Submissions and Rejections

I have not found a lot of time for my photography in recent months.  Although I've shot are fair bit of film, and processed a little of it, I haven't done any printing for ages.  And my backlog of unprocessed film continues to grow, some of it dating back to 2009.  I need to dedicate a little more time and energy to my art and get serious about it again.  The last couple of submissions that I made were rejected.  My work was not accepted by the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute for their quiet. rooms, and a recent group submission by the Monochrome Guild, to McMullen Gallery, was also turned down.  There have been numerous other submission opportunities in between that I just didn't find the time to respond to.  This past week I submitted five images to the Open Juried Photography Exhibition being coordinated by the Visual Arts Alberta Association.  This one was easy as I only had to e-mail in my images in digital format.  If any of them are selected for exhibition, then I will have to print and frame them.  The selected images are displayed for about a month at the Kaasa Gallery in the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium.  Last year one of my images was accepted.  This year I sent in these five...

Summer Hockey - Game 13

Yet another loss this week, this time at the hands of The Ice Kings.  Once again by a score of 7-2.  Although we had a full bench out for this one, and penalties and officiating weren't an issue [for a change] we just did not play with any jump or determination.  This loss leaves us in 6th place, barely in playoff contention, with only two games left.  Hopefully we can turn things around and put on a push going into the post season.

Dad and Kids Weekend

It has been a challenge to get out camping this year.  Usually our first spring camping trip is the May Long Weekend, and then we get out pretty regularly after that.  This year the weather conditions were not great on the long weekend, and I did not have our trailer out of storage and ready to go in time, so we stayed home.  I think this was the first May long weekend in twenty years that I did not get away!!!  The weekend following was supposed to be the annual "Dad and Kids" camping weekend.  This ended up getting postponed due to poor weather and limited attendance.  We finally headed out for a re-scheduled "Dad and Kids" camping trip this past weekend.  A lot of Dads that had originally expressed interest, ended up making excuses and bailing out.  The weather forecast was not great, but we headed out all the same.  I left with my trailer in tow and my three daughters in the back seat, on Friday right after work.  We met up with my friend Frank down in the badlands along the Red Deer River.  He was already there when we arrived at the campsite around 9:00PM.  Frank had his trailer there, his daughter, and her friend.  It was cool and overcast, there were a lot of mosquitos, but it wasn't raining.  We set up camp and relaxed around the campfire before turning in relatively early.

The next day, after breakfast, we were just hanging around the campsite when a brief shower rolled in.  It didn't last long and eventually the weather improved.  Later in the afternoon my co-worker John, his two sons and his daughter rolled in.  Some of the kids ended up going fishing, while others went and checked out the horses at the nearby dude ranch.

 

That evening we threw together a BBQ, stoked up the fire, and settled in for the night.  It quickly became obvious that our festivities were going to be limited to three Dads and eight kids.  Frank made a beer run to nearby Trochu, while I got the BBQ going, and John took some of the kids fishing down to the Red Deer River.  When we were here last year, with a similar turn out, the Dads stayed up all night working on the stock pile of beer that we had brought along.  Sunday breakfast that year was a bit of a spectacle.  This year it was a little more tame.  We stayed up pretty late, and put a good dent into the beer supply, but things didn't get out of hand.  Maybe it was because the weather was a little unsettled, and it was sprinkling a bit off and on.  On Sunday morning, after breakfast, three of the girls wanted to go for a trail ride, while the rest of the kids wanted to go fishing.  We split up into groups and kept everyone happy.  My two oldest daughters, and John's youngest went for a one hour trail ride in the badlands.

 

 

While that was happening, the rest of the kids went fishing.  The weather was pretty good on Sunday morning and everyone had a great time.  After lunch, we all decided to give fishing one last try.  We walked the quarter mile from our trailers over to the old fishing hole and cast a few more times.  A couple more goldeye were landed, in addition to the eight or so that we already had.

 

 

My girls finally got down to the river, made a few casts, and then the clouds opened up.  We were hit by a heavy thunder shower, and it just poured.  By the time we packed up and walked the quarter mile back to the trailer we were soaked to the skin.  We were a little concerned about how hard the rain was coming down, and how muddy the trail out of the camping area was going to get.  We quickly packed up all our gear and just tossed everything into our trailers.  We watched as a couple of other campers struggled to negotiate the trail out of the campsite with their trucks and trailers.  We left together, and it took four-wheel-drive to drag our gear out of the pasture and back onto gravel.  There we stopped and properly packed up before hitting the road for home.  It was great to finally get back out camping and to spend some quality time with my girls.  When I asked them later what they thought was the best part of the weekend, the concensus was that the horseback riding was number one, and getting caught in the rain was number two.  I hope that this weekend together is something that they will fondly recall for years to come.

I had hoped to be able to get out camping right away again on the two upcoming weekends but it appears as though that will not be possible.  Not only do the girls have a soccer tournament and a wind-up soccer party scheduled, but the weather is once again very cool and wet.  It seems as though we may have to wait until the end of the month and the Canada Day long weekend before we are able to get out again.  Hopefully this does not turn into a cool, wet summer like we had last year!!

Vancouver Disgrace

What a disgrace to the game of hockey that was put on display to the world last night in Vancouver.  All through the drawn out Stanley Cup playoffs I had the feeling that the Vancouver Canucks were eventually going to hold true to their record and choke.  They had been lucky earlier on and managed to win some of the previous playoff rounds.  But, when they came up against the Boston Bruins in the final, their luck ran out.  I thought that the Boston goaltender, Tim Thomas played extremely well.  The Canucks just shit the bed...!!

The idiots in downtown Vancouver that went to the streets last night after the Canucks loss and vandalized property, overturned and burned cars, looted stores, and basically just displayed their stupidity are a disgrace to the wonderful game of hockey.  Unfortunately Canadian fans may end up being painted with this brush in the eyes of the world.  These jackasses used the playoff loss as an excuse to go wild in the streets and demonstrate to the world what a bench of jerks they are.  It is a shame that this behavior is associated with such a classic and Canadian sport.  I hope the authorities hold true to their intentions to investigate, seek out, arrest and charge as many of those responsible as they possibly can.  With all the news media coverage, security video, and cell phone images, it is my sincere hope that most of them can be apprehended.  Enough said....  I don't want to dedicate any more attention to such a collection of assholes and hope that people are intelligent to realize that this is not what the sport of hockey is about.

Summer Hockey - Games 10, 11 & 12

Very busy times these past couple of weeks.  My daughters have been playing community league soccer two nights each week, and my work has become very busy.  A number of hockey games have been crammed into the last few days and I just haven't had the opportunity to report the results.  But, here we go...

On Wednesday June 8th we played a game against the Spartans at Knights of Columbus Arena.  The game ended in a tie in regulation, but we were victorious in a shootout, winning by a score of 5-4.

On Monday June 13th we played a late game, at 9:30PM against the Chiefs, also at Knights of Columbus.  We were leading the Chiefs by a 4-2 score late in the game.  They pulled their goalie for an extra attacker and we managed an empty net goal to win the game 5-2.

Last night, on June 15th we played The Wild again at Knights of Columbus.  Coincidentally this was also the night of game 7 of the Stanley Cup final between the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks.  We played a much younger, faster team in The Wild, with a very short bench.  We only had three defense, six forwards and a goaltender.  Being one of our defensemen, I was on the ice for two-thirds of the game.  I served a couple of minor penalties, maybe just to get a rest??  We were pretty even through the first half of the game but then ran out of gas and eventually lost by a score of 7-2.

Summer Hockey - Game 9

The Renegades had a re-match against Papa Johns Pizza on Wednesday night at Knights of Columbus Arena. This time around we lost, by a score of 7-4.  This puts us in fifth place in our division [of ten teams].  It appears it is time to try and set out on a push into the playoffs.  With six games remaining in the season we can not continue to miss opportunities like this.  Since being soundly defeated by the Raccoons at the time of all the divisional moves we seem to have lost our confidence, have been taking too many penalties, and have not been playing together as a team.  We have a chance next week to turn things around when we match up with the Spartans on Wednesday.  Stay tuned...

Sunday Day Trip

Last Sunday my eldest daughter Hailey and I headed out for a day trip with my friend Rob.  We left the city fairly early, around 7:30AM.  We headed off into east central Alberta, out near the Saskatchewan border.  It was our intention to explore a couple of dying small towns.  We did that, and also found an old church and a few abandoned farm yards.  It was a fairly productive day and I think we all came home with some good images.  Hailey was shooting B&W film with her 35mm SLR and getting used to a new tripod.  My friend Rob was shooting 4x5.  I was shooting with my 4x5, as well as with my Gaeorsi 624 Panoramic, and I also captured these snapshots with my digital "point and shoot".

Summer Hockey - Game 8

All the teams seem to be settling in to the new divisional line up.  On Monday evening we played the Mighty Peking Ducks at Terwillegar Arena.  We had a very short bench, only 10 skaters and a goalie, and had a slow start.  By the end of the second period we were being outshot 15-3, but were only down by a 1-0 score.  We finally managed to turn it up a notch in the third, the shots ended up 28-21 for them, and the score was tied 2-2.  The game was a little chippy and there was a steady parade to the penalty box so we didn't have time for a shootout or overtime and the game ended in a tie.