On The Road Again.....

On April 8th I set out from home for another edition of the Beer Parlour Project.  We rented the same AirBnB in Macklin, Saskatchewan that we rented twice last year.  This would be our base for five days as we explored the area.  The weather was really up and down.  Some days the temperature was up into the plus double digits, while other days it was only slightly above zero.  We saw the sun off and on, but most of the time it was cloudy.  For pretty much the entire time there was a cold wind blowing, which made things rather uncomfortable.  All the same it was nice to get out.

I met up with Chris in the town of Strome.  He was travelling with our part time Beer Parlour Project collaborator, Byron.  Sadly Arturo was unable to join us this time around.  When we passed through the area last year, we stopped at the Strome Hotel and it was just in the process of being re-opened.  This time around it was up and running, and had been painted a bright yellow on the exterior.  We stopped for lunch and got a feel for the vibe of the place.  It seems it is more a restaurant than a bar so we reserved judgement on whether or not we would return for an official visit.

Later we stopped in at the old hotel in Hardisty.  We had a beer with the owner Rick and introduced ourselves and the project.  We didn't have time for an official visit on this trip, but it seems like a good possibility for a future visit, when we are back in the area.  

We hit the road and ended up rolling into Macklin in the late afternoon.  We checked into the rental house, off loaded our gear.  We headed over to the local bar and grill for something to eat before returning to the house and settling down for the evening.

Mine Buildings

I processed a mixed batch of Infrared film back on March 20th.  This included three different types of film, all in the same developer.  Back in the early 2000's I purchase a couple of boxes of a new, at the time, infrared film.  This was Maco IR820C Aura.  I believe that Maco was affiliated with, or was a brand name of Efke.  Shortly after that the plant used by both companies suffered a fatal equipment breakdown on their sheet film manufacturing line.  All of the sheet film products were immediately discontinued.  I shot some of the film that I had purchased, and then for a decade or more a partial box of 4" x 5" laid around in my freezer.  Last year I decided that I'd better load this stuff and use it up.

So this batch of film had a best before date of April 2007.  I loaded this sheet into a film holder in February of 2025, and got around to exposing it a couple of months later.  I unloaded the exposed film and stored it in my fridge until this past March, when I finally developed it.  

The film was developed in Kodak T-Max Developer, 1:4, for 7:00 minutes at 24C.  I messed up a little as I intended to give 8:30 minutes of development, so the negative was a little thin.

This is a shot of the coal tipple and wash building at the Nordegg Historic site.  I shot this on April 18th 2025, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a wide Schneider Super Angulon 90mm lens.  A #25 Red filter blocked a good part of the visible spectrum allowing the film to be exposed more by infrared wavelengths.  The exposure was for 1/4 second at F22.0.

Nordegg Visits

In late March and early April I made a couple of trips out to Nordegg.  Mostly the weather was pretty miserable.  March went out like a lion and we had quite a bit of snow remaining on the ground, even though it had been totally bare a couple of weeks prior.  It was not particularly warm, and we kept getting more dumps of snow.

From March 28th to 30th I went out to the cottage with my daughter Helena and three of her friends.  They were all on Spring Break from High School.  Evan, Kai and Max joined Helena... and me... for the weekend.  I stayed in the main cottage for the most part, and left the kids over the in the guest cottage.  It seemed they had fun, despite the crappy weather.  I was fighting a bad cold and mostly just laid low, and didn't do much other than ride herd on the kids.  I took them for a drive up to Abraham Lake, and also into town to get pie at the Miner's Cafe.

Then from April 3rd to 6th Margarit and I went back out.  It was mild at first, but then got colder and we were faced with yet more snow.  This was the Easter weekend, and Easter Sunday fell on Margarit's birthday this year.  We had a couple of nice dinners together, got caught up on a few chores, and mostly just relaxed.

I set up a sump pump in our exterior sump, so that we can deal with all the meltwater when it finally warms up.  When we get periods of heavy rain or a quick spring thaw we sometimes get a little water in our crawlspace and the sump pump helps us to avoid that.

I also mounted a TV on the wall in the guest cottage, and attempted to service one of our furnaces that has been problematic.  I couldn't solve the problem and will have to get my mechanical contractor out at some point.  Its not a huge issue as we have other heat sources and mostly heat with wood when we are out there.

I washed all the bedding from the weekend prior when Helena and her friends were out, and made up all the beds again.  Then I turned my attention to a couple of trees out in the yard.  There has been a lot of strong winds this spring and we had about five standing dead trees come down.  None did any damage at they weren't close to any buildings.  But a couple of them became hung up in adjacent trees so I cut these down.  Later when it warms up I will have to finish the job and cut these all to stove length and split them.

While I was out in the yard I noticed some Elk tracks in the fresh snow.  It turns out the Elk and the Deer have been coming around to gnaw the bark off of these recently downed trees.  We see the deer all the time but the elk are rare visitors.  Later I checked the footage on my security camera and it confirmed that it was indeed an elk.

Shortly after Margarit and I returned to the city there was even more snow in Nordegg.  It seems the sump pump won't need to run for a little longer.

Manager's Shower

This is a scan of a 4"x5" color negative.  This was part of the first batch of C-41 chemistry that I ran on March 22nd.  This is a sheet of Kodak Portra 160VC, which had a best before date of January 2008.  I keep the film frozen all these years, but loaded it into a film holder in November of 2023.  It sat around until I exposed it in the fall of 2024.  Then I returned the exposed film to the fridge, and it stayed there until I recently developed it.

This is the Manager's shower at the Nordegg Historic Site.  Management staff had a separate shower from the main one used by all the miners.  The old concrete walls, and whatever coating has been applied to them, have a beautiful patina.  Usually I photograph here at the historic site with Black and White film, but I thought this one deserved a color shot.

I took this photograph on September 9th of 2024, at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide 75mm lens.  The exposure was for 16 seconds at F32.0.

BP14.0 Cadillac Hotel

This is yet another scan of a 4" x 5" color negative.  I developed this one in my first batch of C-41 that I ran back in March.  This was a sheet of Kodak Portra 160VC.  The film expired in March of 2012, was loaded into the holder in June of 2024, exposed that same month, and then processed now in 2026.  It stood up reasonably well, though there is some color shift.

I shot this image on June 18th of 2024 at about 10:00 in the morning.  Chris and I were visiting southern Saskatchewan for the Beer Parlour Project.  We stayed in a rental property just up the street from this old hotel.  Sadly, a couple of months after our visit the hotel closed and was put up for sale.  To the best of my knowledge it has not re-opened.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a long 300mm lens.  I added a Blue/Orange color polarizing filter to saturate the colors a little.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F18.0.

Backside

This one is from the second batch of C-41 Color Negative film that I developed on March 23rd.  I used one of the Jobo press kits that I bought several years ago.  It is a dry chemistry kit that is mixed up immediately before use.

This was a batch of 4"x 5" sheet film that I ran, along with some other stuff, including... some sheets of 8"x10" and some rolls of 35mm.  With this second batch now done, I will probably wait a year or so to accumulate more color negatives.  Once I get enough exposed film saved up, I will mix up another batch of the chemistry.

This particular shot was taken on a sheet of Kodak Ektar 100.  This was a relatively fresh batch of film, unlike much of the other stuff I have recently been using.  This batch had an expiry date of July 2024.  I loaded the film into a film holder in April of 2024, and exposed it a year later.

Margarit and I were down in Stettler Alberta in the spring of last year.  We were visiting and staying at the old Stettler Hotel.  Chris was there with us and we were exploring for another episode of the Beer Parlor Project... Number BP23.0.

This was the backside of the hotel, facing the alley, taken the morning after our visit.  I took this photograph on April 26th 2025, at about 12:30 in the afternoon.  I shot this with my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Nikkor 210mm lens.  This is an slightly long focal length for this format, and what one might refer to as a portrait lens.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F29.0.

Old Store?

I think this building was once a store or business of some kind.  It appears there is a ghost sign visible on the false front, though I can't make out what it says.

This is a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak Portra 160VC.  Chris and I were in west central Saskatchewan in the spring of 2025, visiting some old hotels for the Beer Parlour Project.  Our evenings were spent in hotel taverns, but our days were spent out exploring and photographing.  This building was in a small town called Eavesham.

This batch of film had an expiry date of March 2012.  I loaded this sheet into a film holder in May of 2024, and shot it a year later.  This was my second batch of C-41 chemistry that I back in late March.

I took this photograph on May 8th of 2025 at about 10:00AM.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camear and a wide, 90mm Rodenstock Lens.  I added to Blue/Orange Color polarizing filter for this one, to saturate the colors.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F18.0.

Cottonwood

I processed a batch of Fuji Neopan Acros 100 a couple of months ago and this is a scan of one of those sheets.  I shot this image when the Monochrome Guild visited Dinosaur Provincial Park in 2024.  This was the year before the trip that my daughter Helena came along on.

I rate my 4"x5" Acros film at 80iso and give a half stop of extra development.  Development was in Rodinal 1:50 for 11:00 minutes at 24C.  I used the Adox APH-09 version of Rodinal.

I took this shot on October 17th of 2024 at about 3:40 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide Rodenstock 90mm lens.  A #8 Yellow filter separated the clouds a little and brought up the value of the fall foliage.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F22.0.

Ice Bells

This is a scan of a recently processed sheet of Efke PL25M film.  This film was discontinued a number of years ago, but I still have several fifty sheet boxes of 4" x 5" in my freezer, and will continue to shoot it for some time.  I rate the film at 10iso, so it allows long shutter speeds, even in broad daylight. 

I threw a few sheets of it into the mixed batch that I developed on March 12th, just to fill up the tanks to 20 sheets.  Development was in Rodinal 1:50, for 7:00 minutes, at 24C.  I used the Adox APH-09 version of Rodinal.

I shot this last fall when Margarit and I were out for a walk.  These ice bells formed along Dry Haven Creek, west of our place in Nordegg.  I shot this on November 6th at about 1:20 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a long Fujinon 300mm lens.  The exposure was for 16 seconds at F25.0.

David Thompson Country Calendar 2026 - April Image

This is the image that I selected for the April page of my 2026 David Thompson Country Calendar.  The calendar is in a larger square format, 12" x 12", which allows me to include images in both portrait and landscape orientation.  I believe there are still a couple of copies left for sale at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg.

These parts bins are in the Company Store up at the Nordegg Historic site.  I was visiting with permission, on a tour, when I took this photograph.  I've printed this one in the darkroom and I'm also considering it for the Apparitions project.

Fence Post and House

This is another scan of a 4" x 5" color negative from the recently processed batch.  On March 23rd I mixed up a second batch of C-41 chemistry and ran my Jobo Processor again.  I finished up the last of my 4x5 film in that batch, and also ran a little 8x10 and 35mm stuff.

This one is also from the trip down to southern Saskatchewan in 2024.  This house was out on the open prairie, north of Grasslands National Park.  Chris and I were exploring in the area on June 15th of 2024, and I took this photography at about 3:30 in the afternoon.

I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a somewhat wide 110mm lens.  A Blue/Orange color polarizing filter increased saturation.  This sheet of film, like some of the previous ones, was outdated, having expired in August of 2013.  It was a sheet of Kodak Ektar 100.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F25.0.

Which House

One more from the recent batch of color negatives that I developed on March 22nd.  This is a scan of a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak Ektar 100.  The film reached it's best before date in August of 2013.  I loaded it into a film holder in October of 2023, exposed it in 2024, and developed it in 2026.  Despite this, it turned out alright.

I really like this composition and I have printed the Black and White version of it in the darkroom.  I am considering the print for exhibition in the Apparitions project.  I have a lot of prints to select from and have to somehow narrow things down to the final 16.  The issue is that in addition to the 30 plus prints that I already have done, I keep taking new ones that should be considered.

This old house sits all alone down in southern Saskatchewan.  It is well known among photographers as the Witch House.  I like to refer to it as Which House.  There have been a number of Halloween shots taken here over the years, and it is often used a foreground for astrophotography.  My approach is more straightforward and traditional.

I shot this on June 16th of 2024 at about 6:00 in the evening.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a 135mm lens.  A Blue/Orange color polarizing filter increased saturation.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F16.0.

See Saw

Another scan of a 4" x 5" color negative from the batch that I processed on March 22nd.  This time around the film was not really outdated... at least not when it was exposed.  This is a sheet of Kodak Ektar 100, which had an expiry date of July 2024.

I shot this one on June 14th of 2024 at about 11:00 in the morning.  Chris and I were out exploring while on our trip in southern Saskatchewan.  This old school has been purchased and is in the process of being restored and converted to a private residence.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a wide 80mm lens.  The Blue/Orange Color polarizer was used to saturate the colors.  The exposure was for 1/15th second at F25.0.

Land of Living Skies

This is another scan of a 4" x 5" color negative, from the batch that I processed on March 22nd.  This is another sheet of Kodak Portra 160VC, also with an expiry date of January 2008.  The shot of this old house was taken in the same general area as the previous post of the old truck.

I took this shot on June 13th of 2024, at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a Schneider 135mm lens.  A Blue/Orange Color polarizing filter was used to make the colors a little more saturated and unreal.  The exposure was for 1/30 second at F22.0.

Old Truck

This is a scan of one of the 4" x 5" color negatives that I developed on March 22nd.  I set up my Jobo CPP-3 Processor, and mixed up a batch of C-41 chemistry.  This was a sheet of Kodak Portra 160VC.  The film expired in 2008, I loaded into a film holder in 2023, I exposed in in 2024, and I processed it in 2026.  The colors shifted a little, and I played around with the scan in Photoshop a little bit.  But considering its age, it turned out pretty well.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a 135mm lens.  The photo was taken on June 13th of 2024, at about 2:15 in the afternoon.  The exposure was for 1/60 second at F25.0.

Chris and I were exploring in southwestern Saskatchewan in the spring of 2024.  I was looking for subject matter for my "Apparitions" project and we were both visiting old hotels for the "Beer Parlour Project".  We found this old truck in one of the towns that we visited, and just had to photograph it.  It says J Kluzak Canuck on the door.  Canuck was a town in the same general area, that no longer exists.  Gord Kluzak was a professional hockey player in the NHL who grew up in the area.  This truck probably belonged to a relative of his.  Gord was drafted first overall by the Boston Bruins in 1982, and is about a year younger than me.  He was forced to retire from playing at the age of 27, after only 299 games, as a result of numerous knee injuries.

April Calendar Image

This is the image I selected for the April page of my 2026 Fine Art Monochrome calendar.  This is the personal calendar that I make every year, and give away to friends and family.

This shot was taken last year up at Beaverdam Lake.  This is essentially just a widening of Shunda Creek, not far from my cottage.

This shot was taken with my big 8" x 10" view camera.  This is a scan of a sheet of Ilford HP5+ 400 rated at 320iso and developed in 510 Pyro.  I took the shot with my Chamonix 810V view camera and a slightly wide Nikkor 240mm lens.  A #25 Red filter lowered the value of the sky, the water and the shadowed trees.  I took this photograph on April 22nd of 2025, at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F32.0.

Fenders

This is another scan from the mixed batch of film that I processed on March 14th.  I ran a batch of twenty sheets of 4" x 5" film in Kodak HC-110 Developer, Dilution B.

This particular image was on a sheet of J&C Classic 200 film, which I gave N+1 development.  This was for 8:30 minutes at 20C.

I took this photograph up at the Nordegg Historic Site last fall.  It was on September 3rd 2025, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I shot it with my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and an old Fujinon 150mm lens.  The lens does not function well, and you have to lock the shutter open on the "B" setting in order to compose the image.  But the shutter itself seems reasonably accurate, and the glass is good.  The exposure for this one was 1/8 second at F20.0.

Grader

This scan if from the mixed batch of film that I ran on March 14th.  This is a 4" x 5" sheet of J&C Classic 200, rated at 200iso and given N+1 Development in HC110 Developer, dilution B, for 8:20 minutes at 20C.  

I took this shot on one of my many visits up to the Nordegg Historic Site.  This old grader remains up at the mine and obviously hasn't run for a long time.  It likely dates back to the final days of the mine, in the mid 1950's.  

This photograph was taken on September 9th of 2024, at about 1:20 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide Rodenstock 90mm lens.  A #8 Yellow Filter lightened the value of the grader, which was painted in Caterpillar yellow.  The exposure was for 1/2 second at F25.0.

End of the Seasons

Winter Hockey is done for 2026.  I played my last game in the Vintage league on Tuesday March 24th.  This level of hockey is much slower and more relaxed than the beer league hockey I have been playing with my Renegades team.  After a couple of seasons, I'm now getting to know a bunch of the guys a little better and really enjoying this.  I will be playing in the Spring/Summer season which starts in early April and runs until the end of June.  It will be mostly a bunch of different players that I will play with for the summer, though there are a handful that I know and have played with before.  I will be away in Saskatchewan for some Beer Parlour Project outings at the beginning of April, and will miss the first game.  But I expect to make most of the games after that.  We play every Thursday morning at 11:15AM.

The Renegades just wrapped up our season in the Alberta Men's Hockey League.  We made it to the playoffs after finishing the regular season in 5th place.  We played the best of three quarter final against the fourth place Gamblers, and beat them in two straight.  Then we moved on to the best of three semi-final against the first place Outlaws.  We took it to three games but came up short and did not advance to the final.  I am now scrambling to see if I can get enough guys to commit to summer hockey with the Renegades, though its not looking very good.  The summer season in this league runs from May until August.

Of course outside hockey in Nordegg has been finished for a few weeks already.  The mild spell in mid March ruined the ice and its too late in the season to consider working on it, despite the recent cold snap.  March sure is going out like a lion this year.  There was about a foot of snow in late March and it has been very cold.  It bodes well for the upcoming wildfire season.

These are two of the retro jerseys that I wore when I played outside hockey this winter.  One is a Montreal Canadiens - #9 Maurice Richard.  The other is a Charleston Chiefs #16 - one of the Hanson brothers from the movie Slapshot.

Butte End

This is a scan of another 4" x 5" sheet of Efke PL25M film that I developed in the mixed batch on March 12th.  This was in Rodinal Developer, 1:50, for 7:00 minutes at 24C.  Agfa went out of business years ago so the true Rodinal formula is no longer available.  But several other manufacturers produce the formula under various names.  I used the Adox APH-09 version for this batch.

This is a shot from the fall trip last year with the Monochrome Guild.  This is the trip that my youngest daughter Helena came along on... together with a bunch of old geezers...  Me, Nigel, Arturo and Gord.  She had a good time, as we all did.  We really enjoyed the afternoon spent at Dinosaur Provincial Park.  The weather was mild, but not hot, and there was some glorious clear fall light.

I took this shot on October 21st 2025 at about 3:20 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Nikkor 200mm lens.  No filter was used.  The exposure was for 1 second at F32.0.

C-41 Processing

A few days ago I set up my Jobo Processor, and mixed up some C-41 chemistry.  C-41 is the process that is used to develop color negative film.  It is pretty straight forward, but needs to have the temperature maintained at 38C for the entire process.  The temperature controlled water bath of the Jobo processor is ideal for this.

C-41 is also used with chomogenic black and white films.  I believe that the only one that is still made is Ilford's XP-2.  The silver particles in the emulsion are converted to dye during the development process and this results in virtually grainless negatives.  I wish they still made this film in 4" x 5" format, but sadly it is only made in 35mm and 120 roll formats.

I don't shoot a lot of color film, and I generally save up the exposed film in the fridge until I have a large enough batch to justify mixing up the chemistry and setting up the processor.  I generally only shoot about 20 sheets per year of 4x5 and around 5 of the larger 8x10.  The film has become very costly and I am mostly just using up old stock that I have on hand.  New stock costs about $12 per sheet for 4x5 and $45 per sheet for 8x10, and the chemistry is about $65 per 1L kit.  Obviously I have to be very selective about what I shoot.  This time around I had accumulated 45 sheets of 4" x 5", five sheets of 8" x 10", and three rolls of 35mm.  One of those 35mm rolls was some XP2 black and white that I shot on a Beer Parlour Project outing.  I used two 1L kits to process all of the film.

The Expert Drums that I use on my Jobo hold 10 sheets of 4"x5"... and I have a larger one that holds 5 sheets of 8" x 10".  So this was five drums to run the 4x5 stuff, plus 1 for the 8x10, and a third tank to run the 35mm.  It took me a couple of days to get through all this stuff.

This scan is a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak Portra 160VC.  This is the North Saskatchewan River, upstream of Abraham Lake, on the Kootenay Plains.  I took this shot almost two years ago, in 2024.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 180mm lens.  No filter was used.  I took the shot on May 13th of 2024 at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  I seem to recall that my brother in law Shawn and I were out on an afternoon drive from the cottage.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F29.0.

Dry Haven Creek

This is a recent photograph, taken last fall.  When I was running a batch of Rollei film on March 12th, I added a few sheets of Efke PL25M to fill the tanks.  This is one of those sheets.  I was using Rodinal Developer, the Adox APH-09 version, diluted 1:50 at 24C.  The Efke stuff was developed for 7:00 minutes.

Margarit and I were out for a walk along Dry Haven Creek, west of Nordegg, last fall.  It is a really interesting time as ice was starting to form on the creek, but there really wasn't much snow yet.  I took this shot on November 6th 2025, at about 1:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a 180mm lens.  The exposure was for 8 seconds at F29.0. 

Alsike Corner

This old service station was in operation for many years.  I remember driving by a few times, in the not too distant past, and it was still in operation.  By the fall of 2024, when I took this photograph, it appeared to have been closed for a little while.  A competitor had set up not far away, and it seems the old place couldn't survive.  This place sits at the junction of Highway 20 and Highway 39.  There is no town there, just a couple of businesses.  There are much larger centers to the east and to the west.  Even the old phone booth has been out of service for many years.  It seems we don't need these any more and the only functioning ones I have seen in recent years were in Saskatchewan.

I took this photograph on September 1st of 2024, at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  This is a sheet of Rollei RPX-25 that I processed on March 12th, in part of that mixed batch.  This was in Rodinal Developer, 1:50, for 11:30 minutes.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide Rodenstock 90mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter significantly lowered the value of the clear blue fall sky.  The exposure was for 4 seconds at F25.0.

Dinosaur Provincial Park

This is a scan of a negative processed on March 14th.  This was a mixed batch, developed in Kodak HC-110 Developer, dilution B.  This particular 4" x 5" sheet was Ilford FP4+, given N+1 development.  The film was rated at 160iso and developed for 14:20 minutes, to boost contrast.

I took this photo last fall when my daughter Helena and I travelled with some of the guys from the Monochrome Guild on our annual fall trip.  We stayed in East Coulee, and explored around the Drumheller area, as well as at Dinosaur Provincial Park, near Brooks.

I took this shot on October 21st at about 3:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a long 250mm lens.  A #8 Yellow filter added a little extra separation of tone.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F22.0.

Miner's Grafitti

This is a scan of another negative from that mixed batch of film I processed on March 12th.  Like the previous shots, this is also a sheet of Rollei RPX-25.  I rate the film at 12iso, and develop in Rodinal 1:50 for 11:00 minutes at 24C.  It works well enough, but I find the film a little contrasty, and the exposures often become really long.  I'm undecided whether to keep shooting it after my current stock runs out.

I found these names and dates scratched and pecked in the wall of one of the buildings at the Nordegg Historic Site.  I toured the site with permission numerous times over the past couple of years.  I've been in this building at least a dozen times before, and never noticed this until the light hit it just right.

I shot this with my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a Fujinon 180mm lens.  A swing on the front standard helped to hold the image plane a little better in focus.  This photograph was taken on September 24th of 2025 at about 1:45 in the afternoon.  The exposure was for 4 minutes at F20.0.  

Shoreline Pebbles

This is another negative from the mixed batch of film that I processed on March 12th.  This is a scan of a 4" x 5" sheet of Rollei RPX-25 that was developed for 11:00 minutes in Rodinal 1:50, at 24C.

I shot this image on the shore of the Blackstone River, along the Forestry Trunk Road.  The photograph was taken on June 2nd 2024, at about 3:50 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45Ti view camera and a long Fujinon 300mm lens.  The bellows had to be drawn out to almost 400mm to focus this close, which required exposure compensation of an extra 1/3 stop.  The exposure was for 8 seconds at F64.0.

Dinosaur Park Rills

This is another negative from that mixed batch of film I processed on March 14th.  The developer was Kodak HC-110, Dilution B.  This is another sheet of the now defunct J&C Classic 200 in 4" x 5".  The film certainly has a bit of grit and harshness to it, particularly in this developer.  I think it was probably the Foma 200 film that was just custom branded for J&C Photo, but that is only a guess.

This shot is from the fall trip to Dinosaur Park with the Monochrome Guild.  This shot is NOT from the trip last fall, in 2025.  Rather it is from the year prior, as we also went to southern Alberta in the fall of 2024.  This shot was taken on October 17th 2024, at about 12:45 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter lowered the value of the sky, and the shadows, and added contrast.  The exposure was for 1/4 second at F29.0.

Another Old One

This negative is from the mixed batch of twenty sheets that I developed on March 14th.  The developer was HC-110 Dilution B.  The batch included one sheet of Arista EDU, four recently exposed sheets of Ilford FP4+, and 15 sheets of J&C Classic 200.  The Arista and J&C received 8:30 minutes of development at 20C.  The FP4+ was developed longer, for plus development.

J&C Photo was a film supplier based in the midwest States.... Kansas City I believe...?  They were great to deal with and I bought a bunch of film from them.  It seem to recall it was in the late 1990's.  Then, they suddenly went out of business.  Rumor was it was some sort of frivolous lawsuit filed by a disgruntled customer.  Fortunately most of their product line was picked up by other suppliers.  At the time they were in operation they were the only source for some rather unique film and paper.  I miss them....

This shot was taken at the Leduc Number One historic site.  It is the interior of an old International Truck.  This particular film, the J&C Classic 200, does not do a great job of handling shadow detail, at least in combination with HC-100 developer.  It was probably a poor choice on my part to select it for this particular image.  The shadow areas were spot metered at an exposure value of around 9 to 9-2/3, which the highlights on the seat and the windshield fell as high as EV15 to 16.  I exposed at EV 12, which held the highlight values alright, but the shadows fell right off and didn't hold very much detail.

I shot this image on June 21st 2022 at about 12:40 in the afternoon.  This is pretty much exactly the summer solstice, so no surprise that the light was rather harsh.  I used my Ebony SV45TU view camera and a 135mm lens.  The exposure was for 1/8 second at F32.0

I'll chalk this one up as a learning experience and move on to better things.

First Shot of 2022

The batch of twenty 4" x 5" sheets of film that I developed on March 12th, included my first photograph of the year, taken four years ago in 2022.  This was a sheet of Rollei RPX-25, developed in Rodinal 1:50, for 11:00 minutes at 24C.

It was almost exactly four years ago, as I took this photograph on March 21st of 2022, at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a long, Fujinon 250mm lens.  No filter was used.  This is Shunda Creek, near my part time residence in Nordegg.  This overview was taken from the bridge near Beaverdam Lake.  

Technically this was my second photograph of that year.  The first one was a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100, at exactly this same setup.  That shot was followed by this exact duplicate on Rollei RPX.  I almost always take a duplicate shot at every set up.  I have learned the hard way, even with my years of experience, that I sometimes mess things up.  I have lost numerous images due to handling and developing errors, and by shooting a duplicate I have mostly eliminated this.  The exposure was for 1 second at F51.0.  The way the film rendered the highlights on the water during this long exposure, is very similar to the image I posted yesterday.

Old Negatives - RPX25 in Rodinal

On March 12th and 14th I headed into my darkroom and ran a couple of mixed batches of film.  Mostly this was to finally get some really old negatives processed.  I didn't really have enough of any one particular type of film, so I had to do mixed batches of different films.  They all required the same developer and temperature, but the development times were different.  So at points during the process some of the film had to be pulled from development, and other sheets left processing longer.  Its all pretty easy to do with my method of using stainless steel hangers for each individual sheet, in open tanks.  Of course this type of processing needs to be done in total darkness, and you really need to pay attention.  I also had to add some recently shot images to round out the batches.

These two batches included some Efke PL25M, Rollei RPX-25, Ilford FP4+, J&C Classic 200, and some Arista EDU Ultra 200.  The Efke and J&C films have been discontinued, and I don't shoot the RPX or EDU very often.  I think I will probably phase these out of my regular routine, once I deplete my current stock.

This negative was developed on March 12th 2026.  It is a 4" x 5" sheet of Rollei RPX-25 that I gave normal development, in Rodinal developer, 1:50, for 11:00 minutes.  I shot this one way back on May 15th of 2022.  I was out for a spring walk with my camera, in Blackmud Creek Ravine, not far from my home in the city.  It was about 2:30 in the afternoon and the light was pretty intense and contrasty.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a wide, Rodenstock 90mm lens.  A #25 Red filter made the background shadows fall off, and darkened the tone of the water, making the bubbles trails really stand out.  The exposure was for 8 seconds at F32.0.

I only have one sheet left from 2022 that remains to be processed, and will get to that shortly.  I checked and I have about 18 sheets left to go from 2023.  I haven't counted yet for 2024 and 2025, and of course now I am starting to shoot in 2026.  It seems there is always film waiting to be developed.

The Last Apparition

This is the last of my five submission images for the Apparitions project.  My colleague Arturo also has five of his images included.  We are in a holding pattern for now, waiting to hear back from some of the galleries that were sent our exhibition proposal.  We have more galleries to submit to in the coming months, as their calls come up.

This image is a little different flavor than the others, and I have posted this one on my blog in the past.  This is a native site that honors the regrowth after a forest fire.  This is out on the Kootenay Plains, not far from our property in Nordegg.  This area was heavily burned when the Spreading Creek Fire went through the area a number of years ago.

Another Apparition

This is another of my images from the Apparitions project submission package.  This one is kind of a weird image, which is exactly why I chose it.  This old doll, the hatchet and the saddle shoes were all artifacts in an old museum.  But the museum was abandoned, for about 40 years, and towards the end, when the site was no longer monitored and maintained, many of the buildings and artivacts were looted.  The building that housed these items has since been moved to another location.

Arturo and I have now sent out our submission package to eight galleries... since early February.  We have about four or five more, that have upcoming deadlines through the next several months.  We are considering applying for another Arts Grant to fund travelling of the show to galleries that are further away.  With each acceptance comes the expectation that the prints will be delivered to the gallery, the artists will attend the opening, and the prints will be picked up after the show.  Many galleries pay an exhibition fee which partially covers these costs.  But if the venue is further away, then the costs exceed the fee.

One More Apparition

This is another of the submission images from the Beer Parlour Project.  This "Service Counter" shot was taken in a small town in southern Saskatchewan.  I was travelling with my friend Chris for some Beer Parlour Project outings, and attempting to shoot subject matter for the Apparitions project at the same time.  We were all over southwestern Saskatchewan in June of 2024.

In one of the small towns that we visited, we spotted an old building that looked like it had once been a farm implement dealership.  We managed to track down the name of the owner, and he graciously allowed us to photograph the interior.  It was much as his father had left it when he closed the business back in the 1980's.  His son, the current owner, and in his 80's at the time of our visit, operated a farm nearby.  He told us that he had probably not been inside the building for a decade.  It certainly was like a time capsule.

Mid Century Modern

Margarit has been collecting a bunch of stuff to put on display in the 1950's cabin.  Recently she bought a shelf unit, and I hauled it out to Nordegg for her.  Since then she has been working on a display in the master bedroom, that features her collection.  She spent some time on it last time we were out at Nordegg and added a bunch of items.  I'm not sure if she's done yet, of perhaps still has a few things to add.

Big Wind

Overnight on March 7th and 8th a weather front rolled through Alberta.  There were high winds pretty much province wide, and the temperature plummeted.  Out at Nordegg we had the wind, and the temperature dropped to well below zero.  We got a light dump of about an inch or two of fresh snow.  That made things rather treacherous as the new snow concealed all the icy patches that remained.

Two trees came down across our driveway, and Helena rolled them out of the way before I had a chance to get out and do it.  These were standing dead trees that were between our firepit and the edge of the driveway.  They had been dead for some time and I probably should have taken them down some time ago.  Fortuneatly they didn't do any damage, and they can stay there until I have a chance to cut them up for firewood.

When I took a run over to the dump on Monday I noticed that quite a number of trees had come down in the area.  There was a large one that had dropped on a cottage in the subdivision.  It was about 15 lots or so away from us, and I don't know the owners.

When I drove back home to the city I saw evidence of wind damage all the way.  Numerous trees had come down along the roadsides pretty much all the way home.

Last of the Season for the Bubbles

Later on Saturday, after we got Hank dried off and warmed up, we headed out again.  This time we left Hank back at the cottage, to snooze by the fire.  The girls and I took a drive west.

We made a brief stop at Dry Haven Creek and took a short walk.  It was quite icy and slippery, and the creek was still completely frozen over with ice and snow.  So we continued on up to Abraham Lake.  It was warm, but very windy and not all that pleasant to be outside.  There were still a few "Bubblers" trying to make their way onto the ice and catch a glimpse of the bubbles.  The ice is badly deteriorated, and dusted with snow.  There are puddles of water on top of the ice, and a large area of open water at Windy Point.

It was neither safe nor pleasant to wander onto the ice, and not really much to see in the way of bubbles.  The spectacle is best viewed early in the season right after the lake freezes over.  So, we ventured back to the cottage and put a roast in the oven for dinner.  Hank was really happy to see us return.

Beaverdam

On Saturday March 7th Margarit, Helena, Hank and I took a drive over to nearby Beaverdam Lake.  The temperature got up to about +11 at one point, but it didn't feel as warm as the thermometer suggested.  It was quite heavily overcast for most of the day, and there was a bit of a breeze.

We went for a walk on the shore of the lake, and down along Shunda Creek, where it exits the lake.  We were startled and surprised to see a small flock of ducks on a little patch of open water.  There is a lot of sulphur in the water, I assume from some of the nearby coal seams, and except for periods of extreme cold, there is often open water on the lake.

As we walked along the creek, Hank got a little too close to the edge of the ice, and broke through into the creek.  It was in a spot that was deep enough that he was fully submerged.  You could see the panic in his eyes as he hit the cold water.  The girls immediately tried to pull him out with his leash, but his collar slipped off.  Margarit had to quickly kneel down and grab him before the current pulled him away.  Needless to say that put a quick end to our stroll as he had to take Hank back to the cottage and get him dried off and warmed up.