Another Old One

Agfa APX-100, 4" x 5", 50 iso, N+1 development in Rodinal developer, 1:50, 16:00 minutes, 20C.  Taken July 1997.  Sinar F1.  Nikkor SW 75mm. 

Abandoned Store, Whitford, Alberta.  This is the same location as the winter shot I posted a few images previously.  This store no longer exists, and there is not much left of the hamlet of Whitford.

May Long Weekend

I headed back out to the cottage on Friday after work.  The Victoria Day long weekend was from May 16 to 18 this year, and I was looking forward to the extra day off.  It was very busy out in the mountains.  As the corona virus panedemic seems to be flattening out, a lot of businesses are beginning to reopen.  This includes all the campsites and many provincial parks.  There were lots of campers out in the mountains for the long weekend, and lots of ATV riders out on all the trails.  Most of the cottages up in the subdivision were occupied as well.

Work is my middle name and this weekend would be no exception.  The girls went out a couple of days ahead of me and Margarit started planting around 75 pine seedlings that we recently purchased.  We are putting chicken wire cages around them all so hopefully the deer don't eat them.  Once I got out there and got busy, I let her continue with that and I worked on a bunch of other chores.  The snowmobiles got stored away for the season and I cleaned out and organized our garage.  I split a big pile of firewood and make yet another stack.  Seems this job is endless and there are still two large piles of logs that need to be cut up and split.  I also shoveled some gravel and filled a few holes that had settled around the yard after the winter.

I cleaned up a bunch of deadfall and we took a load of garbage to the dump.  There is still a little construction debris left lying around the yard from when the cottage was built.  I cooked dinner twice for the girls.  On Saturday night we had steak and baked potatoes, with a salad.  On Sunday I made a batch of Enchiladas with mexican rice, salad and refried beans.  Also made a big brunch for everyone on Sunday morning.

There have been a couple of woodchucks hanging around for the past year and it seems at least one of them has now emerged from hibernation.  I also saw a pine marten in the yard on Monday morning.  Hailey saw a group of five elk in the yard earlier in the week.

It was with great disappointment that the weekend came to an end and I had to return to the city for another week of work.  The girls decided to stay out at the cottage through the week.  It remains to be seen what next weekend brings.  The forecast through the week is not great, with rain and the possibility of more snow.  If that happens, hopefully the fire ban will get lifted.

Nordegg Weekend

I scheduled a half day off for myself on Friday May 8th.  I intended to book out of work at noon, and head out to the cottage in Nordegg.  My oldest daughter Hailey, and youngest daughter Helena were already out there... as they journeyed out from the city on Thursday.

The noon departure didn't happen, but I signed off my time sheet at 1:00 and tried to head out the door.  That got interupted as I got called upon to deal with a few last minute things.  I signed out again at 2:00 and tried to head out the door, but once again I was interrupted as more duties called,  I finally managed to get out of the office shortly before 2:30PM.  Not exactly a half day off as I worked through my lunch break, like usual, and only put in a work day that was an hour-and-a-half short of a full eight hour day.

When I got back to the house I loaded up a few materials and supplies, made a quick stop at the gas station and hit the road around 4:30PM.  Traffic was light and I made good time, arriving at the cottage shortly after 7:00PM.

I unpacked a few things on my arrival, including three rustic barstools that I had purchased on line.  They had been delivered to the house about a week prior, but this was my first look at them out of the boxes.  When I unpacked the first two, I found loose ball bearings from the swivels rolling around in the boxes.  Needless to say, the seats were rather rickety and precarious.  The third one seemed solid and OK, but when I tried it out and sat on it a little later that evening, the wood base of the seat split and broke.  I know that makes it sound like I have a weight problem, but at 57 years of age, I am still basically the same weight that I was 20 years ago.  I am 72 inches tall and maintain a reasonably healthy weight between 190 and 195 Lbs.  I reported the problems with the stools to the website I bought them from and was assured that they will be replaced under warranty.

I also brought out the cupboard doors for the lower kitchen cabinets.  I completed these some time ago but in recent weeks have been fitting some decorative tree branches onto them.  The lower ones are all done now, and look pretty good... if I do say so myself.  Now I just have to cut and dry some more branches to finish up the four doors on the upper cabinets.

On Saturday afternoon the girls and I took a drive to the west up to Abraham Lake.  We made a stop at Windy Point.  It seems that a lot of people that have been isolating and social distancing due to the Corona Virus Pandemic had similar thoughts.  It was cool but unusually calm and quiet there, and a number of other people were out wandering around.  I took a couple of shots with my view camera and Hailey rattled off a couple with the Hasselblad.  We continued further up the valley and made a couple of other brief stops.  Saw some Bighorn Sheep and an Osprey sitting on a nest.  By late afternoon the clouds started to settle in and the weather deteriorated.  We made our way back to the cottage and had an evening BBQ.  It was beginning to rain and turning to snow as the steaks and baked potatoes cooked on the grill.

It continued to snow overnight and into Sunday morning and things were pretty white by the time we had brunch together.  Despite that fact that it is almost the May long weekend, it looked rather "festive" and Christmas like.  By Sunday afternoon it warmed to just a little above freezing and most of the snow disappeared.  I wrapped up a few chores around the cottage before reluctantly making the drive back home to the city.

Early View Camera Work

I purchased my first view camera in the summer of 1996.  The first full year of shooting with it was in 1997.  This images was taken in August of 1997 with my Sinar F1 Monorail View Camera and a Nikkor SW 75mm lens, on Agfa APX 100 film.  This was a trip out to the Coal Branch, south of Hinton.  I haven't been back into this area for nearly 20 years so I'm not sure what remains?  Friends have advised me that the Mountain Park area has been ripped up by the development of the Cheviot coal mine, and all that remains is the old cemetery.  This is an old photo studio in the town of Cadomin.  I hope to get back out in the area later this year to explore again, and see what remains.

The Usual Suspects

I pulled the memory card out of my game camera after I was out at the cottage last weekend.  I reviewed all of the images that it took after I got home.  It was pretty much the usual selection.  Lots of images of deer... and a few blank frames.  There is a time delay on the camera so if something walks through and starts the timer, it could be gone by the time the image gets captured.  This one was kind of cool as it included one of our many deer... eyeing up the elusive Red Fox that we capture every once in a while.

Churches Panorama

This one dates back to 2005... before the old churches at Dorothy were restored.  I'm grateful that someone saw the value, and had the initiative to preserve these old buildings.  But they sure were a lot more photogenic back in the day.  I shot this with my old Sinar F1 monorail view camera and a Nikkor SW 75mm lens on Kodak Tri-X Pan 4" x 5" sheet film.  At that time I processed this film in Kodak HC-110 developer, but in recent years I've moved on to some other developers.  Sure like the way this one turned out....

Cemetery

On the way back to the city we came upon a large cemetery.  I was familiar with this one and had stopped here before.  The central part of the cemetery consists of a large number of graves of nuns and priests from a nearby monastery.  The evening light was fading and Hailey and I made a quick stop here to photograph some of the headstones.

We soon realized that I had messed up the Hasselblad camera system.  I thought that the film magazine that I had provided Hailey with, to shoot for the day, had been loaded with a roll of Agfa APX-25.  It turns out that the magazine was actually empty, and that most of the shots that she thought she was getting, didn't exist.  I was really upset with myself.  I guess that's what happens when a person gets old and forgetful.  I suppose that spending almost all my time at work, and not using the gear regularly, contributes to the problem.  It has probably been close to two years since the Hasselblad has seen the light of day.  Hailey was a really good sport about it.  We loaded a fresh roll of film and she was able to re-capture the last couple of shots of the day.  

I really enjoyed being out with her for the day and I'm more grateful for the time we spent together, than for any negatives that might result.  Hopefully she feels the same and is willing to get out with me again sometime soon.

By the time we packed up here, the wonderful day was coming to a close.  We pounded the pavement back to the city and got back home by about 8:30pm... in time for a late dinner.

Central Flyway

Once you get about 100km east of Edmonton, you are on the Central Flyway.  This is the flight path that is used by migratory birds as they travel north from central and South America, to their northern breeding grounds.  Snow Geese follow this route and it is amazing that huge masses of them can be seen in this area in the spring and fall.  But, a short distance to the west, they are rarely seen... and certainly not in any numbers.

After Hailey and I finished up photographing the old stores, we tooled around on backroads for a while, looking for things to photograph.  We stopped here and there and quickly checked out a few things, but nothing much prompted us to dig out the camera gear.  In several areas we saw large flocks of snow geese.

As evening approached, we found ourselves at an old abandoned church.  Hailey seemed more interested in the nearby pasture full of cows... while I attempted to photograph the church.  As the evening came upon us, we were witness to multiple large flocks of Snow Geese moving to the north west.  It seemed there were a few dark colored geese mixed in these flocks.  Couldn't get a good enough look to be clear whether they were Canada Geese... or Brants.

I took a couple of shots of the old church with my view camera, but by this time in the evening the sun had moved around too far to the west, and it was mostly in shadow.  I attempted the shots anyway, and will hope for the best.  Once we finished up here, we turned the truck west and started back towards home.

Main Street

After we finished up at the old service station, we continued on our way.  Some time later we found ourselves in another small town.  This one had a row of old stores on Main Street.  The stores are all boarded up, and are not long for this world.  The floors in all of them are collapsed, and the few contents, mostly just old garbage, have fallen into the basements.  The roofs are also at various stages of collapse and there is a lot of water entry into the buildings.  This is never good for a structure.  Even the walls are badly shifted and deteriorated, and many of the windows are long gone.  We spent some time here and photographed the old buildings.  A few other visitors stopped by while we were there.  A family was out for a day trip and stopped to check things out.  And, another photographer was out shooting with both an iPhone, and a medium format film camera.  Although film cameras are becoming more common, its not all that often that we run into other medium and large format shooters.
I ended up doing a couple of setups with my view camera, while Hailey was reacquainting herself with medium format, and attempting to relearn the intricacies of the Hasselblad.  Just another little snippet of the great day that we spent together.

Service Station

After leaving the stone house Hailey and I drove around some backroads for a couple of hours.  Eventually we found ourselves at an abandoned service station in a small town.  The camera gear came out once again and we both photographed this Art Deco style building and the old gas pumps out front.  The owner came out and chatted with us for a while.  He said the the pumps were not in use when he bought the building 40 years ago.  The government certification sticker on the pump was dated May 1976... exactly 44 years ago.  The last price on the pump was 52 cents per gallon, which would have been about right for the time, as I recall.  The owner was happy to chat with us for a while and told us all about the town and the fact that he has had lots of people attempt to buy the pumps from him.  He insists they are not for sale, and he is leaving them right where they are.  After he left, and we finished shooting, we packed up our gear and hit the road once again.

No Springfest 2020

The first weekend of May is always the weekend of the Springfest in East Coulee.  I've attended for several years in a row now, and was looking forward to this year.  But, like so many other events, the Springfest was cancelled due to the Corona virus pandemic.

Instead, Hailey and I headed out for a daytrip the morning of the first Saturday in May.  It was beautiful day, with clear blue skies, and the temperature eventually peaked at about 20C.  We left the city at about 9:30AM, loaded down with camera gear and headed to the northeast.

Our first stop was at this old stone farmhouse.  We shot it from the road... me with my big view camera and Hailey with the Hasselblad.  We weren't there long and a lady bombed out in a little car to check on what we were up to.  She complained that this house on her land had recently been posted on social media and there had been a steady stream of visitors.  They didn't respect private property, and wandered all over the place, even stealing the door knobs.  She seemed OK with the fact that Hailey and I were showing respect and shot it from the road.  I've heard that this has become a common problem, particularly now that so many people have so much time on their hands as a result of the virus situation.  I suspect that access to old abandoned buildings will become very difficult in the years ahead.

If it is not obvious enough, I am not sharing the location of this building, and have always attempted to be very vague about where I travel.  I think this just shows respect for the owners of these old properties.  It is very important to shoot from a distance, or request permission.

After we finished here we packed up our gear and continued on our way.  This would just be the first of several stops on this beautiful day.

Roundhouse Doors

This is another image I came across as I was researching my negatives for another project.  This roundhouse still exists, though about a third of it burnt down around 2007 or so.  It has now been declared a heritage site, and a non-profit society has taken possession of it.  They are looking to restore what remains of the structure, but of course that is a costly and slow process.  Hopefully they are successful.  I shot this image in April of 2008 with my Sinar F1, on Ilford FP4+ film.  I processed the 4" x 5" negative in HC-110 developer, dilution B, for 14:20 minutes.  This is a considerable increase in development to boost contrast in the negative.

Whitford

This town no longer exists.  When I first came across it there were three stores remaining.  Over the years, one by one, they disappeared.  This was the last one to get knocked down.  Can't recall exactly when that was, but about 10 years ago.  I took this shot in January of 2009 with my Sinar F1 and a Nikkor 75mm lens.  It was shot on Kodak Tri-X Pan film, processed in PMK Developer.  Today there is nothing left where the town once stood.  Not sure how big a place it was in its heyday...?  I know there was at least one grain elevator along the rail siding.