Last Batch of Infrared Negatives

A week ago I processed my last batch of Infrared negatives... for now...  This included nine more sheets of Kodak High Speed Infrared, as well as eleven sheets of Maco IR820C Aura.  This European film was discontinued some time ago, with the "fatal equipment failure" at the coating plant in Croatia.  This forced the elimination of a number of my favorite films including Efke PL25M, Adox CHS50, and this infrared emulsion.  I never quite got this stuff nailed down.  Exposure is complicated, since light meters measure infrared wavelengths combined with visible.  Refining development time is by trial and error, and I was just starting to get comfortable with it, when it was discontinued.  I think I still have a couple boxes left in the freezer and will try to use it up on some subject matter that it is suited to.  Here are scans of some of the better negatives from this recent batch...

These first two were taken on the Maco IR820C Aura.  Some backlit aspens out at Elk Island National Park, taken way back in the summer of 2011.

Kind of jumping around a little here.  These next two were taken at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah back in October of 2013.  These were both on Kodak High Speed Infrared.

As I continue to attempt to catch up on my backlog, here are a couple of the oldest.  These two were taken in the Fall of 2010, out at TL Bar Ranch in the badlands.  These were on Maco IR 820C Aura.

The RimRock Hoodoos in Utah last October.  Kodak High Speed Infrared.

Kodakchrome Basin State Park, Utah - October 2013 - Kodak High Speed Infrared

Pumpjack - Winter 2012 - Maco IR820C Aura

Another shot at the RimRock Hoodoos from last October - Kodak High Speed Infrared

River Ice forming on the Athabasca River, above Athabasca Falls, in Jasper.  This one was taken during the Fall Photo Weekend last November 2013.  Kodak High Speed Infrared.

Abandoned Schoolhouse - Winter 2014 - Kodak High Speed Infrared

Trunks, Rock and Leaves, Elk Island National Park - Fall 2011 - Maco IR820C Aura.

And Finally, two shots from The White Pocket in Arizona - October 2013 - Kodak High Speed Infrared

Newest Batch of Infrared Negatives

In between work, and hockey games, and kids activities I have found little snippets of time to get down in the darkroom and continue with processing my backlog of negatives.  Upon reflection I guess this is partially because the weather has been so crappy.  If it was nicer and there was an opportunity to get out and do things, I probably would not be spending this much time in the darkroom.  The first day of spring has come and gone and here we are, almost into April, and I awoke this morning to a couple inches of fresh snow. Daytime high temperatures have been in the range of -3 to -8C, and at night it has been getting down into the range of -10 to -20C.  For the past couple of weeks I have been optimistic, always hoping that next weekend it would get better.  For nearly three weeks straight this pattern has continued, and it sounds like we will be stuck with these conditions for at least a few more days.  It is not looking like this weekend will be nice enough to get outside much.  Wouldn't you know it... the first weekend in ages without a hockey game and the weather will probably not permit any outdoor activities.  Looks like I may be able to catch up even further on my film backlog....

A few days ago I processed yet another batch of Kodak High Speed Infrared Film in 4" x 5" format.  I am just about caught up with this stuff now and am currently processing images that were taken in 2012 and 2013.  There were a handful of interesting images in this current batch and I have scanned a few to be included here on my blog...

This image of a sage or juniper skeleton was taken down in Southern Alberta during the Fall Prospecting Trip in October of 2012.

In April of 2013 a few of the Monochrome Guild members headed out to Nordegg and the Kootenay Plains.  We hoped to photograph at the Nordegg minesite but a forest fire in the area forced us to explore further up the valley.  This image was taken from atop an outcropping of hoodoos, near the Siffleur River.

On the way home from working on the Dinosaur Trackway site in the Teck Coal mine near Sparwood, I spent a day photographing in the Crowsnest Pass.  This old mine building, with Turtle Mountain visible in the background, was taken in the fall of 2012.

In February of 2013 I had to make a business trip down to southeastern Saskatchewan to measure some skylights for a project.  I took a couple of days driving home across southern Saskatchewan back into Alberta.  This shot I call "Nowhere Bridge" and it is of an old concrete bridge spanning a ravine, with nothing but grain fields surrounding it.

In the Summer of 2013 we were travelling in the foothills of western Alberta with my relatives that were visiting from Germany.  We made a stop at Windy Point on Abraham Lake and I took this shot of the glacier polished granite outcrop.

In the fall of 2012 Palcoprep was contracted to make molds of a Dinosaur Trackway site that had been discovered near a mountaintop adjacent to an active coal mine.  This was the Line Creek operation of Teck Coal, near Sparwood.  These infrared images seemed to isolate the tracks a little better than the other shots that I took on traditonal black and white film.

Winter Hockey Playoffs

Regular season standings are now decided, even though some teams still have one game left.  The Bulldogs lost their game to Los Banditos in overtime last weekend.  They can no longer catch us for the last playoff spot.  So the Renegades have made it to the post season this year.  The order of the top four teams is decided as...

1st - Canadians

2nd - Hungry Beavers

3rd - Thunder

4th - Renegades

The top four teams play in a double knock-out round robin format until two teams are eliminated.  The two remaining teams play a best of three final round.  We get a bit of a break before our first playoff game, which comes up on April 2nd against the Canadians. 

Winter Hockey - Game 30

On Sunday morning the Renegades played Game 30, the last game of the Winter Season.  This time we faced off against the first place Canadians.  We were missing a couple of guys and had to play the game with only four defence.  I play defense and it was a challenge for an old guy like me to spend half the game on the ice, particularly against a big, fast team like the Canadians.

It was a close hard fought game and we were tied 3-3 after the first period.  The Candians got the jump on us in the second period and went ahead by a score of 6-3, and then 7-4.  But then we dug down and put on a push to close out the game we scored four unanswered goals and were leading 8-7 before the Canadians score one to tie the game in regulation.  The game went into overtime and we ended up losing a close one by a score of 9-8.

The single point that we got for the overtime loss should be enough to secure a playoff berth for the Renegades.  This ties us with the Thunder, though they have fewer penalty minutes than us and one game remaining.  So they will finish in third place.  We should be able to hang on to fourth place as the Bulldogs are the only team that can catch us.  They are four points back with two games remaining.  But even if they manage to tie us in the standings we have fewer penalty minutes and more wins, so we should get the nod.  This will all be confirmed 100% in the coming days.  At this point it appears that our first playoff game will be against the Canadians on April 2.

World's Largest Ammonite - Cast

In October of 2010 I wrote a blog post about what is rumored to be the World's Largest Ammonite.  This fossil impression is located in the interior of British Columbia, near Fernie.  My company, Palcoprep Inc. put together a proposal to cut this fossil out of the rock face that preserved it, and move it down to an institution that was willing to become involved in the process of preparing and documenting it.  This would have been an enormous undertaking as the fossil is located quite some distance up a stream bed, on a sloped rock face.

We could not locate any group or organization that was interested in hiring us to extract the fossil.  There were mixed emotions about this as the fossil has been known for at least 50 years, and it is a popular hiking destination for many locals.

We eventually gave up on the idea of removing it.  The driving factor behind this idea was the fact that this fossil can not be recognized as the world's largest unless it is collected and turned over to a museum or learning institution of some sort.

Later in October of 2012 I provided an update.  Palcoprep was working in the area making molds of a dinosaur trackway site at a local coal mine.  While we were there we decided to take a mold of the ammonite.  Although this would still not officially recognize it as potentially the world's largest, at least it would provide a record of the specimen.  The original fossil was slowly eroding away and over the years pieces of it had been stolen.  As the fossil was located on crown land, it was perfectly legal for us to take a silicone rubber mold from the fossil.  Since we were in the area anyway, we elected to invest the time and materials to do so.  We eventually brought the mold back to our shop in Drumheller.  We attempted to solicit some interest in the mold and offered to produce a cast to various organizations in southeastern British Columbia.  So far we have not been able to generate a sale.  But, we did produce one cast from the mold so far, and for the time being at least, it resides down in our shop.

When I was down in Drumheller a few days ago I took a couple of snapshots of this cast.  It looks pretty impressive and hopefully some day someone will be interested in putting it on display.  These photographs don't give an accurate idea as to how big this fossil really is.  It is about the size of a tractor tire.  If you refer back to my original blog entries you can see photographs of the Palcoprep guys working on the mold and gain some appreciation for just how big this thing really is...

Winter Hockey - Game 29

On Wednesday evening the Renegades faced off against the 2nd Place Hungry Beavers.  For a change I didn't have to drive all the way across the city as the game was down here on the south side of Edmonton, at Kinsmen Arena.  It was nice to only need 10 minutes to get to and from the game for a change...

More importantly, this was an opportunity for the Renegades to attempt to secure a playoff spot.  It was a very close and hard fought game.  We held a lead for most of the game, but never by more than one goal. When the clock finally ran out at the end of the third period we found ourselves ahead by a final score of 5 to 4.  This does not clinch a playoff spot for us, but it puts us quite a bit closer.  

Only the Bulldogs are capable of catching us and knocking us out of playoff contention.  They have two games remaining, and would need to win both games to knock us out.  We have one game remaining, on Sunday morning against the 1st place Canadians.  If we win, tie or take it to overtime we will clinch a playoff berth.  I am working towards getting a solid line up together for that game as we play all winter for a shot at this and now need to give it everything we have.

Monochrome Guild Meeting

A week ago now the Monochrome Guild met here at my place.  There were a number of issues on our agenda.  We are working on putting together a new website.  We are making plans for our annual Spring Photo Weekend.  We are making plans for a Spring Friends and Family Show and Sale.  And, we are working towards putting together a gallery submission.  It was a great meeting with most of our members in attendance.  We wrapped up the meeting with a viewing session and critique of some current work.  I included three small prints that I had worked on in the days prior to the meeting.  Here they are...

More Infrared Negatives

Almost two weeks ago now I processed a third batch of Kodak High Speed Infrared negatives.  This was all 4" x 5" format, and images that were taken mostly in 2013... but with a few older ones still left in the mix. The film has been hanging around... literally... in my drying cabinet, for a couple of weeks now.  Life has been quite busy lately and I just never found time to file these away or scan them.  With the work week now over and the weekend upon me, I tackled the job earlier this evening.  Here are a few of the best images from this batch...

Winter Hockey - Game 28

We sure can't do anything easy...!  The Renegades played a game on Saturday evening, over at Southside Arena, against the Thunder.  We were one point ahead of the Thunder in the standings, prior to the game.  But, we lost the game, by a score of 5-1, and coupled with the loss last week against the Bulldogs, our playoff hopes are getting slimmer.  The two teams trailing us, The Bulldogs and Los Banditos, also lost on the weekend so we are clinging to the last playoff spot, by one point.  Our last two games of the regular season, both coming up later this week, are against the top two teams, the Canadians and the Hungry Beavers.  We will have to win one or possibly both in order to make it to the post-season.

Another Rejection Letter

Back in April of 2012.... not 2013... but 2012... I sent in a submission package for the Procession West project to the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum in Saskatchewan.  We never did receive a response so I had long given up on it.  I just figured that this was probably one of the galleries that only responded to successful proposals and didn't bother to respond to submissions that were turned down...

Then today, nearly two years after I sent off our submission package, I received an e-mail with the somewhat generic response...

Dear Robert Michiel and Robert Pohl,

Thank you for taking the time to put together a proposal for your exhibition Procession West back in 2012. I read the package with great interest, but regret to inform you that we won't be pursuing an exhibition with you at this time.

All the best for your future artistic endeavours.

Kind regards,

I must say that I am more encouraged than disappointed by this response.  First of all it is nice to get a response... good or bad...   But, I still have at least 6 or 8 submission packages out there that have not yet been responded to.  Perhaps I will still hear back from a few more, and maybe one of them will be positive...

Winter Hockey - Game 27

The Renegades played an early game on Sunday morning.  At first glance the ice time didn't seem all that bad... 8:30AM...  But, this was the morning that Daylight Savings Time kicked in so it was really a 7:30AM ice time.  We never seem to do very well at morning games and this one was no exception.  We jumped out to an early three goal lead, but by the end of the first period our opponents, the Bulldogs had tied the game 4-4.  It stayed close through the second period but by the third period they got a couple more goals and hung on for the win.  We ended up losing the game by a score of 8-5.

The Thunder did us a favor and lost their game by a 10-1 score.  This left us in third place in our division, one point ahead of the Bulldogs and the Thunder.  With three games left in the regular season we are going to have to win at least a couple of them to hang on to a playoff spot.

More Kodak High Speed Infrared Negatives

Here are a few scans from my second batch of Kodak High Speed Infrared negatives.  There is a little more information about this film in a earlier post a couple of days ago.  There is a great deal of infrared radiation reflected by living vegetation, and as a result plants come out very white.  Most infrared radiation is absorbed by water and as a result it comes out very dark.  Clear skies are rendered nearly black and clouds, even thin wispy ones, glow bright white.  It certainly makes for a very different look.  Its not suited to everything but with some subject matter it works very well.  These images were all taken during 2011, here in Alberta, on various day trips and camping weekends.  The shot of the pasture gate was taken by my oldest daughter Hailey.

Vertebra

When I was down at the shop in Drumheller last week I had a look at this replica of a large vertebra.  This is carved from foam and covered with a layer of plastic, prior to being detailed and painted.  This is from one of the largest dinosaurs that ever lived... a large sauropod.  This life size replica is hanging on the wall, beside a standard 3' x 7' metal door.  This gives some sense of the scale of this bone, and how big the actual animal would have been.