TXP in PMK

A couple of years ago I decided that one of my standard film and developer combinations would be Kodak Tri-X Pan in Hutchings PMK Developer.  I had done some testing and experimentation for a number of years with various films and developers and really liked the look of this combination.  I find that many of my favorite prints were made from negatives shot with this combination.  PMK is a pyro based developer.  The pyrogallic acid that is used as one of the developing agents, stains the film.  The stain is proportionate to the amount of silver in the negative in a given area and as a result the stain adds to the density of the image.  This is not simply an overall masking stain but one that adds its own image density, contrast and tonal range to the image.  This is a finicky developer to work with as it requires very vigorous, uniform agitation in order to not develop unevenly.  I find it works best if I process it in my Jobo processor.  I just don't get around to setting up this piece of equipment very often and when I do I tend to have a big backlog of film to process.  This time around is no exception as I have nearly 100 sheets of Tri-X to be processed.  In addition to this, all of my color negative and color transparency film needs to be processed with this piece of equipment and I have quite a backlog of that to get to as well.

Last week, just before we went travelling to the mountains, I found time to process a batch of 20 sheets of Tri-X in 4x5.  There are a handful of good images in here and I have scanned and posted some of the better ones.  Most of these date back to 2011, with a few from 2012.  This includes images from some trips to the badlands, as well as the mountains...

Windy Point and David Thompson Country

Our German relatives picked up their rental motorhome on Saturday afternoon. They headed out to Pigeon Lake that evening to visit with my brother and his family at their cabin.  We met up with everyone out at the lake on Sunday around lunch time, with our trailer in tow.  After visiting for a little while we hit the road with my cousin and her family, heading off to the southwest.  After a brief stop in Rocky Mountain House for fuel, we turned west onto Highway 11 and headed out in David Thompson Country.

We found ourselves approaching Nordegg in the late afternoon and decided to find a spot to settle down for the night.  We rolled into the Harlech campsite, along Shunda Creek, just to the east of Nordegg.  This is one of those old Alberta Forest Service campsites that was built many years ago, probably back in the 1960's.  Pretty much all of the sites in this little camping area are too small for today's larger RV's.  Although the campsite was completely vacant, there wasn't a single site that our trailer would fit into.  But we knew this before we arrived, having experienced the same problem last year with our older and somewhat shorter trailer.  So, we backed into the secluded corner of the gravelled overflow area and set up camp.  We were somewhat annoyed at the lack of service provided by the private contractor running this government owned site.  There was litter strewn around our campsite when we pulled in, and no garbage cans anywhere to be found.  I even picked up the litter and wandered into the regular section of the campsite and still couldn't find a garbage can.  So I left it in a nice little heap beside the wood pile.  There was a reasonable amount of fire wood there, but like usual it was soaking wet.  I had to dig out my tiger torch and a propane tank to attempt to get it to burn but I think it might have been easier to burn a rock.  Eventually I had to add a bunch of my own dry firewood to the pile to get a bit of a fire going.  Sure enough, in the morning the camp attendant was banging on our door wanting us to pay $22 per unit for parking here, using one picnic table, and burning mostly our own wood.  We paid up, but weren't thrilled about it.

We did enjoy spending the evening there though.  We took an evening walk along the shores of the creek and even found an elephant head orchid.  Our girls really enjoyed meeting and playing with their second cousins.  Despite the language barrier they managed to communicate and had fun.

The next morning, after breakfast and rather grudgingly paying our camping fees we hit the road and headed west.  We made a brief stop at Nordegg and then continued on to Abraham Reservoir.  The skies were a mix of sun and cloud and it was a pleasant day.  We stopped briefly at the Mt. Michener viewpoint and then continued on to Windy Point.  I have stopped at this place literally dozens of times over the years and it has always lived up to it's name.  There has always been at least a brisk breeze blowing and more often than not gale force winds have been howling down the valley.  The last time that I was here, back in the spring, with some of the guys from the Monochrome Guild, the winds were so strong that there was absolutely no way that we could set up our cameras on tripods.  We managed a couple photographs that day, but only when we found extremely sheltered spots on the leeward side of some of the rock outcrops.  This time around it was dead calm with barely a ripple on the water of the reservoir.  We wandered around for a couple of hours collecting stones and driftwood and making photographs.  Soon we realized that it was getting to be mid afternoon and our visit had to come to an end.  We needed to make it further west into the National Parks and find a camping spot for the night.  Even though it was a weekday evening we were well aware of the fact that in July, the campsites get filled up every night of the week.  So we hit the road again...

Catching Up

Busy days these last few weeks.  Last weekend I took my three daughters on a short camping trip.  We ended up down at the TL Bar Ranch again.  The girls want to get out riding as many times as they can this summer, before the ranch closes for good in the fall.  Margarit stayed home to catch up on some household chores. We were in such a rush to away from the city that we forgot a number of things when we left home, including my digital camera, so no snap shots this time.   It was very hot on Saturday, and that evening we were hammered with a heavy thunderstorm mixed with hail.  It was very muddy when we got up the next morning, and we packed up just after lunch and headed home.  I did take my view camera along, but once again didn't find any time to get out with it.  Sure hope that changes soon...

On Sunday evening some of our relatives arrived from Germany.  My Mom's sister Matlida, my cousin Roswitha and her husband Gunnar, and their daughters Melanie and Vivien.  The girls are only slightly older than Hailey and Annelise so they will likely be spending quite a bit of time together over the next couple of weeks.  The whole gang is staying out at my Mom's place, but will be on the road for a little while, traveling around the province.

Summer hockey came to an end this week with the Renegades being eliminated from the playoffs.  Sort of a relief as it now frees up a little time to catch up on some other things.  Work is extremely busy this summer and that has made for some long days at the office.

This weekend we are packing up to go away with the trailer for a few days.  Our German relatives are picking up a rental motorhome on Saturday afternoon and we will be heading out with them on Sunday.  I was supposed to take a week of vacation time from work this week, but it is just too busy and I had to cut that back to just a couple of days.  But, we will get out into the mountains until about Tuesday.  Hopefully the weather improves a little and we can get out for a little hiking, and maybe some photography.  After we turn back for home on Tuesday, the Germans will continue on for the rest of the week on their own.  

Summer Hockey Season Comes to an End

The Renegades played our second playoff game of the summer season last night.  We were tied with the Biohazard after the end of the second period but just couldn't put together a win.  We ended up losing the game by a score of 4-2.  This puts an end to our summer hockey season and eliminates us from the playoffs.  We will now have a break for about six weeks, when the winter season will get underway.  During that time I will be busy trying to organize our winter roster and collecting league fees.  We have to come up with over $11,000 to put our team on the ice for the 30 game winter season.  This comes to over $700 per player.   This is what love of the game is all about...

Summer Hockey - Playoff Game One

Yesterday was a very busy day...  I put in the usual 10 hour day at the office, and then hurried home to deal with a few odds and ends and to pack up my hockey gear.  While I was doing that, Margarit took the girls to their weekly riding lesson at Kel-J-Do Stables.  We met around 8:30PM at a restaurant to have a birthday dinner for Helena.  Our little girl turned FIVE on the 17th.  An hour later I had to rush across town to make it to a late hockey game.  This was the first playoff game of the summer season and as luck would have it we faced off against our old rivals, the Gators.  We defeated them a few months ago to win the winter championship.  This time around it was their turn to be victorious.  We were down by a goal late in the game and pulled our goaltender for an extra attacker.  We managed to jam the puck in with seconds left to tie the game and send it to overtime.  But we ended up losing in a shootout.  We will still continue to play in the round robin, but now need to win every game to stay alive.  Our next game will be on Monday, against an opponent that is yet to be decided.

Spruce Grove Art Gallery

I just received an acceptance notice today advising that the Procession West show has been accepted for exhibition at the Spruce Grove Art Gallery.  We are one of a select few submissions that have been accepted as feature artists for the 2014 exhibition season.  The show will run from February 24th to March 15th 2014.  The details remain to be sorted out.  Most importantly we need to establish how much gallery space will be available to us, and how many prints can be presented.  I do not recall the details of this venue but hopefully there is enough space to put together a significant exhibition.  Now I feel refreshed and encouraged after getting a few rejection letters in recent months.  Its nice to see that the project remains generally well received.  Hopefully we can pick up a few more shows for 2014 and beyond.  At some point we would like to submit internationally and see if the show can be exhibited outside of Canada.

Summer Hockey - Game 15

The summer regular season came to a close last night with a game against the Wild.  These guys have always played rough, and this game was no exception.  It is supposed to be non-contact recreational hockey but there was a lot of crashing and banging last night.  One of our guys got a game ejection in the first period for a hard check on one of the Wild players.  The referees pretty much let us play through the entire game and didn't really call anything but the really obvious penalties.  Then late in the game one of their players gave one of our guys a two-handed slash in the face.  It was all the officials could do to hold back our guy and our team while the offending player was ushered off the ice with a game misconduct, and no doubt a suspension to follow.  The game ended in a 4-4 tie at the end of regulation.  We went to a shootout and our backup goaltender stood strong while our shooters scored twice.  We went on to a 5-4 victory to close out the season. We finished in third in the standings and advance to our first playoff game on Wednesday.  If we can continue on a roll maybe we can make another push for the championship.

Procession West - Phase Two

The days have been really full the last little while and this weekend was no exception.  We did not go away camping for the weekend, mostly because our trailer was in at the dealership getting all of the warranty issues looked after.  As it turned out the weather was less than ideal so it was probably just as well.

On Friday evening I finally got around to working on posting all of the accounting entries for my holding company.  The year end was back at the end of April, and the tax deadline is coming up very soon.  I have been procrastinating about this for a long time, and haven't done anything about it for over a year.  I got started on Friday after we got the girls off to bed, and decided to stick with it and finish it up.  I wasn't expecting it to take as long as it did, but I finally made the last entry at about 4:30AM.  It was starting to get light outside by the time I finally rolled into bed around 5:00AM.  Needless to say I slept in until the crack of noon the next day.

On Saturday afternoon I ran a few errands and puttered around with a couple of things around the house. The girls and I went out and picked up our trailer on Saturday afternoon.  Most of our warranty concerns were looked after, but it still isn't perfect yet.  I have a feeling we will be taking it back in for more work later in the summer.  Either that or I'm just going to have to fix and upgrade some of this stuff on my own.  On Saturday evening we headed over to Kel-J-Do stables.  There was a big 65th birthday bash for Tom, the husband of the stable operator,where the girls take riding lessons.  There was a big BBQ and a band playing and lots of people out for the party.  I was spoiled somewhat by some heavy showers that rolled in during the evening, forcing everyone into the garage and the machine shed.  We headed home moderately early, partly due to the weather but mostly because we had three little girls along with us...

On Sunday I focused my attention on the Procession West project.  The first phase of this show is currently on exhibit at the Art Gallery of Regina.  It will remain there until late August.  A condensed version of the show will be exhibited at McMullen Gallery here in Edmonton, starting in mid-August.  I have had my prints mostly done for this show for quite some time now, but have been procrastinating about finishing this up.  As this seems to be the weekend to deal with issues like this, I got busy on this project as well.  I now have all the prints mounted, all the matts cut, all the frames, glass and backing ready to go, and during the course of the day I managed to spot and put together most of the prints.  I just have five more that need to be assembled over the coming days.  I want to get this over with and the framed prints stored away in the shipping case.  Then the only thing left to do in mid-August will be to deliver the prints to the gallery and hang them up.

I know that we are going to be busy over the next few weeks and don't want to be scrambling at the last minute.  The Renegades hockey team is about to go into another playoff run and there will hopefully be a lot of hockey games to play in the next couple of weeks.  And, my cousin and her family are visiting from Germany for three weeks starting next weekend.  

It is high time that I got all these loose ends dealt with and not let them drag on forever....

Summer Hockey - Game 14

We had another early ice time and a short bench with a disorganized roster.  This has been typical of many of the Renegades games this summer.  Everyone is so busy at this time of year and it is difficult to get enough players out to our games.  This game was important, because we needed to at least tie in regulation time to clinch a playoff spot.  We were playing the Gators, the team that we defeated to win the championship last winter.  So far this summer, they have defeated us every time we played.  But this game would be different.  Though we only had 11 players, they also had about the same number.  And... it was our turn to wear the lucky white jerseys.  By some strange coincidence, every time we played these guys over the last two seasons, the team designated the "visitors" and wearing white jerseys, has won the game.  That tradition continued as we soundly defeated them by a score of 7-4.  This guarantees us a playoff spot.  We have one more regular season game at the beginning of next week and then we roll into a very compressed playoff schedule.  We could potentially play as many as eight games in a little over two weeks.  Summer hockey will wrap up by the end of the month and then there is an off-season of about five weeks before winter hockey starts up again in September.

Nearly Infrared

On Wednesday evening, after work, I took the girls to their horseback riding lesson.  It was cut a little short by a thunderstorm and once we got back home I found myself with enough time to hit the darkroom for an hour.  I processed another batch of medium format film.

This time around it was four rolls of Ilford SFX film.  This is not a true infrared film and is advertised as having extended red sensitivity.  Though maybe this sensitivity is not to the true infrared wavelengths it is definitely sensitive to wavelengths beyond the visible spectrum.  I expose this film through a #89B Infrared filter.  This is a nearly opaque filter that you can barely see through... almost like a dark welding glass.  So the wavelengths that make it through this filter and expose the film are mostly beyond what can be seen by the human eye.

I have always really liked the strong infrared effect of Kodak High Speed Infrared Film.  It was discontinued in sheet format over a dozen years ago, and in 35mm format a couple of years back.  Kodak never made it in medium format, and the only alternative was a Konica product.  I quite liked the Konica emulsion and though different than Kodak it had a nice look and fine grain.  It was also discontinued some time ago, and I have been struggling to find an alternative ever since.  This Ilford product is OK, but is not anything like my old favorites.  

This time around the batch included two rolls, taken in late 2011, with my 6x17 panoramic camera.  These were both exposed during fall trips to the mountains.

There was also a roll, taken with my Hasselblad.  This included some images from the 2012 family weekend in Jasper, as well as some images from last summer's hike in Kananaskis.  Here are scans of a couple of the better ones...   Miette River in Jasper and Spurling Creek in Kananaskis...

The fourth roll was one that I shot this spring, also with my Hasselbald, when Margarit and I were out on Vancouver Island.  For some reason this one is significantly underexposed.  I checked my field notes and everything seems OK.  Compared to similar exposures taken on standard film, these should have yielded printable images.  I'm at a loss to explain what happened.  In my mind there are only three possibilities...  The first is that I goofed up and set the camera incorrectly, despite recording the exposures correctly in my notes.  This is somewhat unlikely as it was an entire roll of film, shot over a period of several hours, with numerous camera set-ups.  The second is that the coastal conditions... wet sandy beaches... were not very reflective of the wavelengths that this film is sensitive to.  And the last possibility is that the airport X-rays that the film was subjected to ruined the emulsion...  The more I think about this, the more likely the third option seems the reason.  I seem to recall that most of the Infrared film that I shot in Europe a couple of years ago, and which was also X-rayed at airports, was also underexposed.  Perhaps I have to not bother taking these films with me when I travel by air...

Summer Hockey - Game 13

Well, the winning streak was short lived, and we lost again.  It was a close game but we went down to the Biohazard by a score of 6-4.  We actually scored our fifth goal of the game just as the clock ran out, but it was too little too late.

We have two games left in the regular season, and need to win at least one of them to have any hope of making the playoffs.  As much as I am worn out by playing hockey every week for the past 10 months, I'd still like to see the Renagades string together a bit of a playoff run.  Whatever happens, hockey will be done before the end of July, and then we have a month off before the winter season gets underway in September.  

As team captain and manager it is my job to now work towards putting together the roster and collecting league fees for the upcoming winter season.  It costs over $11,000 in league fees and insurance to put a team on the ice... a little over $700 per full time player.  It is a challenge to get 16 full time players to commit to this and put their money on the line.  I've been doing it for over 7 years and 14 seasons now, and have got pretty used to the drill.  Every year someone bails out at the last minute and I am left scrambling to fill the roster and collect enough cash to pay league fees.  Hopefully this year will be different as we have a championship to defend...

Hanging Around Home

A rather quiet weekend spent hanging around home....  My firiend Mike was passing through town this weekend, travelling from his home in Prince George, British Columbia, to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.  Mike is an avid target shooter and was heading to a competition is Saskatchewan.  He spent a night at our place and it was nice to see him again, and catch up on old times.

On Saturday morning I delivered our new trailer back to the dealer that we bought it from.  I provided them with a long list of all the deficiencies that we needed looked after.  We can't get away camping for the next couple of weekends and hopefully they can address all the problems we have had with our new trailer so that we head out again later in the summer we can actually enjoy it without any further issues.  Remains to be seen I guess...

On Saturday afternoon I headed over to my Mom's place and spent a couple hours cutting grass.  My brother Greg and his kids did the bulk of it on Friday, but I needed to spend a couple of hours and finish up. Hopefully with drier conditions and shorter daylight hours the grass will grow a little slower and my brothers and I can look after this for my Mom while she recovers from her recent surgery.

I spent part of the weekend organizing some files for my holding company.  It is that time of year when I need to get my accounting up to date and turn the files over to my accountant so that tax returns can be filed.  I expect that we will be late this year, but hopefully there are no additional taxes owing, and we can get away without any penalties or interest.  Story of my life.. everything is down to the wire...

On Sunday Margarit and I took the girls to the movies.  One of their favorite movies in recent years was "Despicable Me" from a couple of years ago.  The sequel was released a few days ago and the girls made us promise that we would all go as a family to see it.

When Margarit and I met back in 1999 our first date was to the movies.  Our second date was a follow up to another movie.  Since then I have not set foot into a movie theatre.  In recent years Margarit has been forced to find a friend or someone else to go with.  Now, 14 years later my girls called my number and forced me to set foot back into a movie theatre for the first time in over a decade.  The movie was OK, but not as good as the first one.  In general I just don't have the patience to sit still for this long...

When we got home from the movie I headed down into the darkroom to process some film.  Rather ironic that I selected four rolls of medium format Fuji Neopan Acros dating back to 2011.  Two of the four rolls included some studio shots of the girls in their 2011 Halloween costumes.  Hailey was wearing her "Minion" costume, inspried by the first "Despicable Me" movie a couple of years ago.

This batch also included some panoramic images of hoar frost in the Rumsey morraine from a day trip in November 2011, as well as some shots of the dinosaur trackway at the Teck Coal Mine near Sparwood, taken in the fall of 2012.

Summer Hockey - Game 12

On Tuesday evening the Renegades played Game 12 of the summer hockey season.  This game was against the last place Shockers.  Finally we were able to put an end to our losing streak, with a solid 7-3 victory over the Shockers.  Now if we can just string together a bit of a winning streak to close out the remaining three games of the season, maybe we can roll into the playoffs with a shot at another championship.

Canada Day Long Weekend...one problem after another

I booked Friday June 28th off from work to extend the long weekend out for an extra day.  The forecast was calling for hot, sunny weather.  We packed up the trailer and hit the road on Friday morning, intending to explore some ghost towns in southwestern Saskatchewan.  We drove for most of the afternoon and by late in the day we were rolling towards the town of Coronation.  As we were driving down narrow, undivided Highway 12, I watched as a large truck pulling a flat deck trailer approached.  Suddenly I saw something come flying off the truck and come skidding across the road towards us.  I managed to swerve the truck and avoided it, but the new trailer took a direct hit.  It turns out the truck had lost its fender, and we had driven over it knocking out both wheels on the driver side of the trailer.  The driver brought his truck to a stop about half a mile down the road.  He was decent about it and provided us with all of is contact information and insurance policy number.  But here we were, stuck on the side of the road with two flat tires and only one spare...

A lady passing by stopped and used here smart phone to get us the phone number for the tire shop in Coronation.  By this time is was nearly 5:00PM and we managed to contact the tire shop just before they closed for the long weekend.  One of their service guys came out to give us a hand.  We needed three jacks to get both axles lifted up high enough to get the two damaged wheels off.  The service guy took the one good rim back into town to put a new tire onto it.  I stayed behind on the side of the road and installed my one spare tire to replace the rim that was damaged beyond use.  I had the flashers going on the truck and trailer, and Margarit was directing traffic as I lay on the side of the very narrow highway working on the tire.  We just about got wiped out by some idiot that was towing another vehicle with a tow rope, and no driver in the towed vehicle.  The driver swerved around us, but the towed vehicle, with no one to steer, missed us by just a foot or two.

The tire shop didn't have an extra rim the right size so eventually we were ready to roll, but our only spare was on the trailer.  We were annoyed and disappointed, but thankful that no one was hurt and that the damage was minor.. relatively speaking.  We decided it wouldn't be wise to head out into backroads Saskatchewan with no spare. So we were forced to change plans and decided to head to Drumheller for the night.  By around 9:00PM we finally rolled into the ghost town of Dorothy, set up the trailer for the night, and had a late supper.

The next morning after breakfast the girls hit their favorite playground and we explored the restored churches in Dorothy.  A short time later we hit the road for Drumheller, hopeful that we could buy a new spare tire there.  This whole incident taught me a lesson.  From now on whenever we travel we will have two spare tires for the trailer, and three jacks.  With these tandem axle trailers if you hit anything on the road that knocks out one tire it is virtually guaranteed that the one following will suffer the same fate.

We rolled into Drumheller around noon and the tire shop there not only had more trailer tires, but also a rim the right size.  So we bought a new spare, and feeling a little safer, we carried on our way.  We promised the girls that we would take them over to the local spray park to cool off from the heat.  We had to live up to this and spent a couple of hours while the girls splashed and played.  By this time it was too late to consider heading over to Saskatchewan.  We decided to stop in and say hello to my friend and business partner Frank and his family.  Frank was home and we stayed and visited for the rest afternoon.  The girls had a blast playing in the pool in Franks yard.  By evening we headed back out to Dorothy to camp for the night.  Frank and Chris came out and joined us for an evening BBQ and a fire.  The mosquitos were really bad and we all spent the evening slapping and suffering.  Frank and Chris eventually headed back home for the night. The next morning we got up and packed to move along.  But, the slideout on our trailer would not close.  We spent an hour or so fighting with it.  Eventually by working it in and out, and with me pushing on it from the outside, we got it closed up so that we could hit the road.

We headed northward to the TL Bar Ranch, hoping that the girls could do some trail riding the next morning.  Along the way we stopped at the School Museum in East Coulee.  This old school has a number of rooms set up with artifacts from the coal mining days of the town in its heydey.  Hailey and Annelise really got a kick out of the old schoolroom.

By evening we rolled into the campsite at the TL Bar Ranch.  They are shutting down operations at the end of the season this year, so we need to get out here a few times this summer so the girls can do some riding.  The mosquitos were unbearable, and the heat was unbearable with temperatures well over 30C and the humidity approaching 100%.  We fired up the generator and got the air conditioner going and pretty much just hung out in the trailer.  We didn't dare extend our slideout for fear of not being able to close it again, so we were a little cramped for the evening.  

The next morning we discovered that the girls could not go for a trail ride.  All the ranch staff had headed over to the nearby town of Trochu for the Canada Day parade so there was no one available to take out any trail riders.  We decided to head over and check out the parade.  All of the local businesses and organizations that were taking part in this small town parade were tossing handfuls of candy into the crowds and the girls had a blast gathering them up.  It was almost like Halloween and by the end of the parade the girls had a pretty good sized sack of loot.  There is something to be said about small town life and if it was not for the fact that I have a business to run, I'm not sure that I would continue living in a bigger city.....

Once the parade ended we decided to just pack up and head for home.  We were all somewhat worn out by all the adventure of the weekend.  We eventually got back home in the late afternoon.  Shortly after arriving home we got a phone call from my Mom.  It turns out she was in the hospital recovering from emergency surgery.  Her colon had been punctured during a routine colonoscopy on Friday and she had spent the last few days alone in the hospital.  Yet another incident to add to our list from this weekend.

As I write this entry, now a couple of days later, Mom is doing well and is back at home recovering.  I sure hope the next weekend camping trip is not so filled with the issues and problems that plagued this weekend.  We all survived unscathed and will remember this weekend for years to come.  All the same I would have preferred if things could have been a little more low key, and not so stressful....