Seed Heads - TMax 100 in 510 Pyro

Yet another scan from the recent batch of T-Max 100 in 510 Pyro Developer.  This one is from that recent drive up to the Blackstone.  This time I used a 400mm Telephoto Lens on my Ebony SV45TE view camera to get in tight on the seed heads of the Yellow Mountain Aven.

Fresh Snow - TMax 100 in 510 Pyro

Here is another image from the recent batch of Kodak T-Max 100 4" x 5" sheet film, processed in 510 Pyro Developer.  This one is a little out of season, and I feel cold just looking at it.  I shot this from my bedroom window, at the cottage in Nordegg.  It was taken in December of 2021.  Around that time we had a real cold snap that carried through the Christmas Holiday Break.  Temperatures were consistently down in the -30C range, and even approached -40 a couple of times.

Our bedroom is on the second level of the cottage, so it provided a little higher vantage point of these snowy trees.  I used a 400mm telephoto lens on my Ebony SV45TE view camera, with no filter.

Blackstone Avens - T-Max 100 in 510 Pyro

I shot this one just a couple of weeks ago when the girls and I were out at the Blackstone River.  The Yellow Mountain Avens had gone to full seed, and there were clumps of them all along the gravel bars.

We actually dug out one small plant and moved to to a gravelly spot on our property back at Nordegg.

This was taken with my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Rodenstock 90mm lens.  I used a #25 Red Filter to increase contrast, and darken the sky.  It also darkened the shadowed area by the spruce trees.

This one was from the recently processed batch of Kodak T-Max 100 4" x 5" sheet film, developed in 510 Pyro Developer.

Aircraft Engine - Tmax 100 in 510 Pyro

This one was part of the recent batch of T-Max 100 4" x 5" sheet film processed in 510 Pyro Developer.  I shot this image just a couple weeks ago at the Alberta Aviation Museum.  This was one of the few unrestored pieces in the Museum.  I thought it might work for the Apparitions project.

This shot was taken with my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Nikkor 200mm lens.

Ex Coelis Mountain

On August 24th I processed a batch of 20 sheets of Kodak T-Max 100 in 510 Pyro Developer.  Development was at 1:100 for 7:45 minutes at 24C.  This has become my favorite film and developer combination and I use it extensively.  This comes after many years of struggling with this film and getting nothing but dull and flat results.  It is amazing what a difference the right developer and development time can make.

I took this image on a cold day in late November of 2021.  This is the Kootenay Plains, with Ex Coelis Mountain in the background.  It was taken from the side of Highway 11 with a 125mm lens.  I used a #25 Red Filter to darken the sky and increase contrast.  The 4x5 negative was cropped a little.

Rosie the Riveter

On Friday August 19th Margarit and I traveled to southern Alberta.  Our friends Chris and Connie were doing a photo shoot and asked us to take part.  Knitted Knockers is a Cancer Charity that does just that... knits fake boobs for ladies who have had breast cancer and mastectomies.  They were really supportive of Connie when she went through the ordeal a few years ago.  Chris and Connie wanted to give back by doing this photo shoot for them.  I understand that the resulting photo is to be used in promoting the charity.

Basically they tried to replicate an old 1940's photo.  That one showed a large group of military ladies posing beside a fight plane.  The owner of a vintage World War Two era Spitfire was solicited to provide the aircraft.  He also owns a private airstrip down near Strathmore, and graciously allowed us to shoot there.  Then Connie solicited a whole bunch of her friends to take part, and dress up at Rosie the Riveter.  In the end there were 12-1/2 Rosies... including little Ivy, Chris and Connie's grand daughter.  There were a couple of digital photographers there doing most of the shooting and I just kind of tagged along.  But I was able to get a couple of shots with my big view camera.  As soon as that film has been developed I will be posting the results here.

2022 SCA Elected Members Exhibition

I became an Elected Member of the Society of Canadian Artists about a year-and-a-half ago.  I recently entered the International Open Exhibition and had two of my prints accepted.  These are currently showing, until around the end of August, at a gallery in Toronto.

I also just submitted two images for the upcoming Elected Members Exhibition.  This one will be held in Pointe-Claire Quebec in October.  Each member can only have one work accepted.  I'm hoping that one of these two images will make the cut and I can exhibit it in Quebec this fall.

No longer a Museum

Arturo and I got permission from the landowner, and visited an old museum the other day.  This was once a cultural village with a bunch of old buildings moved onto a site that is about 5 acres in size.  The museum has been shut down for probably twenty years or so.  Some of the buildings are in the process of being moved to other sites.  Many of them are badly deteriorated and will likely end up eventually being demolished.  The site is very photogenic, and some of the subject matter is just perfect for our Apparitions project.  We spent the better part of a day there, and will be returning in the near future to finish shooting.

Rockola GP160

My brother-in-law Shawn found this old Rockola Juke Box at a garage sale.  We went together and had a look at it.  Then I talked to my friend Chris.  Chris is close friends with a guy that is the western Canadian expert on old pinball machines and jukeboxes.  He figured that this one could probably be made functiional, and that a fair price to buy it for is $200.

The seller was asking $300 and paid $250 for it about 15 years ago.  He was reluctantly willing to accept $200 for it.  So, Shawn and I went back up to his place the next day and picked it up.  I've put it into storage for now, and will get to work on restoring it when I can connect with Chris's friend.  

It is a Rock-ola GP 160 and it plays 45rpm singles, and has a tube amplifier.  It has a capacity of 80 records, and there are about 60 in it.  It works mechanically, but the tone arm is missing the needle.  And the glass is broken on top.  It will take quite a bit of work to get it up and running properly, but I thought it was worth gambling 200 bucks on.  If it can be restored, I hope to put it in the guest cottage, which is being decorated in 1950's decore.

Polaroid 55

On Hank's second day at our house, August 14th, I tried to do a photo shoot of him.  The girls helped me out, but it is really difficult to get an eight week old puppy to sit still.  But, we wanted to get a couple of shots of him while he's still really small... only 4-1/2 pounds to be precise.

I set up my view camera in the back yard, in the early evening.  I used the grass and a wall of prairie sunflowers as a backdrop.  I had a 400mm telephoto lens on my view camera so I could get in tight on the little rascal.  But, that meant very limited depth of field, and even with faster 400iso film, the shutter speed was a little on the slow side.

I took two shots on HP5 and then two more on Tri-X.  After that I had to drop the shutter speed from 1/15 second to 1/8 in order to shoot two more sheets... this time color... on Kodak Portra 160VC.

Then, just for the hell of it, I shot a sheet of Polaroid 55.  This meant an aperture of F9.0 and a shutter speed of 1/8 second.  This film was discontinued some years ago and there is nothing else that comes close.  It is an instant film that yields both a positive proof and a negative.  The stock that I was using expired 21 years ago in July of 2001.  The pod of developing agent in the packet didn't feel quite right, but I shot it anyway.  This film was given to me by my friend Clive, a few years ago.  Clive passed away shortly after that from cancer.

The chemistry didn't seem to spread properly over the surface of the materials.  The print developed reasonably well, though there were some blobs of chemistry that I had to wash away after I opened the envelope... not something that was normally necessary.  I cleared the negative in Sodium Sulfite and then washed it.  Its still washing as I write this, and I'm not sure if it developed properly.  

If the negative doesn't really work out, then at least I have a passable positive, plus the other sheets that I shot and have not yet developed.  And no doubt the little mutt is going to have to endure a few more photo shoots in the coming weeks and months.

McCloy Creek Trestle

Yet another image from the recent batch of HP5.  This is also another one from the recent July trip to Saskatchewan.  This is the McCloy Creek Trestle, northeast of Saskatoon.  Apparently it is the longest wood trestle in Saskatchewan.  I used a Nikkor 150mm lens fitted with a #25 Red Filter.  There was a muskrat splashing about in the creek and I had to wait until it swam upstream, and the water calmed again... to hold the reflection.  I cropped a little of the sky and some of the foreground grass out of this one, but it was a 4" x 5" large format shot.  As with the other recently posted images, this was HP5 in 510 Pyro Developer, 1:100 for 7:10 minutes at 21C.

Playoff Beard

Every hockey player knows that when the playoffs start, you stop shaving.  By the end of a long playoff run the beard can get pretty scruffy looking.  Even though I missed the first couple of playoff games, I stopped shaving when the Renegades ended the regular season, and moved on to the post season.

We defeated the Mighty Ducks in the semi-final, two games to one.  Then we moved on to the final round against the Chiefs.  The biggest issue that our team has had this year, was getting enough guys out to the games.  We played one game during the regular season with only six skaters.  The first playoff game wasn't much better as we only had nine skaters.  One of our guys got ejected relatively early in the game, leaving us with just eight.  Unfortunately the Chiefs had about sixteen skaters out to the game, and just wore us down.  We stayed in it, and were only down by a score of 2-1 midway through the third period.  But in the end we just ran out of gas and they scored three late goals to coast to a 5-1 victory.

Monday night at Clareview Arena was do or die.  We had a little better turnout, with about a dozen skaters, but the Chiefs once again had a full bench.  We scored first, but it was a very close game and the score went back in forth.  Late in the game we were down by a score of 3-2 and pulled our goaltender.  They got an empty net goal, but even after that we still scored one more.  But it was not enough and we lost by a score of 4-3, putting an end to our summer season and our playoff run.  Somehow there is not much honor in finishing in second place in a division that only had four teams.

As soon as I got home after the game I shaved off the itchy playoff beard that had been driving me crazy in recent days.  Hopefully in the spring I can grow one again for the winter season playoffs.

Ilford HP5 in 510 Pyro - Three Trunks

Another image from the recent batch of Ilford HP5 developed in 510 Pyro Developer.  Development was at 1:100 for 7:10 minutes at 21C.  Like one of the earlier images from this batch, this one was taken down in Blackmud Ravine.  This time around it was on a spring walk in April.  I shot it with my Ebony SV45TE and that Fujinon 125mm lens which I seem to be drawn to a lot lately.  

Ilford HP5 in 510 Pyro - Station Wagon

This image was taken on the same outing as the Television set.  It may also work for the Apparitions project.  Its amazing that so much old abandoned stuff would be discovered on a hike in the badlands.  

I shot this one with a slighlty long Nikkor 200mm lens and no filter.  This is one of two different compositions I tried with this old car.  Not quite sure which one I like best.

Alberta Aviation Museum

On August Wednesday August 10th Arturo and I headed over to the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton.  We need some photos of abandoned aircraft and related stuff for our Apparitions project.  Most of the stuff at the museum has been restored, and is on display in dioramas.  

The museum actually looks really good, and I hadn't been there for many years.  Back in the day when I was running my business, we did some work for the museum.  We molded all the acrylic panels for the nose cone of the Mitchell B25 Bomber [the Daisy Mae shots below].  We also did a number of small parts, and some display cases.  There is a Fleet Canuck there, that was donated by the original owner, and we did the windshield for that one too.  It was kind of neat to see this stuff and it brought back a lot of memories from my working days.  Most of the work that we did was donated to the museum without charge, though there were a few smaller items that we charged for.  There were a couple of display cases with wood bases that house scale models of aircraft.  I remember that my Dad built the wood bases, and then my company made the acrylic covers.  It was nice to see them on display and brought back memories of Dad working in his home workshop.

We spent most of the day taking photographs.  Hopefully there are a couple of detail shots, or maybe something from the not yet restored fighter jets outside, that will work for our project.  If not, it was just a fun day shooting something a little different.

Ilford HP5 in 510 Pyro - Nothing On

This shot may work for the Apparitions project.  In hindsight I probably should have left a little more space in the foreground, in front of the TV.  I think there is actually a little more on the negative, that just didn't quite make it onto the scan.

I shot this one in May of 2022 with my Ebony SV45TE and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  I used a #8 yellow filter to increase contrast a little.  The staining pyro developer held the highlights in the sky quite nicely.

435

I checked, and that's how many exposed sheet of 4" x 5" sheet film that I have exposed and waiting to be processed.  This includes almost 50 sheets of color, but does not include any 8" x 10" material.  I'm heading out on a couple of photo shoots in the coming days, so no doubt this total will grow.

I save up film until I have a least 20 sheets of a given type, that requires processing in a given developer.  My development times vary from about 7:00 minutes to over 20:00 minutes, depending on the combination of film and developer.  It takes me around 1 to 2 hours to process 20 sheets and have them in the wash.  Then the washing process takes 24 hours, with around 10 water changes.  This is followed by a treating with wetting agent and a final rinse in distilled water before the negatives are hung up to dry.  With this in mind it will obviously take me quite some time to catch up on processing.....

Bedroom - Ilford HP5 in 510 Pyro

This shot was taken during the recent trip to Saskatchewan.  It was at this location that I noticed the first of several Wood Ticks... this one was crawling on my darkcloth.

This was taken on Ilford HP5, developed in 510 Pyro.  The staining pyro developer did a nice job of holding the highlight details.  The bright highlight on the floor beside the bed was seven stops brighter than the floor beside it.  The exterior, visible through the window, was six stops brighter than the bed.  I have been rating HP5 at 320iso, which I believe provides adequate exposure to hold shadow values.  The staining pyro developer seems to hold the highlight values while still providing reasonable overall contrast.  I'm not sure if I'll do much to further refine this.  Perhaps I'll experiment a little with slightly more exposure, or slightly longer development... but not both.

This shot was taken on July 14th with my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a Rodenstock 90mm lens.

Blackmud Creek Ravine - Ilford HP5 in 510 Pyro

I originally took this shot with the intention of cropping it to panoramic proportions.  But now that I see the scan of the negative, I think it looks good full frame.  I shot this back in the fall of 2021... late September to be precise.  I used one of my Ebony view cameras, and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  I shot this on Ilford HP5 film.  HP5 has never been a favorite of mine.  I use it quite a bit in 8" x 10" format as it is a lot more economical than any of the Kodak alternatives.  But in 4" x 5" it has always been a second choice.  Recently I came back to it, and decided to try to refine my development a little.  I processed this one in 510 Pyro developer, and quite like the way it handled the background highlights.  I also used a #8 yellow filter to highlight some of the fall leaves.  Development was at 1:100 dilution for 7:10 minutes at 21C.

Hank

Its been a very busy few days in August recently.   My Uncle Walter passed away.  He was my Dad's oldest brother, and my godfather.  If he would have made it a few more days he would have made it to his 98th birthday.  The funeral was in Wetaskiwin on Thursday.  It was good to see a bunch of cousins and relatives, but the circumstances could have been happier.  Although it was sad to say goodbye, when a person lives to almost 100, and was healthy most of their life, then there is really nothing to be sad about.

Then on Friday, Margarit and Annelise and I headed down to Calgary.  We went to my brother Wes's place and attended an East Coast Kitchen Party at his house.  My neice Simone and a bunch of her friends were there, including a young guy named Ryan, who was doing all the cooking.  There were also a bunch of friends of Wes and Barb.  We had a bunch of drinks and played guitar and sang songs all night.  It was a lot of fun.  Anna stayed with her cousin Simone but Margarit and I stayed at a nearby hotel.

Then on Sunday, after breakfast and helping tidy up a little we said our goodbye's to Wes and Barb and hit the road.  

Margarit and the girls have been badgering me for months to get another dog.  I was hoping that the animal population in our house would come down somewhat before we added any more.  We still have four rabbits and two skinny pigs, despite the fact that our two family dogs passed on recently.  But of course, my vote does not count in the slightest, and eventually the girls beat me down.  Margarit and I stopped at a farm near Bluffton on our way home from Nordegg a week ago to look at some puppies.  Of course once Her Nibs saw them, there was no turning back.  We kept it a secret from the girls, and on the way home from Calgary we took a slight detour over to Bluffton to pick up the puppy.  By this point he had had his last vet appointment, and had turned eight weeks old.  

I made four rules when I foolishly agreed to this and I'm going to try to stand firm on them.  We'll see how it goes.  Rule Number One is that I do not have to walk the dog.  Rule Number Two is that I do not have to clean up after the dog, and that the girls will.  Rule Number Three was that I got to select the puppy... and I did.  And Rule Number Four was that I got to name him.  I won on Rule Four... sort of... and got to name the dog, even though many of my names were rejected.  I really wanted a Mike, or a Steve, or a Bruce... but we ended up with Hank.  Hank is actually Hank Yarbo... named after the town Doofus from the TV Series Corner Gas.

Hank is part Jack Russel Terrier and part Cairn Terrier.  He came from a litter of eight... three boys and five girls.  The traits of the two parents were mixed in the litter.  Some had smooth coats while others were a little wiry.  Some had the longer legs of the Jack Russel, while others were shorter from the Cairn.  I selected one of the boys... with a wiry coat and stubby legs.  He's a tiny little guy and can't weigh more than a pound or two.  He sure is getting a lot of attention from the four doting girls in our house.