Empress Theatre

The Town of Fort McLeod owns the restored Empress Theatre.  It is still operational as a theatre that shows movies, but they also have live preformances from time to time.  It is a really cool old building.  While we were in town photographing all the old signs on Historic Main Street, the manager of the Theatre invited us in to have a quick look around.  Unfortunately he was unable to stay longer, so we only had quick tour.  

The old original seats are still in place and it is the only theatre I have ever seen that has a few "double" seats.  How romantic that must have been on date night.  Further restorations are in the works and the next time we are down in the area we will have to try to check out a show.

Old Neon

For the past several years I have been accumulating an archive of photographs of old neon signs.  When we were on our way home from Lethbridge, and visiting Fort McLeod, I noticed that there were several interesting old signs on some of the buildings on historic main street.  Not only did I photograph the sign on the old American Hotel, but I also shot the Queen's Hotel, Chop Suey Restaurant, Johnny's Restaurant and the Empress Theatre.  With the exception of the Queen's Hotel, all of these buildings are occupied and have undergone some level of restoration.  The signs are generally in pretty good shape too.  I took some snapshots of all of them with my phone, but more importantly I shot them on film with my big view camera as well.

I think that my archive now includes images of about fifteen old signs.  Maybe some day I'll put together a portfolio of some kind, or do an exhibition.  I still need to find some additional signs to add to the collection, and this stop was a good start in that direction.

American Hotel

On our way home from Lethbridge we stopped in Fort McLeod and explored the old historic downtown area.  The American Hotel caught our attention, as it is one of the only significant buildings that has not yet been restored.

We spent a couple of hours photographing it and like usual, my big camera attracted some attention.  We learned from some of the locals that a group of about a dozen families from Fort McLeod have purchased the building.  They are looking to start a non-profit society and restore the building for eventual use as low income housing.  It sounds as though the tavern will not be restored or re-opened.

A new roof was put on the building last fall.  All of the openings on the main floor have been secured, and some adjacent structures have been demolished.

It appears that there must have once been an attached building that housed the bathrooms for the tavern.  The footprint of it is still obvious, and there are blue and pink ceramic tiles on the exterior wall around the doors.

I understand that a clean up of the interior is underway, and that the electrical is being upgraded so that they have power to work on the restoration.  It will be interesting to see what it looks like when it is all done.  Though, as a fine art photographer I much prefer to photograph old historic buildings while they are in a state of decay, and before restorations are undertaken.

June 23rd

The long suffering Mrs Pohl and I celebrated our 22nd wedding Anniversary on June 23rd.  I'm not quite sure how she has managed to put up with me for this long... but I count my blessings...!

This print is a Ziatype print made from a 4x5 negative.  A family friend, the late Clive Figueriedo, who was a guest at our wedding, took the photograph and made the print.

Roadside Junk

The friends that I was travelling with, and my wife Margarit all love to sleep in.  On the contrary, I'm usually awake at first light.  The summer solstice occurred while we were on our road trip, so the days are very long, and the sun comes up very early.

I noticed, on our way back to Lethbridge, after visiting Writing-On-Stone, that there were a number of old abandoned vehicles along the highway.  We could have stopped at that point, but it was late in the day, everyone was tired, the light had gone flat, and the wind had picked up.

On the morning of June 22nd I got up early and went out for a drive.  I left the others behind, sleeping in our rental house.  By 7:30AM I had already reached my first location, about 20 minutes outside of Lethbridge, and taken my first photograph of the day.  I had to sort of deal with some backlight, that made shooting a bit of a challenge, but conditions were still better than they had been the evening before.  I spent a couple of hours shooting in two different locations, and arrived back at the rental house around 9:30AM, before the others got up.  Later we had breakfast and then packed up and hit the road for the long drive back to Edmonton.

Writng-On-Stone Provincial Park

On the morning of June 20th Margarit, Sharon, Arturo and I packed up and checked out of our hotel in Okotoks.  Margarit's knee was feeling a little better, but was still pretty sore.  The weather was terrible, and it poured rain most of the day.  Fortunately this was scheduled to be a travel day, so the weather didn't really impact us.

We headed from Okotoks over to Longview and checked out the film camera store.  We met a really cool

guy named Dave Marshall that ran the store.  He had a small store that sold use film cameras and related supplies.  But he had also constructed a sizeable new space next door and set that up to manufacture darkroom chemistry.  We learned from Dave that Kodak had recently ceased production of all darkroom chemistry.  It was nice to find out that we had a somewhat local source of replacement materials.  Dave also ran an operation spooling large bulk rolls of 35mm film onto canisters.  He had some specialty branded film that he sold under his own name, but he was also providing the service to a number of international film suppliers.  He was not at liberty to let us know who they were.....

After leaving Longview we continued on to Fort McLeod and Lethbridge.  We saw a few things along the way that we hoped to check out on our return trip, with hopefully some better weather.

I had rented us a house in West Lethbridge and we headed over there and unloaded our gear.  The house was in a neighborhood that was a little neglected and run down, and was very unassuming from the exterior.  But the interior of the home was very nicely decorated and fully equipped.  It was a very comfortable space with lots of room.

On the morning of June 21st, the first day of summer, we headed out from Lethbridge for the day.  Margarit's knee was feeling better still.  We headed southeast to Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park.  It was our intention to photograph the ancient petroglyphs in the archaeological preserve.  My attempt at online booking was unsuccessful and it appeared this would not be an option.  But, as it turned out, it was National Indigenous Peoples Day and they were conducting free tours into the site.  The tours were short, as there were a lot of people around.  I spoke to one of the park supervisors and she agreed to allow us a little extra time to attempt to photograph the rock art.  It was all that we could ask on short notice and given the circumstances.

We returned to Lethbridge in the early evening and went out for dinner to a local restaurant called Miro's Bistro.  It came very highly recommended by the hosts of the house we had rented.  It was exceptionally good, and one of the best meals I have had in quite some time.  Margarit and I had braised beef in gorgonzola sauce with spaetzli and fresh vegetables, while Arturo and Sharon had rack of lamb.

Turner Valley Gas Plant

On Sunday June 18th Margarit and I met up with our friends Arturo and Sharon and headed south.  We were taking a five day road trip down to southern Alberta.  We knew of some locations that we wanted to explore for potential images for the Apparitions project.

On Sunday evening we checked into a hotel in Okotoks, went out for dinner, and then settled in for the evening.  On Monday morning, we headed 25km west to Turner Valley and the Turner Valley Gas Plant Historic Site.  I had made prior arrangements for an all day private tour of the site.  Fortunately the weather let up a little, and wasn't too bad.  All the way down on Sunday it rained most of the way.  We didn't get any rain on Monday, but it was cool and breezy and mostly overcast.

We had to complete a photographer's application to tour the site, and we had to sign waivers, and we had to pay for two interpreters to accompany us for the day, and a security deposit.  It actually took quite a bit of time through the spring months to connect with the right people and arrange this.  Some scenes from the movie Ghostbusters were shot here in 2020 or 2021 and the site was familiar with making arrangements to accommodate photographers and film crews.  It was not inexpensive, but it made the day so much more relaxed and easy and I'm glad we took the time to do it right.

Dustin and Darrell were great hosts, and they spent the day with us.  They unlocked all the buildings that we were permitted to access, and allowed us to photograph as long as we wanted to.  We ended up staying for about six hours.  They also offered us an explanation of how the site operated and what all the equipment was for.  The Dingman wells #1, #2 and #3 were drilled in the immediate area back around 1914.  The gas plant originally opened in the 1920's.  Many things were changed and added and modified over the years and the plant continued to operate until the 1980's.  It has been shut down ever since and was designated a Provincial and Federal Historic site.  Our guides both grew up in the area.  Dustin's father and grandfather worked at the plant and his family originally lived next door.  Darrell worked at the plant near the end of it's operation.  We got to tour the compressor building, the scrubber building, the gasoline plant, and one other building.

Unfortunately Margarit had a really sore knee and couldn't walk very well.  She had to stay behind in the truck and spent the day reading.  The rest of us toured the site and took quite a number of photographs.  I'm confident that I will end up with at least a couple of images for consideration in our Apparitions project.  At the very least it was a most enjoyable day.

June Snow

On June 18th it rained heavily in Edmonton and most of central Alberta.  Out west in the mountains it turned to snow.  I understand that sections of the Icefields Parkway in Banff and Jasper National Parks were closed.  Out at our place in Nordegg we got a bunch of snow.  I have not been out there yet to see it first hand, but based on my video cameras and my weather station, it is pretty significant.  We got 11mm of rain on the 18th of June, and an additional 70mm on the 19th.  The weather station only records melted precipitation, so perhaps we had even more and it was not recorded.  The video cameras showed that everything was white, and many of the small poplars in the yard were bent over in the snow.  The forecast is calling for more rain and snow right through into Wednesday.  This sure helps with the drought concerns, and with all the forest fires, but at some point enough is enough.

Winding Down

On Sunday June 11th it cooled off and the long awaited showers finally materialized.  Unfortunately they did not last, and did not bring a lot of rain.  All told we got just under 6mm... about 3/16 of an inch.

In the morning I took my view camera out and attempted to photograph some bunchberry blossoms.  As luck would have it, the rain started just as I got the camera set up.  But botanical shots such as this look better in soft, overcast light, and with some raindrops on the leaves.  Compare these two snapshots included below to a couple I took a few days ago of the same bunchberry blossoms and I think most would agree that these are better.

I finished up the last of the electrical while the off and on showers rolled through.  This was the last remaining circuit, the one for the tank alarms.  I had the high level alarm for the water storage cistern so I installed that.  I don't have the alarm for the septic tank yet but I finished up the circuit.  This septic alarm is mounted in the crawl space and just plugs in to a regular receptacle.  Then I ran the wire that was previously roughed in to the tank, into the crawl space.  This will be for the float switch, and simply has to be connected to the alarm when the time comes.  I had to mount an exterior PVC junction box on the exterior wall to run everything into.  

A little more backfilling is needed in front of the cottage, and when that happens the extension cord that is visible in my snapshot will be buried.  It was a little too short so I added another short length of cord to it, and some protective covers for the connections.  This is for the heat trace tape that is wrapped around our buried sewer line.  As we are on solid bedrock we could not bury the tank very deep, and even though a mound was created to cover everything, and the line is insulated, it is not very far beneath the surface.  The heat trace tape will allow us to prevent the line from freezing if the cottage sees any use during extremely cold weather.

On Monday June 12th it was sunny, though the smoke from the wildfires had rolled back in.  In the morning, while it was still cool, I buzzed the drone up for a few snapshots.  Then in the late morning, before it got too hot, I went and played a round of golf.  I was the only one on the course for most of the morning so I ended up playing two balls.  This allowed me to play 18 holes while only walking the 9 hole course once.  My score was slightly better than my previous round, but not by much.  Once again, my tee shots were pretty good, but everything else left something to be desired.  I shot a 49 with one ball and a 46 with the other.

Now that all the glue and paint is dry on the pantry I stood it up to make room for other work.  I hope to get a few more chores accomplished in the guest cottage before I have to head back home to the city.  In the afternoon I took a spin on the side-by-side over to Shunda Creek.  I wandered around there for a bit with my camera and took a couple of photos.  Then when I retured I put a coat of paint on the door jamb for the bathroom.  That saw my day come to an end, and it was nice to have a break from all the work I've been doing lately.