Easy Chair

Here is another scanned Ilford FP4 negative from the Saskatchewan trip last June.  Like the others that I have recently posted, this one saw the film rated at 160iso and given N+1 Development in HC-110 Developer.

This shot, like the cash register, was taken on that really windy day.  We were forced to try and seek shelter that day, and managed to find some subjects to shoot that were indoors.  This old chair and the rest of the assorted junk were found like this, inside an abandoned building in southern Saskatchewan.

I shot this on June 16th at about 3:45 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a Schneider 110mm lens, with no filter.  Light levels were really low and I had to use a long 32 second exposure to allow for an aperture of F16.0 to hold focus.

Biscayne

On June 19th, while Chris and I were exploring in southern Saskatchewan, we got permission to enter an old scrap yard and photograph a bunch of the old vehicles and machinery.  I found it somewhat overwhelming as there was so much stuff there, it was difficult to key in on anything.  Most of the old iron had suffered some sort of incident that resulted in damage, so a careful selection of vantage point and composition was in order to try and show the best angle.  Feeling somewhat frazzled I think I only did four set-ups with the big camera at this location, and this is one of the better ones.

This negative was part of the batch of Ilford FP4 4" x 5" sheet film that I rated at 160 iso and gave N+1 Development.  Once again, development was in Kodak HC-110 Developer, Dilution B, for 14:20 minutes at 20C.  This combination of slight underexposure and significant over development yields a negative with a lot of contrast.  It is ideal for situations where the lighting is rather flat, and the subject brightness range reduced.  That was exactly what I encountered when I came across this old Chevrolet Biscayne.

I shot this at about 4:00 in the afternoon with my Ebony view camera and a Schneider 135mm lens.  The exposure in daylight was relatively straightforward...  F20.0 and a shutter speed of 1/30 second.

Thrown Hand

Yet another scan of yet another negative from the recent batch of FP4 shot during the Saskatchewan trip.  Once again, this batch of 4" x 5" sheet film was rated at 160 iso and given N+1 Development in Kodak HC-110 Developer, Dilution B, for 14:20 minutes at 20C.

On June 19th at about 1:30 in the afternoon Chris and I were exploring in a small town in southern Saskatchewan.  I ventured in to an old hotel, that had been abandoned for some time.  The doors and most of the windows were gone, and the interior was badly deteriorated.  In one of the rooms, that was getting some light from a north facing window opening, I found this old chair, and a scattered deck of cards.  It was like someone had thrown in their hand, tossed the chair to the side, and walked away from the card game.  At least that's the story that I tried to suggest when I composed this photo.  I think it might work for the Apparitions project....

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a slightly wide 110mm lens, with no filter.  In consideration of the low light conditions, and the need to hold depth of field, I used an exposure of F29.0 and a long shutter speed of 16 seconds.

Old Playground

This old playground in Kelstern appears long forgotten.  There was one abandoned building nearby that looked like an old store of some sort.  A pretty stark reminder of days gone by and the kids that once played here are probably now living on pension income.  I think this one may work for the Apparitions project.

This is another sheet from the batch of Ilford FP4+ given N+1 development in HC-110 Developer.  Although the plus development brought up the tonality in the old wood, it may have blown out the overcast sky.  I have another negative taken at the same time, that is not yet developed.  It remains to be seen which is better.

This one is also from the recent Saskatchewan trip and I shot this on June 17th at about 7:00 in the evening.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a wide-ish 110mm lens with no filter.  The exposure was F22.0 and a shutter speed of 1/8 second.

One Hundred Ten Dollars and Ten Cents

This is a scan of another 4" x 5" negative from the recent Saskatchewan trip.  This is part of the batch of Ilford FP4+, rated at 160 iso, and given N+1 Development in Kodak HC110 developer, Dilution B, for 14:20 minutes at 20C.

I found this old cash register in an abandoned store, in southwestern Saskatchewan.  It seems the last sale was for $110.10....?  A rather large amount back in the day so it seems more likely someone was just messing around with it.

I shot this image on June 16th at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  It was a brisk and windy day and shooting outdoors was challenging.  This location was a bit of a relief as it allowed us to get out of the miserable wind for a while.

The exposure was at an aperture of F14.0 but due to the low light levels inside the building, a long shutter speed of 16 seconds was necessary.

I shot this with my Ebony view camera and a Nikkor 150mm lens, with no filter.  The exposure was at an aperture of F14.0, but because of the low light indoors, a long shutter speed of 16 seconds was necessary.

J Kluzak

This scan, and the next ones coming up over the next several days, were all from the June trip to Saskatchewan.  These are all from the batch of 4" x 5" Ilford FP4 that I recently processed.  These were rated at 160 iso and given N+1 Development in Kodak HC-110 Developer, Dilution B, for 14:20 minutes at 20C.  

The NHL hockey player Gord Kluzak is from Climax, Saskatchewan.  We found this old truck in his home town.  Canuck is a town nearby, and the owner of this truck was probably related.

I shot this on June 13th at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a wide 80mm lens, with no filter.  I stopped the lens down to F41.0 to hold depth of field, which resulted in a shutter speed of 1/8 second.

Blackstone Pebbles

This is another scan from the batch of 4" x 5" Ilford FP4, given N+1 Development in HC-110 Developer.  This is the second image from the batch that was taken before the trip to Saskatchewan.  All the rest of the images were taken more recently, and I will share those in some upcoming posts.

This detail shot is of some river rocks along the gravel bars of the Blackstone River.  This was taken at the spot where the Forestry Trunk Road crosses the river.

I took this shot on June 2nd at about 4:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a long Fujinon 300mm lens.  I had to add an extension factor when I calculated the exposure to compensate for the long bellows draw required to focus this closely.  I stopped the lens way down to F64.0 in an attempt to secure depth of field and this resulted in a long exposure of 1/4 second.  

This camera and lens combination was purchased from my friend Rob Michiel, when he retired from large format shooting a year ago.  I keep that camera out at the cottage all the time, so I don't have to drag gear back and forth every time I go out.  I just bring my tripod and some film holders.

Big Eddy at Whirlpool Point

On July 20th I processed a batch of 4" x 5" Ilford FP4.  This batch required N+1 development to increase contrast.  I ran the film in HC-110 Developer, Dilution B, for 14:20 minutes, at 20C.  The batch of 20 sheets included a number of shots from the recent Saskatchewan trip, as well as some other stuff shot earlier this year.

This is one of those earlier shots....  Back in May my brother in law Shawn and I took a drive from the cottage up to Whirlpool Point.  I attempted to capture the motion of the North Saskatchewan River as it swirled in the Big Eddy below Whirlpool Point.  I used a small aperture and a red filter to allow a long 4 second exposure in the hope that it would show some motion.  It was moderatlely successful, but I'm not thrilled with the image.  Some of the others in the batch are much better, and I will be posting those in the coming days.

Back to the Darkroom

Early on the morning of July 21st, long before the rest of the household awoke, I headed down to the darkroom to work on some printing.  It has been quite some time since I have done any printing.  This time around I made 15 prints, 11" x 14", from six different negatives.  All were portraits, and Margarit has been bugging me for quite some time to get around to printing some of them.

The first one is actually from the Beer Parlour Project.  This was BP 3.0 in September of 2022.  We visited the Elk River Inn in Hozmer, British Columbia.  This is Len Vaness, the owner.  A short time after our visit Len passed away, and the establishment was closed.  I plan to send this print to his family.

The next one is a portrait of Helena, taken in our backyard in the fall of 2017.  She named that stuffed bear Fizz.  It was given to her at the Stollery Children's Hospital when she was very young, and attending appointments dealing with her heart issues.  She would have been about 8 or 9 years old at the time.  This print has been a long time coming as Helena just turned 16 last week.  I'm pretty sure that Lena still has Fizz, but she doesn't carry him around nearly as much as she used to.

The next one is a shot of Margarit and her 1972 Volkswagen Beetle.  I did a few shots of her last summer.  She doesn't like any of them very much, but I do, so I printed these mostly for me.

After that there are two shots of Hailey and Annelise.  These were taken way back in 2012.  We were down by the Red Deer River, camping at one of our favorite spots, the TL Bar Ranch.  The Ranch is still owned by the same family, but is has been shut down for camping for many years.  We have lots of fond memories of staying there and going horseback riding in the badlands.  Hailey would have been about 10 or 11 years old in these shots, and Anna about 7 or 8.  This one has been even longer in getting printed as the girls are now coming 22 and 19.

The last one is another shot of Margarit and her Beetle from last summer.

Early on the morning of the 22nd, when these snapshots were taken, I finished up the prints.  They were held in a water bath after I finished the actual printing part on the 21st.  The next day they got a second fix, a clearing bath, toning in selenium, and then hit the print washer.  Today the prints are still washing and I plan to pull them and hang them to dry later this evening.

Society of Canadian Artists

I just entered three of my images into the Society of Canadian Artists 56th Elected and Associate Members Juried Exhibition.  This is an online exhibition so I will not be faced with the expense of shipping my work anywhere... this time.  I have been a member of the society for several years and in the past I have had my photographs shown at galleries in Ontario and Quebec.  The show is open to art works of all types so I will potentially be shown along with paintings, drawings sculptures, etc.  There are prizes for some of the best work, and my prints can be offered for sale.  These three photographs, from the Apparitions project, are the ones that I have included in my submission.

Busy July

These first couple of weeks of July have been extremely busy.  I'm looking forward to the dog days of summer when hopefully things slow down a little.   

There's lots of stuff going on, and I don't really know where to begin.  My Renegades hockey team has been winding down the summer season.  Unfortunately we had to forfeit a couple of games that were in conflict with watching the Edmonton Oilers play in the Stanley Cup final.  But despite a slow start in a higher division, and these forfeits, and some significant injuries to at least four our of players, we have managed to battle our way into third place in our division.  I will likely miss the last game of the regular season as it will be Helena's 16th birthday, but I made it out to more than half of the games this year.  The playoffs will get started in the third week of July.

Some of Margarit's relatives from Austria visited with us for a week in the first half of July.  Marlena is the daughter of Margarit's second cousin and she visited with her daughter Joy, and her partner Katya.  Prior to stopping in with us they stayed in Point Roberts with Natalia.

Our daughter Anna moved out earlier in the summer but recently decided that she needed to move back home for a while.  Together with her boyfriend she has reluctantly moved back home until they can both find gainful employment.

We brought the Austrian relatives out to Nordegg for a couple of days towards the end of their visit.  I think they quite enjoyed it.  On July 12th Margarit had somewhat of a marathon day.  She had to drive the Austrians from Nordegg to Calgary to catch their flight home.  Then she journeyed to East Coulee to pick up Anna.  From there, they returned to Calgary to pick up Anna's boyfriend at the Calgary airport.  He arrived shortly before midnight, and then they all blasted up to our place in Edmonton.

The next day Margarit blasted back out to Nordegg and we spent a couple of peaceful days together before jumping back into the chaos that has become our lives recently.  We spent a couple of nights together in our bedroom in the guest cottage.

Technically my brother-in-law Shawn and his fiance Lisa were the first to stay in the guest cottage.  But that was over a year ago, when it was still a construction site.  They crashed in there for one night, with an air mattress and sleeping bags.  Since then the cottage has been completed, and almost all of the tools and construction materials have been cleared out.  Margarit and I christened the place by being the first to spend an official night there, since the place has been completed.

Around the same time the tree in the yard on which I had mounted the bat-house, came crashing down.  Carpenter ants had weakened the base by eating through the wood and weakening it.  In the middle of the afternoon it crashed down with a big bang, but fortunately the bat-house was not damaged.  I will have to find another tree to mount it on.

I played golf a couple of times and then on the evening of the 15th Margarit headed back to the city.  I hit the road the next day, after finishing up some chores and cleanup.  I look forward to meeting Anna's boyfriend, and to celebrating Helena's sweet sixteen.

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Gail and Lawson - BP 15.0 - Fife Lake Hotel

These are scans of two more negatives from the recent Saskatchewan trip.  Chris and I visited the Fife Lake Hotel as part of the Beer Parlour Project.  These photographs are of the owners, Gail and Lawson, who have been operating the hotel for 50 years.  They were very gracious hosts, and made us feel very welcome during our visit.

These two photographs were taken on 4" x 5" sheet film... Kodak T-Max 400, rated at 1600iso and push processed in Kodak T-Max Developer, 1:4, for 8:20 minutes, at 24C.

I shot these with my Ebony view camera and a Nikkor 150mm lens.  The first portrait of Gail, was taken on June 18th at around 9:00PM.  The second one of Gail and her husband Lawson, was taken earlier that same evening, at around 6:30PM. 

Given the typical low light levels in a tavern I had to use a rather slow shutter speed... 1/2 second for both images.  This allowed me to stop the lens down a little, to F13.0 for the first image and F11.0 for the second.  Gail and Lawson did a great job of holding still for me, and there is no motion overly evident despite the long exposure.

Fife Lake Four - Beer Parlour Project - BP 15.0

While we were in Saskatchewan back in June, Chris and I managed to line up a couple of outings for the Beer Parlour Project.  The third of those, was arranged somewhat at the last minute.  We more or less just dropped in on the Fife Lake Hotel.  This was a 200km drive from our base and a last ditch effort to squeeze in one more event for our project.

The owners, Lawson and Gail, live next door to the hotel, and have been operating it for about 50 years.  They have certainly seen a lot of change over those five decades.  The hotel is one of the few remaining operating steak pits that we have come across.  You buy a steak, and cook it yourself on the grill, then they round it out with a baked potato and coleslaw.  Chris and I indulged, and it was really good.

This group of locals came down to do the same thing.  We managed to convince them to get these group portraits taken.  This is Clay, Lu, Luree and Mark.  

I shot these two images on Kodak T-Max 400, pushed to 1600iso.  Development was in T-Max Developer, 1:4, for 8:20 minutes at 24C.  I shot both of these group portraits with my Ebony view camera and a Nikkor 150mm lens.  They were taken on June 18th at about 8:00 in the evening.  The exposure for both was F10.0 and a shutter speed of 1/2 second.  The group did pretty well to hold still for the long exposure.

Pontiac

This is the last of the scans from the batch of Ilford HP5 4" x 5", rated at 320 iso and developed in 510 Pyro.  Development was at 1:100, for 7:25 minutes at 24C.

We found this old Pontiac... its a 1939 I think?... some distance away from Grasslands National Park.  It is so skewed and distorted it almosts looks like I shot it with a fisheye lens.  But the old car was just that bent and battered and in fact I shot it with my Ebony view camera and a lens of near normal focal lengths, my Schneider 135mm.  No filter was used.

I shot this on June 15th at about 1:00 in the afternoon.  The exposure was F29.0 and a shutter speed of 1/30 second.

Val Marie Convent

This is another scan from the recent trip to Saskatchewan.  This negative was one of the 4x5 sheets of llford HP5 that I recently processed.  The film was rated at 320 iso and developed in 510 Pyro Developer, 1:100, for 7:25 minutes at 24C.

This building in Val Marie Saskatchewan was formerly a convent.  It is now privately owned and has been converted to a Bed and Breakfast.  I thought the old convent sign out by the gate provided an interesting perspective on this historic structure.

I shot this on June 15th at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used by Ebony view camera and a Schneider 135mm lens.  No filter was used.  The lens had to be stopped way down to F58.0 to hold depth of field from near to far.  This resulted in a shutter speed of 1/8 second.

Ghost Sign

This old abandoned building was in a small town in southern Saskatchewan.  It is obviously not used as a business any longer, but someone owns it, and was storing some stuff inside.  

You can see faint lettering on the pressed tin of the false front.  I can't quite make out what it once said.  Old buildings like this totally fascinate me and I never tire of stumbling across them.

This is from the batch of Ilford HP5, rated at 320iso and developed in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 7:25 minutes, at 24C, that I recently processed.

I shot this with my Ebony view camera and a 150mm lens on June 14th, just after twelve noon.  The exposure was F20.0 and a shutter speed of 1/60 second.

Beer Parlour Project - BP 12.0 Viking Hotel

The day after we visited Warspite, the Beer Parlour Project moved on to The Viking Hotel.  This time around our friend Byron Robb joined us.  Byron is an avid photographer and I've known him since we met while shooting the Forgotten Prairie documentary, several years ago.

We visited Viking on the evening of April 13th.  These are a couple of the negatives that I shot that night with my 4x5 Ebony view camera.  Both were shot on Kodak T-Max 400 film, pushed to 1600iso, and developed in T-Max Developer, 1:4, for 8:20 minutes, at 24C.

The first shot was taken around 6:00 in the evening, and I used my Nikkor 210mm lens.  This is Gabrielle, a town resident that works in the insurance industry.  I love the way that the shot is sort of photo bombed by Doug, visible in the background.  I got a great portrait of Doug on this evening as well, and previously posted it on my blog.

The second shot was taken later in the evening, around 8:30, and I used a wider Fujinon 125mm lens.  This is Byron, shooting pool.  The long shutter speed and resulting blur of the cue ball worked out pretty well.

Swing Set

We found this old school in a small town in southern Saskatchewan.  It is privately owned, and being converted to a residence.  No one was around at the time of our visit so we just took a couple of photographs from the edge of the property.  This image would work well for our Apparitions project.

I have a second negative, not yet developed, which was taken at a slower shutter speed, with the swing moving.  I'm anxious to see that one too.

I shot this on Ilford HP5 film, rated at 320 iso and developed in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 7:25 minutes at 24C.  I used my Ebony view camera and a wide-ish Schneider 110mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter deepened the value of the sky, and lightened the value of the brick.  I shot this on June 14th at about 10:45 in the morning.

Old House Panorama

Now I am starting to post some of the first developed negatives from the recent trip to southern Saskatchewan.  There will be a handful more in the coming days.  And later, once I develop more of the film, I will continue.

This is a cropped 4"x5" large format negative.  I composed the image with the intention of cropping it to panoramic proportions.  We shot this old house from the road, as we did not have permission to enter the property, and did not do so.

This was Ilford HP5 film rated at 320 iso and developed in 510 Pyro, 1:100, for 7:25 at 24C.  I shot this with my Ebony view camera and a Schneider 135mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter increased contrast and created some separation in the sky.  I shot this on June 13th at about 3:00 in the afternoon.

Beer Parlour Project - BP 11.0 Warspite Hotel - Sunny

Here is one more scan from the outing to the Warspite Hotel.  This is Sunny, the owner of the hotel.  His name is actually Sunil, but no one pronounces it properly, so he just calls himself Sunny.  Super nice guy and very accommodating of our Beer Parlour Project.

I shot this on April 12th at around 8:00 in the evening.  This was near the end of our visit.  Like the previous scans that I posted, this was shot on Kodak T-Max 400, pushed to 1600iso.  I used my Ebony view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.

The Beer Parlour Project - BP 11.0 Warspite Hotel

This is a selection of portraits from the Beer Parlour Project outing on April 12th 2024 to the Warspite Hotel.  This was our 11th outing of the project... so we refer to it as BP 11.0.  Chris and I attended this one, but the ladies were unable to join us this time around.  There was a good turnout at the hotel tavern and I was able to take quite a few photographs.

All of these were taken on Kodak T-Max 400, pushed to 1600iso and developed in T-Max Developer, 1:4, for 8:20 minutes, at 24C.  I'm still struggling a bit with adequate lighting, but generally things are improving over previous attempts.

The first shot is of Hope and her grandmother Steph.  This one was taken just before 5:00PM with my Ebony view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.

Next is Shane, a local resident who has lived in the area for some time.  I used the same camera and lens set up for this one, and it was taken just a few minutes later.

We met Doyle and Carol next.  They are planning to get married this summer.  They are on a tour of old hotel taverns just like us.  But their tour was not documentary in nature and they were just experiencing the places and soaking in the vibe.  The second image is cropped somewhat to eliminate some of the foreground highlights.  Both were taken with my Ebony view camera and a Nikkor 210mm lens, at around 6:45 PM.

Connie and Mike are friends.  Mike has a place in the area, and Connie was visiting.  I actually met Connie back in Edmonton at Mimi's Pub, as she is friends with the owner there, as we are.  It was a quirky coincidence that we met up in a small town hotel like this.  I used the same camera set up for this one at it was taken shortly after the portraits of Doyle and Carol.

Finally there is a portrait of Dave and Donna, both local residents.  This was one of my last portraits of the evening and was taken just before 7:00PM with the Ebony and the Nikkor 210mm lens.

All in all I'm fairly pleased with these and they will eventually find their way onto the Beer Parlour Project website.  I will eventually take a crack at printing some of the negatives in my darkroom.

David Thompson Country Calendar - July Image

This is the image that I selected for the July page of my 2024 David Thompson Country Calendar.  This is a view of the confluence of the Blackstone River and Chungo Creek.  This was taken from the Forestry Trunk Road Bridge, about 30km north of Nordegg.

I shot this image over a decade ago... in the summer of 2011.  A very cool place that I return to over and over again.

Church and Gate

This is one of the first sheets of film that I developed from the recent Saskatchewan trip.  We found this old church and gate on our way to Grasslands National Park.

This was a sheet of Ilford HP5 film, rated at 320 iso.  I developed this in 510 Pyro Developer, 1:100, for 7:24 minutes, at 24C.  I shot this on June 13th at about 7:30 in the evening.  I used my Ebony view camera and a long-ish 240mm lens.  A #8 yellow filter was added to increase contrast a little, and create some separation in the sky.  I had to stop the lens way down to F36.0 in order to have enough depth of field to hold both the gate and the church in focus.  The shutter speed was 1/15 second.  I'm quite happy with this shot and will consider it for my Apparitions project.

July Calendar Image

This is the image I selected for the July page of my 2024 Fine Art Monochrome calendar.  I found this old White Transit bus in Saskatchewan when I was touring there a couple of years ago.  I really like old vehicles like this one, and may consider this image for the Apparitions project.

Reynolds Alberta Museum

On Friday July 5th Arturo and I made a return visit to the Reynolds Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin.  When we previously visited, about a month ago, we ran out of time, and weren't able to take all the photographs that we wanted.  That is what prompted our return visit.

This time around we didn't spend any time inside the museum, viewing the restored exhibition pieces.  Instead we went outside and explored some of the un-restored stuff.  There is one large area that includes a number of large pieces of equipment from Alberta coal mines.  There is another area where they have a row of old trucks, many rather unique and unusual.  On this day we focused our attention on these areas.

We will have to return yet again, as there is still more that we have not yet seen.

The weather was fantastic, with clear sunny skies and the temperature peaked at about 25C.  As photographers we would have liked a few more clouds, but one has to play the hand we are dealt.

I shot 24 sheets of 4" x 5" film with my Ebony view camera... 22 black and white and 2 color.  I look forward to getting the film processed and seeing what I captured.  I suspect that several of the images may be worthy of consideration for our Apparitions project.