Renegades - End of the Regular Season

The Renegades played our 30th and final hockey game of the 2010-11 Winter Season last Saturday.  It was an awful ice time, late on Saturday night, and the Icebreakers had an even shorter bench than we did.  We won the game by a score of 8 - 2.  The ERHL Division 12 has eight teams, of which the top six move on to a playoff round robin.  We finished the regular season in second place in the division, with some pretty respectable stats.  We were tied for the most wins with 19.  We only had 10 losses in regulation, second best overall.  We had the most goals for at 209.  Some of our other stats were not as impressive...  We were fifth in goals against with 165.  We had the most penalty minutes at 377.  With all those penalty minutes were were 7th in Power Play goals against at 28.  We also ended up scoring a lot of short handed goals, best in the division with 10. 

Now we will ride a three game winning streak into the playoffs, which get underway in early April.  The second place finish gives us a bye in the first round so our first game will be on April 7th.  We will play the winner of the first round game, between the fourth and fifth place teams.  The format is a double knock-out round robin.  Once any team loses two games, they are out.  The final two teams play a best-of-three final series.  Everything will be wrapped up by the third week of April.  We then have ten days off... after which the summer season gets under way in the first week of May.  Yet more hockey until the middle of July!! 

Lilies

Back at the end of January I bought a bunch of lilies at the grocery store, for my wife.  It was a bitterly cold day, but I thought they got wrapped well enough to get out to my somewhat warm truck and home.  When Margarit first put them in a vase, they looked fine.  But, within a day or two the stems collapsed and the flower heads sagged and they had obviously been damaged by the cold.  Yet they looked really cool... so I took them down into my studio, set up my lights, and photographed them with my 4x5.  I finally got around to processing a couple of sheets of Polaroid 55 that I shot that day.  I scanned them tonight and quite like the result.  I also shot some additional images on Acros and on T-Max, which I'm sure will be less contrasty and have a totally different look.  I also experimented and shot a couple of sheets of infrared, as well as some color negative.  When I get around to processing the rest of the film, and if anything looks good, I'll post the results.

Renegades - Games 28 & 29

The Renegades played two hockey games last week.  I missed the first one, at late one on Tuesday night, as I was down with the stomach flu.  Most of our players missed this game due to the awful ice time, and only our goalie and ten skaters showed up to play.  One of our guys got ejected after a body check behind the play and some "beaking" at the officials.  Despite having to finish the game with only nine skaters, the guys managed a victory over the first place Chiefs.  Then on Saturday afternoon we played again, against the last place Phantoms.  We got a little cocky and took our opponents for granted.  They started a rally in the second period and ran the score close at 6-5... but then we settled things down, took control, and managed to score six unanswered goals for a 12-5 victory.  After all my lecturing to the team about taking dumb penalties I had to eat a little crow as I ended up taking three in this game.  It was a case of "do as I say... not as I do".  With one game left in the regular season we are currently in second place.  We can finish no higher than second, and no worse than third.  The playoffs start in early April, and wrap up by the middle of the month.  I've already started collecting fees from the guys to register the team for the summer season, which starts at the beginning of May.

California B&W

About a week ago I processed the 35mm B&W film that I shot on our trip to Disneyland.  I think I have gained a renewed appreciation for the "postage stamp" sized format.  I'm used to 4" x 5" and even 8" x 10" sheets of film.  The 35mm negative is so small... about 1" x 1-3/8".  I have a really difficult time editing the negatives and deciding which are worth printing.  I am often unpleasantly surprised to find that when the image is enlarged there are technical flaws... out of focus, inadequate depth of field, etc.  But, the small camera sure is portable and provides for spontaneous shooting.  I have decided to try and carry my 35mm camera with me a little more often and try to shoot with it more regularly.  In the mean time, here are a few scans from our recent trip to Disneyland and southern California.  A couple of these are probably even worth a print...

Bad News...

We recently received bad news that TU Gallery in Edmonton is going out of business and closing their doors in late March.  This is terrible news for the Photographic Arts Community in central Alberta as this is probably the only gallery in the area that supports Photographic Arts by way of continual exhibitions.  We are saddened and disappointed by this news.  Obviously the Monochrome Guild Show that had been accepted by the gallery for exhibition in the fall of 2011 will not be proceeding.

Three and Out...

The Prairie Cup Hockey Tournament has come to an end for the Renegades.  We lost the game this afternoon against "Those Guys" and will not advance to the finals.  It was a close game... closer than the score suggested.  The shots were even for most of the game, though the "Guys" had more shots right at the end.  They got a couple of lucky bounces early on and started with an early lead.  The game became a little chippy with several penalties and a few minor injuries.  I took a cross checking penalty early on and after that we had a pretty steady parade to the box.  One of our guys bruised an elbow and another took a cut to the face, the result of a shoulder impacting his visor.  Nothing serious, and our guys will be ready to play on Tuesday.  We ended up losing the game by a score of 5 to 1.  But, the tournament was a lot of fun, and relatively inexpensive, and gave us a bit of a tune up before we roll into the final three league games of our winter season, and the playoffs.

Rude Awakening!

This morning, the Renegades played our second game of the Prairie Cup Tournament.  We played a team called the Edmonton Spoilers.  These guys are young, fast and skilled and obviously many of them have played together for a while.  They schooled us and won the game by a score of 14 to 2.  Obviously our division is not very well balanced.  We play again in a couple of hours.  The good part is, if we win this afternoon, we will play in the championship game tomorrow.  The bad part is that the championship game will be against the guys that spanked us this morning!  We'll do our best to get to the playoff tomorrow.

Prairie Cup Tournament

The Renegades have taken a break from league play for the weekend and have entered the Prairie Cup Tournament here in Edmonton.  This tournament is hosted by the Canadian Adult Recreational Hockey Association [CARHA].  This is the second year that we have entered the tournament.  Last year we didn't do all that well, finishing with a record of 1 win and 2 losses.  This year the games are being played in the new Terwillegar Recreation Centre that just opened in south Edmonton.  This is an amazing facility with four ice sheets.  The rinks are bright and new and the dressing rooms are large and state of the art.  What a great place to play and for a change, taxpayers dollars well spent!  We played our first game tonight against the Sportselect Frontenacs.  I think these guys are local, but we don't know them from our league.  We played a solid game and won by a score of 7 to 0.  We are entered in the 19-years-of-age-plus-recreational division.  The average age of our team is 36; we only have two players under 30 [27 and 28] and our oldest player [me] is nearly 48!!  We play two games tomorrow.  The first is at 7:45AM, followed by a break of six hours and a second game in the afternoon.  If we finish in the top two of our division we will play in the championship game on Sunday afternoon.  After a short rest on Monday, we return to league play with a late game on Tuesday night against the first place Chiefs.  Hockey....  it's not just a game...  it's THE game!!

My Two Front Teeth....

My middle daughter Annelise, who turns six in the fall, just lost a couple of teeth.  They had been loose for weeks, and in fact there is a third one that is still pretty wobbly.  A bit of a bump in the face while she was playing with her sisters encouraged the two front ones to finally let go.  One popped out last weekend, and the other followed suit the next day.  It was pretty exciting around our place with the Tooth Fairy visiting twice in the same week.  Her older sister Hailey set a trap for the Tooth Fairy a couple years earlier.  That crafty little Pixie managed to spring the trap, take the tooth, scatter some pixie dust, and leave a few coins.  Annelise was pretty glad that she was still available to make her rounds.  I'm certain there will be the excitement of yet another visit in the coming days when this third tooth finally lets go!

Drying Cabinet and Neopan Acros

Back before Christmas I ordered a film drying cabinet from a US supplier.  This is a metal cabinet with a drying fan and heater to quickly dry processed and washed film in a dust free environment.  The cabinet finally arrived in February.  Due to the cold winter weather I was not able to deliver it to my home darkroom and set it up until just recently.  I finally got it all set up this weekend and wanted to give it a trial run.  I decided to process a batch of Fuji Neopan Acros film in 4x5 format.  This stuff dated back to the end of 2009.  It is another of my favorite films....  I love the smooth tonality and glowing mid-tones of this film and find it ideal for soft light situations and for portraits.  I've included scans of some of the best images in this batch...

Renegades - Game 27

We didn't do ourselves any favors last night.  A win against the Ice Hawks and we would have clinched a playoff spot.  Instead we started really flat and spotted the Ice Hawks to a 6-1 lead.  Eventually we battled back and made it closer.  With only a few minutes left in the third period we got as close as 6-4.  But, then the Ice Hawks got a couple of late goals and skated off with an 8-4 victory.  It helps their playoff chances a lot, but did nothing for us.  Since it was an early game, at 6:30PM, my girls came out to watch.  My oldest daughter Hailey took a few photos of the game...

California Beaches

While we were down in California last week visiting Disneyland, we took one day and made a side trip.  On the spur of the moment we decided to rent a car.  We drove from Anaheim over to the Newport Beach area.  We stopped at Huntington Beach State Park and at Crystal Cove State Park.  It was cool and overcast and breezy and we had the beaches mostly to ourselves.  It was the first time that our girls had been to the ocean.  Huntington was a long open sandy beach.  There were lifeguard stations reminiscent of Baywatch, although they were all closed down for the season.  There were lots of shorebirds, gulls and pelicans.

After spending a little time there we headed further south to Crystal Cove.  It included a small preserve of desert habitat on the bluffs overlooking the ocean.  There were Prickly Pear Cactus, and we saw a Roadrunner as well as a Falcon.  There were supposed to be rattlesnakes in the area, although we didn't see any.  We hiked across the bluff area and down some stairs to the beach.  Down below there were some rocky outcrops.  The tide was still out when we arrived and the girls were able to explore the tide pools and the driftwood.  We found anemones, hermit crabs and lots of shells.  The sun even broke out briefly allowing me to take a few photographs in beautiful light.  It made me wish that I had a larger camera with me.  I did manage to shoot a little black and white film with my 35mm Contax.  I hope to find time to process some of that film this week and I'm hopeful that there is something worth printing.  

Unfortunately our time was limited.  Soon the tide was starting to come in and the day was coming to an end.  We had to pack up and drive back to our hotel room in Anaheim.