Rejected

The first rejection letter with respect to our latest batch of Procession West submissions arrived in the mail today.  We got the typical form letter from the Nanaimo Art Gallery thanking us for our submission but advising that we can not be offered an exhibition at this time.  We have numerous packages out there and do not find it particularly disappointing that we have been rejected.  In fact it would be difficult for us to accommodate all but a handful of exhibitions in 2014 and 2015.  So, we remain optimistic that some of the venues that we have submitted too will consider our exhibition suitable for their galleries.  In the mean time we do not take rejections such as this one too seriously.

Feeding Frenzy

Apparently I listed the selling price of my old truck too low.  I have been inundated with phone calls and Emails from people wanting to come and look at it, and wanting to buy it.  Finally one guy offered me more than my listing price if I would hold it for him until Thursday, when he would be flying into Edmonton.  I agreed, and I think we will close the deal.  If not, there is certainly more than enough interest and I can always put it back on the market.

The Old Truck

I've decided that it is time to sell my old truck.  This was a difficult decision to come to as I have had this old truck for nearly 25 years.  It has seen a divorce, a marraige, the birth of three daughters, and countless trips and adventures.  But, it is time to move on.  I have purchased the 2004 Dodge that used to be my work truck, from my company, and it will now become my personal vehicle.  This old girl has to find a new home for her remaining days...

Renegades Hockey Team - Division Champions

The winter hockey season has finally come to a close.  After finishing the regular season in first place, the Renegades battled through the playoffs.  I took control of the team seven years ago.  We played one summer season as the "Blues" an expansion team that was thrown together with a bunch of extra players.  We went through that first summer season with players bailing out on us game after game, as a result of our dismal record.  We lost our first 14 games, and then finally won the last game of the regular season.  I decided that the team needed to carry on, so I took control of the team as the manager and 7 years and 14 seasons later I am still running things.  I vowed to hang up my skates at age 50, but in light of recent success, and my desire to keep playing, I have now pushed out that deadline to 55.  We've had our ups and downs, winning a few championships along the way.  This past season was one of the most enjoyable and satisfying seasons that I've played.  The group of guys that we have are so great and we get along so well that it is a pleasure to be involved.  There is only myself and one other player left from that original "Blues" squad, but all the guys that are now on the roster are a great bunch. 

This season we battled our way through the playoffs, defeating a couple of the better teams in our division; the Ice Hawks and the Wolf Pack.  The Gators handed us our first defeat in the round robin, but we kept battling and eventually found ourselves in the final round, against the Gators.  Being the typcial superstitious hockey player, I shaved before our first playoff game, and then grew a playoff beard through the playoffs.  To shave during this time would have been bad luck, and by the time we worked our way into the final round, about 10 days later, I was looking pretty scruffy...

We split the first two games and it all came down to the final game last Friday night.  At the end of the first period, the score was tied at 1-1.  At the end of the second period it was tied 2-2.  We scored the go ahead goal early in the third period, and tried to hang on for the victory.  Late in the game, with less than 3 minutes left on the clock, I took a tripping penalty.  One of the Gators best players tried to step around me and would have been in alone on our goaltender.  I dove for the puck, knocking it off his stick, and tripping him in the process.  All of our players agreed that it should not have been a penalty as I made contact with the puck, before knocking the opposing player off his feet.  But, the referee didn't see it that way, and gave me a 2:00 minor penalty for tripping.  The Gators pulled their goaltender for an extra skater and poured it on, trying to get the equalizing goal.  Our guys put up a fierce battle and managed to keep them at bay.  Just as my penalty ran out, I rushed back out onto the ice, trying to help defend our net.  With just seconds left on the clock a brawl erupted down in our corner.  Eventually the officials got everyone separated and started to assess all the penalties.  A couple of their players were very upset and were yelling at the officials, complaining about the penalties that were about to be assessed.  The officials had had enough and called for the time keeper to run off the four seconds that remained on the clock, and the victory was ours...  

After the game we celebrated in our dressing room, drinking league provided champagne out of the championship trophy.  Later the celebration spilled over to the pub down the road.  When I left a little before midnight half of our roster was still there, running up one heck of a bar tab.  I found it rather humorous that the league now does not allow the trophies to leave the arena.  In the past when we won we were permitted to take the trophies with us for a week or two.  The first time we won, we broke the trophy, and then the second time, a few years later, we put a big dent in it.  Apparently some of the other teams had similar incidents, including some that lost it altogether.  So, the trophy had to stay back in the lobby at the arena, to be engraved with our names at some point in the coming weeks.

We do not have a lot of time to bask in the championship glow.  The summer hockey season gets underway almost right away.  The captains meeting is this week, and the regular season gets underway at the beginning of May.  So I now need to focus my attention on collecting league fees, assigning jerseys, and getting our roster together.  I must like it because I have now done this four seven years; fourteen seasons, and it appears as though I will continue in this role for at least a few years to come.

This and That...

This past weekend we received yet more snow.  It was fairly significant and actually began to accumulate somewhat on Saturday morning, before eventually beginning to melt again.  By next weekend, April 20th, we will have had snow on the ground continuously for six months...!!!

The weather seemed to turn the corner a little today.  Perhaps mother nature felt a little sorry for me on this day, my 50th birthday.  Half a Century....  Not much to say to that.  Perhaps I just need to sulk for a few days and get this out of my system.

We are still stuck in conditions at least 10 degrees colder than it should be at this time of year, but it is starting to feel like we are finally edging towards spring... slowly...

The Renegades played the second game of the championship round last night.  I was hoping for a birthday gift of victory, but it was not to be... at least not yet.  Our entire winter season comes down to one last hockey game, to be played this Friday, against the Gators.  The winners get their names engraved on the championship trophy.  The losers will be bridesmaids...

There is no honor in a second place finish and we are building ourselves up to play our best game of the year and do everything that we can to earn that trophy...

Onward to the Cup...

The Renegades faced off against the Wolf Pack tonight in the winter hockey semi final playoff game.  We played these guys three times during the regular season and the beat us all three times.  Despite that, we still managed to finish the regular season in first place.  I think they may have taken us a little for granted tonight.

We came out ready to play and desperately wanting to win.  We kept our shifts short and pressured them hard in their own end.  We jumped out to an early lead and by the end of the first period we were already ahead by a score of 6-1.  Early in the second period their best player, already very frustrated, took a penalty for cross checking one of our players to the head.  I was really impressed to see our player just keep his cool and skate away.  But, their player lost it and started arguing with the officials.  He ended up with 6:00 minutes in penalties and a game ejection.  That really took the wind out of their sails.

We didn't let up and just kept shovelling goals into their net.  By the end of the second period the Wolf Pack were asking the officials to play run time for the final period.  Late in the game, ahead by a score of 9-1, we finally let up a little and they got a couple goals.  We came to our senses and got our heads back into the game, scoring one more goal in the dying minutes.  The final score ended up 10-3.

This game felt really good.  All the hard work I have put in managing the team all season has finally paid off.  We took it to the only team that really had our number all year and earned a spot in the best of three final round.  We now have to play Game 1 on Sunday, Game 2 on Tuesday evening, and Game 3, if necessary, sometime later next week.

Renegades - Playoff Game Two

The Renegades played game two of the Division 11 Playoffs in the Edmonton Recreational Hockey League on Wednesday night.  Even though we finished the regular season in first place, there are a couple of teams that moved down from higher divisions, late in the season, that really challenge us.  One of those is the Gators, and this was the team we faced on Wednesday.  It was a hard fought battle against a very fast, very big team that likes to play really rough, and takes a lot of penalties.  We kept ourselves in the game all night long and the score remained very close.  Late in the third period we found ourselves down by a couple of goals.  We rallied and put on a really strong push to try and tie things up.  We got one goal, and then pulled our goalie for an extra skater.  We had a number of chances to tie things up but just could not quite do it.  We ended up falling in defeat by a score of 4-3.  The shots were close at 28 to 32 for the Gators.  There were a lot of penalties... around 20 minutes for each team.

As a result of this first loss in the playoffs we did not move on to the final.  We now have to play a game on Friday evening against the Wolf Pack.  The winner of that game will advance to the final round against the Gators.  The Wolf Pack are another team that has moved down from a higher division and really challenged us this year.  In our three meetings during the regular season, they won all of them.  We now need to dig deep as a team and put together our best possible effort to attempt to advance to the final.  

Two teams in our division did not even make the playoffs; the Icebreakers and the Buzzards.  Three more have already been eliminated; the Klondike Maulers, the Oil City Wings, and the Ice Hawks.  This next game now becomes our most important of the year as we need to fight to stay alive and move on to the finals.

The New Trailer

When we bought our new trailer back in January, we booked April 10th as the pick up date.  We thought that it might be starting to warm up by then, and that there might be an opportunity to get out for an early camping trip.  Boy were we mistaken...!!!  The spring weather this year has been just awful.  We're going to have to park the new trailer in a snow drift somewhere and wait for a while longer before we can get out to do any camping.

We've been on quite the spending spree these past few months.  First we bought the new trailer, then we got all the home renovations done.  Now we're pretty much broke and it is time to just enjoy what we have.  But I sure can't wait till that first camping weekend.  Sure is a lot of snow left to melt before that becomes a reality.

Will Spring Ever Arrive...???

The spring thaw was well underway last week.  Temperatures returned to seasonal normals and the snow was quickly beginning to disappear.  That sure was short-lived...!! Last weekend winter returned and we had to endure more cold temperatures and yet more snow. At least we did not receive the 10 inches of snow that was forecast, and only ended up with accumulations of about 3 more inches.  

The week started out very cold.  On Sunday night and into Monday morning there was a new record low temperature recorded for April 8th in Edmonton.  We didn't just get a little colder... we smashed the old record.  At about 4:00 in the morning on Monday, the temperature dropped to -24C, not including the wind chill.  This shattered the previous record low of -14C, set back in 1948.

I struggle to understand the theory of global warming.  Certainly weather patterns are changing.  But they have changed since the dawn of time, and will continue to change.  The tree-huggers always use the argument that the activities of human are creating greenhouse gas emissions which are resulting in global warming.  Every time we get some unseasonably cold temperatures or heavy preciptation, the yogurt and sprout eaters argue that global warming causes these extreme weather events.  Bullshit I say!!!  The climate has been changing for millions of years and will continue to change long after mankind has gone extinct.  Whether or not this change is as a result of human activities has not clearly been demonstrated to me.

All that aside I am less than impressed with the miserable conditions we have been forced to endure this year and fail to see how it can be attributed to global warming.  The snow and cold weather arrived a couple weeks before Halloween.  Here we are well after the vernal equinox, after the Easter weekend, and there is still significant snow cover and the temperatures remain well below freezing, most of the time.  Call me a redneck but I sure could handle some warming....

Kootenay Gallery of Art

I received a letter in the mail today from the Kootenay Gallery of Art, History & Science in Castlegar, British Columbia.  I sent them a submission package for the Procession West project back in early March.  It is not an acceptance letter... but it is not a rejection letter either.

The letter simply confirms that they accept exhibition proposals on an ongoing basis throughout the year, but that their Exhibition Selection Committee will not meet again until June 2013 to review submissions, and then again in September to finalize the schedule for April 2014 to March 2015.

The fact that they took the time to write a letter and mail it implies, at least to me, that our submission is being taken seriously.  Obviously we will need to wait for a while to see if we are accepted, but I remain optimistic.

Winter Hockey - Playoff Game One

The Renegades played the first game of the winter playoffs this afternoon.  We had a bye in the first round as a result of our first place finish in the regular season.  Today we faced off against the Ice Hawks, who advanced as a result of defeating the Klondike Maulers last week.  We kept falling behind by a goal and battling back.  With the score 3-3 we finally scored to take the lead for the first time in the game, eventually adding one more later in the third period.  We almost got an empty net goal late in the game when they pulled their goalie to make that last push.  We skated away with a 5-3 victory and a berth in the Winners Tier of the semi-finals.  We face off against the Gators on Wednesday night.  If we can win that game, we will secure our spot in the best of three final round, scheduled to start on April 14th.  I'm kind of hoping that my 50th birthday present will be another hockey championship...

View Camera Magazine

I mailed a submission package to View Camera magazine down in New Mexico, USA.  Rob and I are attempting to get a feature on our Procession West project published in the magazine.  This is a specialty magazine on large format photography, with a relatively small circulation.  However, it has international distribution and it sure wouldn't hurt us to get some exposure for our project.  We will get a response in 6 to 8 weeks and hopefully it is positive.

Procession West Book

Last weekend I finished up the layout of the book that will be presented in conjunction with the Procession West exhibitions.  This 48 page catalogue outlines the exhibition and includes all 40 of the images that are part of the full version of the exhibition.  We have also included some contact information for purchasing prints, some technical notes, biographies, etc.  The hardcover book is wrapped in black leather, and printed on heavy 216gr silk finished paper.  It measures 11" x 11".  I finished the layout and placed an order for one copy of the book, last weekend.  My layout was uploaded to the PhotoBook Canada website.  I discovered that the books are actually printed in Kuala Lumpoor, Malaysia.  The book arrived at my door by courier today, less than a week after I ordered it.  Very impressive service indeed.  More importantly, the quality of the book is very good.  I have a few little things to tweak before I order multiple copies.  But the adjustments will be relatively minor and we are pretty much ready to go to print.  Rob and I will offer signed copies of the book available for purchase at our gallery exhibitions, on our websites, and for that matter, here on my blog. We have yet to figure out the exact cost but that will be determined very soon.

 

Night Photography

Some of the members of the Monochrome Guild had great intentions of heading out tonight to do some night photography.  As we didn't have much opportunity to scout around or to do much planning, we thought we would try out in the industrial area on the eastern edge of the city.  Through the day the weather forecast worsened and we were forecast to get freezing rain turning to snow.  I remained optimistic and decided to wait until the last minute before deciding whether or not to call it off.  I needed to take Hailey to her dance class at 8:00PM and decided to wait until that was over, see what conditions were like, and then make the call.  The timing was just about right as it was just getting dark by the time I got Hailey back home around 9:00PM.  It was overcast, breezy and cool, with the temperature just a couple of degrees above freezing.  But, there was no rain or snow so I decided to give it a try.  One by one all of my friends had been bailing out during the afternoon and in the end I had to head out by myself.  I set up my 4x5 once and shot a couple of sheets of film.  The rest of the time I just scouted around and took a few digital snapshots with my little point and shoot camera.  Here are a couple of the better ones, converted to grayscale.  I found a couple of spots I'd like to go back to on a little warmer evening, hopefully without the breeze.  Just as I returned home at around 11:30PM the freezing rain hit and as I write this, half an hour later, it is coming down quite heavily.  This project will remain on the back burner for a while as I have too many things on the go the next little while and won't be able to consider heading out again for at least a couple of weeks.  Its probably just as well as it appears that this rotten winter weather will not quit and it may be a few more weeks before spring actually arrives.

Easter Weekend

With all the winter snow still lingering, and not a lot going on at work, I closed the shop for an extra day and we enjoyed a four-day long weekend for Easter.  I took my little day trip on Good Friday and attempted some photography out by Battle Lake.  It was very uninspiring and mostly I came back home with a dirty truck and an empty fuel tank.  Hopefully conditions improve soon and I can get out again to do some serious shooting.

On Saturday we had the Pohl family Easter get together.  Both of my brothers and their families were out at my Mom's place.  We brought my Dad out of his recent new residence at the St. Joseph Auxiliary hospital to spend the day with family.  We spent the day visiting and enjoyed a nice Easter dinner together while all the cousins ran around and played together.

On Sunday the girls spent the morning looking for all the Easter treats that had been hidden around our house by the Easter Bunny.  Some of these were also stashed the night before by Anna, after her sisters had fallen asleep.  Later in the evening we had another Easter dinner at our house for Margarit's side of the family.  Her brother and his two kids came over, and we also invited my Mom.  Once again it was an opportunity to visit, and to share a nice meal.

On Monday I worked on my Arts Federation application and my book project for a while, and then spent the rest of my time with the girls.  In the late afternoon Hailey and I went out for a walk to nearby Whitemud ravine.  I lived my teenage years near here and spent many a day wandering around in the valley with my first camera, teaching myself photography.  I marvelled at how much it had changed over the last 30 years.  What was once a hillside covered with a mature aspen forest is now an open brush covered slope, the result of clearing by both beavers, and a relatively recent bush fire.  What was once a nice open meadow in the valley bottom is now overgrown with a grove of young aspens.  Hailey and I wandered around through the still deep snow.  We startled a Great Blue Heron up off of the creek.  I was surprised to see it, considering the winter like conditions that we still have.  I didn't get a photograph of this large bird as it flew away too quickly, but I did get a shot of some Canada Geese sitting in the snow beside the creek.  We also saw some Chickadees, a flock of Waxwings, and lots of evidence of Beavers.

After dinner we were all somewhat disappointed that we had to go to bed and get up for school and work the next morning...

Procession West Book Project

I have put together a self-published book project that includes all of the photographs from the Procession West project.  This includes all 40 images by Rob and myself, as well as an artist's statement, biographies, technical notes, etc.  I uploaded this layout to one of the on line book publishing companies and have ordered one copy.  It is a leather-wrapped hardcover book, 48 pages, on heavy silk finished paper, with overall dimensions of 11" x 11".  Once this book is shipped to me in a couple of weeks, I will review it and see if any further editing is in order.  I expect that the brightness and contrast of some of the images may need to be adjusted slightly.  I will also give it a final proof for typographical errors, font styles and sizes, and proper alignment of all the text.  Once any final adjustments are made, Rob and I will order additional copies of the book and offer them for sale in conjunction with our gallery exhibitions.  We are not really intending to generate any profit on these books, and just want to break even on our expenses.  But it is hoped that these books may lead to some ongoing interest in our work and perhaps future print sales.  Our contact information is included in the book so that anyone interested can contact us to purchase prints.

Alberta Foundation for the Arts

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, right here in Edmonton, has a program they call "Art Acquisition by Application".  Basically they solicit submissions from artists in any media including, painting, sculpture, fiber art, ceramics, drawing, printmaking, photography, glass and mixed media.  They set up a jury to review the submissions and select works for purchase.  Then using the funding available in their budget, they purchase these works and add them to their permanent collection.  My friend Gerald has submitted to this program in the past and had one of his photographs purchased last year.  He reminded me of this late last week, which was more or less right at the April 1st deadline.  

I had most of the necessary submission materials available in light of my recent and ongoing Procession West project, so I threw together a quick proposal.  I attempted to deliver it to their office for the April 1st deadline, but this being Easter Monday, the deadline was extended to today.  I dropped off my package this morning, right at the deadline.  It included five images from the Procession West project...