Christmas at the Cottage

For the first time ever, the girls and I spent Christmas up at our cottage.  Hailey headed out by herself on December 18th.  Helena and I headed out and joined her on the 19th.  Hailey decided to make herself a bunch of cocktails that evening, and it wasn't long before she had crashed on the sofa.

The next day, our contractor Scott was doing neighborhood snow removal and pushed up a big pile in the yard with his skid steer.  Helena promptly turned that into her snowman... "Lump".   Margarit and Annelise came out on December 22nd.  There was a lot of stuff to bring along as we had a tree, decorations, groceries for an extended stay, gifts, and all the pets.

Normally we have a big family Christmas with my Mom and my brothers and their families on Christmas Eve.  Traditionally this is followed by a second dinner at our place with Margarit's side of the family, on Christmas Day.  This year, as we were not allowed to gather due to Covid, we took advantage of the situation and headed out to the cottage.

We made our big turkey dinner with all the fixings on Christmas Eve.  The girls decided that they wanted to do the gift opening on Christmas morning.  Its funny that teenagers have trouble getting out of bed before noon... unless there is some incentive.  All three of the girls were up by around 7:30AM.  We had a small tree set up in our upstairs living room and had the gift opening around the tree.  Hailey had to head back to the city on the afternoon of Christmas Day, as she was scheduled to work on Boxing Day.

The rest of the girls stayed for a few days longer.  It had been very mild in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  When we first arrived at the cottage is was pretty brown and bare.  But the night before Margarit and Anna arrived we got a dump of about four inches of snow.  It made for a very pretty white Christmas.  On Boxing Day it cooled off even more and we had light snow all day long.

Mostly we were just lazy and took it easy.  We went for some walks around the subdivison, and kept the cottage nice and cozy with the wood stove.  We watched a few DVD movies, and I played guitar a little.  On the 27th I took my camera out in the yard and took a couple of photographs of the winter forest.  It was very quiet, and hardly any neighbors were around.  I found that rather surprising.  With the virus situation what it is, and everyone expected to isolate, I thought more families would have headed out to their cottages.  But, that was not the case.  We really enjoyed the peace and quiet.

 

Afternoon Drive on Christmas Eve

Annelise and I went for a drive on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.  We headed west on the David Thompson Highway, out to the Kootenay Plains and Abraham Lake.  It was mild and calm when we left the cottage, but once again was extremely windy once we got up to the lake.  At the east end of the lake it wasn't quite as windy as I have seen it in recent weeks.  But once we got up to the elbow of the lake, near Mt. Michener and beyond Windy Point, the winds were gale force.  It was virtually impossible to consider trying to set up the big camera.

The temperature fluctuated quite dramatically.  In a stretch of just a few miles it swung from -8C to +6C.  The sun had a lot to do with it, but more so the wind, I think.

Mostly we just drove around for a while and admired the scenery.  Anna was listening to some music and I was enjoying the sights.  There was a tiny bit of ice at the east end of Abraham Lake.  Up at the west end, at Preachers Point, where the North Saskatchewan River enters the reservoir, there was a little ice forming as well.  But the main part of the lake was wide open and there were big white caps on the water due to the wind.  In places the wind was shooting over the mountain ridges, sifting snow into the valley below.  It was pretty cool...

Hotel Meade

This is another old image from our Montana trip in 2002.  This was taken in Bannack State Park.  The town of Bannack was established in the late 1800's when there was a gold rush on nearby Grasshopper Creek.  At one point in time it was the territorial capital.  The remaining buildings are protected within the townsite, which is now a state park.  The authorities are preserving the buildings to the extent that they do not collapse or fall into ruin.  But they are not being restored.  This is the main lobby of the Hotel Meade, a stately old building and one of the most prominent in town.  There are a number of other interesting buildings including stores, a masonic temple, some churches, as well as an old graveyard.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Holiday Greetings to Everyone...!  In this difficult and challenging year, the festive season is still very special.  May everyone find Joy and Happiness at this wonderful time of year...! 

Montana Mine on Infrared

This is another old negative that I stumbled upon while looking for some others.  These old mine workings are in central Montana, south of Great Falls.  Margarit and I traveled down into Montana in the summer of 2002, when she was pregnant with Hailey.  We visited some Montana ghost towns, and spent a little time around Yellowstone National Park.  It was quite early in the season... June as I recall... and we got into a snowstorm on at least one occasion.  This particular shot was taken with my old Sinar monorail 4x5 view camera on Kodak High Speed Infrared Film.

 

2012 Ram 3500

On December 10th I went in to work for the last time.  This was not a regular work day for me.  I spent a little time going over the layout and design of a large skylight with one of the new employees.  After that I turned in the company truck.  I'm going to miss this old truck as it was with me for a lot of years.  It is a 2012 Ram 3500 with a Cummins diesel engine.  One of the things that I liked about it the most was that it had a manual transmission.  None of the truck manufacturers offer a manual transmission any more and the new 2020 Ram truck that I bought this spring, to replace this one, unfortunately has an automatic.

Under the employment contract that I signed, I was able to continue to use the company truck for the 2020 calendar year during which I continued to work for the company.  But that year is coming to the end, and my contract is almost up.  So, the truck had to be turned back in to the company.  Along with that I also had to turn in my shop keys, and credit cards. 

My employment contract is now fulfilled, and I no longer have a job.  I am officially retired...!

It was somewhat anti-climatic as I have been reduced to a very light schedule the last couple of months.  I have only been going in to work one or two days per week.  And, we already had the farewell luncheon with the new ownership group, and with the staff.

I snapped this picture before leaving the truck, and then Margarit stopped by to pick me up and take me home.  And that was that... kind of a strange feeling at the end....

Alliance House

I was recently digging through some old negatives.  I was looking for some examples of plus development to post here, and to share with some members of the Monochrome Guild.  I was also looking for some pictures of an old house, near Alliance, Alberta, to share with another friend.  I found those photos of the old house, and included them here.  It was a stunning old place with very unique architecture.  I photographed it twice, but both times it was under dull leaden skies with very flat light.  The building was difficult to photograph as, like so many others, it was completely overgrown with carraganas.  These two images were taken in 2002.  I had the GPS coordinates recorded, and knew that the house was just east of the town of Alliance.  A quick check on Google Earth confirmed my worst fears....  The house has been torn down and the yard cleared.  It is no more, and further photo opportunities are lost.  A similar demise has been met by many an old building and it is important to photograph them when the opportunity presents itself.

HC-110 Developer for Plus Development - Example One

Anyone who follows my blog and does not do darkroom work, may find this somewhat technical... and perhaps boring...

Developing processes for color film are very rigid.  You need to use the developing agent, fixer and bleach in a proper sequence, for a set period of time, at a precise temperature.  This will yield a properly developed negative or transparency, with correct color balance.  If you deviate from that, the image is generally ruined.  With black and white film there is significant control in development.  If you develop the film more, the negative becomes denser.  This also increases contrast and improves shadow detail, but it also blocks up the highlights.  If you develop film less, then highlight values are retained and contrast is reduced, while shadow detail can be lost.  Normal development falls somewhere in between.  

When I am out photographing something I keep detailed notes on the subject brightness range.  I meter the different parts of the scene and record the differences in brightness of the various areas.  If the range is very low, then I will designate that sheet of film for plus [extra] development to increase contrast.  Most scenes have a reasonable brightness range and get normal development.  I very rarely use minus [reduced] development as I find the image becomes too flat.  I will usually use some other method to try and retain highlight values, such as filtration or a staining developer.

This particular image is an example of plus development.  This is a shot of an abandoned wood boat near Pigeon Lake in Central Alberta.  I shot this image in September of 2002 with my Sinar monorail 4x5 view camera and a 75mm wide angle lens.  I used a #58 green filter to lighten the values of the foliage around the old boat.  I shot this on Ilford FP4 film, an emulsion that I find responds very well to plus development.  I metered the scene with my spot meter and found that the lower white hull of the boat registered at an EV [exposure value] of 11-1/3 to 12-2/3.  The upper bow of the boat was slightly darker, at an EV of 11 to 12-1/3.  The windshield was slightly lower still at EV 11 to 12.  There were some specular highlights on the chrome light fixture that registered as high as EV 14-1/3.  The side of the boat cabin in shadow fell as low as EV 9-2/3.  The plants and trees around the boat registered in the range of EV 9-2/3 to 11-1/3.  Ignoring the highlight on the light fixture the entire scene had a subject brightness range of 9-2/3 to 12-2/3.  This is only a range of 4 stops.  One stop is equivalent to the doubling of the amount of reflected light, and is equivalent to opening or closing a lens by one click of the aperture ring, or adjusting the shutter speed dial by one click [a doubling or halving of the time the shutter is open].  A more "normal" scene would have a brightness range of up to six or seven stops.

So, after metering this setup I decided that it was quite flat.  This was a direct result of the overcast skies on this day, in combination with being in fairly deep forest cover.  I felt that increased development would pump up the contrast and give the image more life.  I gave the scene slight underexposure [by changing the film speed from iso 125 to iso 160] as this in combination with extra development achieves the result I desire.  I knew this from extensive testing and experience.  Development was in Kodak HC-110 Developer, Dilution B [ 1:31] for 14:20 minutes at 20 degrees C.

The scan included below was not significantly manipulated.  It simply had some minor adjustments to brightness and contrast so that it would display properly on the screen.  This extended development would have kept the low values essentially where they fell, and pushed up the high values by approx. one stop.

  

More from the Game Camera

Some recent images from my game camera.  Deer hunting season has come to an end, and it seems that most of the local White Tail population took refuge in the subdivision.  At least two of the three big bucks are still around... maybe all of them... not sure.  There are a couple of yearling bucks with tiny little spike antlers, not yet legal to hunt, that come around regularly.  I haven't seen the elk herd for a while, but perhaps once it settles down more after hunting season.  We also have a red fox that strolls by on a regular basis.  The white tail does and their yearling fawns come by all the time.  I've had as many as ten at a time in the yard.  They are really aggressive and territorial and are downright nasty to each other.  Specially when I throw a few oats out there for the birds.

 

And then there were two....

Its sad to see what has happened in Nordegg.  Clearwater County has a vision for the town that seems to exclude most of its history.  Just a short time ago there were several buildings left in town.  Recently the town demolished the Bighorn Trading Company Store, a small warehouse, and Shanks Garage.  There are only two original buildings left, the church and the Bank of Commerce.  Both have been restored.  Technically there is still an old store down below the townsite, and I photographed this a week ago with my new 8x10 camera.  It is in very poor condition and beyond restoration.  It is only a matter of time.  There were several old miners houses on one edge of the townsite as well.  But these are in the process of being demolished as well.  Apparently there is asbestos in them... likely in the plaster walls.

It seems to me that some effort could have been made to save these buildings but I get the impression there was very little desire on the part of the County.  They serviced a small section of new residential lots in town and are hoping that people will buy them and build new homes.  But, these have been vacant for over a decade and no one seems to want to take the plunge.  In my opinion, if these are to sell, a developer will need to get involved and put up a couple of show homes.  But, houses are a tough sell in a town with almost no services.  Over the past couple of years the County put in a Mobile Home Park, with serviced lots available for sale.  Much to my surprise, a couple of them have sold this summer, but no activity yet.  

Then this fall the County completed a commercial subdivision in the old townsite.  This is what resulted in the demise of the last few historic buildings.  They have put in streets and sidewalks and services and hope that some businesses will set up and construct new buildings.  It remains to be seen....!  The problem is that most of the activity in town is down below, near the highway.  This is where the hotel, the restaurant, the library, the old general store and service station, the new convenience store and service station, the liquor store and the food truck have set up.  As we are only part time residents, and our primary residence is in Edmonton, we are not allowed to vote in the local municipal elections.  As a result, we don't have any control or say over the questionable activities of County Council.

On the plus side, there are a couple of new amenities arriving.  There is a foundation being constructed beside the Shell Convenience Store.  I understand that this is a restaurant and the Miner's Cafe will move out of the Museum building and into this new location.  And, the Community Association has put up some new boards, so that we will have a better outdoor rink.  They also have put in a heated skate change shack.

The New Toy

A few weeks back, the new team at Mac Plastics organized a retirement lunch for me.  I wrote about this previously on my blog.  As a retirement gift they presented me with a gift card from a camera store.  I decided to use that as a down payment on a view camera.  I recently ordered and received this new camera.  It is a Chamonix 810V camera in Cherry Wood.  It is a folding wood field camera in 8" x 10" format.  It is similar to my smaller Ebony 4x5 cameras, but on steroids. 

I already have an 8x10 camera, but is is monorail camera.  Very heavy and bulky and difficult to transport out in the field.  As a result, I rarely shoot with it.  This one folds up to a very compact size and fits into a moderate backpack.  I have a kit set up that includes the camera, four lenses, meter, filters, cable release, darkcloth and two film holders.  I haven't actually weighed it but estimate that it is about 25 lbs.  This is lighter than the 4x5 kit I usually carry around.  The difference is that the 4x5 kit includes about ten lenses, more filters, and a dozen film holders.

I don't think I'll ever take this out on a long hike as the two film holders would be the limiting factor.  But for stuff that is close to the road, I can always keep additional film holders in my truck and cycle them through as I need them.

Last weekend when we had that mild weather out at Nordegg I took it out on a trial run.  I shot an old building in the townsite, as well as a couple shots up by Abraham Lake.  The trade off is that there are very limited camera movements on the rear standard, but this is more than offset by the benefit of portability.  I look forward to creating some great images with this new tool.

New Reality

For years, whenever I wanted to build something, or work on a project, I would just go to the shop.  There was lots of tools and equipment there, and since I owned the place I could pretty much do whatever I wanted.  Now that is no longer an option....  

So, last weekend when I was out at the cottage, I wanted to work on the frame for the last door that I need to build.  It's a good thing it was warm outside.  I had to drag my thickness planer, my table saw and my chopsaw outside onto the driveway, and set up my workshop there.  I managed to plane down some laminated pine, rip it to width, and cut it to length.  It was very frustrating trying to assemble the frame on a couple of wobbly sawhorses on my sloped driveway.  I think the only thing that I am going to miss about work is access to the shop...!

Lives up to its name

I was out a the cottage in Nordegg on the weekend of December 5 and 6.  My daughter Hailey was out with me, but she had to return to the city of Sunday evening.  She had online schooling to do plus was scheduled to work a couple shifts at her job.  I stayed out at the cottage by myself for a couple of extra days.  For a stretch of a few days there, it was really warm, sunny and breezy.  For a few days it didn't even drop below zero overnight, and the day time high temperatures got up to as much as +10C.  Twice I took a drive up to Abraham Lake to take some photographs.  I stopped at the lakeside viewpoint, near Windy Point.  As is the case most of the time, the location lived up to its name.  The first day is was extremely windy and large format photography was impossible. I estimate that the winds were at least 60kmh... maybe more. The lake remains completely open, which is not really a surprise.  In recent years it has usually frozen over around the end of December.  Once that happens, the spectacle of the Ice Bubbles will be begin, and lots of photographers will be visiting. It is that ever present wind, that keeps the lake swept mostly free of snow, and makes the bubbles visible.  For now there are just large whitecaps on the open water of the lake.  When I returned the next day, it was not quite so windy, and I managed some photographs with my big camera.  But even then, I had to set up right beside my truck so that it could break the wind a bit and prevent the camera from being blown over.

Notre Dame de Savoie

I was digging through some old negatives and came across this one.  I took this one about 20 years ago.  I can't recall if it was 2001 or 2002.  I have notes in my archive that would allow me to look up all the details, including date, time, camera, lens, film type, exposure, development, etc.  None of that is important for the purpose of this post.  At the time I took this I thought it was an old schoolhouse.  I have since learned that it is actually an old church.  It is located down in Paintearth County, right beside an active open pit coal mine.  Like the Sheerness School that I posted a photograph of a short time ago, it remains to be seen if the building survives longer than the mine.  All coal fired power generation in Alberta is about to be shut down and switched over to natural gas.  My friends Chris and Connie posted some more recent photographs of this building onto their "Off the Beaten Path" website.  I have included a link to their article.  It goes into a lot more detail about this history of this old building.

 https://www.bigdoer.com/19052/exploring-history/notre-dame-de-savoie-church/

Laid Up

I haven't felt very good for over a week now.  I've had a severe episode of gout, probably the worst I've ever had.  I've been lucky in that I haven't had any flare ups for several years.  But in late November it hit me big time.  It results from a buildup of Uric acid in the bloodstream.  With gravity this settles into the lower body, usually the feet.  Crystals build up in the joints and they become extremely inflamed and painful.  The big toe is the most common site but I had it not only here, but also throughout my right foot.  The foot was swollen to about twice its normal size and throbbing.  Gout to is thought to be triggered mostly by diet, and a number of things are known to contribute to it.  This includes red meat, alcohol, shellfish, anything aged, like wine, cheese, etc.

I've been trying to cut back on booze for the past couple of months and generally it has been going fairly well.  At the time of the flareup I hadn't had any beer for several days.  My red meat intake is fairly moderate, living with two vegetarian daughters.  And I haven't had shellfish in ages.  Then I learned that artificial sweeteners are also a trigger, and I've been drinking a lot of diet Cola lately in place of beer.

In response to the flare up I started taking a prescription for an anti-inflammatory.  That had limited success in combating the symptoms, but resulted in a whole bunch of side effects.  The worst side effect was a spike in blood pressure.  But I've also been fighting a headache off and on for a week.  My doctor switched me to a different medication but that has resulted in an upset stomach.

I headed out to Nordegg on the morning of Saturday December 6th.  Hailey was already out there, as she had headed out the night before.  I was still feeling pretty rotten and we pretty much just laid around the cottage and watched a couple of movies.  Hailey headed back to the city on Sunday evening as she has on line schooling during the week, plus a couple of work shifts.  I stayed on out at the cottage by myself.  By Sunday the swelling in my foot had gone done quite a bit and the pain had subsided a lot.  My head felt a lot clearer too.  The timing of this really sucked as we have been in the midst of a December heat wave with sunny skies and temperatures up well above freezing. 

My foot was too sore to take my usual walk around the subdivision.  It was really quiet by Monday when all the weekend folks went home.  Twenty lots sold in 2020 and during the week there were quite a few contractors working.  There are four new cottages in the process of being framed, and several lots are being cleared.  My second one will be added to that list in the spring when we start construction of our guest cottage.

On Monday I headed out for a drive up to Abraham Lake.  It was really windy and photography was not really an option.  Later I headed into town and photographed an old store.  For last couple of hours in the afternoon I pulled out my woodworking tools and planed and re-sawed some laminated pine to make the frame of the last door for the cottage.  It was a really mild day and the temperature topped out at about +12c.  Later in the evening I stoked up the woodstove, made dinner for myself, and watched a movie.  It remained very windy overnight, but continued mild.  The temperature didn't even drop below freezing overnight.

Tuesday was basically a repeat of Monday.  I drove again up to Abraham Lake.  This time it was still pretty breezy, but the winds were a lot less than the day before.  It wasn't quite as warm but I think it still got up to around +8c in the afternoon.  I set up my camera and took a photograph of the lake, as well as a second of a spruce forest along the side of the highway.  Later in the afternoon I put together some of the pieces of pine that I had cut the day before, and assembled the main frame for the last door.  In the evening I had leftovers from the night before, and watched another movie.

On Wednesday morning I was awakened by a message reminding me that I had an online meeting scheduled with my financial advisor.  I scrambled to get dressed and get my computer fired up and was only a couple minutes late for the start.  After that I packed up and tidied up the cottage in advance of my return to the city.  The whiskeyjacks were swooping around the yard looking for something to eat.  I had them eating some nuts right out of my hand.  Of course being out there by myself, I wasn't able to photograph them.  By the time I did dishes, had something to eat, and packed away all my tools it was time to hit the road.  I left the cottage at about 2:30 and had an uneventful drive back to the city.  There had been a very light skiff of snow in Nordegg overnight, and it was much cooler.  It only got up to about +2c by the time I left.  Up on Saunders Ridge east of Nordegg, and pretty much all the way to Rocky Mountain House, there was a lot more snow.  They probably had two or three inches overnight and the highway was slushy and partly snowcovered.  The roads stayed that way pretty much all the way to Rimbey.  After that it was clear sailing and the roads were dry.  I arrived home after dark, at about 5:30 in the evening.

January Calendar Image

The custom calendars that I had printed again this year, arrived a couple of weeks ago.  I immediately began distributing them.  All of the ones that had to be mailed internationally, and out of province, hit the mail right away.  The last time I was out at Nordegg I started dropping some off with friends and neighbors.  Today I delivered a few to friends and family around town.  I printed 32 copies of the calendar.  I kept three or four for ourselves, and will be giving away all of the rest.  This is the image that I used on the January page of the calendar.  This is a detail shot of the Colin Range, beside Medicine Lake, in Jasper National Park.  This was taken during the Monochrome Guild Fall Photo Weekend in 2019.  The trees in the bottom center of this image are full size spruce and fir trees, probably 25 to 30 feet high.  This gives some sense of scale to the image.

Tangle Falls

Here is a recently processed negative of Tangle Falls in Jasper National Park.  I shot this when Rob and I were out shooting for a week in June.  This was on our first stop at the falls.  On this day it was crawling with tourists.  We had to wait, sometimes for extended periods of time, for the scene to be free of people so that we could trip the shutter.  We actually returned for a second time a day or two later and climbed right up to the base of the falls.  I got quite a few good images at this site over these two days.  I previously posted one called "Four Trunks" that was taken on our second visit to the site.  This particular negative was shot on long expired Agfapan 25, processed in Rodinal.

Rock Face

This Rock Face looks a lot more impressive in person than it does in a photograph.  I just can't seem to do the scale of it justice in an image.  I took this shot last June when my friend Rob and I were photographing up at the Weeping Wall and Tangle Falls.  This huge rock face is immediately opposite the Weeping Wall, in Banff National Park.  I'm not sure if it is part of Mount Saskatchewan, but it is on its flank.  If you consider that the forest at the base of the rock is full size pine and spruce trees, it helps to comprehend the scale of this chunk of stone.

And the winner is.....

Just got word yesterday that one of my images was accepted for exhibition in the upcoming InFocus 2021 show.  This show will hang in February of 2021.  It will be on display in the hotel lobby out at the Edmonton International Airport.  Probably not as much traffic out there this year, as compared to in the past, due to the Covid situation.  Hopefully the show actually goes ahead and does not get cancelled or postponed as so many other things have.  They are hoping to have an opening reception, but that will depend on how well things go in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, here is another copy of the image that was accepted.

Back Porch

My youngest daughter Helena and I were out exploring in the spring of 2019.  We came upon an old house, in a small town.  This cool old abandoned refrigerator was parked on the back porch.  I shot this with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a 135mm lens.  The film was Agfapan 25.  This film was discontinued many years ago and this particular batch expired in 1991.  As you can see it still yields a fantastic image.  I love the smooth tonality of this film.  Agfa eventually replaced with a new version that they called APX25.  Unfortunately it was never manufactured in sheet format and was limited to 35mm and 120 rolls.  Even that has since been discontinued with the demise of Agfa.  I have quite a bit of the old sheet format left in my freezer which I will continue to shoot for some years to come.  I underexpose it slightly and rate it at a speed of 32 iso.  Development is in Rodinal 1:50 for 13:00 minutes at 21C.