Procession West moves on to Armstrong

The Procession West photographic exhibition will wrap up its run at the Okotoks Art Gallery at the end of April.  It will proceed west to Armstrong, British Columbia and will be showing at the Armstrong Spallumcheen Art Gallery through the month of May.  My collaborator Rob Michiel is looking after moving the prints this time as he lives in Vernon, and this gallery is fairly close to his home.  Here is the official poster for the upcoming show...

First Day on the Island - Easter Sunday

Sunday March 27th was our first full day on Vancouver Island.  It was also Easter Sunday.  Surprisingly the Easter Bunny was able to find our girls and left little foil covered chocolate treats all over the home we had rented in Courtenay.  There were a lot of them, and the girls each ended up finding a basket full.  I wouldn't be surprised if the cleaning staff or the next renters continued to find more after we left.

As it turned out this day had the worst weather of our entire time on Vancouver Island.  It wasn't really that bad.  The skies were partly sunny, but there was a rather cold and brisk wind blowing and we had a couple of showers.  After this day the weather improved pretty dramatically.

After the Easter treat hunt and a late breakfast we headed out for the day.  We drove down the old Island Highway which followed the coast and mostly just scouted around.  We stopped at a little town called Deep Bay and attempted to check out a marine center managed by Vancouver Island University, but it was closed for the Easter Weekend.  We wandered around the marina for a little while and then continued on down to Parksville and made a stop at Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park.  In the past this had been one of my favorite places for beachcombing.  We timed it so that the tide was out when we were here, but this was also the time that the weather turned the worst.  The wind picked up and it rained for a while.  We wandered around on the beach for a while and then made our way back north up the coast towards Courtenay.

We stopped at the Shady Rest, a nearly century old restaurant and pub at Qualicum Beach.  When Margarit and I were here a few years ago, they had the best clam chowder I had ever eaten.  We had lunch here and once again, the chowder did not disappoint.  They also had a smoked salmon version of it that Margarit and Anna quite liked.  I made the mistake of ordered clam chowder and a meal of fish and chips.  I was overstuffed and painfully full for the rest of the day.

After lunch we made our way back up to the beach house at Courtenay.  We were all full from the big late lunch and didn't bother with much for supper.  We did head down onto the beach in front of the house and wander around for a while.  Comox Bay is very shallow and when the tide goes out there are sand bars and tidal flats that stretch out for some distance.  There were some swans out on the sand that I managed to get a couple of snapshots of.  

There are hundreds if not thousands of medium size wood stakes pounded into the mud and sand of the bay.  These are arranged in neat lines and rows.  They are flooded twice every day by the high tide and exposed twice each day at low tide.  We learned that these are the remains of ancient fish traps built by the local natives hundreds of years ago.

At the edge of the property in front of the beach house is a large shapely Garry Oak.  It was budding and just about ready to shoot leaves during the time that we spent at the beach house.  We enjoyed and admired it every day of our stay, particularly at sunrise and sunset.

The girls spent a good bit of their time every evening in the hot tub on the patio.  It got pretty cold outside in the evenings once the sun set and hot tub was a pretty relaxing way to end the day.

Across to Vancouver Island

The girls and I woke up early on Saturday March 26th.  We checked out of our hotel in Hope, stopped for a quick breakfast at a nearby restaurant, and hit the road.  We got onto the Trans Canada Highway and headed towards Vancouver.  Within a couple of hours we were passing through Vancouver, over the Second Narrows bridge and were on the north shore.  A number of friends had warned us that we should make a ferry reservation.  We just didn't know what time we would arrive and were reluctant to do so.  As luck would have it we rolled up to the Horseshoe Bay terminal just as they were beginning to load the ferry.  We were one of the last vehicles to be loaded, but we got on the boat with no more than a few minutes wait.

The Queen of Oak Bay took us across the Strait of Georgia to Departure Bay in Nanaimo.  The girls were pretty excited as this was the first time they had ever been on a ferry, and the first time they had seen a ship of this size.  The crossing was pretty uneventful.  Being still early in the spring, it was still fairly cool, and the ocean breeze out on the water was brisk.  We wandered around out on deck for a little while, just so there girls could experience it, but mostly we were inside the ship while we crossed over.

We drove off the ferry in Nanaimo around mid day and were relieved that our destination was near.  We stopped at a grocery store and picked up supplies.  Then it was back on the highway, this time the Island Parkway, for the 90 minute drive up the island to the house we had rented in Courtenay.  We arrived at the house just as the cleaning staff was finishing up preparing for us.  By this time it was about 3:00 in the afternoon.

We unpacked all of our luggage, all of my cameras, and the groceries we had just bought.  There were two bedrooms that had to be shared between the three girls so they bickered a little before eventually figuring out a schedule for who would sleep with whom over the coming days.  Worn out from all the hours spent on the road, and not feeling much like cooking, we headed over to a local restaurant for supper, then eventually back to the house to relax and unwind, excited about all the things we would see and do in the coming days.

Spring Break

As in past years, this year we decided to take a family trip over Spring Break, while the girls were out of school.  In the past we travelled to Utah and to Oregon.  This year we stayed in Canada.  The recent decline in value of the Canadian Dollar made it too expensive to consider a trip to the United States.  This year it would be Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

We set out fairly early on the morning of March 25, which was the first day of Spring Break for the girls, and Good Friday.  We hoped to put a good part of the driving behind us on the first day.  Just after passing through the town of Hinton we ran into a traffic jam.  Traffic was at a stand still and it was pretty much a parking lot.  It took us almost two hours to inch our way to the Jasper Park Gate.  There was a temporary sign set up saying something about the Yellowhead Highway being closed and re-opening at 3:00PM.  The staff at the park gate were just waving everyone through and not allowing anyone to stop and ask any questions, and not offering any further information.  At this point we noticed that there was virtually no eastbound traffic coming out of the park.

We drove on to the Jasper townsite expecting the Yellowhead Highway to be barricaded at the junction.  We wondered what the problem could be... avalanche, washout, rockslide...?  We wondered whether it would be better to head down the Icefields Parkway to Lake Louise and take the Trans Canada Highway into British Columbia.

When we got to the junction there were no signs, no barricades and no information.  There were no vehicles travelling east, but nothing to indicate that the highway was closed.  We kept driving and made fairly good time, almost to Mount Robson.  Here traffic ground to a halt again.  All the cars turned off their engines and people were wandering around on the highway, getting very impatient.  There were a few roadside signs that indicated an accident scene ahead, and a flagman.  After about two hours finally eastboard traffic started to pass us and soon the westbound lane began to move.  We never did see any accident, any police, or any emergency staff of any kind.  If there was some sort of serious accident it was completely cleared up by the time we rolled past it.  Needless to say this put a big dent in our travel plans.

We rolled into Kamloops in the early evening, just as it was beginning to get dark.  We stopped and fuelled up the truck, grabbed some crappy fast food, and continued west.  Two hours of driving in the dark took us over the Coquihalla Pass and down into Hope.  Here we decided that we would stop for the night.  We took a cheap hotel room, crammed all five of us into it, and settled down for the night.  At least by pushing this far we knew that it would be a fairly easy drive the next day.

GSD 10

A couple of months ago I tried Jay DeFehr's GSD 10 Developer.  This is Glycin Stand Developer, and it is the technique that fascinates me.  Stand development calls for the film to "stand" in the developer solution for a long period of time, with minimal agitation.  What is supposed to happen is that the developer solution is supposed to exhaust relatively quickly in the parts of the film where there is the most silver to be converted.  These will be the highlight areas, which are black on the negative, yielding a white area on the final print.  In the shadows areas, where there is much less silver to be converted, the development is supposed to continue.  This compensating development is supposed to restrain highlight detail a little, but mostly support the shadows values and allow a little extra detail to fill in.

I made up the developer from scratch, according to Jay's formula.   750ml Distilled water, 100g sodium sulfite, 150g sodium carbonate, 20g glycin and distilled water to 1L.  

It is diluted between 1:20 and 1:40 for use in stand development.  I diluted 75ml of stock developer in 2000ml of water [approx. a 1:27 ratio].  I initially agitated the film for about 1 minute, and then briefly after 10 minutes, and again briefly after 20 minutes.  The film was in the developer for a total of 30 minutes.  This was followed by the usual stop bath, fix, hypo clear and washing steps.  

The resulting negatives are OK... but I'm not sure that the process supported the shadow values any better than a standard developer would have.

I shot eight sheets of Kodak 100 T-Max through the end of 2014 and into early 2015.  These were mostly building interiors, which had shadow areas that I felt needed to hold detail.  I shot duplicate shots on other films and for processing in other developers so that I can eventually compare to these GSD 10 negatives.  Here are scans of these eight negatives.  Later I will post some direct comparisons to other film and developer combinations and see if I can draw a conclusion.

Out with the "Off the Beaten Path" Gang - 3

I had great plans to head out with Chris and Connie for a second day of exploring and photography on Sunday March 13th.  When we got up on Sunday morning it was cold and blowing and there was a couple of inches of fresh snow on the ground.  We made the best of it and headed out anyway.  By the time we got out east of the city it was near White-Out conditions and we even had to put the truck in four wheel drive in some places.  This time around all three of my girls decided to come along for the drive.  It was a little cozy in the truck, but we made the best of it.

Our first stop was at an abandoned farm yard that I knew of.  This was one of those places where all the stuff in the house was just left behind.  Boxes and boxes full of stuff... mostly garbage.  Old jars and bottles, newspapers, tractor parts, clothes and no end of stuff.  We explored here for a while, and took a few snapshots, but it was just too miserable to take out the big camera and attempt any serious photography.

Later we continued on to the Shrine at Skaro.  Chris and Connie had never seen a shrine and grotto of this size and were intrigued by it.  Once again the poor weather did not permit any serious photography but we wandered around for a bit and took a few snapshots.  It soon became evident that the weather was not going to improve and we gave up on any further exploration.  We headed back into the city and went for lunch together.  Chris and Connie had to head back to Calgary that afternoon.  We parted ways after lunch, and look forward to getting together again sometime soon.

Out with the "Off The Beaten Path" Gang - 2

After we finished up exploring at the 1915 Mansion, Chris and Connie, along with Annelise and I, headed over to a couple of other stops.  We headed up to the abandoned Russian Monastery and explored for a while.  The old piano and the buildings continue to significantly deteriorate and I don't think it will be too much longer before some of them are down.  I didn't do any shooting here with the big view camera as I've done a lot here over the last year or so.  Just some digital snapshots this time around, a few of which I have included below.  Anna took a pretty decent shot of the piano with her 35mm film camera.  Some time later we processed the film and made a print, which she took to school.  She gave one copy to a lunchroom supervisor and her teacher wanted to buy the second copy.  I was pretty proud of her ability...!

 

Late in the day we headed over to Spaca Moskalyk and explored at the site of this historic church.  More snapshots from that visit are posted below.  I've also included a link to the article that Chris put together on his website.

http://www.bigdoer.com/25073/exploring-history/spaca-moskalyk-church/

Out with the "Off The Beaten Path" Gang - 1

Back on March 12th my friends Chris and Connie from Calgary came up to Edmonton.  Chris and Connie are historians, researchers, explorers and photographers and write a blog called "Off the Beaten Path".  It can be found on line at www.bigdoer.com

Margarit was away for the weekend at a ladies craft retreat out in the foothills and the girls and I were home alone.  On Saturday morning I headed out for the day with Chris and Connie.  Middle daughter Annelise decided to come along, but the other two stayed home.  Our first stop was at an old stone house that I had previously explored.  Chris later did a little research on this place and talked to someone that was familiar with the history of the place.  As we suspected when we visited, this was originally a wood frame house and the masonry was added on the exterior of the walls at a later date.  After taking a few snapshots here and exploring a bit, we headed on to our main destination.

 

Earlier in the spring I had located a stately, mansion-like structure.  It was on private land and at the time I originally found it, was unable to check it out.  In the meantime Chris was able to get permission to go in and do a little research and take some photographs.  Though heavily overgrown with carraganas, being still early in the season there were no leaves yet, and getting to and seeing the structure was not too difficult.  This is one of the most impressive abandoned homes I have ever seen.  The walls of the lower two stories were finished on the exterior with precast concrete blocks that resembled cut marble.  The millwork on the interior was exquisite.  The house was almost completely empty and not full of junk and garbage like so many old structures.  Equally impressive was the fact that it had really not been vandalized or disturbed, though the glass was long gone in all the windows.  The keystone on one side of the house had a date of 1915.  I took a bunch of digital snapshots here, but also set up my view camera and took three more serious photographs.  The digital ones are posted below, and I am still in the midst of processing my film from this outing so those will follow later.  Here is a link to the rather detailed report that Chris has put together since that outing, and posted to his website...

http://www.bigdoer.com/25298/exploring-history/1915-cement-house/

Shooting the Crowsnest Pass - Day 3

When we got up on the morning of Thursday March 10th conditions were less than ideal.  It was REALLY windy, even by southern Alberta standards, and the mountains to the west of Pincher Creek were under heavy cloud.  We almost gave up on the idea of shooting, but decided to head into the Crowsnest and see if we could find a sheltered spot to shoot a little.  After another crappy, free hotel breakfast we checked out and hit the road.  The winds were in the 80 to 100kmh range out on the prairie but surprisingly once we got into the front ranges they dropped off a lot.  We headed back over to the Greenhill mine site and spent the morning shooting here.  It was overcast and showered a little off and on, but all things considered, it was a lot better than we expected.

By about noon we finished up at the mine site and decided that we'd better hit the road for home.  We stopped for a late lunch in Nanton, and decided to see if we could check out the Lancaster Museum.  This is an aircraft museum that includes a restored Lancaster bomber, as well as a number of other aircraft.  The museum was closed, but there were some guys working inside.  I had done a little work for the museum a few years back.  At my shop we custom fabricated some new acrylic for one of their gun turrets.  I used this contact as an in and got permission to go into the museum with our cameras.  It was great because we had free run of the place, without any other tourists around to get in the way.  The guys even turned on all their big overhead LED lights for us.  I didn't take any digital snapshots here, instead only working with my 4x5 view camera.  So the only snapshots I have of this day are the ones I took at the Greenhill mine.  But, as I get around to processing all of my film from this three day trip there will be a number of scans posted in the days and weeks to come.  After we finished up at the museum we hit the road for home, pounding the pavement all the way back to Edmonton.  We arrived back in the city in the early evening, tired but pleased with the results of our three days of shooting.

Shooting the Crowsnest Pass - Day 2

Court and I got up pretty early, had the crappy free breakfast at our hotel in Pincher Creek and then hit the road west into the Crowsnest Pass.  Our first stop was in the town of Coleman, where we photographed some of the historic buildings in morning light.  This included the old Roxy Theatre, the Morrison Block, the Italian Hall, the Grand Union Hotel and the International Mining Office.  I remember that the temperature was pretty brisk and even with gloves on I was having trouble holding a pencil and writing down the notes about my exposure.  Conditions improved later in the day.  In addition to taking a lot of snapshots with my digital camera, the big view camera also came out and I managed some shots on large format film.

After we finished up in town we headed over to the nearby Collieries.  Although the site had once been fenced off, the gates were all open so we just wandered in.  I understand that one of the largest buildings on the site was torn down and demolished a year ago or so.  But lots of stuff still remains to explore including the maintenance shop, the shower building, some coke ovens, and an old railway locomotive.

We spent a fair bit of time exploring at the Collieries and again shot a bunch of digital snapshots, as well as some more serious work with the view camera.  By mid-afternoon we headed back up to the dance hall at Crowsnest Lake and shot there for a while.  Late in the day we made our way back over to the Greenhill Mine Site near Blairmore.  I didn't take any snapshots there but did do a few exposures with the big view camera.  By the end of the day we were both pretty exhausted.  Turns out I exposed 38 sheets of film on this day... mostly black and white... but there were a couple of sheets of color included in that count.  This was a record for me.  We retired back to Pincher Creek at the end of the day, had our evening meal at the nearby restaurant, and settled down for the evening.