April Calendar Image

This is the image that I selected for the April page of my 2021 calendar.  This is Hoodoo Mountain, near Fairmont Hot Springs in British Columbia.  I shot this back in 2017 when Margarit and I visited there, along with some of the gang from the Monochrome Guild.  Those are full size fir trees on top of the mountain.  The live ones on the right edge are probably 40 feet tall or more.  I used a long 500mm telephoto lens on my 4x5 view camera to get this tight view.  This lens is roughly equivalent to a 165mm lens in 135 film format or full frame digital.

Out Like A Lion

The old saying about March definitely seems to hold true around these parts.  We had some exceptionally mild weather in early March.  These last couple of days of the month it has really gone to hell in a handbasket.  It was very cold and blustery across most of the province on March 28th and 29th, and many areas saw some snow.

Margarit and I went out to the cottage on Friday March 26th.  We left the city late in the afternoon, after we had picked up the girls from school.  The girls stayed home in the city.

It was a very relaxing weekend, and a chance to unwind and recharge.  Saturday was quite mild and the temperature got up to around +9C.  There were sunny periods when it was pleasant, but in between when it clouded over, or when the breeze picked up, it was still quite chilly.  We measured out the building site on our second lot and staked out the location of the cottage that we will be building this year.  Later in the evening I made a batch of my "almost-world-famous" Beef Stroganoff.  It is a recipe that I have modified over the years and uses strips of beef, lots of mushrooms, cream, dill, parsley and mustard.  It is served over a bed of egg noodles.  We quite enjoyed it, and later in the evening we watched some documentaries on DVD.

The weather on Sunday was OK, but it was a little cooler.  We made a trip to the dump and dropped off a bunch of packing materials from our washer and dryer.  We also donated a bunch of empty bottles and cans to the Community Association.  In the afternoon I worked on the door that I am building for the cottage.  I installed the hardware last time, and had the frame built previously.  Now I started on the installation of some pine panelling to both surface of the door.  I left a large opening in the door where I will mount an antique window.  This will match all of the other doors in the cottage.  I was working on this outside, as there is not enough space in the cottage.

By late afternoon a weather front rolled through.  I had to scramble to put away the door and all the tools that I was working with.  Just about the time that I got the barbecue going for dinner, the snow hit.  It snowed quite heavily for a while, and overnight we got about 2 or 3 inches.  It was -14C when I got up on Monday morning.  There were wind warnings in effect and it was a very blustery and miserable day on Monday.  After breakfast we packed up and headed back to the city.  The girls are off school for the week of March 29 to April 2 as it is Spring Break.

Aspen Grove

I shot this image back in July of 2005.  It is an aspen grove on the Kootenay Plains, not far from the Siffleur Falls trailhead.  The aspens are still there, and I think I'll try to get out there sometime this year and shoot it again, maybe next time with my big 8x10 view camera.  For this old image I used a 75mm wide angle lens and Kodak Tri-X Pan film in my old Sinar F1 monorail view camera.  Its hard to imagine that this was taken over 15 years ago.  Annelise wasn't even born yet, and Hailey was just a toddler.  We must have been camped somewhere nearby with our trailer... maybe at Two O'Clock Creek...?  Now this area is just a short drive away from our cottage.

First Day of Spring

I traveled out to the cottage on Friday afternoon.  It has been very mild recently, and virtually all of the snow is gone.  It seems we are on pace for an early end to winter weather.  Saturday March 20thi was officially the first day of spring.  It was a little cooler out at Nordegg, than it has been in recent days, but still made it up to about +8C.  There was a mix of sun and cloud, and it was kind of breezy, so it felt a little cooler than it really was.

After breakfast in the morning, I went out and cut up a couple of trees that had recently come down.  We had a severe wind storm back in January and two dead trees fell near our fire pit.  I bucked these up with the chainsaw, to replenish the firewood pile that we burnt through over the winter.  I also dug out my air compressor and used my brad nailer to install some trim in our spare bedroom.  Once that trim was up I installed the hardware for a rolling door.  Now I just have to finish building the door itself.  The frame of the door has been ready for a while, but I need to mount an antique window into it, and skin it with pine paneling.  In the mid afternoon I went for a walk around the subdivision.  It was relatively quiet out in the subdivision, but there were a number of other neighbors around.

I believe that all of the lots in the subdivision are now sold.  There might be one or two left, but I think even those may have recently been snapped up.  I understand that about a dozen lots sold in the late summer and fall of 2020, and then several more sold around Christmas.  Three or four new cottages started construction late last fall and work progressed through the winter.  This spring there are eight or nine more lots that started clearing and excavating.  It will be a busy couple of years of construction.

We bought the lot next to ours late last summer, and officially take possession of it on April 1st.  I have the local contractor lined up to start some site work and to build a small second cottage for us.  This will essentially be a guest cottage for friends and family to use.  We may also rent it out from time to time.  I already have our development permit in place, and will take out the building permit as soon as we are ready to commence construction.

After a year of dealing with the Covid pandemic it is very refreshing to come out to the mountains.  The mild weather, allowing for more outdoor activities, makes it even better.  Hopefully with the vaccines becoming more readily available we will soon see an end to all the restrictions. 

 

Winter 2021 - Game Camera Photos

I just returned from a couple of days out at Nordegg.  I was out by myself, trying to catch up on a few chores.  While I was there, I pulled the memory card from my game camera.  I tried to do this a couple of times over the winter, with no success.  The first time, the batteries in the camera had died in the cold.  The second time, I forgot to bring a spare card with me, so I had to leave it.  When I got home to the city tonight I had thousands of images on the card, taken between the beginning of January and today.  

The coldest temperature at which a photograph was taken was -27C, on January 28th.  We had some days that were colder than that, but obviously the animals were not moving around... or my batteries were frozen.  

Most of the images were of the herd of deer that hang around our property.  The bucks shed their antlers sometime in February.  There are a few other photos of ravens, magpies and the fox.  I also got a few of the neighbors dogs, which I didn't bother to post.

We had very little snow out at the cottage this winter and accumulation was minimal.  There is almost nothing left now, except for a few patches in shady areas.  It seems that we are destined for an early spring.  Some rain probably wouldn't hurt because it will be very dry and the risk of fires will be significant.

Wagon

I shot this late last summer when Margarit and I spent a couple of days down at East Coulee.  The girls had gone on home to the city, while Margarit and I stayed an extra day.  Mostly we just toured around the valley and did a little hiking, and took a bunch of photographs.  This was one of them.  This old wagon is parked along the side of the road, not far from the ship.  The tipple of the Atlas Coal Mine is visible in the background.  I shot this with my 4x5 view camera and a 110mm lens on Kodak Tri-X Pan film.  It was developed in PMK, a staining pyro developer.

March Calendar Image

This is the image that I used for the month of March, in my 2021 calendar.  I actually shot this in the spring of 2017, out in Minburn County.  I've never been much of a Ford fan, after having a couple of lemons, back in the early 2000's.  This is a Ford F-250, which was somewhat of a rare beast back in the day.  I'm not sure exactly what year this truck would be... but probably back in the 1960's.

Spreading Creek Burn

I photographed up at the Spreading Creek Burn a couple of times last summer.  The first time was in July, when Hailey and I stopped there.  The second time, when I took this color photograph, was later in the fall when Margarit and I stopped there with our friends Arturo and Sharon.  This is an area along the headwaters of the North Saskatchewan River, just outside of Banff National Park.  A fire started within the park a few years back, and burned its way down the valley.  Some areas were heavily devastated, while others were relatively untouched.  I've been fascinated by the way that some of these burned trunks look like Totem Poles.  

This image was shot with my 4x5 view camera on color negative film and is part of the large batch that I recently processed.  I've spent a lot of time the past couple of weeks catching up on not only processing, but also filing and organizing all of my color negatives and transparencies.  I keep a spreadsheet with detailed information not only about how the image was taken, but also location and date information.  I find it very helpful when I am looking for images for projects, or for return visits.

March Day Trip

Hailey and Helena and I went out for a drive on March 7th.  Anna and Margarit decided to stay home.  The girls and I ventured up into Lamont County.  We had to circumvent Elk Island National Park as the through road was closed for some construction.  North of the town of Lamont, not far from the North Saskatchewan River, we stopped to photograph an old house.  I shot it with both my 4x5 and 8x10 view cameras, while Hailey shot it on medium format roll film with one of my Hasselblads.  While we were shooting we saw a large Bald Eagle fly over us.

It was at this point that I discovered there must have been a foundation leak in my basement darkroom.  The camera backpack for my 4x5, which I had stored on the floor, was wet.  It has been very mild in recent days and there is a lot of meltwater running.  I suspected that the waterflow from the downpipes had backed up.  I checked when we returned to the city later in the day and confirmed that this had in fact been the case.  Fortunately there was no lasting damage.  Nothing worse than shooting out in the rain, and I made a point of spreading out all my gear and allowing it to dry, once we got back home.

After our stop at this location, we crossed the river in Smoky Lake County and followed the historic Victoria Trail.  At the Lobstick Settlement area the properties pre-date the current land survey and are laid out as river lots.  This is one of just a handful of such locations in the province.  These long narrow lots, several acres in size, all have river frontage.

In this area there is an old house that is positioned more or less right in the middle of the Victoria Trail.  I shot it once before, twenty years ago, in 2001.  At that time is was abandoned and empty.  It has since been restored by the County and there is some interpretive signage.  Its kind of cool to travel down Victoria Trial, in a westerly direction, as you can see the house, right in the middle of the road, for some distance.  The road kind of loops around it, and continues to the west.  In this instance we approached it from the other direction.

We took a couple of photographs of the old house and then decided it was getting late in the day, and we'd better be on our way back to the city.  We stopped for an ice cream, and then at a car wash to clean all the mud off my truck, before heading back home late in the afternoon.

Sandspit

Here's another one from the recently processed batch of color negative film.  This is Abraham Reservoir just west of our cottage in Nordegg.  The mountain across the lake is called Wapta Kista.  Mt. Michener is just to the right [west] of this view.  I shot this with my 4x5 view camera on Kodak Ektar 100 film.  It was taken in early May of 2020.  The girls were living out at the cottage at that time, due to the first wave of the Covid pandemic.  I was still working at the time and was staying in the city, and coming out on the weekends.  The reservoir is at about it lowest level at this time of year.  The dam is opened and the water is drained over the winter months.  Then the dam is closed in June to capture the spring run off and refill the lake. 

Un-named Stream

To the best of my knowledge, this stream does not have a name.  I can't find anything listed on any topographical or detailed maps.  It starts up on Mount Saskatchewan in Banff National Park.  It only cascades down the mountain for a short distance before draining into the North Saskatchewan River.  I photographed this when I was out hiking last fall with my friends Chris and Connie.

Jack's Model T

This is another large format color negative from the batch that I recently processed.  I shot this image in the spring of 2018, when I was in Saskatchewan.  I was there with my friends Chris, Connie, Rueben and Byron, filming a short documentary film.  This old car was in a farm yard that belonged to an elderly gentleman named Jack.  Jack was really welcoming and appeared in the film.  We just got word that he passed away a few days ago.  Jack was in his 80's and still lived on his farm.  His wife has long since passed away, but his sons come around and were keeping an eye on him.  Very sad news to hear of his recent passing.  He was a character, and will be missed. 

Fall Colors

Here is yet another large format color negative, from the recently processed batch.  This one was taken at Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park on Vancouver Island.  This park is near the city of Parksville, just up island from Nanaimo.  I shot this in October of 2019 when I was there with my friends Rob and Brad.  It was overcast, windy and drizzling rain on the day that we visited.  We chose to explore the park on that day because shooting in more open locations was not a good option given the weather conditions.  That seems like such a long time ago, but was only five months before this whole Covid mess started.  This was one of the only color shots that I took on that trip.  This was shot on Kodak Ektar 100 film with a 300mm lens.  I used a blue/yellow color polarizing filter to enhance the saturation of the yellow maple leaves.

Ex Coelis

Here is another shot from my recently processed batch of large format color negative film.  This one was taken in November of 2018.  This is Ex Coelis Mountain, up near the Siffleur Falls Trailhead in the Kootenay Plains.  The river in the foreground is the North Saskatchewan.  It was taken with my Ebony 4x5 view camera on Kodak Ektar 100 film.  I used a wide 90mm lens.  My friend Jon was visiting with me up at the cottage in Nordegg and we took a day trip out to go exploring.

Large Format Wildlife Photography

Over the past week or two I have been processing several batches of color negative film.  I do not shoot a lot of large format color so I generally accumulate exposed film for a few years, before I get around to mixing up the chemistry and processing a batch.  I'm not quite finished yet, and so far have run about 40 sheets of 4x5, dating back to 2017.  This shot was in one of those batches.

The Monochrome Guild was out in Jasper National Park for our annual Fall Photo Weekend in November of 2017.  We stopped along the Maligne River, just a short distance below Maligne Lake.  I was telling my friend Steve about how when I had been at this exact spot, in 2002, on a previous Fall Photo Weekend.  My friend Jon was with me at that time, and he spooked a moose out of the bush.  I explained that Jon had started down towards the river and startled a moose out of the trees.  It walked out into the river and stopped, and I was able to quickly photograph it with my view camera.  I explained to Steve that it was very unusual to get a wildlife image with a view camera, as the equipment is just so slow to set up.  The only reason I was able to capture it was because I already had the camera set up and focused for a landscape shot I had just taken.  Just as we were talking about this, two moose wandered out of the bush, and into the river.  Once again, I already had my camera set up.  So, I was able to get this shot, as well as a couple more.  At the point that this image was taken, the second moose had stepped back into the trees.  

I shot this with a 300mm lens.  This lens is not particularly long for large format and is about equivalent to a 100mm lens in full frame digital or 135 film format.  Certainly not a wildlife lens and more like a portrait lens.

This is an extremely unlikely occurrence.  What are the odds of it happening twice, at the same spot, fifteen years apart...??!!!