Fall Photo Day Trip

Every year around the end of October, the Monochrome Guild has gone on a weekend photography trip.  This tradition has been carried on for over 20 years.  Most of the time we have traveled to Jasper National Park, but on occasion we also visited Banff, Kananaskis, and Drumheller.  We looked into the possibility of a fall trip this year, but with the Covid situation, it was just impossible.  We would not have been able to carpool and would have had to drive separate vehicles.  We would not have been able to share hotel rooms.  And it was questionable as to whether or not we could eat together in restaurants in a larger group.  So, to keep the tradition alive and the streak active, we elected for a day trip this year instead.  Hopefully by the time next fall arrives the virus situation has improved and we are able to revert back to our traditional format.

Weather conditions were far from ideal.  The temperature only got up to about -5C.  It was heavily overcast, despite the fact that the forecast called for mostly sunny skies.  There was a cold breeze blowing out of the north, and the humidity was very high.  I think that perhaps partly we are not yet acclimatized to cold weather, but the high humidity made it feel bitterly cold.  Bare hands were numb with cold in a matter of minutes.

Four members of the Monochrome Guild set out, and because we had to travel in separate vehicles due to the Covid situation, we elected to meet up at Elk Island National Park.  Court, Fred, Meghan and I met there at about 10:30AM.  We decided not to pass through the park as not all of us had valid National Park passes.  Instead we traveled East and North and eventually ended up at Mundare.

It was cold and blustery and no one felt particularly compelled to be outside, but we pushed on.  Eventually we made a stop at Spaca Moskalyk.  This is a Ukrainian Orthodox church northeast of Mundare.  It once was in a sad state of disrepair and the parish was considering demolishing it.  This was due to the fact that the foundation was crumbling and deteriorating beneath the structure.  A year or two ago the church was moved off the foundation, the foundation replaced with a new one, and then the building was moved back.  It is now in the process of being restored.  The windows have been removed for restoration, the siding painted, and the cedar shingle roof replaced with tiles.  It's not nearly as photogenic is it once was when it had a more derelict appearance.  We pushed on without making any photos.

A short time later we came upon a small cemetery out in a farmers field.  We motivated ourselves to stop here and take a few photos, despite the cold.  Then, further north we came upon an old house in a pasture with a threshing machine in front of it.  This was our second stop of the day.  At this point Meghan needed to leave and return to the city.  The three of us that remained pushed on and eventually made a couple other stops.  We photographed the old stores in Hairy Hill and later made a stop at an abandoned farm yard. 

Some of the locations that we stumbled upon on this miserable day have potential for a return trip under better conditions.  And, it was nice to get together with at least some of the Guild members.  And, the fact that we were technically able to keep our fall tradition ongoing and the streak alive was important.

The Bishop Place

A family named Bishop once lived in this rather majestic house in southern Alberta.  I visited it in the late summer of 2019 with my friends Chris and Connie.  Margarit and the girls were along with us exploring.  If I had to guess I would estimate that the home was abandoned in the 1970's.  This guess is based not only on the decor, but also the state of deterioration, and the fixtures and remaining furnishings in the house.  Note the huge piles of pigeon droppings under each perch.  A heap on each window sill and more beneath each the hanging light fixtures.  The birds have been making deposits here for quite some time.  I took this shot with my 4x5 view camera and a 90mm wide angle lens.  It was on Ilford HP5 film, developed in 510 Pyro.

Stump in Pouring Rain

Almost exactly a year ago... October 20th 2019 to be precise... my friends Rob and Brad were with me out on Vancouver Island.  We had rented a house in Courtenay for the week and were spending the time hiking and making photographs.  On the first day it was heavily overcast and raining.  We decided to head up to Cathedral Grove and shoot the ancient trees.  We were hoping that there would be a little more protection from the rain, up there in the forest, as compared to down on the beach somewhere.  This was one of my later shots of the day and by this point I was soaked to the skin.  My camera gear was also drenched.  Later that evening we had to spread all of our stuff out in the rental house and allow it dry.  This shot was taken on Ilford FP4+ film.  I gave the 4" x 5" negative plus development in Kodak HC-110 developer to bump up the contrast.  I finally got around to processing this film earlier this summer and just recently scanned the image.

Solo Time at the Cottage

Everyone left for home on Thanksgiving Monday and I remained at the cottage by myself.  I have most of the week off from work and will stay for a few days.  On Monday afternoon it was actually reasonably nice.  We woke up to a skiff of snow in the morning, but by afternoon it got partly sunny and the temperature rose up to around +9C.  I worked on a few chores, mostly cutting up some lumber to build a base for the appliances.  All of the neighbors and almost everyone in the subdivision went home on Monday as well so by evening it was extremely quiet.

It got quite cold on Monday night and on Tuesday morning, just before the sun came up, my thermometer was showing a temperature of -7C.  It was very overcast and gloomy through the day and by noon it was still only -2C.  That's about the time it started to snow and there was a little accumulation.  Mostly I just had a lazy day, puttering on some chores inside.

I assembled the base for the laundry appliances and have it ready to set everything up.  Can't lift the appliances onto it by myself, so that will have to wait for a bit.  I also cut up a bunch of lumber to build a movable stairway, that will hopefully make it easier to get up and down into the basement.  Still have to put that together, and hopefully it works out as planned.  I also got the third shelf put together and ready to install.  Might get to more chores on Tuesday evening after dinner.

The snow never really let up all day long. It was very light, and there was very little accumulation, but its really starting to feel like winter.  The temperature never broke the freezing point all day.

When I awoke on Wednesday it was to about 1-1/2 inches of fresh snow.  It was not quite as cold as the night before, but was still only about -4C as the sun came up.  The skies cleared partly and by mid afternoon the temperature peaked at about +5.  In the open the snow mostly disappeared, though it did remain in shady spots.

I had my septic tank pumped out and a load of water delivered.  The last time I did this was in May, so the 2000 gallons of water lasted us for five months.  We'll probably use a little less over the winter as there are no seedlings to water, no ATV's to wash, and we may not be out quite as often.  I managed to get a whole bunch of small projects finished.  I put up the third shelf, in between the railing braces that I installed a couple of days ago.  I also built that movable stairway for downstairs.  I'm not quite sure why I have been so stupid and struggled with that awkward ladder for these past few years.  The stairway is so much easier.  The laundry base is now also complete.  I installed the circuit breaker into my electrical panel so that we can use the washer and dryer as soon as I get the plumbing looked after.  I also secured the fir slab that is our breakfast nook.  And, I got impatient and lifted the appliances onto the base by myself. I feel a sense of accomplishment at getting so many of these little projects finally looked after.

The only couple of things that I have not yet got to are staking out the building site on our lot next door, and splitting some more firewood.  Mostly the poor weather has prevented this.  Perhaps I will get to some of it before I leave.  Those were not major priorities as we can not start clearing and building until next spring, and we have plenty of firewood already split for the winter.

Took a different route back to the city and came upon an interesting old house.  All the more so because there was a cat sitting in the window.  

Thanksgiving at Nordegg

We had our family Thanksgiving Dinner out at the cottage in Nordegg on Saturday October 10th.  The Covid situation prevented us from having the big family dinner that we usually do.  We did invite Margarit's brother Shawn out to celebrate with us, so we were a group of six.

I stuffed the turkey and peeled potatoes and got things ready to go in the early afternoon.  The turkey went into the oven around 2:30PM.  Margarit and Helena arrived later that afternoon.  By about 6:00PM everything was ready and we sat down to the big feed.

On Sunday morning I finally got out of bed by around 9:30 and set to work on doing all the dishes from the night before.  Shawn gave me a hand and we got through most of them by the time the girls got up.  They made breakfast pizza for brunch and all ate at around noon.  After that was done Shawn and Hailey and Anna and I went for an ATV ride into town.  We found some trails that took us up above the old mine site.  By mid afternoon we headed back to the cottage and Hailey packed up.  She had to head home on Sunday evening as she had a work shift on holiday Monday.  The rest of us stayed behind and had a lazy afternoon.  By evening we put together a meal of burgers and salad.

On holiday Monday everyone packed up and headed back to the city... except me.  I am off work until Thursday, so I will be staying a bit longer.  Before leaving Margarit and Shawn helped me pass the new washer and dryer down the hatch into the basement.

I got a few chores done around the cottage on Saturday afternoon.  I finished some drywall repairs and did some touch up painting.  I also installed two braces to the upper level glass railing.  I reinstalled and relocated a couple of shelves that had to be moved to accommodate the braces.  Not sure exactly what else I'll continue with for the next few days but the list is long.....!

Foggy Morning

I headed out to the cottage on the afternoon of Thursday October 8th.  It was a cool and overcast day and by the time I arrived it was raining a little.  The rain didn't amount to much and we only got about 6mm. But it was needed as we haven't had any rain to speak of for about a month.  I brought out the compact washer and dryer that we recently bought and managed to offload them into the garage for the time being.  After I had finished unpacking all the groceries and other stuff that I brought I settled down in the cottage.  I got a fire going to get the chill out and then made a quick supper.  I watched a documentary on DVD for a while before heading off to bed.  I've been plagued with a really sore back the last few days.  It started with the sleep in the trailer last weekend on the shitty mattress.  It got worse with the 15km of hiking and climbing in the badlands.  And then got worse still when I played hockey.  It didn't help much that I sat at a desk at work for three days and never really loosened it up.  But now it feels good...!

When I got up on Friday morning the temperature was right around zero and there was a heavy fog.  I got out for a bit with my view camera and took a couple of photos before heading in for breakfast and coffee to start the day.

Margarit and the girls will be coming out for the Thanksgiving weekend and we will be having our big turkey dinner on Saturday evening.  Margarit's brother Shawn will be joining us.  Due to the Covid restrictions we need to keep our gathering very small and didn't invite any other family.  

I have three days booked off from work after the long weekend and will be staying out to catch up on some chores.

Red Rock Coulee Panorama

I shot this image back in August when the girls and I were camped down at Red Rock Coulee Provincial Natural Area in extreme southeastern Alberta.  We spent a couple of nights there.  It was quite hazy from the dust of the harvest that was getting underway, and some of it may have been coming from the forest fires burning in the western United States.

As I write this, sitting at home in October, I remember how hot it was during our stay.  The temperature was up in the mid to high 30's... a far cry from the minus temperatures and skiff of snow that we have now.  I remember that mostly we sat around the trailer in the shade during the hot part of the days.  We ventured out for our hikes mostly in the mornings and evenings.

I shot this with an 80mm wide angle lens.  It was taken on Efke PL25M film processed in Rodinal.  The film format was 4" x 5" but this was cropped down to approx. 1-3/4" x 5".  That was the intent when I composed the shot so the foreground and the sky were deliberately empty.

Hillcrest Cemetery

The Hillcrest Mine Disaster was the worst mining disaster in Canadian History.  It occurred on June 19th 1914 at 9:30AM.  The Hillcrest Mine is located in the town of Hillcrest, in the municipality of Crowsnest Pass, Alberta.  Off the 228 workers in the mine that morning, 189 of them perished in the explosion.  A buildup of gas off the coal face was ignited.  Today there is a historic site at the cemetery, where mass graves are the last resting place of many of the victims.  I took this shot on May 31st 2019, just a few days shy of the 105th anniversary.  It was taken on Efke PL25M large format 4" x 5" sheet film with my Ebony view camera and a 300mm lens.

Above East Coulee

On Sunday, we were both pretty tired and slept in until about 10:00AM.  When we finally got up we had a leisurely breakfast, and then set out on a short hike.

Margarit and I walked out of East Coulee and crossed the highway at the edge of town.  We hiked up into the hills adjacent to town.  In distance travelled we didn't get all that far, but there was a lot of up and down and the terrain was very rough in places.  We were both sore from the long walk the day before, and like usual, I was packing large format camera gear.

Near one of the coal seams we found a whole bunch of petrified trees.  These were really cool and we stopped to photograph them in a number of places.  We made our way along the edge of the exposure and eventually came upon some areas where there had been some coal mining activity in the past.  There were some old timbers, some old rails, and nails, spikes and bolts scattered about.  Margarit managed to collect a few rocks that she liked and before you knew it she was packing as much or more weight that I was.  This walk was very reminiscent of a a walk we took a few years back with Margarit's cousins Martina and Karl from Austria.  That made it all the more emotional as Karl recently passed away from complications following a heart attack last January.

On our way down out of the hills we came across the three crosses up on the hillside.  These have been here for many years and were previously unmarked.  Now there is a small plaque that says "Mother and Father" and the last name of the family.  Not sure who the third cross belongs to...?

Once we got back down into town we packed up all our stuff at the shop and it was about 5:00PM when we hit the road back to Edmonton.  A rather uneventful drive back to the city and we drove through a few light showers along the way.  The first rain we have experienced in several weeks and probably somewhat overdue.

 

 

Stone Ruin

On Friday October 2nd Margarit and I headed down to East Coulee.  I went into work in the morning and loaded up a bunch of my personal stuff that had accumulated there over the last 40 years.  The largest items in this load were five crates full of framed prints, mostly left over from the travelling AG2 and Procession West shows a few years ago.  I suppose I should have been a little more diligent at trying to sell these as now I have to store them.  I also loaded up most of the frame stock that I brought home a few days ago and took that along with us.

We took the new truck that I bought back in the spring.  This will be my day to day vehicle once I retire and no longer use the company truck.  I'm quite impressed with the performance and mileage of this new truck, particularly since it is not even broken in yet, and will only get better.

We arrived down in East Coulee around 4:30 on Friday afternoon.  We spent an hour or so unloading all this stuff and putting it away.  It was all relatively easy as there was a forklift both at the skylight shop and in East Coulee that made short work of it.  After we finished unloading Margarit and I made a meal of BBQ burgers and then took an evening walk around town.

Dinosaur Valley Studios is working on a large sculpture of a Hadrosaur with some eggs.  It sits on a base that measures about 8 feet by 12 feet, so it is signficant.  We admired the workmanship in carving the steel reinforced foam substrate which will eventually be covered with a skin of urethane and painted.

On Saturday morning after breakfast we headed north of Drumheller and hiked in to an old stone building.  I had been here before, with my friends Rueben, Chris and Connie, but this was the first time for Margarit.  It was about 4km each way, and we had to pass through a pasture full of cows in order to get there.  The place was little changed since I was here last, about three years ago.  It looked as though someone had been out with a metal detector at some some.  There were some small holes spaded into the ground in a few locations, and some bits of scrap metal laying around.  The disk from a farm implement, the rusty door of an old stove, and a few other bits and pieces.

We explored and photographed here for an hour or two before hiking back out to where we had left the truck.  By the time we got back to East Coulee later in the evening we were both pretty exhausted.  We had a dinner of pasta, and hung out at the shop and had a few drinks in the evening.  The Pedometer app on my phone said that we walked over 10km on this day.  And that was with a large format camera kit on my back.  This combined with the shitty mattress in our trailer made for a pretty sore back the rest of the weekend...!

Winter Hockey

The Winter Hockey Season is underway for my Renegades Hockey Team.  I felt I was getting too old to play with all the young players back in 2013 when I turned 50.  I tried to turn the team management duties over to someone else and retire from the team.  But the guys insisted that they wanted me to keep playing and keep running the team.  So, seven years later, here I am retiring from my day job and still playing hockey.  Many of the players that I play against are 20 to 30 years old.  There is no way that I can keep up to them, and I never was a very good player, even in my younger days.  But, I play for fun and exercise so I will keep going as long as I can.

We moved the team over to a new league to start this winter season.   The season was slightly delayed due to Covid, but things got underway in late September.  We have to wear masks to enter and exit the arena.  Time in the dressing room before and after the games is limited to 15 minutes, and the showers are closed.  We are limited to a roster of 16 players, and play in a cohort with two other teams.  Over a period of about three weeks we play these other two teams three times.  Then we take a two week break and enter a new cohort with two new teams.  We don't have to wear masks on the ice, but the referees and timekeepers do.  Electronic whistles are used and there are no floods between periods.  So it is all a little weird, but at least we are getting out to play and getting some exercise.

The Renegades have now played three games and sit tied for second place in our division.  On September 20th we played the Knights at Argyll Arena and won the game 6-4.  On September 21st we played the Outlaws at Argyll Arena and lost 9-3.  Then we took a two week break.  We entered a new cohort last night and played the Generals at KofC Arena.  We won this one, a closely fought game, by a score of 7-5.  There is a bit of a break for the Thanksgiving weekend and then we will play five more games in a stretch of about 10 days.

Battered Sedan

I shot this old car in Clearwater County on Efke PL25 film, with my Ebony 4" x 5" view camera.  I used a long focal length 300mm lens to get some compression on the prespective.  Development was in Rodinal Developer 1:50.

A Few Days in Nordegg

This past weekend I had to work on Friday, but booked Monday and Tuesday off so that I had my usual four day long weekend.  As we move into October I will be reducing my work hours to two days per week.  In November it will be reduced further to one day per week.  I figure I have about eighteen working days left before I am fully retired.

I headed out to Nordegg on Friday right after work.  Shortly after I arrived, my friends Chris and Connie arrived from Calgary.  After our hike on Saturday we made our way back to the cottage and put together a big barbecue.  Margarit managed to drive out from Edmonton and made it out in time to have a late dinner with us.  We stayed up visiting for a while on Saturday night and then on Sunday Morning put together a big brunch for the four of us.  We headed out for a hike above the Nordegg townsite on Sunday afternoon.  It was a very nice day, with the temperature getting up to about +15C and with mostly sunny skies.  

After the hike we headed back to the cottage.  Chris and Connie packed up their belongings and hit the road for Calgary.  A short time later Margarit also headed for home.  Unfortunately our girls are not self sufficient enough to get themselves to school during the week.  I stayed out at the cottage for a couple of extra days to relax and catch up on a few chores.

On Monday I kept myself busy with a whole bunch of small projects.  I routed and sanded a piece of hickory and then gave it several coats of lacquer.  This will eventually become another shelf in the cottage.  I also split and stacked a bunch more firewood.  Then I loaded up a big pile of garbage and took it over to the dump.  That proved a rather annoying experience.  The local landfill has always been open on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, with the hours reduced a bit in winter.  Arbitrarily, without letting people know, the County changed the hours.  The landfill is now open Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, and the gate was locked when I arrived...!!!  There were even two signs, one on either side of the gate, with the hours posted.  But even the signs didn't seem to know what was going on as one had the new hours and the other had the old ones.  Fortunately they now have a small man gate out front so I was able to get rid of all the stuff in my truck, but not without three trips walking back and forth for a hundred yards or so, to carry all the garbage in...!!!

By Tuesday I was beginning to dread the return to work.  I lazed around the cottage all morning and had a leisurely breakfast.  I puttered around on a few chores inside.  Once again it was mild, but mostly cloudy and very breezy.  I took down a couple of shelves that I had previously made.  I need to relocate them to make room for some braces on the upper glass railing.  This resulted in a little drywall damage that needed to be filled.  Next time I'm out the filler will be fully dried and I will be able to repaint.  I hope to be able to add the braces at the same time.

While I was sitting in the bay window having breakfast a big hawk landed on a tree in the yard.  I hope he wasn't hoping to pick off any of the chipmunks that have been coming around!  I managed to get one snap shot of him before he took off.  Also got a shot of the wounded white tail doe.  She was sporting a nasty wound, probably from a cougar, earlier in the year.  She survived, and it has healed a lot, but still looks pretty nasty...!

I left the cottage at about 4:00 on Tuesday and got back to the city around 7:00.  This time I took a different route home and followed a bunch of backroads and secondary highways.  I found a cool old cemetery in Wetaskiwin County that I will need to return to at some point.

 

Four Trunks

I shot this image back in June, when my friend Rob and I were exploring up in Jasper National Park.  This is Tangle Falls, not far from the Columbia Icefields.  Rob and I were talking when we were here, that there must be hundreds if not thousands of images of this waterfall taken every day, for at least the busy tourist months of each season.  But 90% of those are taken from down by the viewpoint on the road.  Rob and I hiked, a very short distance... maybe 50 yards or so, up to the multiple cascades of this waterfall.  It is a bit of a scramble in places, but nothing crazy. 

I took this one on Efke PL25M 4" x 5" sheet film.  This film was discontinued some years ago, but I still have several boxes in my freezer.  It is expired by now for sure, but I don't know exactly when.  The early batches of this stuff did not include an expiry date.  But in comparing the emulsion batch number to some later ones, I'm guessing this stuff hit its best before date about 12 to 15 years ago.

I used a 300mm lens, about equivalent to a 100mm lens on a full frame digital camera, or 35mm film camera.  This created some compression between the foreground trunks and the forest behind the waterfall.

This was one of the rare occasions that I used a #47 Blue filter.  This filter transmits mostly blue light, and filters out red.  The result is that it really opens up the shadows.  The shadows were only illuminated by blue light reflected off the sky.  I think it worked in this case as there is detail remaining in the foreground trunks, and full detail in the background forest.

This is a very slow film that I expose at 10 iso.  With a three stop filter factor for the #47 blue, and a small aperture of F25 to hold depth of field, this required an 8 second exposure, even though it was taken a few minutes before high noon, and everything was in full sun.  I'm quite pleased with the result and might include this one in my annual calendar, and look forward to printing it in the darkroom.