More Negatives and a trip to Nordegg

Late last week I went into the darkroom and processed some more negatives.  I mixed up a batch of Rodinal developer and processed some more of the Acros test negatives.  I still have to wait until I have the last half of the test negatives processed, before I can draw any conclusions.  I still need to process with Kodak X-tol and D-76.  While I had the Rodinal mixed up and in the tank, I carried on with a batch of Efke PL25 film.  These negatives were all taken in late 2011 and earlier this spring.  A few good ones in here that a probably worth a closer look...

Then this past Saturday, three of us from the Monochrome Guild headed out for the re-scheduled day trip to Nordegg.  We walked in to the historic mine site and photographed some of the old mining machinery and buildings.  I forgot to take my little digital camera with me, so I don't have any snap shots from the day trip.  It was a really nice day, with temperature getting up to around +15C and mostly sunny skies.  But, there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground from the spring storm a week prior.  I did shoot a lot of images with my view camera, but of course I have to wait until I find the time to process the film before I will be able to scan and post any of them.

Yet more snow... Day Trip Cancelled

I bunch of the guys from the Monochrome Guild had planned a day of shooting for Saturday April 14th.  But, once again we got another spring snow storm that this time dumped about 3 to 4 inches of wet snow onto the city.  The foothills, where we had planned to go, were supposed to get around a foot.

So, Saturday became a darkroom day instead.  I mixed up a batch of Ilford Perceptol developer and started out with processing my three test shots taken on Fuji Neopan Acros 4x5 film.  They look pretty good, but as I haven't processed any of the other test shots in alternative developers, I have nothing to compare to yet.  Since I had the developer all mixed up I thought I would continue with a batch of film.  In the past I have processed my Kodak T-Max 100 sheet film in this developer, diluted 1:3, and processed with my Jobo.  This processor is handy, but as there are no longer any repair parts available, and as I am not convinced I like the continuous agitation that it affords, I decided to switch to hand processing with hangers, in vertical tanks.  This method utilizes very minimal agitation which should better support the low values.  However, I think that a somewhat longer development time will be in order to give a result similar to what I'm used to.  When I initially turned on the lights and looked at my processed film, I thought the negatives were a little thin, and maybe could have used a longer development time.  And this might in fact be the case... But by this morning, once the film was washed and dried, it didn't look so bad.  I scanned a number of the negatives and I'm really impressed with the way that they look.  I think next time I process this film in this developer, I will still increase the time slightly, but not as much as I first expected.  These images were all taken in 2011 and early 2012. This batch includes some images from summer camping trips, some from day trips last fall and this past winter, as well as a couple from my "Unfinished House" series. I really like most of them, and look forward to processing the additional 20+ exposed sheets that I have waiting.  

After the film had been processed and put in the washer, I turned my attention to some printing.  Saturday night I worked on two large exhibition prints for the Procession West project.  Despite the recent rejection, I have no intention of giving up on this project.  I printed my "Atlas Mine" and "Windows" images, both originally taken in 1999.  As I worked on these I mused that it has been over a dozen years since I took these images, and although I have dabbled with a couple of work prints over the years, they have never been seriously printed.  And, now they find their way into my gallery submission.  Hopefully the time is right...

First Rejection Letter

We got our first rejection letter back on the Procession West project.  This was from the Southern Alberta Art Gallery and was the first package that we sent out.  They returned all of our materials and included a letter stating...

"We appreciate the opportunity to view your work, however we are unable to offer you an exhibition at this time.  Thank you for your interest and we encourage you to keep us up to date of your work in the future."

I am not particularly discouraged or surprised as this is only the first package that we have received a response on.  If this trend continues and we continue to get a lot of these letters, maybe we will need to give up on photography and consider a framed exhibition of rejection letters.

Another Heartland Day Trip

On Good Friday I set out for yet another day trip up into Alberta's Industrial Heartland.  This time Court from the Monochrome Guild and my daughter Hailey came along with me.  I am continuing to attempt to document the industrial development that has been present in this area for some time, and threatens to explode into significant further development.  The documentation of this change is a photo project that is being undertaken by the members of the Monochrome Guild.  The snow that feel in the city a day prior ended in an abrupt line not very far to the north and east of town.  By the time we got up into the Heartland area, there was only a skiff of snow on the ground, despite the fact that at least 6 inches remained on the ground back at home.

We stopped on the road at the north edge of Shell's Scotford refinery and within minutes were accosted by a security guard wanting to know what we were doing and what company had hired us.  She insisted that we needed a permit from Shell Canada in order to take any photographs of the plant.  I politely informed her that we were not working for any company, that we were simply fine art photographers, and that we were shooting from a public road as we had been informed two weeks prior that we were able to do.  She backed off an left us alone after a few more questions.

Later we stopped by a railway siding a little further north and photographed a bunch of rail cars, with the refinery visible in the background.  This would be the only stop all day during which we were not accosted by someone.  The wind was very cold and brisk and we decided to try to find a more sheltered place to take some photographs.  We headed north into the river valley and returned to the old farm yard that I had photographed a couple weeks prior.  This time around the landowner came around to see what we were doing.  Initially he was a little annoyed, but perhaps because the land was not posted or gated, and maybe because we had walked in with our cameras and left my truck on the road, he decided that it would be OK if we continued to make some photographs of all the old abandoned vehicles.

Still later we crossed the river over into Sturgeon County.  We found a high vantage point where the refineries on the south side were clearly visible and made a few more photographs.  Then we stopped by a private rail siding and photographed a locomotive.  True to form, the site security guard came along within minutes to see what we were up to.  This time around he was much less confrontational and seemed more interested in starting a conversation about film photography and historic sites.  I'm sure that he didn't have all that much to do on this day as it was a statutory holiday, and he was likely being paid double or triple time.  Once we finished up here, we packed up and headed back home.

Later during the Easter weekend I found time to process the three sheets of Polaroid film that I shot during our day trip.  Court was shooting with a medium format camera and managed to crank through several rolls during the course of the day.  Hailey was also shooting film, and shot several rolls of 35mm with her Nikon.  My Polaroid stuff has now been washed and dried and I've included scans of the resulting negatives...

April Showers

The weather forecasters had been warning of the coming storm for days.  We were hopeful that the April showers would be of the liquid variety.  But, they were not and we got dumped on with about 8 inches of heavy wet snow on April 5th.  Just in time for my wife's birthday too!  At least it didn't last long....  Here in Alberta we always have to keep in mind that we can get snow any month of the year.  It seems like about two years out of every five we get some snow on the May Long Weekend.  Hopefully this is the last one of the season...

Print Sale

I recently sold one of my prints.  This was a 16x20 print of Sherbrooke Creek in Banff National Park.  I took the photograph in the fall of 2005.  The image has been on my website for some time.  A former client of mine, that purchased some of my photographs in the past, liked this one enough to order a copy.  I delivered it last week.

Procession West Submissions

Now that the submission package for the Procession West project is complete, Rob and I have begun sending it out to various galleries.  We sent out a package that included digital versions of all of the images plus some sample workprints to the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge.  Then I dropped off a package with digital files on CD to McMullen Gallery here in Edmonton, just prior to their end of March deadline.  This past week I mailed out three packages with digital files on CD to galleries in Saskatchewan.  This included the MacKenzie Gallery in Regina, the Art Gallery of Regina, and the Estevan Museum and Art Gallery.  As we continue to work towards finding further venues to submit to, we also sit back and await the flood of rejection letters that are no doubt to follow...

Spring Break

On March 24th we took the girls on a short trip for Spring Break.  We started out by driving down to Banff National Park.  We spent a little over a day wandering around the townsite and checking all the shops.  The girls really liked the Welsh's Candy Shop, and the Fossil Shop.  We went for prime rib to Bumpers, and then stayed the night just outside the park in Harvie Heights.  The next morning we had brunch with my brother Wes and his family.  My two oldest girls were really excited to see their "favorite" cousin, Simone.

The next day we headed back into Calgary.  The girls had a sleepover with their cousin, and Margarit, Helena and I stayed at a nearby hotel.  It was my brother Wes's 45th birthday and we celebrated with take out Chinese food and a birthday cake.

The next day was Monday and Wes and Barb had to return to work.  Margarit and I took all the kids including our nephew Sam, for lunch.  Then the girls went over to our hotel and spent the day playing in the pool and on the waterslide.  That evening we had a little more time to visit with Wes and Barb.  Simone stayed with us and the girls at the hotel.  The next morning we packed up and made our way back to Edmonton.  I had the last game of the Renegades winter season that night, and Margarit was taking the girls to their riding lesson.

Prairie Cup Tournament 2012

The Renegades played in the annual Prairie Cup Tournament at the Terwillegar Recreation Center on the weekend of March 30 to April 1.  The average age of our team was 37, and we only had three players under the age of 30... one our goalie and one a girl!  But, because a few of our players were under the age of 35 we had to play in the age category of 19 and older.  Our first game was on Friday night, and we were pretty rusty.  We ended up losing to a team called the Ice Ninjas by a score of 7-2.  The game was closer than the score suggested as we were only down 2-1 after the first period.  These games only consist of two 20 minutes periods, but we had a short lapse in the second during which they scored four goals.  

Our next game was on Saturday morning at 8:00AM.  This time we faced off against a young, fast team called the Knights.  Once again the game was close and we were only down by a 2-1 score after the first.  We pulled our goalie late in the game, down by a score of 4-2 and they got an empty net goal to win 5-2.

A few hours later we played again, this time against the Sharps.  We are familiar with these guys as they play in our winter league, but six divisions higher than us.  We scored first and the game remained very close.  The score was tied 2-2 late in the second.  They got a goal with just a few minutes remaining and hung on for a 3-2 victory, and later went on to win the division.

We could probably do better in these tournaments if we would exclude our handful of younger players and play in an older division.  The tournament includes 35+, 40+ and even 50+ divisions.  But, we are a team and the tournament is just for fun, so we allow all our guys to play, and historically end up losing most or all of the games.  In past years this has just been a tune up for the playoffs.  This year since we did not quite make the playoffs it was just for fun...

My old carcass sure felt its age in the days after the tournament.  Three hockey games in a span of 16 hours sure takes its told on the oldest guy on our team.