Darkroom Printing

Although I regularly get down into my darkroom to process film, printing of the resulting negatives doesn't happen nearly as often.  It is a bit of a production to set up and properly print. Sometimes I use unsharp masks with my negatives, and these have to be made ahead of time.  I don't like resin coated paper for anything but proofs and work prints so all of my serious work is printed on fiber based paper.  The actual print session involves an entire evening.  If I am successful, I usually get around to printing three negatives, and multiple copies of each.  At the end of the evening these prints are fixed and left in a tray of water.  The next evening I return to the darkroom and give the prints a second fixing bath, followed by a water rinse, a hypo clearing bath, a toning bath in selenium and then a final rinse.  The prints are then moved to a print washer.  As I usually don't have time to remain nearby and babysit the washer, I generally just leave the prints in the washer for about 24 hours.  During this 24 hour soaking bath I try to change the water a half a dozen times, and then at the end I run with washer for at least 15 minutes or more.  Once this washing process is completed the prints are hung up to drip dry, and then transferred to drying screens.

Back in December, a former customer of mine at my shop placed an order for one of my prints.  He had seen my "Warwick Sunflowers" print in my Procession West book and wanted a copy as a Christmas gift for his wife.  I printed that one to 11" x 14" a couple of weeks before Christmas and managed to get it mounted, matted and framed a few days before the holiday. 

Then, this past weekend I worked on a larger 16" x 20" print of my "Looking Down" image.  This is a shot looking down onto the rocks in the Astoria River, from the bridge on Highway 93A in Jasper National Park.  It was taken in November of 2016 when I was out in the mountains with the gang from the Monochrome Guild on our annual fall trip.  This image was selected for exhibition in the upcoming InFocus2018 show.  More to follow on that later....   

My friend Gabor came over for a visit while I was working on this print.  He shoots with a Leica and has processed a reasonable amount of film, but he has not done much printing.  He was returning a camera that he had borrowed from me, and decided to hang out in the darkroom and watch me print.  My negative was a fairly easy one to print this time. I used my typical split filter printing technique to control the contrast to my liking.  A couple of shadow areas needed to be dodged a little and one of the larger highlight areas needed some burning in.  Once we were finished with my print we tried printing a couple of Gabor's 35mm negatives.  Unfortunately I could not locate the lensboard for my 50mm enlarging lens in the mess that is my darkroom.  We had to print with the 135mm lens, which is intended for a much larger negative.  As a result the largest print we could achieve was on 8" x 10" paper, and the image did not fully cover the sheet.  But, the process was a good learning tool for Gabor and I hope he went away with a little better understanding as to how to make a fine print.

Nearly to Lock Up

I haven't been able to get out to Nordegg for almost a month now.  The recent cold snap brought work to a halt for a while, but our contractor has been busy since the weather conditions improved.  Siding, soffit and fascia is in the process of being installed and the work is well underway.  Scott just sent me a few photographs of the progress and I include them here....

Fresh Film

With the cold weather over the Christmas break I found myself spending much of my time indoors.  I was at my shop almost every day over the holidays building some doors and jambs for our cottage.  I also spent quite a bit of time in the darkroom, processing several batches of sheet film.  On Boxing Day I processed a batch of Ilford HP5+ 4x5 sheet film in 510 Pyro developer, diluted 1:100.  Development time was 7:10 minutes at 24C, but I think in the future I need to increase development time slightly.  This particular image was taken down in Crowsnest Pass in southern Alberta in March of 2016.  It was taken with my Ebony view camera and a Schneider 80mm lens.  The standards were tilted to provide sharpness from foreground to background.  Exposure was for 8 seconds at F22.0.  This in the interior of a tipple.  Mine cars full of coal were rolled in on the tracks, and then the switches were activated to that they could be rolled into the "Tipper".  The cars were rotated and the coal dumped out into the chutes and through the grates below.  Then the empty car was rolled out, and the switches activated again so that the empty car could be moved away and a full one brought up in its place.  The mechanics of this system are fascinating mechanically, historically and visually.

T-shirt

I bought myself this festive T-shirt for the holidays...  just cracks me up...!!

Last Day... Full Day

January 2nd was the last of my day's off from work over the Christmas break.  Since the weather has now drastically improved, I decided to make the most of it.  Rather than sleep in, as I have been doing every day during this recent frigid holiday break, I decided to get back into the groove and get up at my regular work time.  My middle daughter Annelise was so excited about getting out to do something that she actually got up at 5:00AM.  I wasn't quite that early, but was up and about by 7:00AM.  Annelise, my eldest daughter Hailey, and I headed out by about 8:00AM.  Our first stop was for a big breakfast at a nearby restaurant.  After breakfast we headed to a couple of hardware stores to pick up some supplies.  Then it was off to my shop to work on some projects.  I continued with construction of the doors and door jambs that I have been fabricating in the shop, over the holidays, for our cottage out at Nordegg.  Hailey worked on some picture rails that she's building for her room.  Anna worked on a jump for her pet rabbit, Simba.

Margarit and youngest daughter Helena slept in late, and then went for breakfast on their own.  In the early afternoon they stopped by the shop to see how we were making out.  It was about 2:00PM when we all finally finished up what we were working on, cleaned up, and continued on to our next project.

The two older girls and I went out an on owl prowl.  We took a drive out to Elk Island National Park where I had seen several owls on a day trip a few weeks back.  I knew from experience that they weren't around much during the day, but that they became active at twilight.  We arrived out at the park around 3:30PM and scouted around for a while without seeing much.  Anna is a big fan of owls and has owl books, owl shirts, and all sorts of owl collectibles.  Shortly after 4:00PM, as the sun was setting and there was just that twilight glow remaining in the western sky, we spotted a couple of owls.  Both were Great Horned Owls, the provincial bird of Alberta.  The first was about a quarter mile away and we didn't get a really good look at it.  The second we found was up in a tree, right beside the road.  By this point, Anna was running out of gas and fell asleep in the back seat.  She missed the first owl altogether, but we woke her up and made sure she got a good look at the second one.  We actually saw a third one, along the side of the freeway on the edge of the city.  This was during our return trip home and it was quite dark by this time.

When we got home we had supper as a family, and then afterwards the three of us went over to the rink for a skate.  I took a stick and puck along and banged around on the rink for a bit while the two older girls skated around and try to regain their feel for the ice.  I skate to play hockey at least once a week, almost year round, for about a dozen years now, so I never lose my touch.... what little I have!  But the girls don't get out very often and always seem to have to relearn it.  It was a beautiful warm day... a nice change after the recent cold snap.  Even after dark, out at the rink, it only dropped down to about -6C.  By 9:00PM when we finished our skate, the day was coming to an end.  To cap things off we went to a nearby coffee shop for a hot drink to warm up and wind down.  A very busy and full day, but a most enjoyable one.

Welcome to 2018... !!

Its a heat wave today... relatively speaking.  During this past week off from work, I've been down to my shop almost every day.  I've spent a couple of hours every day working on some interior doors that I am building for our cottage up at Nordegg.  This project has to be done, and I'd much rather waste a -25C day with limited daylight, as opposed to some nice day later in the spring.  The door jambs are all done and I'm presently working on the frames of the new doors.  When I left the house late this morning it was still -26C.  But, when I left the shop to return home in the middle of the afternoon, the temperature had popped up to -14C.  Seems we have weathered the storm and milder temperatures are forecast to be with us for the next week or two... just in time for the return to work!!

Last night the girls and I had a big family dinner with a prime rib roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad and veggies.  After dinner we all bundled up and walked over to the nearby community hall for the annual fireworks display.  The temperature was -26C, and with the wind chill effect taken into account it felt like -32C.  Attendance was rather sparse this year with most people watching from their parked cars.  Only a few brave souls like us bundled up and wandered out into the school ground for the display.  Like all the previous years it did not disappoint and we enjoyed the show.  I didn't bother to bring my digital camera, but attempted to take a few photos with my cell phone.  It froze up after a couple of shots and the only good one I got is this one posted below.  It took over an hour back at the house before the poor old phone warmed up enough to turn on again...

River Cree Christmas Hockey Tournament

My Renegades Hockey Team signed up to play in the annual Christmas Tournament out at the River Cree Casino on the Enoch First Nation.  This Casino is located on the southwest boundary of the City of Edmonton.  This is the third year that our team has entered.  There is a $10,000 first prize, so the tournament attracts some really good teams, and some highly skilled players.  In fact Ryan Smyth, now retired Edmonton Oiler, was playing on one of the teams.  We don't enter the tournament with any expectation of winning anything.  A Division Nine Recreational League team like ours has no chance of advancing in a tournament like this.  Mostly it is just an opportunity to work of some off the food of the festive season, to get some exercise, and to stay in game shape for when our season resumes in the new year.

It's a pretty good deal, and only cost the team $500 to enter.  We are guaranteed three round robin games and one playoff game.  We also got $100 in coupons for the lounge in the casino.  

Our first game was in the afternoon on December 27th against a team from Wabasca.  These guys beat us 8-1 and ended up finishing third overall, out of 30 teams, in the round robin.  Then on the evening of the 27th we played against a local team from the River Cree League.  They finished near the bottom of the standings after the round robin but still managed to beat us 7-2.  On the 28th we played an early evening game against at team called the Moose.  There is a team called the Moose that plays in our Recreational League but I'm pretty sure these weren't the same guys.  This team finished 8th in the round robin and beat us 7-0.

The three losses saw us finish last of the four teams in our pool so we were relegated to the consolation round of the playoffs.  We played our first playoff game last night against a team called HC Beavers.  This game was a much closer match in skill level and we really enjoyed it.  We were down early but kept battling back during the game.  We managed to tie the game with our goalie pulled and two seconds left on the clock to send it to overtime.  Overtime was five minutes of 3 on 3 and unfortunately, though we had some chances, the Beavers scored to advance to the quarter finals.

Most of the guys from the team headed to the lounge after the game to use all the coupons that had been given to us.  

I'm glad I had the opportunity to play this year.  The weather has been so cold that it just ruled out any chance of doing anything outside.  In fact, when I went to the game last night my truck never even warmed up to operating temperature during the drive to and from the arena.  This despite the fact that I kept the block heater plugged in all day.  The thermometer in the truck said -32C when I was driving home after the game, and that didn't even taken into account the wind chill effect that made it feel more like -44C.  The cold snap is forecast to come to an end, but not until the beginning of January, when I have to return to work......

Community Hall

I just finished processing and scanning a batch of film.  Other than the hockey tournament I'm playing in, there isn't much to do this Christmas break due to the cold weather.  I processed a batch of Ilford HP5+ film in 510 Pyro developer.  This was a full batch of 20 sheets of 4x5.  This is the most recent shot in that batch, which included some images from the beginning of 2016.  I recently posted that I finished processing all of my film for 2015.  With this batch of Ilford stuff I now have about 45 sheets left to go from 2016.  Of course I will start shooting new work in 2018 as soon as it warms up.

This image was taken on one of those not-so-cold days back in late November.  It is an abandoned community hall out in Lamont County.  I used a number eight yellow filter to bring out the contrast in the weathered wood and darken the sky a little.  It was taken with a 90mm lens, and my Ebony SV45TU view camera at about 4:00 in the afternoon.  This is just 20 minutes or so before sunset at this time of year on the northern prairies...

C-O-L-D Christmas

Christmas 2017 has come and gone.  I was hoping that there would be an opportunity to get out and do some things outdoors over the break.  My shop is closed over the Christmas break and it would have been nice to get outside.  Unfortunately the weather has not co-operated.  Since Christmas Day the day time high temperature has only struggled up to about -20C.  In the next day or so that high is only forecast to get to -28C.  The night time low temperatures are in the mid minus 30's and once the wind chill effect is factored in it feels like about -45C.

In an attempt to warm up a little I was sorting through some scans of images from last summer.  This shot was taken at the end of July, in an abandoned Ranch House down in the Alberta badlands.  On that day the temperature was nearly +40C.  I get hot just thinking about it.  These old ranch buildings were supposed to be infested with rattlesnakes but the heat was so intense that we didn't see any.  It was a little cooler inside the old log building.  I shot this image on Efke PL25 4x5 sheet film with my Ebony view camera and a wide angle Nikkor 65mm lens.  The light was so low inside that I had difficulty focusing the camera.  I didn't notice that the sharpness dropped off a little on the underside of the log roof.  I employed a forward tilt on the camera to hold the foreground box in focus, and didn't realize what it did to the ceiling.  I stopped the lens down to F20.0, which required an exposure of 2 minutes with this slow, fine-grained film.  The film was developed for normal contrast in Rodinal developer, diluted 1:50, for 7:00 minutes at 24C.

Christmas 2017

As I write this it has now come and gone.... but Christmas 2017 was pretty good...!   It was looking as though it might be a brown Christmas but at the last minute, mother nature came through and gave us a little snow.  On December 23rd Hailey and I decided to load up the new snowmobile and head out to Nordegg.  Rumor had it that nearly a foot of snow had fallen out there...!  After loading up and hitting the road we quickly discovered that the "road" was coated with a layer of black ice.  We encountered a couple of accidents on Highway 2 before we even made it as far as the airport.  By the time we passed Leduc, the road conditions improved.  We turned off the QE2 at the Highway 13 overpass... our usual route to Nordegg.  It seems that the snowplows gave up after the turnoff to Pigeon Lake Provincial Park.  We passed through the Battle River Valley and road conditions were not great.  By the time we crested the hill and made our way as far as the Yeoford corner, things had really deteriorated.  The highway was snow covered and driving was a challenge.  We decided to give up on our plan, but pulled over and unloaded the new snowmobile.  When we got out of the truck we quickly discovered that the trailer and the new snowmobile were covered with a layer of salty and and sandy slush, about 2 inches thick.  We wiped this off, unloaded the Ski-Doo, and tried to go for a ride.  The snow appeared deep at about four inches, but it was very loose an fluffy.  Riding on the road was impossible as we found ourselves grinding along on the gravel.  We attempted to negotiate the ditch, but quickly rolled the sled over on its side.  Obviously I'm out of practice... and a passenger on the back makes balance more challenging.  After straining my back and eventually getting the machine upright we crossed the highway and tried to ride on the more favourable ditch on the other side.  We opened up the machine a little and negotiated the ditch for a stretch of about a quarter mile.  Then we loaded it back up and reluctantly made our way back home.  When we got back to the shop We unhitched the trailer in the shop.  I managed to hyper extend my elbow trying to push the trailer back into the shop.  Sure hope it heals in time for the upcoming Christmas hockey tournament.  We used the pressure washer at the shop to rinse off all the salt and sand and slush and left things to dry.

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve we headed over to my Mom's place for our annual family Christmas dinner.  My brothers and their families were already there when the girls and I arrived at about 3:00pm.  It was an enjoyable evening with a big turkey dinner, followed by a gift exchange between our kids... the "cousins"... and then the annual "white elephant" gift exchange...

Everyone in attendance brings a wrapped but unmarked gift.  The idea is that this is supposed to be something that you re-gift, or no longer want, or just find lying around at home.  Everyone draws a number and when it is your turn you either choose a gift from the pile, or choose something that someone else has already unwrapped.  Every year some gifts prove very desirable, and change hands numerous times, while others are not so popular.  Once everything had settled out, we eventually said our good-nights and headed for home.

Then on Christmas Day, we got up early and had our family gift opening.  Margarit and I bought a turntable, some LP's and some headphones for eldest daughter Hailey.  Middle daughter Anna got an acoustic guitar, with the promise of lessons to start in January.  Youngest daughter Helena got an iPhone, so that she could finally keep up with her older sisters.  Margarit and I don't buy gifts for each other.  The girls bought me an acoustic guitar this year... a pleasant surprise...!!  The lessons that we signed Anna up for are a family lesson that I will take with her.  It was my intention to buy myself a new guitar after the holidays.... but the girls beat me to it.

Later that evening Margarit's family came over for Christmas dinner.  Her brother and his family came to visit, as did her Mom, and we tried to put a dent into the menu that was presented.  Unfortunately Shawn's daughter Bethany and her boyfriend we unable to make it so we ended up with a lot of extra food.  

The mild weather that we have experienced in recent weeks just came to an end.  Just in time for Christmas we got a little snow, but also a plunge into arctic temperatures.  Christmas Eve wasn't too bad but by Christmas Day the temperature dropped down into the -20's.  Overnight on Christmas Day it got down to around -30C.   

Boxing Day was pretty laid back and relaxed.  With the unexpected plunge into cold temperatures I neglected to plug in my truck.  On Boxinig Day it would not start.  So, I plugged it in for while and stayed home and watched the world Junior Hockey Championship while the girls when out shopping.  Later in the evening, when my truck would finally start, Hailey and I went over to the shop and started on building the doors for the cottage.  Then later in the evening, after we got home, I hit the darkroom and processed some film....

Not quite sure what the girls have on the agenda for tomorrow but I have to play two games in the Christmas Hockey Tournament with my team, out at the River Cree Casino.  The forecast is for the weather to stay cold for a few days.  Hopefully by the time my team gets eliminated from the tournament, the weather improves and we can get outside to do some stuff...!!

Winter Hockey at the end of 2017

My Renegades Hockey Team has really turned things around.  We've won six of our last seven games, and are now in third place in our division.  We played two games over the past few days....

On Saturday we played the second place Bulldogs in the late afternoon at KofC Arena and won the game 6-3.  Then last night we played a game against a team from the other conference of Division 9.  This team was new to us and we had never played them in the past.  They were called ENC, and we played them at Michael Cameron Arena, last night at 9:00.  We jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and then they tied the score.  The entire game we would go ahead by a goal or two and then they would catch up.  We ended up hanging on for a 10-9 victory. 
I'm not quite sure how it happened but I ended up with a whole bunch of assists through this winning streak.  I haven't scored a goal all season, but now have 10 assists in 15 games.  

There is now a break in our hockey schedule for Christmas.  I have the team registered to play in the annual Christmas Tournament out at the River Cree Casino.  This will be played between December 27 and 30.  Early in the new year our league will post the remaining games of our winter season schedule and we will resume play through to the playoffs in April.

Sunday Drive to Nordegg

Hailey and I went for a drive out to Nordegg on Sunday.  We left home about 9:30 in the morning, but then decided to stop for breakfast.  We went to one of those breakfast restaurants, and it was really busy.  The portions were huge and we were both stuffed to the point of exploding by the time we got out of the place and hit the road.  As a result of this unscheduled stop, we didn't make it out to Nordegg until about 1:30 in the afternoon.  With the winter solstice just around the corner, it was just about the shortest day of the year.  It didn't really get light until around 9:00AM and out in the mountains, the sun sets by about 3:30 in the afternoon.  This didn't leave us a lot of time to accomplish much.

It was mostly overcast during the drive out, and dark all the way home.  The sun did make it out a few times during the day but for much of the time it was rather dull.  There was a brisk breeze blowing all day and that pumped the temperature up to an afternoon high of about +7C.  There is very little snow left out there, so we didn't even consider attempting to bring the snowmobile along.

We made a stop at our contractor's place and dropped off a payment.  Then we went up to the cottage.  There were a whole bunch of things I wanted to check on.  I checked exact sizes of all the windows for our rollshutters.  I checked some measurments for the trap door into our crawl space, and for a ladder that I need to build to get down there.  I checked the rough opening dimensions for all the interior doors.  I checked the exact size of the bathroom, and the location of the floor joists.  This will allow us to figure out the layout, and order the appropriate size shower base.  I also checked the size of our bay window so that I can plan the counter that I want to custom build.  This information will allow me to start working on the prefabrication of a number of items, over the winter months.

I bought a 12mm fisheye lens for my digital camera.  This Korean made Rokinon has a 180 degree field of view and is fairly highly rated, but surprisingly inexpensive.  You have to be careful using it so that you don't get the tips of your feet in the shot.  It provides a highly distorted image, but covers the full frame of the camera.  I took a bunch of snapshots inside the cottage that give a bit of a feel for what the space will look like.  I also took a few "normal" images of the exterior.  These are all included below.

The siding, trim and soffit materials have been delivered to site and our contractor is supposed to start installing this week.  We should have the exterior of the buildings finished to the lock up stage in the very near future.  Of course the Christmas holiday is coming up, and there may be some weather delays, but the end is near.  When we bought the property from Clearwater County a caveat was registered against the title.  Under the county bylaws were are obligated to build to the lockup stage within three years of our original possession date or risk the county taking the lot back.  We took possession in July of 2016, and should be finished to lockup at some point in January of 2018... well within the deadline.

We have a little bit of mechanical rough in taking place this week.  The electrical rough in is scheduled to take place in late February.  That will leave me the months of March and April to do the insulating, so that we can be ready for our drywaller to start in May.

Hailey and I took a quick spin up to Abraham Lake after we finished up at the cottage.  It has been so mild lately that the lake hasn't even begun to freeze.  It was pretty windy again, and the water was very rough and choppy.  Not quite as bad as the last time we were out here though.  By this time in the day the sun was setting and it was time to head home.  Both of us were still pretty full from the big breakfast and we didn't bother to stop for lunch.  We made a brief stop in Nordegg and topped up the fuel tank of the truck, and grabbed a couple of snacks for the drive home.    The lady working at the gas station said there was a heavy snowfall warning in place for Saskatchewan Crossing, to the southwest of Nordegg.  We never did run into any snow on our drive home but I understand that Nordegg got a dump of about six inches overnight.

The View Through

Here's another new one.  This film was just recently processed.  It was part of a batch of Kodak TXP-320 film that I processed back in late November.  I use my Jobo processor for developing this large format Tri-X film in PMK developer.  PMK is a pyro based developer that imparts a proportional stain in the negative.  The image was taken in low winter light last January.  This is the now abandoned concrete arch bridge over the North Saskatchewan River, near Borden, Saskatchewan.  If you look closely you can see the new steel highway bridge on the right, which now carries the Yellowhead Highway over the river.  This shot was taken at the end of January 2017 when I was travelling to Saskatoon to attend the gallery exhibition for Procession West at Saskatchewn Craft Council Gallery.  I used my Ebony view camera with a Rodenstock 90mm lens and a #22 Orange filter.  It was a fairly pleasant day, though the wind seems to be ever present and quickly chills the fingers and extremities.  The low winter light provided nice contrast, plus the orange filter enhanced that a little, so I didn't bother to give any extra development.

Another Day Trip

Last weekend I had plans to take my middle daughter Anna out on an Owl Prowl.  I had seen three a few days earlier when I was on a business trip down to Drumheller.  But, then I realized that the tickets that I had bought for the girls to see the ballet were for the matinee showing, and not the evening show.  It wasn't an option to postpone until Sunday as I had to play hockey that day.  So, on Saturday afternoon Margarit and the three girls went to the Jubliee Auditorium to see the Nutcracker.  While they did that, I went our for a drive.  I scouted around and drove a bunch of backroads up in Two Hills County.  The view camera came out of the truck a couple of times as I made some photographs of some old buildings.  I've included some snapshots here of a couple of the stops that I made.  As I made my way back into the city, the sun was setting, and I spotted owls in four different locations.  At least three of the four were Great Horned Owls but it was getting to dark too see the last one clearly.  It may have been a Snowy Owl.  All four were in or near Elk Island National Park.  Anna would have been disappointed.  I'll have to take here out some other time...

December Rain

Winter has been pretty much non-existent here in central Alberta this month.  We got a dose of winter earlier in the fall but in recent weeks it has been very mild.  The snow that we had is just about all gone, melted down to just a crust of ice.  Northeast of the city there is still a little snow remaining but around home, and throughout much of the province it is very brown.  We had daytime high temperatures up around +12C a few days ago.  Last night it rained, and when I left the house for work this morning it was already +6C, and the sun hadn't come up yet.  The main roads are in reasonable condition but the side roads and parking lots are extremely icy.  As I approached the end of my street this morning, at a speed of only about 10kmh, and with the truck in four wheel drive, I was skidding sideways down the street and almost took out the stop sign.  Seems it would be easier to get around on skates.  Hopefully the clear skies and wind that are forecast for later today will dry things off a little.  It is supposed to cool of somewhat and there is a little snow in the forecast for Christmas.