War Wounds

I made it back to the city, from Nordegg, on December 5th.  Its been super busy since then, catching up on a whole bunch of chores and appointments.  That included a late hockey game on December 6th.

My Renegades team played a game at 10:45 on Tuesday evening against the Jagerbombers.  We won the game by a score of 7-2.  In the process, I foolishly decided to stand in front of our net and block a slapshot coming at me from the blueline.  I should have stepped aside and let our goaltender see it, and stop the shot.  After all, he's the one wearing all the heavily padded equipment.  But it happened too quickly, and I took the shot right in the thigh.  Just above the shinpad and just below the hockey pants, at a point where there is no padding.  I certainly felt it, but finished the game.  A couple of days later a huge purple bruise developed.  I have to get over it quickly as there is another game coming up on the 11th.

Our team is in second place in our division with a record of 12 wins and 2 losses.  We are just one point behind the division leading Patriots, who have 12 wins, 1 loss and 1 overtime loss.  Our only two losses are to the Patriots... both close games.  We also lead the division in penalty minutes.......

A Day of Rest

On the afternoon of Saturday December 3rd it really warmed up.  I worked in the cottage for a while to finish up the doors.  Then I put a roasting chicken in the oven for dinner.  I had hoped that Margarit, and maybe the girls would come out to join me for dinner, but they decided to stay in the city.

It finally warmed up during the day and that evening it was really clear.  The moon is almost full and there were lots of stars in the sky.  But this time there was no arctic air mass parked on top of us, and overnight temperatures stayed really mild.  I took a phone snapshot out my bedroom window at about 10:45 and the guest cottage next door was clearly visible, and the moonlight shining through the trees, onto the snow, was really beautiful.

On Sunday it remained warm.  I lacked motivation to do much of anything.  After morning coffee I started my truck, for the first time in several days.  I fully expected the warning system to kick in and advise that my DEF reservoir had frozen.... again... but this time it did not.

I went into town and filled a jerry can with fuel.  Then I stopped at the Beehive and dropped off a calendar.  I took a short drive south on the Trunk road up to the Industrial Park, and then north on the Trunk Road.  I saw a Spruce Grouse and a Ruffed Grouse, but not the wild horses that I was hoping for.  I stopped once and set up my 4x5 to take shot of Coliseum Mountain, with horse tracks in the foreground snow.  This was the first large format image I've taken since October.  I drove east out to Harlech, hoping for some open water on the creek, but there was very little.  About this time the clouds rolled in and the light became very heavy and dull.

I ended up back at the cottage... not doing much of anything....

Apparitions Project - Floor Scrubbers

I shot this one in the wash house of an abandoned coal mine.  These are floor scrubbers, that I presume were once used to wash the showers.  The remains of the sink or fountain beside them adds to the interest a little.  This one is from the same batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 as my previous few images.  And, this one was also give plus development in PMK developer.

I shot this one with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a Nikkor 200mm lens, with no filter.

Work Continues.....

Thursday December 1st was another really cold day out at Nordegg.  The temperature dropped overnight to -33C... almost as cold as the night before.  By Friday it seemed like it might be starting to break a little.  It got cloudy through most of the day, so perhaps the high pressure system that brought the deep freeze is moving on.  The temperature on Friday made it up to -17C.  The forecast suggests that temperatures will rise significantly in the coming days.

I spent all day Thursday and Friday working in the guest cottage.  By the end of the day Friday I had completed fabrication of all three of the interior doors.  Now I can move on to final preparations for finishing.  There is some sanding needed, and I have to rout out for the hinges, and then chamfer some edges.  Once that is done I can begin painting of the doors.

On Friday evening after dinner I took the old fashioned door latches apart so that I could reverse the mechanism on two of them.  Two of my doors have a left hand hinge and the third is right hand.  The latches have to be set accordingly.

The cold spell finally broke on Saturday December 3rd.  It only went down to about -25 overnight and then during the day Saturday it got up to as high as -3.  I spent the day working in the cottage yet again.  I set up a jig and routed the hinge mortises in the edges of the doors.  Then I lightly sanded out the filler that I had applied to all the joints and nail holes the day prior.  This was not a finish sanding, but just smoothing things out enough to run a router over the surface.  Then I switched to a beading bit in the router and finished the edges of all the raised panels.  I discovered that I don't have a chamfering bit and will have to pick one up to bevel the door edges.  I also discovered that I left my palm sander in the city, so final sanding will have to wait until next time. 

Apparitions Project - Parts Bins

Like the shot of the spilled fasteners, this one was taken in the maintenance shop.  And, like the previous shot this one was also Koadk Kodak Tri-X Pan 320, given plus development in PMK.  Plus development is something that I do when the image is in rather subdued lighting, and the subject brightness range is not very high.  The increased development adds separation to the mid tones and pumps up the high values.  It also adds a little detail to the low values.  This in combination with the staining Pyro developer works really well in my opinion, as the stain subdues any of the extreme highlights a little.

I shot this one back in September with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a Fujinon 125mm lens with no filter.

Another Calendar

I decided to try making a second 2023 calendar.  This one will not be given away to friends, rather it will be put up for sale at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg.  It was kind of a last minute decision, and if I do it again next year, I will be better prepared, and have these put together sooner.  

I discovered that the company that I used to print my other calendar also offers a 12" x 12" size.  This allows me to use both portrait and landscape format images in the 4x5 aspect ratio, without any cropping.  I put together a collection of images all from the West Country near our cottage.  I ordered 20 copies of the calendar and if they are well received, and sell out, then I can order more.  If not, then I won't have invested too much, and won't get stuck with too many.  I'll share the images from that calendar here on my blog, over the coming months.  For now, here is the cover image from the calendar.  This is a shot of Ram Falls, dating back several years.  

Sadly this area was slated to be mined for coal... although current plans have been put on hold, there is no legislation in place that outright bans mining in this area.  Something to think about the next time we are scheduled to mark a ballot.

Apparitions Project - Spilled Fasteners

I shot this one in an old maintenance shop.  It was taken on Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 and given plus development in PMK developer.  I shot this back in September of 2022 with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and a Nikkor 300mm lens, with no filter.

Working with Arturo on the Apparitions project has taught me to look a little closer at details.  His shooting style is to get in tight on little things, while I have traditionally looked at broader compositions.  He still tends to compose a little tighter than I do, but I now find myself looking for stuff like this.  I think this works well for the project and we shall see if it ends up being a keeper.

Gossip

This is the third and final image from my "Pears" session.  I actually shot this quite some time ago... back in May as I recall... or maybe June...?  Two of the other three images in this series... "Victim" and "Orator" were posted some months ago.  This one was shot on Ilford FP4 film, and was just recently processed on my Jobo processor, in Perceptol Developer.  I call this one "Gossip".

When I go to the grocery store I often wander through the produce section and see if there are any fruits or vegetables with interesting or expressive shapes.  On this day earlier in the year, the Bosc Pears showed some fantastic personality.   I bought half a dozen and set about photographing them, and this is the result.

Damn Cold.....

It was -23C when I got up in Nordegg on November 30th.  It never really warmed up much during the day, and by sundown the clouds and fog lifted and it cleared right off.  It was -25 by dinner time, and supposed to drop down to -30 overnight.  Well the forecast was wrong... it got colder than that overnight.  My weather station recorded -35C just as it was starting to get light.

I procrastinated all morning, not wanting to go out in the cold to pack the truckload of lumber I had brought out, into the cottage.  I spent a great deal of time on the phone, trying to resolve my outstanding insurance claim for hail damage to my trucks.  Finally, by about 1:00, I ventured outside to brave the cold.  It had warmed up to a balmy -19 by this point.  I had 1x4's, 1x8's, 2x6's, quarter rounds, underlay and 3/4" plywood in the back of my truck.  I finally got it all packed in to the guest cottage by mid afternoon.

I got the fire going in there and nicely warmed the place up.  Then I set to work building the first of the three interior doors.  It all went pretty well, but with such a late start, I did not accomplish a lot.  But now everything is inside, and I can continue to work no matter what the weather.

The deer have been coming back to the property in the past couple of days.  I saw a group of seven in the morning, and then a short time later... two more.  Later in the afternoon two different bucks wandered by. I got a phone snapshot of the smaller of the two as he wandered past my window.  Hunting season ends today, so these guys that have survived should calm down a lot and be hanging around on a more regular basis.

December Calendar Image

This is the image that I selected for the December page of my 2022 calendar.  Seems I have been very busy with calendars in the past little while, and this is the last image to share from the old one.  This is the Maligne River in Jasper National Park.  I shot this in mid-November of 2019 when I was out with my friends from the Monochrome Guild on our Fall Photo Weekend.  This was the trip just before the Covid pandemic and as I recently posted here on my blog, we were not able to get the tradition back on track again until earlier this year.

Inside Work

On Sunday November 27th I headed back out to Nordegg.  I left Edmonton just after lunch and arrived at the cottage just as it was getting dark.  It had been really mild the few days prior, with the temperature getting up as high as about +12.  Last week my contractor was able to spread all the fill dirt around the guest cottage, and properly cover the septic tank.  We are pretty close to finished grade now.  Just have to let things settle over the winter, and then top everything with some gravel in the spring.

As I arrived on Sunday evening, the weather was turning and it was beginning to get cold.  The roads were clear all the way out, with just a little packed snow on the road from Saunders Ridge west to Nordegg.

On Monday I went to work in the guest cottage.  Last year I cut up a whole bunch of 1x6 lumber into 1" strips, and then glued them back together to make wider boards.  This method keeps the boards nice and straight, without any warping or bowing, and provides a finished piece to the width I need, and a full 1" thick.  These were to be used for door jambs, and I stored them away until now.

In the afternoon I dug out my table saw and ripped all these boards down to exact final width.  Then I set about cutting them to length and building the jambs.  I got a coat of primer on them before I quit for the day.  That evening my contractor Scott came over for dinner and we visited and listened to music into the wee hours.  Both of us were surprised at how the time got away from us and we finally wrapped things up about 3:00AM.

On Wednesday I woke up about 9:30, just as the sun cleared the peaks to the east.  I was pretty groggy and out of sorts and it took me quite a while to wake up.  The internet had been out the day before and Scott managed to get it going again for me.  But my weather station wasn't working so I had to deal with installing new batteries in that, and restarting the system.  Once that was behind me, and I had a couple of coffees in me, I went over to the guest cottage to go to work.  It was clear and sunny all day, but cold.  The temperature only made it up to about -16 in the afternoon and by evening had dropped down below -20, just like the night before.

I managed to get the two door jambs for the bedrooms painted and installed into the openings.  The third jamb for the bathroom is built, and primed, but I can't install it for a while.  The wall is not fully closed in yet, and I don't want to do that until we hook up water, and I can test all the plumbing connections.  In the evening my next door neighbor Dan and I were invited over to Scott's place for dinner, and we enjoyed a really nice lasagna.  This time we behaved and packed things in early... about 9:00PM.

Calendar

Lots of talk about calendars lately... !!   The printing company that I have used for the past several years, to print my annual calendar, has gone out of business.  I had to switch gears and find another company to print for me.  The company that I eventually selected was less than ideal.  The print quality was OK... and the images came out looking OK.  But, the software that they provided for me to work to layout the calendar was less than ideal.   And, the aspect ratio of their template was not well suited to images shot in 4x5 format.  I usually compose my images to fill the frame but found that I had to crop them to fit the format of the calendar.   Next year I will be better prepared.   This time around the 2023 version of my calendar turned out OK... but not great.   I will distribute the ones that I printed over the coming days.   Below is a copy of the cover of the calendar........

Apparitions Project - Moving Van

This old International Moving Van was in the same Saskatchewan yard as the old bus.  I thought both of them would be great potential subjects for the Apparitions project.  This one was shot on Kodak Tri-X Pan 320, given Normal Development in PMK.    I shot this on the July road trip to Saskatchewan with my Ebony view camera and a Rodenstock 90mm lens, with no filter.

Apparitions Project - Bus Stop

We found this old bus on our road trip to Saskatchewan last July.  I thought it would be a perfect image for the Apparitions project, so I shot it.  Arturo was with me and chose not to.  I don't know anything about White buses, but I'd guess that this one has to be from the 1950's...?

This was one of the negatives that I just recently processed.  I set up my Jobo processor when I returned home from Nordegg in early November and have been processing film like crazy every since.  I did over 300 sheets of 4x5... including some color... 

This one was taken on Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 film, developed normally in PMK developer.  I shot this with my Ebony view camera and a Schneider 135mm lens with no filter.

Color Transparencies

On November 23rd I ran a batch of E-6 chemistry on my Jobo Processor.  This is the process used to develop color transparency film.  Back in the day many of us shot color slides with our 35mm cameras.  This is the same process that was used for slides, only in my case I am using it to process 4" x 5" sheet film.  I gotta say, those big transparencies, when properly exposed and viewed on a light table, just explode to life.  Bigger 8x10's are even more impressive, though I didn't process any of that size this time around.

The chemistry kits are hard to find.  Shipment across the border from the USA is restricted since 9-11 and I have to purchase the kit through a Canadian supplier... of which there aren't very many....

I posted these two images on my blog in the past, but in B&W.  It is kind of interesting to see them now in color, as they look quite different.  The first one is a shot of Blackmud Creek near my home.  It was taken on Fujichrome Velvia 100F in late September of 2021.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and a 125mm Fujinon lens with no filter.

The second one is a shot of ice forming in Shunda Creek near my cottage.  It was also taken on Fujichrome Velvia 100F.  This one was taken in mid-Novermber of 2021.  I used my Ebony SV45TE view camera and 200mm Nikkor lens with no filter.

I've included the B&W versions of these two images here for comparison.....