Winter Hockey - Games 12 and 13

The Renegades played two hockey games this past week.  The first one was a late one, on Tuesday evening at 11:00PM.  Those late ice times sure make it tough to get to work the next morning...!  This one we ended up losing in a shootout to the Xtreme.  It was a questionable decision on the part of the officials and the league as one of our players appeared to score in the shootout, but the goal was called off.  Later we found that there was a large hole in the net.  Initially it looked as though the on ice officials were going to side with us and rule the game a tie.  But the league over ruled this and gave the Xtreme the shoot out win.

Then on Sunday just after lunch we played again, this time against the Wolf Pack.  They jumped out to an early lead, but we responded and started scoring goals.  By the end of the second period we had a comfortable lead and ended up winning the game 10-7, despite being outshot 50 to 34.

Processing More Film...

This past weekend was very cold...  Daytime highs on Sunday only got up to around -16C.  Saturday was colder, and of course at night it was much colder still.  It was a weekend spent mostly indoors.  I processed a batch of sheet film on Sunday.  This time around it was Kodak High Speed Infrared.  Kodak stopped producing this film, much to my dismay, in 2000.  I stock piled a lot of it, and had a considerable amount given to me by fellow photographers that "went digital".  Despite the fact that the "best before" date on the last batches was 2001... now a decade ago... the film still seems to be OK.  I have stored my unexposed film in the freezer, and after I expose the film, and prior to processing, I keep it refrigerated.  It still seems to be hanging on, so I will continue to shoot it until my stock runs out.  This current batch of 20 sheets dated back to late 2009, with most of the images shot in 2010.  I have scanned some of the better images and posted them for comment...

Efke PL25M

I processed two batches, each of 20 sheets of 4" x 5" Efke PL25M film this week.  I processed in Rodinal developer, 1:50, with minimal agitation.  I really like the way that this fine grained film responds to this development.  It yields such wonderful smooth images, specially when shot in soft light.  The fact that it is very slow, I expose it at ISO 10, results in very long shutter speeds being required, even in daylight.  It is my film of choice when I want to show motion.  

I scanned about half of the sheets, now that my new computer is working with my old scanner.  These include a few images from the recent Fall Photo Weekend in Jasper, a couple from my Playground Ghosts series, and a few that date back to 2010.

Winter Hockey - Game Eleven

The Renegades played still another late weekday hockey game last night.  It was a 10:30PM game at Knights of Columbus Arena verses the Trojans.  We had a short bench with only 10 skaters and a goaltender but jumped out to an early 5-2 lead.  Then we seemed to get tired and let them back into the game.  By the third period we have given up five unanswered goals and were down by a score of 7-5.  But me managed to get a goal and bring it to within one.  Then, in the final minute, we pulled our goaltender and scored with just seconds left to tie the game 7-7.  Five minutes of overtime didn't decide anything so we went to the shootout.  Our goalie stopped all three shooters, and we scored once for the win.

Fall Photo Weekend

Five of the guys from the Monochrome Guild set out for Jasper National Park for the annual Fall Photo Weekend.  This year was the 11th Annual, but it seemed as though something was missing.  Rather it was someone that was missing... my good friend Jon had been with me on most of the previous outings, but couldn't make it this year as he was recovering from a recent liver transplant.  Hopefully he can make it next year!

The five of us set out from Edmonton on Friday morning; Remembrance Day.  Steve rode with me, while Court and the other Rob were in a second vehicle.  Arda set out from Edmonton later in the day.  Two others would join us later in the evening.  Gord is from Edmonton but was working in Calgary during the week and drove up through the mountains on Friday.  Mike drove out later that evening from Prince George and met up with us late in the evening.

The first group of four stopped at Talbot Lake and some of the other small ponds in that eastern part of the park and spent the afternoon photographing.  As the light began to fade we made a quick trip up the Maligne Road to scout Medicine Lake for the next mornings shoot.

By evening it was beginning to snow.  When we awoke the next morning it became obvious that the Fall Photo Weekend had become the Winter Photo Weekend.  About two inches of snow had fallen in town overnight, and more in the high country.  After breakfast we headed back up to Medicine Lake.  The "dusting" of snow that we hoped to capture was much more substantial than that.  But, it was a great day of photography with generally mild temperatures, mostly in the -1 to -4C range.  We spent most of the day up around Medicine Lake and the Maligne valley.  Towards evening we stopped down in the Athabasca valley and photographed some aspens, and later watched some bull elk jousting just outside of town.  Once we returned to town we went out for dinner, and then retired to our rooms.  We watched the hockey game and attempted to put a dent in the local beer and scotch supply.

The next morning we packed up, had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and checked out of our rooms.  Mike left early that morning as he needed to be back in Prince George by afternoon.  The rest of us headed out to do some shooting before we too had to hit the road for home.  We started out up at Portal Creek on Highway 93A.  It was a little more snowed in than I had hoped, which made access to the rocky shore of the creek difficult.  But I think we managed some decent images.  Then, later in the day we headed up to Horseshoe Lake.  Gord had stopped here on his way to Jasper on Friday afternoon and was amazed at how much difference two days could make.  The lake was now almost completely frozen over, and there was a significant amount of snow on the ground.  We shot here until early afternoon, and then reluctantly hit the road for home.  But, it was a great weekend to be out with friends and I know I'll come out of it with some great images. 

I actually processed a batch of film tonight, including a few from this trip.  They are currently washing and will be dry by tomorrow.  But, I am having some technical issues with my new computer.  I had a new one built, with significantly more hard drive space, to alleviate the issues I was having with my old one.  But, I am now having issues with hardware and software compatibility.  So as I struggle through getting everything up and running again I find myself without a scanner.  It may be some time before I am able to scan and post some of my recent work.....

Winter Hockey - Game 10

The Renegades played yet another late hockey game on Thursday.  We faced off against the Chiefs at Canadian Athletic Club.  It was a hard fought battle and the momentum went back and forth.  The Chiefs jumped out to an early lead and at one point we were down by a 3-1 score.  We eventually battled back to tie and then go ahead by a 4-3 score.  The Chiefs tied it in the third period before we scored with less than a minute remaining to go ahead again.  They pulled their goalie for an extra attacker and attempted to tie it yet again.  But, we managed an empty net goal and were victorious by a 6-4 score.

Drumheller Day Trip

On November 5th I had to travel south Drumheller for the day.  I had purchased a side of beef from a local farmer down there, and it was cut, wrapped and ready to be picked up.  My friend Gerald came along for the ride and we planned to make a day of it, taking pictures as we went.  Here in Edmonton we are still snow free, and although night time lows have now hit double digits once or twice, the days remain relatively mild.  The high temperatures consistently make it up to just under the freezing mark, and some days just above.  It was a different story as we travelled to the south.  Not only was there a very heavy hoar frost, but there was also a dusting for fresh snow.  The morning temperature was in the -15C range.  We stopped at a few spots in the Rumsey Morraine, south of Stettler.  We saw an enormous Golden Eagle that was hunting ducks near the edge of a frozen slough.

By around lunch time we headed into Drumheller.  We had a quick bite to eat and then picked up my order from the butcher.  Then we headed down the valley to the southeast to make some photographs.  We stopped at the Hoodoos and spent an hour or so photographing them with fresh snow.  It was the first time that I had seen them with fresh snow.  Then later we continued on to the old railway bridge at East Coulee.  After we finished making some photographs there, it was becoming obvious that we were quickly running out of daylight.  We started heading for home, but not before making one last stop at Orkney viewpoint to catch the badlands in evening light, with the dusting of fresh snow.  After that it was an uneventful three hour drive back home.