Another Rejection for Procession West

I received another rejection letter in the mail last week, this time for the Langham Cultural Center in Kaslo, British Columbia.  The usual letter... thanking us for our submission and advising that the gallery is not in a position to offer an exhibition at this time.

We aren't too upset about it as our plate is rather full for the next half year or so.  We have three shows coming up in early 2016 starting with the Leighton Centre for the month of February, the Okotoks Art Gallery for March and April, and the Lebel Mansion in Pincher Creek for May.  We'd like to continue to show our work later in 2016 or even early 2017, but for now we have lots to deal with.

CFL Football

I bought season tickets to the Edmonton Eskimos for the current Canadian Football League season.  They are pretty good seats, on the sunny side of Commonwealth Stadium.  We are down in the lower bowl, on the 20 yard line, in the 11th row.  I have made it to every game so far this year, except one.  For a year that has been the warmest on record, and a drought through most of the summer, I have sat through three rain games in the seven home games so far this season.  The first two were real soakers, and a struggle to sit through.  Today wasn't as bad, with just some showers passing over, followed by the sun coming back out.  Margarit and I went to this one, and left the girls home alone....
When we got to the LRT Station, over half an hour before game time, the parking lot was completely full.  We later learned that there was some sort of home and garden show on as well this weekend.  We had to park a couple blocks away on a side street and then walk back to the train station.  The trains were only running at half speed and it took a long time get to downtown Edmonton.  Then, to make matter worse, a southbound train broke down at the stadium station and all trains had to share one track.  We sat and waited for nearly 15 mintues before it was our turn to roll through.  By the time we finally arrived at the game, the first quarter was over and it had clouded over, and was about to rain.

Edmonton started out badly and sputtered through the first three quarters.  But, like usual, their defense kept them in the game and then they started to play in the fourth quarter.  We scored a couple of touchdowns and then hung on for a 29-23 victory.  Our Eskimos are now second in the west division, and second overall in the league.  Looks like there will be some playoff football in the cards for this fall.

Last night we attended a wedding party for my cousin's daughter.  Sophia and Peter are getting married in a couple of weeks in Maui.  This party was for those of us that can't afford the time or the money to join them.

Out Again with the Camera

I woke up fairly early on Sunday morning, in my trailer, which was in the shop.  I finished up the last of the winter preparations with the trailer.  This included running some plumbing antifreeze into the lines, cleaning out all the perishables, and disconnecting the battery.  I packed all my tools and camera gear into the truck, locked up the shop, and hit the road.

I made a quick run into Drumheller to fuel up the truck and grab a quick bite to eat.  Then I hit the road and headed east onto the prairie.  It seemed as though today would be a day to see a lot of wildlife.  I started out by getting a pretty good shot of a Prairie Falcon as I set out from East Coulee.  I saw numerous deer throughout the day, including one pretty impressive buck.  I also saw a coyote, a garter snake, and some migrating Sandhill Cranes.  There were also a lot of waterfowl including ducks, grebes, geese and cormorants.  I managed to get photographs of a number of them.

In the early afternoon I met up with my friends from Calgary, Chris and Connie. They put together the "Off the Beaten Path" blog.  Check it out at www.bigdoer.com   We've stayed in touch over the summer and connected a couple of times before.  This time we were out to try and locate and explore the remains of an old stone house.  We travelled as far as we could by road, and then set off on foot.  After hiking about 3/4 of a mile we arrived at our destination.  The century old remains of a once grand old house.  We marvelled at how remote the place was now, and how isolated the original homesteaders must have felt when they first built the place.  We spent a couple of hours here before eventually hiking back out.

We decided to make another stop at an old yard that I had spotted while driving in.  This yard wasn't nearly as old as the stone one.  The remains of this house had more modern finishing and electric power.  There was the carcass of a cow and some old junk lying about.  Of more interest to us was the junkyard a short distance away across the pasture.  This contained the remains of a bunch of old farm machinery, and some vehicles that dated back to about the same era as the old stone house.  We spent quite a bit of time exploring and photographing here.  It was after 5:00PM when we said our goodbyes and headed off in opposite directions.  I had a drive of over 4 hours to make it back home to Edmonton.  Although it had been really warm at about 24C all afternoon, with barely a puff of a breeze, it quickly clouded over and became rainy as I made my way back home and I drove through fairly heavy rain for the last couple hours of my return trip.

East Coulee Skylight

Last weekend I headed down to East Coulee to work on the skylight replacement at my shop.  Margarit and the two older girls had headed off to Kananaskis to meet up with my sister-in-law and my niece.  Helena and our dogs were staying with my Mom.  I headed out from Edmonton on Saturday morning, after dropping off Helena.  I had the trailer in tow, all emptied out and packed up for the season.  

I had been down in East Coulee a couple of weeks prior and undertaken the construction and temporary waterproofing of a new roof curb for the skylight.  This past week the skylight was shipped down, after manufacturing had been completed here in Edmonton.  I was unable to bring the skylight down myself as it was too large to fit in the back of my truck, and I had my travel trailer in tow.

I arrived in East Coulee just after lunch and set to work on the skylight.  My business partner Frank had already hoisted the new skylight to the roof of the building, and temporarily set it in place.  I set about to undertake the installation of all the new sheet metal flashings around the skylight.  The skylight itself was pushed back, one side at a time, while I fitted, sealed and attached all the flashings.  Later in the afternoon Frank showed up and gave me a hand to wrap up the installation.  We lifted the skylight itself out of the way so that the last of the counter flashings could be installed.  The skylight was then permanently sealed and secured in place.  This new triple glazed skylight, on a properly waterproofed roof curb will be a lot better than the old single skin fiberglass sheet that had previously been screwed in place over the roof opening.  It was somewhat of a disgrace that the owner of a skylight company would have such a poorly designed and installed "skylight" on my own building so the changeover to this proper unit was inevitable.  It is nice that it is finally looked after as I don't think the old panel would have made it through another winter.

After the skylight was all buttoned down, I moved my travel trailer into the building for winter storage.  I ran some antifreeze into the plumbing lines, just in case the heat goes out over the winter, or if the shop space is needed and the trailer needs to be relocated to the yard.  I also disconnected the battery, and tidied up the last of the camping supplies.  I stayed in the trailer for one last night before my return trip to Edmonton.  This past year was so busy that we only got out with the trailer three times.  Once for the Spring Fest in East Coulee, then for the May Long Weekend at Red Rock Coulee, and finally for a few days back here at East Coulee in late August.  In a typical summer I usually spend about 25 nights in the trailer, and we are out two or three weekends per month from mid-May to early October.  This was the first time in at least two decades that my summer travels were so limited.  Next year will be different...

I woke up on Sunday morning and packed up my gear.  I headed out for a day of exploring and photography, before eventually making my way back home in the evening.  My next blog posts will include some photos from this day trip.  For now, here are a couple of snap shots of the completed skylight installation.

Oregon Coast on Tri-X, PMK, N+1

The rest of my batch of Tri-X sheet film that received N+1 development was all from the spring trip out to the Oregon Coast.  I think the contrast got away from me a little on a couple of these, but for the most part I'm quite happy with the way they turned out.  Once again, the scans don't do justice to what I could do with a silver gelatin print in the darkroom.  There are definitely a couple of these that I will take a stab at printing...

Tri-X in PMK, N+1

Last weekend, on September 13th, I processed another batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan 4" x 5" sheet film.  Unlike the other recent batch that I processed, this one received N+1 development.  The extra development time increases contrast in the negative.  This was a conscious decision, made at the time I exposed the film, based on lighting conditions present at the time of exposure.  I don't think that my scanner really holds the low values of these stained negatives properly.  They print nicely on silver gelatin paper, but I can't seem to get a scan from these negatives that looks as good as the final print.  I suppose that doesn't really matter as the darkroom print is infinitely more important to me than any scan.  These scans are simply to get a feel for what a final print might look like... nothing more.

I process this film using a Jobo CPP processor and Jobo 3010 Expert Drums.  The continuous agitation of this processor lends itself well to this staining developer, though I don't care for it with other film and developer combinations.  The film is exposed at 400 iso and is processed for 16:40 minutes at 20C.  After a water stop bath and fixing the film is returned to the used developer solution for a 2:00 minute afterbath which intensifies the stain.

These three images were taken during the Monochrome Guild Spring Photo Weekend down in the Rockies.  We explored various locations in Banff National Park, Yoho National Park, and Kananaskis Country.

2015 Day Trips on Tri-X

This most recent batch of 320TXP 4" x 5" negatives, given Normal development in PMK, included several from recent day trips.  This included a May trip out to the abandoned "Coulee House" with Chris and Connie of "Off the Beaten Path".  It also included a July trip out to an abandoned orthodox church in east-central Alberta.  One of several trips to the Russian monastery, this one in June.  And finally a drive up into the Willingdon Hills, back in April.  This is the last of the Tri-X negatives that received Normal development.  I just finished processing a batch that I gave Plus development, and will continue posting those in the coming days....

Spring Photo Weekend on Tri-X

Here are yet more scans of Kodak Tri-X Pan 4" x 5", given Normal development in PMK.  These images were all taken during the Spring Photo Weekend in April of 2015.  For this trip, several members of the Monochrome Guild travelled down to Kananaskis Country and Banff National Park for a few days of exploring and photography.  We also made a side trip over to Yoho National Park, just over the Alberta border into British Columbia.