Teaser

The first time I went down to Utah, back in October, I was visually overwhelmed by the fantastic landscape.  I shot a lot of film, but over the past few months as I have worked at processing it all, I find that there are only a handful that I really want to print.  On this recent trip I found myself much more focused and I think I did a better job of composing my images.  I didn't shoot nearly as many negatives, but I hope to have more that are worthy of fine art prints.  I was really anxious to see if this would in fact hold true so last night I processed a small batch of Fuji Neopan Acros negatives.  I finished washing the film tonight and threw it into my drying cabinet.  They are just barely dry now and I scanned one of the most promising to have a quick look at it.  Here is an image of the petroglyph site down at the Confluence Arch in Wire Pass.  Over the coming weeks as I process and scan the rest of my film, I will post more images.  For now this is just a teaser...

Development Test - Pictorial Negatives - 510 Pyro

Back on March 2nd I wrote a blog post called "Darkroom Work".  This basically described the process of mixing up a developer from raw chemicals and then exposing test negatives and measuring the density of those processed negatives to establish development times.  Since then I have been shooting a number of test negatives to be processed in this scratch made developer.  I have actually been shooting duplicates of these negatives so that I can compare the test shots to some processed in my standard developer.  I have been shooting Kodak T-Max 100 and Kodak T-Max 400.  I have been shooting triplicates of the T-Max 100 negatives with the intention of giving one my standard development in Ilford Perceptol developer, one processed in this new scratch-mixed developer [510 Pyro] and a third given less than standard exposure and developed in X-Tol developer.  This third combination is based on the recommendations of a friend.  With the Kodak T-Max 400 I shot duplicates, one to be processed in the new 510 Pyro developer, and a comparative negative to processed to my previous standard in Kodak T-Max developer.

I processed this first batch of negatives back in mid-April, just before we left to Utah.  Now that we are back home I have taken the time to scan them and post the first stage of my findings.  These negatives are mostly shot on T-Max 100 and all developed in the 510 Pyro formula.  Initially I thought that the negatives might be a touch thin and that perhaps a little more exposure or a little longer development time might be in order.  But, once I scanned these images I found that I am quite pleased with the tonal scale.  I will use this as a starting point and fine tune my routine form here.  None of these are particularly great images and I doubt that I will make a fine print of any of them, but they give a good idea to me as to how this developer performs.  In the coming weeks as I find time to process the duplicate negatives and compare them I will draw some conclusions as to what combination I would like to move forward with.

Utah Trip... Second Day of Driving

On Saturday April 19th we woke up in Butte, Montana, packed up our stuff from our hotel room, and hit the road for Utah.  It was a long and uneventful drive.  The wind had finally died down and weather conditions had generally improved.  We headed south over the continental divide for the second and third time and made our way out of Montana and into Idaho.  After passing through 200 miles of Idaho potato fields we eventually made our way into Utah.  The house that we had rented is called Red Ledges Roost and it is in Kanab, Utah.  Kanab is just a couple of miles north of the Arizona border way down in southwestern Utah.  So we had another 400 miles for driving before we finally arrived at our destination in the evening.  We rolled in to Kanab, stopped at a restaurant for something to eat, and then headed over to the house.  This was the same home that I rented back in October when I travelled down to the same area with my friends Rob and Brad.  We pulled in, unpacked some of our stuff, and basically turned in for the night.  The next morning was going to be pretty exciting as a visit by the Easter Bunny was eagerly anticipated, and we would have our first chance to get out and do some exploring.  Margarit had been dreading the two-day ordeal of this drive for weeks but as it turned out it went pretty well.  There was a certain amount of squabbling between the girls and the drive was certainly tedious and boring.  But all things considered, they did remarkably well...

Departure for Utah

On the eve of my 39th birthday we completed packing for our trip to Utah.  Living with four girls I've become accustomed to just how much stuff we "need" to bring along.  I had quite a bit of stuff too... but mine was mostly large format camera gear, a tripod, film holders, extra film, film boxes [to unload exposed film into], and a changing tent [to unload and reload film holders].  Other than the photo stuff I just had a bag of clothes, a couple of jackets and some hiking boots.  On the grounds that it may incriminate me in a court of law I offer no comment on what the girls brought along....

We hit the road relatively early on the morning of Good Friday and even I was somewhat surprised at the hour of our departure.  It was no where near the usual "crack of noon".

But, it was snowing heavily when we loaded our gear into the truck in the morning, and the snow continued all the way to about De Winton, south of Calgary.  By then the snow let up and it was just cold, with the wind beginning to pick up.  By the time we got to Claresholm and took the short cut across to Barons, the wind had become a gale.  It was so strong I thought it was going to suck the doors off the truck.  Just another calm spring day on the southern Alberta plains I guess.

We passed through Lethbridge and continued on to Milk River and the US Border.  The American border guard was typically triple A... Anal, Arrogant and American...

After getting grilled for attempting to smuggle across the illegal Kinder Surprise Eggs [it was the Easter Weekend after all...!] we were on our way.  Apparently these treats have been banned in the United States.  Heaven forbid some Canadian criminals such as us attempt to smuggle in such weapons of mass destruction...

We stopped for fuel and something to eat in Great Falls and continued on our way.  The wind never really let up, though we were sheltered a bit once we got into the mountains.  We made it as far a Butte that first night and checked into a hotel there.  I picked up some cheap beer at the local gas station, some pizza at a nearby takeout restaurant and we settled down in our room.  We shared a room with two queen beds between the five of us.  I think the three girls slept reasonably well but Margarit and I had a night of playing soccer with Helena, and didn't get much sleep.  We got up relatively early in the morning, grabbed some breakfast, and hit the road for the second leg of our trip to Utah...

Back Home....

There has been a bit of a lapse in postings to my blog over the last little while.  I left Edmonton on Good Friday with my wife and three daughters.  We left during a snow storm on Friday morning and drove for two days down to Kanab, Utah.  We rented a house in Kanab called the Red Ledges Roost.  It is a wonderful place right at the edge of town, really close to everything.  My daughters were thrilled that the Easter Bunny was able to find them, even though we weren't at home.  We spent seven days exploring in the area, and then two days driving back home.  We just arrived home last night, and I am back to work this morning.  We ended up putting around 6000km on my truck over 11 days, so there was a lot of driving.  The three girls did pretty well with all the hours spent in the back seat.  I will be posting some photos and a more detailed explanation of the events of our trip over the coming days.

39 Again...

My birthday was on April 17th and I turned 39 again.  This was twelfth anniversary of my 39th.  No matter how you do the math I'm getting old, as I was born in 1963.  Although my old carcass feels every hockey game and every mile hiking with camera gear, I still feel as though I am in pretty good shape.  I am the oldest player on my hockey team, but intend to keep playing for a few more years.  And I have no intention of giving up on my 4x5 view camera and switching to something lighter...

I hope to still be active when I celebrate the silver anniversary of my 39th...!

Ilford Delta 100 in PMK

A short time ago I processed a few remaining 4" x 5" sheet negatives taken on Ilford Delta 100.  This was just a small batch and as it turns out there was one negative from each of the last five years.  This was a mixed bag that caught up on some different development times that I felt were necessary.  There was some minus, normal and plus development, based on the degree of contrast required relative to the light conditions at the time of exposure.  The days and evenings have been full the past little while but I finally found time to scan and post these...

From the winter of 2010 I have this image taken of the interior of an abandoned school house.  This one was given minus development, in an attempt to control the high values visible through the windows of the old school.  I'm not quite sure what that black blob is in the upper right.  Probably the sleeve of my jacket or the edge of a cable release or something that strayed into the field of view of this wide lens, a 47mm Schneider Super Angulon XL.

This next one was taken in the fall of 2011.  We stopped to photograph an old farm yard and found this pile of old cars.  This was down in southern Alberta, on our way to the Fall Prospecting Weekend.  This negative was given normal development, as the subject brightness range in full sun did not require any expansion or contraction of the tonal range.  

2012 found me out exploring old buildings again.  This was very late in the year, right around Christmas time.  This one was also given minus development for the same reason as the first image.  To attempt to hold some detail in the high values visible outside.

Early in 2013, on my way home from a business trip out to Saskatchewan, I stopped and photographed the remains of this old stone house down in southern Alberta.  I have photographed at this location numerous times in the past, but this was the first time in winter conditions.  This particular negative was given plus development to boost contrast.

Finally this negative, taken a few weeks ago in early 2014.  This is an old community hall to the northeast of Edmonton.  The light was really flat on this day so I gave this negative plus development as well, which really boosted the contrast in the weathered siding, and cranked up the high values in the foreground snow.

Winter Hockey - Playoff Game 3

Last Friday the Renegades played our third playoff game of the winter season.  This was a re-match against the first place Canadians.  I put together a roster of most of our best players, and had an extra skater booked just in case.  We played what was arguably our best game of the season.  It was a hard fought physical game.  The officiating was somewhat questionable as the penalty calls seemed to be very one-sided.  In the end we came up short and lost the game by a score of 3-2.  This eliminates the Renegades from the playoffs and officially sees us finish in third place.  The Canadians move on to the finals against the Hungry Beavers.  I now have a bit of a break from hockey... but not for long.  The summer season will get underway in early May.

Spring Day Trips

The weather this spring has been less than ideal.  Groundhog Day came and went and whether or not the shadow was seen, we've had more than six more weeks of winter.  March came in like a Lion, and went out like one too.  Now here we are in mid-April, and it is about 10 degrees colder than the seasonal average, and it is snowing again today.  The mid day sun is intense now and we only need a clear day and the snowpack starts melting, even if the temperature is not all that high.  It seems as though every weekend that I had the time to head out with my cameras, the weather was awful.  There were a couple of occasions that I was able to get out, but when I did it was either cold, windy or overcast with flat light or all of the above.  I drove out east of the city on several occasions and explored a bit in Elk Island National Park, and then continued on through the park and explored some old buildings beyond.

In early March I photographed this old abandoned store.  The light was flat and the image nothing spectacular.  Mostly I was shooting some film that I wanted to experiment with processing in different developers.  This is a digital snapshot from that trip...

Later in mid-March the girls and I went for a walk down in Blackmud ravine here in the city.  This was during one of the few mild spells that we had.  At the time it seemed as though spring had arrived and the runoff was underway.  A short time later it turned cold, and the creek froze over again.  The runoff was put on hold and it would be nearly a month before the melt really got going again.

While we were down in the ravine we explored this spot where there had once been an old farm yard. There was an old well that slowly seeped a trickle of water.  Over the winter this had built up into a dome of ice. The girls thought this was really cool and that it looked like and "ice volcano".  Of course, despite my warnings about how slippery it was, Anna wiped out and fell heavily on the ice, bruising her backside.

In early April I was out exploring again.  This time the light was pretty flat, and it was a blustery day with a stiff breeze.  I found a couple of interesting old houses and carried on with shooting some test shots so that I could continue with my development tests.  Here are a couple of snapshots from that afternoon out...

Then this past weekend I headed out again, back into the same area.  This time around Margarit and all three of the girls came along with me.  We actually saw quite a bit of wildlife including a bald eagle, some deer, a bison in Elk Island, some beavers, a flock of snow geese, a porcupine and lots of ducks and geese.  Here are a number of snapshots that I took as we spent the afternoon exploring.  It was a nice sunny day and it was great to get out, but it was still not very warm.  There was a bit of a breeze blowing, and the temperature hovered around the freezing mark all day long.  One of these days this crappy weather has to come to an end and perhaps spring will finally arrive?

We came across this Bison in Elk Island National Park as we were making our way back home at the end of the day.

This poor old coyote had been having a meal of pigeon when someone shot him in the backside.  It was right at the entrance to a road in to a construction site, so no doubt one of the workers decided to take a poke at him.

We found several cool old buildings including some houses, a community hall, and the same store that I had photographed a month prior.  We were able to go inside some of these abandoned old buildings as they were open.  It never ceases to amaze me what gets left behind when these places are abandoned and I often wonder if the previous residents might have passed away... or just moved on to greener pastures.

Here's that flock of snow geese that flew overhead during one of our stops.  Then a little later, we came across this lumbering porcupine.  It appears as though he had ripped into some of the wrapped bags of grain that were stored in this field and was having a pretty good feed.  I'm sure the farmer would have taken a shot at him if he had seen this.  It looked as though there was a quill stuck in his snout so perhaps he had gotten a little too close to a rival.  It was hard to imagine that he could have done this to himself...

Ilford FP4 and N+1 development

Back at the end of March I processed a batch of Ilford FP4 film in Kodak HC-110 developer.  This batch of 4" x 5" sheet film included some of my last remaining unprocessed negatives from 2011.  This particular batch was given N+1 development.  This extended development increases contrast in the negative.  This particular film and developer combination gets really snappy and contrasty when processed in this manner.  I have used this combination for a number of years and am slowly beginning to learn when it is most advantageous.  It works really well for details and close ups in flat light.  For a broader view such as a landscape, or am image that includes any amount of sky, it does not work so well.  I have to remember that when I work with these materials in the future.  This combination did not lend itself particularly well to some of the images in this batch.  Here are scans of a few that worked out alright.  Of course if I spent the time printing these seriously in the darkroom I would be able to nurse the full tonal range out of the negative.

Dead plant, southern Alberta Badlands, Fall Fossil Weekend 2012

Cottonwood Glade showing wind motion, 2012

Cottonwoods, 2012

Abandoned Dodge and 1964 License Plate, 2012

Dinosaur Vertebra, Fall Fossil Weekend, 2012

Southern Alberta Badlands, Fall Fossil Weekend, 2012

Brazeau Collieries Historic Site, Nordegg, 2012

Window and Trunk, St. Job Monastery, 2011

Winter Hockey - Playoff Game Two

The Renegades played our second post season game last night against the Thunder.  It was an early ice time, at 6:30PM, and I had to bring my gear with me to work and head straight to the rink from my office.  I am recovering from a bad cold and did not feel great yesterday so I booked an extra defenceman and only played a couple of shifts.  

We jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, and then hung on for a 4-2 victory.  This eliminates the Thunder from the playoffs.  We now await the outcome of the game between the Canadians and the Hungry Beavers.  The winner of that game will move on to the final round.  The loser of that game will face us on Friday.  That game will see one more team eliminated, and decide the second team for the final round.

Winter Hockey - Playoff Game One

On Wednesday April 2nd the Renegades played our first playoff game.  It was against the first place Canadians, who have defeated us every time we met during the regular season.  We jumped out to an early two goal lead, but then the Canadians came roaring back.  The scored five times over an extended stretch of time to take a 5-2 lead.  We go one back and thought we might be able to rally, but they put an end to that by scoring a 6th goal.  We really put the pressure on near the end of the game.  I took a point shot from the right side and it went along the ice, through a maze of legs and through the goalie's five-hole.  That bought us back to within two, but we ran out of time and the game ended as a 6-4 loss, bumping us down to the loser bracket.  The Thunder also lost their first game, to the Hungry Beavers.  So the Renegades will play the Thunder tonight.  The loser will be eliminated, and the winner will go on to face whoever loses between the Hungry Beavers and the Canadians.  Our playoff hopes are still very much alive, but we have to win our next two games to make it to the finals.

Ilford HP5

I finished up processing most of my Infrared film and have now turned my attention to some of the other films that I need to catch up on.  In mid 2011 I started shooting some Ilford HP5+ in 4" x 5" format.  I've been accumulating it ever since.  I now have about 50 exposed sheets of the stuff and last week I finally set about starting to process it.  Earlier this year I did some testing of this film in Ilfotec HC developer.  I made some exposures of a step tablet, processed them for varying times, and then read the densities with my densitometer.  This process was outlined in some detail in a blog post that I wrote at the beginning of March. Using the data that I obtained from that testing, I established a development time for this film.  My testing suggested that I need to give this film more exposure than I had been.  To compensate for that I increased the development time a little.  The negatives came out nice and crisp and I'm quite pleased with the results. I've scanned and included a number of them here...

A small stream in the southern Alberta badlands, taken in the summer of 2011

The girls rock collecting on a gravel bar beside the Bighorn River, 2011

A glade in the Cottonwoods along the Red Deer River, 2012

Some strangely eroded rocks in the southern Alberta badlands.  This shot was from the Fall Prospecting Weekend in October of 2012.

A couple shots of a Still Life setup that I put together in my home studio, 2012

Yet another shot from my Playground Ghost series, this one from 2011

Portal Creek during the Monochrome Guild Fall Photo Weekend in 2011

A roadside pond during the Monochrome Guild Spring Photo Weekend in 2012

Cottonwood Snag in the badlands, 2012

A Fir Stump out in the Alberta foothills, 2011