March South East Day Trip

Back on March 6th Hailey and I headed out for day trip, to the south east of the city.  On this cool, breezy day we started off on Highway 14.  It was a great Dad and Daughter day and mostly we just argued about the music we were listening to on radio.  Hailey was convinced that all the new pop music was the best and I was trying to educate her as to the value of the classics... from Led Zeppelin, to the Eagles to the Rolling Stones.  She would not acknowledge me and insisted that Justin Beiber and artists of that ilk would someday be measured up along side my favorites.  We eventually agreed to disagree....

Our first stop was at the small town of Bruce.  This is the location of the Bruce Stampede, a rodeo that dates back over 100 years.  We had a great time at the rodeo back in 2014, but weren't able to make it out in 2015.  Both Hailey and I agreed that we have to return in late July to check it out again this year.  The town itself is like so many other small towns... slowly declining...  I took this shot of the old grocery store, both as a snapshot with my digital camera, and a little more seriously with my view camera on 4" x 5" film.

We continued on down the highway towards Viking, and made the short side trip up to the Ribstones historic site.  These glacial boulders were carved by early aboriginal peoples in a pattern that resembles the ribs of bison.  This site remains sacred to modern first nations people and there are regularly offerings of coins, tobacco and prayer flags left here.  These are the only such ribstones in the province that remain on their original site.  Over 20 years ago when I first visited this site it was less developed, and there was no fence around the stones.  At that time there were still offerings but the prayer flags were tied in the adjacent trees.  Now, with the presence of the fence, the prayer flags almost overwhelm the place.

It was so cold and windy up on the hill by the ribstones that we didn't attempt any serious photography.  We drove around for quite some time and eventually stumbled upon a really cool old house.  It was out in a field and in the summer, with the trees leafed out, and the fields planted with crops, it would be difficult to access.  On this day it was a short but cold walk across the field to the old house.  Someone had pressed a horseshoe into the concrete of the front step and inscribed the date of 1937, presumably when the place was built.  We spent and hour or so photographing here, mostly inside, where we were out of that incessant north west wind.  I worked with my view camera and Hailey reacquainted herself with my Hasselblad, which she has not photographed with since last year.

After finishing up here we walked back out to the truck and started it to warm up.  Soon we were on our way again, listening to and arguing about the quality of our generations music and refusing to agree on each others taste, or lack thereof.  We saw a snowy owl up on a utility pole, one of the few I have seen this winter.  With the mild conditions we have enjoyed, these guys just didn't migrate down onto the prairies from the arctic this year.  Later we came upon an abandoned old school house.  Curious that some one had ripped out the cast iron toilet and left it out on the front step.  The floor of the school was also missing, leaving the basement as the only access to the place.  After checking out this place we hit the road for home, putting an eventual end to our exploration and our musical debate.

Film Holders

I have a lot of film holders... over 200 as a matter of fact.  And this only counts my 4" x 5" ones, I have another 40 or so of the larger 8" x 10" size.  Some of these holders I purchased new, back when I started out with large format photography in 1996, and others I added later.  Most of them are used ones that I picked up over the years. 

Large format sheet film has to be loaded into these film holders in total darkness, in the darkroom.  This quantity of film holders allows me to keep a whole bunch loaded up with various kinds of film.  The holders are all two sided, so this allows me to have over 400 sheets of film on the go.  Most years I shoot about 400 sheets of black and white negative film.

Once the camera has been set up to make a photograph, one of these film holders is inserted into the rear standard.  The dark slide is pulled and the film is exposed.  The second side of the holder is used in the same way.  Once the film has been exposed the holders are brought back into the darkroom to be unloaded.  I separate the exposed film into various boxes based on the type of film and the type of developer and development time that I intend to use.  These development decisions are made at the time of exposure based upon the lighting conditions and the subject brightness range.

I save the boxes of exposed film in a drawer in my darkroom until I have a large enough batch accumulated to set up for processing.  I usually try to process 15 to 20 sheets at a time of the same film in the same developer for the same period of time.

At times I have holders full of exposed film waiting to be unloaded, sitting around in my darkroom.  I also often have empty film holders sitting around that are ready to be re-loaded.  I find that having this many holders gives me a lot of freedom as I always have a variety of film loaded and ready to go and I almost always have some empty holders around if I want to load and try something new.

Boxes full of exposed film, stored in the drawer of my darkroom, awaiting processing.

The counter top in my darkroom where I load the film into holders.  Each holder is assigned a number, and I write up a sheet with the film type and holder number as the film is loaded.  I use these sheets to record my exposure and processing information, so that this can be filed with the negative after the film has been processed.  I also use compressed air to dust off the holders as I load them.

Stacks of film holders loaded with unexposed film, ready for use.  These are stored in another cupboard in my darkroom until I move them to my camera bag and head out shooting.  The note sheets for all of these film holders are stored together.

Stacks of film holders that have been loaded with fresh film.  The note sheets for each holder are kept together.  Each stack is a different type of film.

My freezer full of unexposed film, ready to be loaded as needed.  I haven't bothered to count how many sheets and rolls I have in my inventory but I could probably keep photographing for a decade and not run out.

Stacks of film holders waiting to be unloaded.  Each stack is from a different outing.  The note sheets are stapled together in batches from these outings.  This information is all recorded and filed with the processed negatives in my archive.

Winter Hockey

The Renegades have played four hockey games so far in March, with mixed results.  Back at the beginning of the month, on March 3rd, we played the Clansmen at Terwillegar Arena.  We found ourselves down by a score of 6-1, midway through the second period.  But we rallied and scored eight straight goals and went on to win the game 9-7.

On March 10th we played a game against the Moose at Canadian Athletic Club and fell by a score of 10-4.  We have not been able to beat these guys all season and will probably face them in the playoffs.  We are going to have to find a way to do it if we want to advance past the first playoff round.

On March 15th we played a game against the last place team, the Bastards, at Bill Hunter Arena.  We won a lop-sided game by the score of 10-1.

Then on March 17th we played the Shredders at Grand Trunk Arena and lost a close one by a score of 6-4.  We had a backup goalie in for this game as we wanted to qualify one for playoff eligibility, just in case.

As if that wasn't enough hockey the team also signed up to play in a spring tournament out at the River Cree Resort in west Edmonton.  We played on Friday night and again on Saturday afternoon, with a team consisting of 12 of our regular players plus a few extra friends and co-workers.  Our first game on Friday night against a team called the Punishers was fairly close with the lead changing hands a few times through the first part of the game.  We ended up losing by a score of 7-3.  Then on Saturday afternoon we played a young team of mostly Junior players called the 4 Pac Battalion.  We were told their average age was 22, while our team has an average age of well over 35.  We simply could not keep up with these young guys and lost by a score of 10-1.  This eliminated us from the double knock out round robin so we retreated to the lounge to console ourselves.  It was a fun weekend and gives us a good tune up going into our playoffs.

We have one more regular season game left on Tuesday against the Wolfpac but have already secured a spot in the post season.  The playoffs will start right after Easter.  This will be the Spring Break week so hopefully we have enough players around to fill the roster for our first couple of games.

Leighton to Lebel

The Ag2 exhibition wrapped up its run at the Leighton Art Centre near Calgary on March 5th.  The curator tells me that 460 guests visited the gallery during the four weeks our show was on display.  In addition to that, approx. 500 school kids came through the Art Centre on field trips during that same time period.  A decent amount of exposure for our little show though unfortunately it did not lead to any print sales.

On Tuesday March 8th I headed to Leighton to pick up the crates full of our prints.  My friend Court was along with me for the ride, and to help with the loading and unloading.  We arrived at the gallery shortly after it opened at 10:00AM.  I had arranged to deliver the crates down to the Lebel Mansion Gallery in Pincher Creek.  This touring exhibition will be exhibited there through April and May.  The curator in Pincher Creek graciously agreed to an earlier delivery of the show, and to put the prints in storage at the gallery for a couple weeks.  Court and I unloaded the crates, carried them up the stairs into the mansion, and stored them away in a closet.  This saves me an extra trip down to southern Alberta.  Between work and exhibitions I have driven Highway 2 between Edmonton and Calgary more times than I care to remember in recent weeks.  

The delivery and storage was all wrapped up by earlier afternoon.  Court and I stopped for lunch in Pincher Creek and then went exploring for the afternoon.  We had made plans to stay in the area for a couple of days and photograph in the Crowsnest Pass.

Here is the official invitation to the upcoming show at the gallery...

Stone House

Back in January I found this old stone house.  I photographed it at that time with my large format camera.  Just recently I was able to get around to processing some of that film.  These two were shot on Ilford HP5+ and processed in 510 Pyro.  This is Jay DeFehr's formula that I continue to fine tune.  This time around these were given a development time of 7:05 minutes at 21C.  I think in the future I will continue with this time, but give slightly more exposure to support the low values.  

Interestingly I was back out to this house yesterday with some friends.  We were exploring in the area and made a number of stops, including this one...

Opening at OAG

On Saturday afternoon I drove down to Okotoks for the opening of the Procession West exhibition at the Okotoks Art Gallery.  My collaborator Rob was unable to join me as he got home late from his work shift at a remote northern jobsite and didn't have time to make the drive out from Vernon, where he now lives.

It was a beautiful spring day with the temperature peaking at about +18C in the afternoon.  Attendance was pretty good with somewhere around 50 people coming through during the two hours that the official opening was on.  There were also some paintings on display by an artist from Calgary in an adjacent smaller space.  Our show was featured in the main gallery.

I was impressed by the effort the staff at the gallery put into getting the show together.  There were 27 of our prints on display and they did a great job organizing everything.  The walls were freshly painted and the lighting was just perfect.  I am quite pleased with the way that everything came together.  The show will remain on display at the gallery until the end of April.  I encourage anyone that is down that way over the next couple of months to stop in and check it out.

Procession West - Gallery Exhibitions

The Procession West project that my friend and collaborator Rob Michiel and I have put together has been successful beyond our wildest expectations.  This started out as an exhibition of 40 prints that we presented to various galleries through submissions, about four years ago.  That initial volley of submissions resulted in three shows through the latter half of 2013 and into early 2014.  This included an exhibition of 36 prints at the Art Gallery of Regina in June of 2013, which was followed by an exhibition of 22 prints at the McMullen Gallery here in Edmonton from August to October of 2013.  In early 2014 we presented 12 prints at the Spruce Grove Art Gallery.  After that I got a little lazy and didn't get around to sending out any further submission packages for the better part of a year.

Then, starting in early 2015 I got serious and sent out over 50 submission packages to galleries throughout western Canada.  The submission of these packages was staggered over a period of nearly a year to coincide with the submission deadlines of all the various galleries.  This has led to numerous acceptances and opportunities.  So much so that we have had to spin off a second exhibition in order to handle some of the conflicts.

Over time our Procession West exhibition has grown to a selection of 50 prints.  Most galleries don't have the space to present this many pieces.  Something in the range of 25 to 35 prints seems to be about the norm.  So, we spun off the excess pieces, and added some new work to come up with a second show that we call Ag2.  I have outlined this exhibition and posted the artist statement in previous blog posts.  Between the two packages we have acceptances at nine galleries over the course of the next year or so.  Considering the original three shows, this now brings us to a total of a dozen gallery exhibitions for this selection of work.  We are quite pleased with the success of our efforts.  Once this project has run it's course I will continue with a couple of solo projects that I have in the works and hopefully be able to match this level of success.  Here is a list of the shows that we have completed and have upcoming for the Procession West and the Ag2 projects...

Procession West - Art Gallery of Regina - Regina, Saskatchewan - June 19 to August 23 2013

Procession West - McMullen Gallery - Edmonton, Alberta - August 17 to October 20 2013

Procession West - Spruce Grove Art Gallery - Spruce Grove, Alberta - February 25 to March 15 2014

Ag2 - Leighton Art Centre - Calgary, Alberta - January 30 to March 5 2016
Procession West - Okotoks Art Gallery - Okotoks, Alberta - March 5 to April 30 2016
Ag2 - Lebel Mansion Gallery - Pincher Creek, Alberta - April 9 to May 21 2016
Procession West - Spallumcheen Art Gallery - Armstrong, BC - May 2016
Procession West - Summerland Art Gallery - Summerland, BC - August 11 to September 24 2016
Ag2 - Pyne Logs Gallery - Invermere, BC - September 6 to 18 2016
Procession West - Saskatchewan Craft Council - Saskatoon, SK - January 2017
Procession West - Port Moody Art Gallery - Port Moody, BC - April 2017
Procession West - McDonald Island Gallery - Fort McMurray, AB - June 2017

There are still a few more submission packages out there being considered by the juries of various art councils and galleries.  Potentially we could be accepted at one or two more, though it could be a challenge to squeeze in any more.  I know that it is getting to be a challenge to deliver these prints to the various galleries in advance of the shows, attend the openings, pick up the prints when the shows end, and move them on to the next venue.
My objectives for taking pictures and making prints are very personal.  I enjoy getting outdoors and exploring, finding interesting places and capturing records of my experiences on film.  I also enjoy spending my evenings and the off-season down in my darkroom as a technician, mixing chemistry and fine tuning the development and processing of my film.  The final step in the process is the printing of those negatives onto paper, and presenting my interpretation of my experiences.  This is all done for very personal reasons, and not with the intention of garnering any fame or fortune.  But, when all is said and done I feel it a shame to just file those finished prints away.  To that end I enjoy presenting my work to the public, to see what sort of response it generates, and to experience the feedback that others provide when viewing my work.  That is the purpose of this process of submitting to galleries and looking for opportunities to exhibit my work.  Although some galleries pay an exhibition fee, and others might subsidize transportation costs and there is always the possibility of the sale of a few prints, the cost of producing the exhibition prints, framing and presenting them, and delivering them to the various venues exceeds the monetary return that I get from this process.  But the personal satisfaction is something that I value, and this is the reason that I pursue this.  I hope those that follow my blog have an opportunity to get out and see one or more of these exhibitions.  The scans that I present here on my blog don't do justice to the quality of the exhibition prints.  This is entirely the reason that I continue to work with film, rather than to use modern digital techniques... but that is entirely another topic for another discussion.....

Winter Hockey - February

The month of February was not overly kind to the Renegades Hockey Team.  We started out the month with a great record.  Our first two games were both solid victories, both by a score of 10-2.  We beat the Spiderpigs at Castledowns Arena by this score on February 3.  Then four days later, on February 7 we beat the Flyers by the same score, at the same arena.  Since then we've fallen on hard times.  We had a layoff of nearly two weeks before playing the Griffins out at Leduc on February 18.  We lost this game in overtime by a score of 5-4.  Then we played two games to close out the month, both losses.  We lost to the Titans on February 20 at Coronation Arena by a score of 8-5, and to the Padres on February 28 back at Castledowns, by a score of 6-3.

We are currently clinging to the second last playoff spot and there are five games remaining in the regular season.  We can probably hang on and make the post season, but it is going to take a solid effort and a couple of victories to make it happen.  We start tomorrow, with a game against the Clansmen at the Terwillegar Rec Centre.  Stay tuned....