Summer Hockey - Game 11

The Renegades played Game 11 of the summer season on Tuesday night.  We jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, and then the wheels fell off the Renegade machine.  A whistle-happy referee starting calling a bunch of borderline penalties, all against us.  I think he must have felt sorry for the Hawkeys, as they only had seven skaters and a goalie.  We got two very discretionary penalties, one for delay of game and one for unsportsmanlike conduct.  Five other penalties, mostly for very questionable calls, and twice we were down by two men.  Our power play battled through and only allowed one power play goal.  But we lost all momentum and the Hawkeys rallied in the third period to eventually defeat us by a score of 7-5.  This and recent other losses puts us in Sixth place with four games remaining.  We certainly need to string together a few wins to close out the season and hopefully make the playoffs.

Back to the Darkroom

With the framing and mounting of all the Procession West prints for the Art Gallery of Regina show now behind me, I decided to take a little break.  I still need to put together all the prints for the McMullen Gallery show coming up later in the summer, but I have some time.  Although I spent a lot of time printing over the winter months, it has been a long time since I've processed any film.  I haven't slowed down much in shooting, so the pile of exposed film waiting to be developed, continues to grow.  

I didn't have a whole lot of time this weekend but set aside an hour to process some film.  I decided to process some Fuji Neopan Acros 100.  This time around it would be medium format 120 roll film as I really didn't have time to set up the darkroom for sheet film processing.  I selected four rolls to process.  One of these was a roll taken with my 6x17 panoramic camera back in the summer of 2011.  One roll was taken with my Hasselblad during the Jasper family weekend a year ago, in 2012.  And the last two rolls were both from the recent trip out to Vancouver Island.  I scanned a few of the negatives that looked interesting and have included them here.  I can't wait to get back into the darkroom and continue with more film processing. One of the most exciting parts about photography is turning on the lights, pulling the film out of the wash, and taking a look at the negative for the first time.  Of course a lot of the time it is a big disappointment, but every once in a while something really jumps out at me...

Spring Friends and Family Show

The Monochrome Guild hosted our semi-annual Friends and Family show.  One of our members donated the use of his office space for the show.  Arda owns Acius Engineering and has a nice office space at an ideal location, just off Whyte Avenue.  Eight of the current Guild members put up some current work and we had some snacks and refreshments.  I included three older framed 11x14 prints, and three newer mounted and matted but unframed 16x20 prints.  Only one was from the Procession West project.  I did have our Procession West book on display at the show and it was very well received.  Several people expressed an interest in buying a copy so I think I will order more and start offering them for sale at cost.  

Like true photographers none of us remembered to bring a camera to the show so there are no snapshots to share.  We also forgot to put out a guest book, so we don't have an exact head count.  Things to keep in mind for the next show in the fall.  We estimate that somewhere in the range of 75 to 100 people made their way to the show through the course of the evening.  We got a lot of compliments on our work and everyone seemed to have a great time.  It was a lot of fun and has become one of the regular activities of our group.  Everyone looks forward to these semi-annual shows and we plan to keep the tradition going.

Art Gallery of Regina

The Procession West show has now been installed at the Art Gallery of Regina.  Here is a link to the gallery website...

http://www.artgalleryofregina.ca/Exhibitions.html#

If you click on the "view" link it provides a panoramic view of the show and you can zoom in or out and around the room to see it.  I had trouble getting this to work with Windows Media Player, but it works fine with Quick Time.

Summer Hockey - Games 8, 9 and 10

The Renegades played three hockey games in the last 10 days.  We lost a close one to the Wild on June 11th.  The final score was 8-7.  Then, while I was busy loading up all my Procession West stuff for the trip to Regina, the guys played a game at the new Terwillegar Recreation Centre against the Attack.  This was a solid 8-3 victory.  And then last night we faced off against the first place Ice Hawks.  They had a back-up goaltender that normally plays in Division One in the winter league.  We had lots of chances and just couldn't get anything past this guy until late in the game.  But by then they had buried a whole bunch of goals in our net.  We went down in defeat by a score of 9-3.  We were tied for second place going into this game, but this will probably drop us down in the standings.  There are five games remaining in the summer season but we will need to win a couple if we want to have a chance to do anything in the playoffs.

Deer Ticks

In light of the recent run in with Deer Ticks that Rob and I experienced during our trip to Saskatchewan, I did a little reading up on the subject.  I fail to see how and why evolution has allowed such a useless creature to survive.  Parasites in general serve no purpose and I have no respect for their place in nature.  It seems to me that nothing eats the stupid things and they are just a menace to other animals...

 

In reading up on Ticks I was reassured to learn that none have been found to carry Lyme Disease in Alberta or Saskatchewan.  Lyme Disease is caused by yet another parasite that is carried in the gut of the tick and passed on to the human or animal host that the tick takes its blood meal from.  Ticks in British Columbia, Ontario, the Maritime provinces and the United States are known to carry the Lyme Disease.  Furthermore, the tick needs to feed on its host for as much as 24 hours in order for the parasite to be transferred.  So it is virtually impossible that Rob and I could have picked up anything as to the best of our knowledge we were not actually bitten by any ticks, and certainly none fed on either of us for any length of time.  Nonetheless these little buggers totally creep me out and every time I think about them I start feeling itchy and feel the urge to start checking for them all over again.

Southbend Gone

My suspicions were correct.  The Southbend Motel here in Edmonton was demolished.  At this point the office, and that old neon sign are still standing, but the rest of the place is gone.  I'm glad that I got out and photographed the sign while I still could.  I suppose that opportunity still exists for a little while longer.  But no doubt it will come down as well, and "progress" will take over the site.

Fathers Day - The Home Stretch

We got up early once again, had breakfast, and checked out of our hotel in Medicine Hat.  A quick stop for fuel and we were on the road.  By shortly after 9:00AM we were in Dinosaur Provincial Park.  The campsite was completely full as we drove through it out to the driving loop.  The morning had started out with fairly clear skies but by this time the clouds were rolling in and the breeze was beginning to pick up.  We stopped and wandered around in the hills for a while.  We eventually found a composition with some greasewood plants and some rills and set up our cameras to take a couple of photographs.  As we packed up and headed back to the truck, we came across a little fawn hidden in the sage.  It must have only been a couple of days old.

I understand that newborn fawns have no scent, and their mothers routinely hid them in some cover and keep their distance.  Any predators are drawn to the scent of the mother, but will not necessarily find the fawn.  We kept our eyes peeled for mama, but couldn't spot her.  No doubt she was watching us from somewhere nearby...

We left the little guy alone and continued further down the road.  We stopped at the east end of the driving loop and wandered around again for a while.  We came across some rills and some erosional patterns that we wanted to photograph.  By this time it was beginning to rain.  The wet conditions were bringing out the subtle tonal differences in the badland exposure, but it was making photography difficult and uncomfortable.  We decided to make the best of it and spent over an hour trying to capture some of the feel of the place.  It was getting close to noon by the time we packed up and hit the road again.  As we passed through the campsite again on our way out of the park it had really emptied out and only about a third of the campers remained.

We drove onward all afternoon in the direction of home.  We had hoped to be able to stop a couple more times and take some photographs along the way but it rained pretty much all the way home.  We got back into the city by about 4:30PM and then went our seperate ways.

It was Fathers Day after all and I went home to spend some time with my three girls.  They were pretty excited and waiting for me when I arrived at the house and were waiting with gifts.  We immediately sat down so that I could open them all.  Then I unpacked all my camera gear and spread it out down in my darkroom to dry.  Then the whole family went out for dinner.

I was a little saddened by the fact that I didn't have time to go and see my Dad.  But I made a point of going to visit him the next day after work.  He's doing OK, but it is difficult to see the way that he has deteriorated.  I need to make a point of getting out to see him more often....

Saskatchewan Ghost Towns

On Saturday Rob and I got up early, checked out of the hotel, and hit the road.  We headed west, the same direction we had taken the afternoon previously on our scouting trip.  This time we stuck to the Trans Canada Highway, and did not stray up to the north.  Our original plan had been to head to the Great Sand Hills to do some photography.  But it was overcast and VERY windy.  The idea of working with delicate optical equipment in the blowing sand of the active dunes was quickly put aside for Plan B.  Soon we were past Moose Jaw and into some new territory.  At Chaplin there was a mine site right beside the highway.  It was obviously related to the Potash and agricultural fertilizer industry.  There were large slag piles of an alkali-like material that looked like dirty snow.  Small streams were draining through it and down into a nearby lake.  A very strange looking landscape to say the least...

We continued westward and eventually ended up in a town called Ernfold.  This place was a goldmine with photographic subject matter everywhere.  There were a handful of residents still left in town, but a bunch of old abandoned buildings as well.  

An elderly couple was a little suspicious of us, particularly when Rob carried out a bag containing extension legs for the tripod, and a step ladder.  They owned a couple of buildings near the center of town, and had quite a collection of old cars and trucks on their property.  When we explained to them that we were photographers, documenting old historical stuff like this, they relaxed.  It helped a lot when we gave them an invitation to our Procession West show at the Art Gallery of Regina.  When they saw this, they realized that we really were just making photographs, and not trying to steal anything.  With the ice broken they told us about another old town a few miles to the southeast.  At the other end of town there was a wrecking yard full of a bunch more old vehicles and we explored over there for a while as well, before eventually hitting the road again.

We continued on to the south, but generally in a westerly direction.  When we stopped for fuel in Hodgeville the guy at the gas station told us about a couple more towns.  We spent the whole afternoon driving from place to place and explored Shamrock, Kelstern, Hallonquist and Neidpath.  Lots of photo opportunities in many of these places.  But, there were also a lot of ticks.  I had one on me the evening before after wandering around in the tall grass.  But today I ended up with four more, some of which I did not find until hours later.  Fortunately none of them had yet burrowed into my skin and started on a blood meal.  But, this made both of us very irritated and we spent most of the afternoon scratching at imaginary itches and continually checking for the disgusting things.  By late afternoon we made our way back onto the Trans Canada Highway at Swift Current, and then just blasted back into Alberta.  We ended up at Medicine Hat where we found ourselves some accommodations at a hotel, and went to a restaurant for dinner.  We settled down and watched the second game of the Stanley Cup Final between Boston and Chicago, before turning in relatively early.  We planned on getting up early again the next morning and continuing with more photography as we made our way home for Fathers Day.

Saskatchewan Scouting Trip

After dropping off our prints at the Art Gallery of Regina, Rob and I checked in to the hotel that we had reserved.  This time I was smarter, and reserved our accommodations in advance.  I did not want a repeat of last February when I drove around Regina from hotel to hotel trying to find a room.
It was still early... only about 4:30PM... with lots of daylight remaining.  We fuelled up the truck and hit the road on a bit of a scouting expedition.  We wanted to check out the general area and see if there was anything to photograph.  As we headed west on the Trans Canada Highway towards Moose Jaw, we drove through a strong summer thunder storm.  There was lightning and very heavy rain... almost like driving through a car wash.  But, it was short lived and as we passed through the storm to the other side, the skies were clearer and the wind died down.

Initially we tried to check out a Provincial Park called Buffalo Pound but it turns out that it was mostly just a campsite beside a lake, and there was an entry fee.  So we continued to the northwest and decided to check out some small towns.  We got to Keeler and found a cool old abandoned hotel and a bunch of old machinery.  The hotel was in a stage of serious decay and is not long for this world.  The ceiling of the tavern, or "Beer Parlor" as they used to be called, was coming down.

After leaving Keeler, we continued down the road to Brownlee and eventually to Eyebrow.  There were a few old buildings of interest in these places as well.  Eventually we turned south on a secondary highway, back in the general direction of the Trans Canada Highway.  We were supposed to pass through a place called Darmody, but there was nothing there.  Further south we came upon an old abandoned school house that was kind of interesting.

Finally we packed up and drove back into Regina.  We headed over to a Pub near our hotel and the place was just packed.  Turns out the the Riders were playing a Pre-Season CFL Football game against the Eskimos, back in Edmonton.  The Pub was full of cheering Riders fans watching the game on TV.  They got pretty excited when Edmonton turned over the ball late in the game and handed a victory to their Riders.  We finished up a couple of beers and our dinner and headed back over to our hotel.  We planned on getting up early the next morning and spending the day making photographs as we headed back in the general direction of home.

Art Gallery of Regina

Last Thursday Rob Michiel and I loaded up the four shipping crates containing our framed "Procession West" prints.  These were carefully placed in the back of my truck, wrapped with a tarp, and secured with straps.  Early on Friday morning we hit the road to Regina.  We drove straight through, non-stop, from Edmonton to Regina, arriving in the middle of the afternoon.  We unloaded the crates and placed them into a storage area at the gallery.  The administrative assistant at the gallery, Jess, was really helpful in getting us into the loading area and directing us to where we could temporarily store the prints.  The current exhibition will be taken down on Saturday June 15th, and our prints will be installed on Sunday June 16th.  Rob and I were not able to stay for the installation, as we both have to be back at work in Edmonton on Monday.  So, we dropped off our exhibition prints and then left the gallery.  We will spend the next two days driving back home to Edmonton, hopefully with the opportunity to make a few photographs along the way.

Anyone that will be in south-central Saskatchewan over the summer months is encouraged to stop by the gallery and check out our show.  We would appreciate hearing back from anyone with any comments and critique.  The show runs from June 19th to August 23rd.  Here are the details...

Art Gallery of Regina - Procession West

With a big push at the end to wrap things up I am finally ready for this show.  My prints have been done for quite some time but it has only been in recent days that I became focused on spotting, mounting, matting and framing the finished work.  I started last week, but got interrupted a couple of times for hockey games and various other commitments.  Last Friday I managed to get five more prints framed and ready.  Then on Saturday I put together eight more.  I now have all 18 of my prints finished and packed in shipping crates.  On Sunday I put together one additional smaller print.  This one will be donated to a fund-raising silent auction at the gallery.  My friend Rob has all of his work packed and ready as well.  So... we are ready to roll...

On Thursday evening we will load the four shipping crates onto my truck.  Then very early on Friday morning we will hit the road for Regina.  We hope to arrive by mid-afternoon and drop off our prints at the gallery.  The installation will be undertaken by gallery staff early next week, and the show opens on June 19th, with the big fund-raising gala on June 22nd.

I have decided that while I am set up for framing and assembly I will continue and finish the eleven prints that I need for our next show, coming up at McMullen Gallery here in Edmonton in August.  I probably won't get these all done before we need to leave for Regina, but I would like to finish them up shortly after I return, so that everything is done and I can get on with other things.

Summer Hockey - Game 7

The Renegades played a game last week against the Gators.  Once again we were struggling to get enough players out to the rink.  That has really been a challenge this summer.  We ended up a couple of players short and our lines were all a little mixed up.  We had our asses handed to us by the Gators in a very lop-sided 9-1 defeat.  These guys have defeated us twice already this summer.  At least we were able to win when it really mattered... in the playoffs...

Hopefully we can get our act together and try to stitch together a winning streak in the second half of the summer season.

Days Numbered for Local Landmark...??

For as long as I can remember, and I've lived in Edmonton for 50 years, the Southbend Motel has been a fixture down on the south side.  A small, unassuming motel on Calgary Trail and 51 Avenue.  It was once on the very edge of town, but is now lost in suburban Edmonton, on the fringe of the industrial area.  This place was once owned by former city alderman Ed "Watchdog" Leger.  He passed away some years ago and I have no idea if the property is still owned by his family or not.  Rumor has it that the Cedar Park Best Western next door now owns it.

This past spring there was a fire in the motel and immediately afterwards it was shut down.  I recently noticed that a construction fence was set up around the place, and that the windows and doors are now largely boarded up.  It appears as though the place is about to be demolished.  The buildings themselves are rather non-descript and not particularly photogenic.  But the vintage neon sign out front looks pretty cool and has a really nostalgic feel to it.  I don't think the sign has been illuminated for years as most of the old neon tubes are missing or broken.  Fearing that the sign might suffer the same fate as the motel I vowed to myself that I would get out and photograph it before it disappeared.
Last night, in the late evening light I took a break from my framing and headed out with my view camera.  I captured about 5 shots of the sign from a couple of different angles.  All were on 4" x 5" black and white film.  Once I finally get this Procession West project wrapped up I will have a chance to get back into the darkroom and catch up on processing all of the film that I have shot over the past few years.  For now, here is a digital snapshot from my little point and shoot camera.

Update - Procession West Project

The last few months have been spent frantically preparing for the first exhibition of the Procession West project.  I finished making the last of my prints back in March.  Since then I have been cutting mounts and matts, as well as framing materials.  Last night I finally got around to starting to assemble my frames.  I got five of them put together last night, and will continue with more tonight.  I hope to have the 18 prints that I need for our first exhibition, completed by the weekend.  My collaborator Rob already has his 18 prints finished and ready to go.  Next Friday we have to deliver 36 framed prints to the Art Gallery of Regina.  Our show will be installed on June 17th, and will hang at the gallery until late August.  We also have copies of our Procession West book being printed right now.  Some of these will be available for viewing and purchase during the show.  We are both donating a smaller print to the silent auction that will be held in conjunction with a fundraising gala at the gallery.  Everything seems to be falling into place nicely and it looks like we will be ready with a few days to spare.  We will load up our four plywood shipping crates in the back of my truck on Thursday June 13th.  Then very early on Friday morning we will make the 8 hour drive to Regina, and personally deliver our prints to the gallery that afternoon.  We could have sent these crates by common carrier, but the cost would have been around $500 each way, plus insurance.  Mostly we were concerned about damage to the prints in transit, as they are framed with rather costly anti-reflective, high light transmitting glass.  This allows us to make certain that they are properly transported and handled and arrive in good order.  We will then spend Saturday and Sunday driving back to Edmonton, hopefully with a chance to do a little shooting along the way.

We also have a gallery show coming up at McMullen Gallery here in Edmonton.  It is a smaller show and will only include a total of about 20 prints.  This show starts in August, and just overlaps the end of the Regina show by a couple of weeks, so we need to prepare additional prints for this show.  I have all of mine printed and partially mounted and matted, as well as some of the framing materials cut.  I think I will spend an extra couple of days and finish those up right now, while I am set up for cutting and assembly.  Then the finished prints can just be stored until we are ready to deliver and install them later in the summer.

Summer Hockey - Game 6

Wow... this summer hockey season is just flying along.  The Renegades play two games this week and two games next week so pretty soon, the season will already be 2/3 complete.  Last night we played a game against a new team called Biohazard.  These guys just got moved into our division as a result of the recent realignment.  It was a close game, penalty free, and we were holding onto a one goal lead late in the game.  They managed to tie the score late in the game so it ended at 3-3 in regulation.  We went into a shootout to try and settle things but each team scored once so the game remained a tie.  This gave us a single point in the standings and leaves us in second place in our recently enlarged division.  The Ice Hawks won their game earlier in the evening so they remain in first place, a point ahead of us.

Elk Confrontation

My brother Wes posted a video of his Elk confrontation is Jasper this past weekend, on Youtube...

Here's the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8atDCp5cmdo

Family Weekend in Jasper

For I think seven years now my family has been having an annual family weekend somewhere in the mountains.  In recent years we have mostly travelled to Jasper, but in the past we have also spent weekends in Banff, Waterton and near Nordegg.  These weekends have included my two brothers and their families, and my parents.  In years past we always considered this an opportunity to spend some time with my Dad, while he still could.  I'm really glad that we took the time to get out with him while we had the chance.  This year was the first year that Dad did not join us.  Although we all recognized that he would not have been able to travel, and would not have enjoyed it, for me at least it was kind of a realization that he can't do stuff like this anymore... and it was more than a little sad...  Since he moved into long term care earlier this year, his Alzheimers has progressed and he has become even more confused, and even less aware of what is going on around him.  He has become more unstable on his feet, and mostly is in a wheelchair....

But, Mom came along again and I think she enjoyed the time spent with family and with her grandkids, even if Opa couldn't be there.  We had three adjacent cabins at Beckers Chalets just outside of the Jasper townsite.  In recent years we have mostly stayed at Alpine Village but this year they were booked up, so we tried something new.  It is a very similar complex and we really enjoyed it.  When we arrived at our cabin we were greeted by this Sphinx moth on the jamb of our door...

The next morning I got up early and wandered down to the banks of the Athabasca River with my view camera.  I met up with my brother Wes... who whas shooting both still and video images with his digital camera.  We wandered along the shores to the Athabasca, which was running high and fast as a result of the spring runoff that was just getting underway.  We followed Whistler Creek up into the woods behind the cabins.  On a couple of occasions we saw a cow elk, and didn't think much of it.  As I was setting up to photograph some aspen trunks with my view camera, Wes decided to head back to the cabin to help with breakfast.  I thought it rather unusual as I watched the cow elk take off after him as he left.  I though that she was just anxious to get away from me... but that was not the case.  I didn't think much of it, and a short time later my brother Greg and his wife Barb wandered by.  Eventually I made my way back towards the cabins and soon I came across Wes, Margarit and some of the kids... and that cow elk.  It turns the elk was very aggressive and we figured out that she must have a calf hidden in the woods there somewhere.  She had chased Wes and had him hiding behind some tree trunks.   I understand it took him about a half hour to back his way from tree to tree out of the woods.  He even managed to shoot some video of himself being accosted by the elk.  By the time I arrived we were nearly at the edge of the woods.  But she was still pretty upset and pretty aggressive towards me as well.  

Later that morning we had a big family breakfast and then headed out for the day.  We tried to head up to the Geraldine Lakes trailhead, but the road was still closed.  We ended up wandering down to the shores of the Athabasca River, just downstream from Athabasca Falls.  We all marvelled at how many Calypso orchids were blooming in the woods...

After that we slowly made our way back towards town.  We stopped once and went walking along the shores of the river.  Later, as we got closer to town, we came upon a "Bear-Jam".  This was reminiscent of a trip that Margarit and I have made down to Yellowstone about 10 years earlier.  Cars and motorhomes were parked all over the road, and a big crowd had gathered on the edge, overlooking a slope below.  There were tripods and big lenses all over the place.  It turns out that there were two little bear cubs up in a tree, and their Mama was asleep down at the base.  We all watched for a while, and took a couple of snapshots of our own before eventually continuing on our way.

I sure have seen a lot of bears this spring.  These three, plus the Mama Black and her cub out on the Kootenay Plains a couple of weeks prior.  Later this afternoon we also saw what appeared to be a juvenile Grizzly cross the highway near the Jasper townsite.   

We drove up to the Jasper Park Lodge.  Most of the gang wanted to wander around the Lodge area for a while.  Margarit and I went off on a walk with Helena, mostly because the place was very busy and there was limited parking... particularly for a truck as long as mine.  We later learned that there were two weddings and a graduation going on that afternoon.  I managed this shot of a dragonfly in a meadow near the edge of the Athabasca...

Eventually we made our way back to the cabins.  We had a pot luck barbecue and sat around together visiting and playing cards until late into the evening.  The next morning I took my view camera out again and went for another walk down to the river.  This time there was no morning fog, and it was rather overcast and cool.  I avoided the woods where we had run into Mama Elk the morning before.  By late morning we packed up and got ready to leave, but not before reserving some cabins for the 8th Annual Weekend next spring.  Eventually we made our way into town... bought some ice cream for the kids... and wandered around some of the "tourist trap" souvenir shops.  Of course all of the young girls wanted to buy everything in sight.  Eventually Greg's family hit the road... taking Mom along with them.  Wes's family and mine went for lunch together before eventually saying our goodbyes as well.  They had to make their way back down the Icefields Parkway to Banff and on to home in Calgary.  We hit the road to the east, back home as well.  We made a brief stop out by the dunes along Jasper and Talbot Lakes.  Hailey and I went for a short walk while the other girls waited for us in the truck.  It was a little too windy to think about any serious photography at this stop, but I'd like to try and come back and shoot here some other time.

It was a rather uneventful drive home after that.  We made a couple of pitstops to try and keep all the little girls happy but by the time we finally arrived home, shortly before 8:00PM, everyone was pretty worn out and more than a little grumpy.  We eventually got the girls off to bad and all of our gear unloaded from the truck.  I really look forward to the day when I can get back into the darkroom and start processing film again.  That is one of the most magical moments in photography.... when you turn on the lights and take a look at your negatives for the first time... still wet in the fix....  I have hundreds of sheets of film to process, as well as dozens of rolls... some of it dating back as far as 2009...  I haven't stopped shooting, but with all the emphasis on the Procession West project in recent months, I haven't done any processing.  These next two weeks coming up will be very busy for me.  All of my prints for the Procession West project are mounted and matted, but I need to get them all spotted and framed and delivered to the Art Gallery of Regina by the middle of June.  I'm on schedule... but really looking forward to the time when this will all be done, and I can get back to my regular photographic routine.