperature plummeted.  It was just too cold to try and get out and capture it with my big cameras.  This weekend the forecast was ideal, with daytime highs forecast to be just on the plus side of the freezing mark.  I headed out on Saturday morning, my head full of all the different ideas that I had in mind.  I arrived down at the river and much to my dismay the bloom was over.  The river had frozen over completely.  I guess I will have to wait until next year and try again.

Renegades - Game 13

We played the Oil City Wings at Grand Trunk Arena last night.  We started really flat and quickly spotted the Wings to a 5-1 lead.  Then, we decided to start playing.  It was another case of "too little - too late".  We rallied back to make it close, eventually narrowing the gap to 5-4.  But then they put on a push to hold the lead, and we started to run out of gas, and into a little penalty trouble.  The game ended up a 7-5 loss for the Renegades.  We are still in the thick of things but will have to play better hockey if we are to end up with a playoff spot in the spring.

Ilford FP4+ second batch

I processed my second batch of Ilford FP4+ on November 14th.  Like the first batch, this was also 4"x5" large format film, given N+1 development.  The film was actually washed and dried by last night, but with the Renegades game, I didn't have time to get around to scanning anything.  There are quite a few good negatives in this second batch.  I've attached scans of a few of the best ones.  These date back to the latter part of 2009, and through 2010.

Renegades - Game 12

Back in the "W" column!  The Renegades played late last night at Knights of Columbus Arena verses the Phantoms.  We beat them soundly, by a score of 16 - 1.  This team is really in over their heads.  They are winless so far this season, and have a goals against average of over 14.  Unfortunately for them, there is no lower division that they can be moved down to, and no other teams that play at their level.  They were a really clean team and good sports about the game, despite the lop-sided score.  We needed the win to keep pace with some of the other teams, that have already played these guys a couple of times.  But it wasn't anything to be proud of.  I've been on a team in the past that went winless for almost an entire season and it really takes the fun out of the game.  I really felt for these guys and hope they can improve.  I thought that we played a rather sloppy game, and had our opponents been of a skill level that was more in line with the rest of our division, we may not have won.  Onward to our next game on Saturday night. 

Ilford FP4+

Now that fall is upon us, and winter is just around the corner, I find myself spending less time out taking photographs, and more time in my darkroom processing and printing them.  Although I did get out for a couple hours with my oldest daughter on Sunday afternoon, most of my spare time this weekend was put towards processing some film.  Ilford FP4+ is a nice crisp film that I don't shoot as much as I should.  I find that when I develop it a little more than double the "normal" time it yields some really sparkling, contrasty negatives.  This is best for images captured when the light is a little flat.  I had a backlog of 40 sheets of film, dating back to 2008, 2009 and 2010.  I processed half of it on Saturday night, and the balance on Sunday.  The first batch is now dry and I scanned a few of the best ones.  The second batch just came out of the film washer and is currently drying.  There are more good ones in that batch that I will scan in the coming days.  I now need to find time to organize the scrap heap that is my darkroom and make some space to start printing some of these!

Quiet Rooms - Determination

My second submission to MAHI: Quiet Rooms was…

Determination

The Plains Cottonwood [Populus sargentii] is endangered in Alberta.  It is found only in riparian habitats along prairie rivers and coulees.  The fluffy seeds that give the tree its name are borne in June and will only germinate in the wet mud of the seasonal spring flood.  Man’s damming of the rivers and attempts to control flooding have impacted the survival of these majestic trees.  Some of the oldest surviving trees are estimated to approach 300 years of age, and would have been saplings at the time that the white man first arrived in Western Canada.  These trees have the unique ability to survive drought conditions.  Their thick furrowed bark and heavy waxy leaves resist moisture loss.  And, they are able to cut off the flow of moisture to their outer branches and reserve it for the survival of the main trunk of the tree.  To my mind these trees exhibit a character and determination unlike any other.  Their gnarled twisted shapes stand as a testament to their strength and perseverance.  Some prominent and stately, others beaten down and fighting to survive, they project an attitude and an emotion that I have attempted to capture in my images.

I will have to allow the jury time to review my submissions along with the over 40 others that they had received by this afternoon.  In the coming weeks I hope to find out if any of my work is selected for purchase and display.

Quiet Rooms - Mountain Waters

Back in late September the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute put out a call for submissions for their “Quiet Rooms” project.  The world class Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute [MAHI] opened its doors to the public in 2009.  Heart patients across Alberta and western Canada immediately began to benefit from its state of the art equipment and technology.  Art for the MAHI: Quiet Rooms is a juried project that will result in the installation of fresh, unique and uplifting artwork in each of the eight quiet rooms situated near intense patient care areas.  The purpose of the quiet rooms is to provide family and friends with a private place in which to reflect, relax, console and debrief on the issues at hand.  The submission deadline was this afternoon at 4:00PM.  I submitted two selections of my work. 

My first submission was…

Mountain Waters

Every year I find myself drawn to the mountains.  In my retreat I find solace in the natural world.  Inevitably I am drawn to water.  Rushing mountains streams, placid lakes and ponds and the seasonal surrender of water into ice all have a calming effect upon my soul.  I never tire of my time spent attempting to capture this emotion in my images.  Every year as autumn gives way to winter I can not help but feel a little depressed at the disappearance of the waters and the transformation into ice and snow.  At the end of winter, as the sun returns, the days lengthen, and the temperature rises I am refreshed and revitalized by the return of the waters.  My mood becomes euphoric as I find subject matter and images all around me, all with water as the main focal point.  Many of my images attempt to capture these emotions, and over the years I find that a large portion of the negatives in my archive focus on water in its various moods.

Ilford SFX

I processed a couple of rolls of Ilford SFX medium format film on Sunday night.  Some of the images on these two rolls date back to late 2009.  I shot these with my Hasselblad during some of my travels, over the last year.  This film is not a true infrared film, rather it has extended red sensitivity.  I expose it through an 89B filter.  This is a very deep red filter that you can barely see through.  It looks much like a dark welding glass.  It blocks out virtually all visible wavelengths allowing the film to be exposed with extended red and infrared wavelengths.  The result is a tonal range that is beyond what our eyes can see.  This batch includes some images from weekend day trips over the spring, as well as a couple of shots of the mounted Hadrosaur that we shot this past weekend.

Renegades - Game 11

The Renegades played another late game last night.  We played the Chiefs at Glengarry Arena at 11:00PM.  It was a tight game, with a lot of shots.  At the end of regulation time we were tied 2-2.  We went into the overtime and the Chiefs managed to bang in a shot to win it.  A tough loss for us to swallow, especially considering that these guys already beat us once, the first game of the season.  This drops us down into second place in our division, and challenges us to rally back and try to reclaim first place at our next game.

Badlands Hadrosaur

Palcoprep has been building an articulated cast of a juvenile Hadrosaur.  We have this mount available for sale and want to promote it to musuems and science centers.  We decided that we needed some photographs of it for promotional purposes.  So on Saturday I took a day trip down to Drumheller.  My oldest daughter came along for the day.  The day was warm for November and the light beautiful.  We set up the mount out in the badlands and spent the afternoon taking photos of it.  We included a smaller Dromaeosaurus in some of the shots.  I also took some shots on black and white film with my Hasselblad.  Once I have a chance to process this film I hope to end up with a couple of negatives that are worthy of some fine art prints.

Renegades - Game Ten

The Renegades played Game Ten of the ERHL Winter Season on Monday night.  It was one of those awful ice times... at 10:30 PM.  We played the Bulldogs.  Despite jumping out to an early lead we eventually fell behind.  One of our forwards was ejected from the game, the result of an accidental stick infraction.  I moved up from my defense position to play on left wing.  I ended up scoring two goals, the first on my first shift on wing, a nice feed from our center, right at the end of the second period.  I banged in a garbage goal later in the third and ended the night with two goals, an assist and a body checking penalty.  Almost a "Gordie Howe Hat Trick".  But, the team ended up on the wrong side of a 7-5 score and we went down to defeat.