Bubblers

"Bubblers"....  that's what the locals out at Nordegg call the tourists that come out to Abraham Lake to see the Ice Bubbles.  On mild weekends there are hundreds of them out on the ice of the lake.  There are tour companies operating in the area that take the Bubblers out to see the best locations.  When there is a skiff of snow they sweep off patches of ice in advance of taking the Bubblers out....

I took a drive up to the lake when I was out out last week and did a little shooting with my big camera.  It was on Sunday the 12th, so it was moderately busy up at the lake.  I went out in the morning, and surprisingly it was one of those rare days that was dead calm.  The skies were clear and it was a beautiful day.  By early afternoon the clouds rolled in and the breeze picked up.  The hoards of Bubblers that were arriving to explore the lake missed the best part of the day, and by the time I left they were like flies on a cow flop.

While I was shooting a young couple showed up with a "professional" photographer.  They must have been taking engagement portraits or something as they were out on the ice in fancy clothes and dress shoes.  I always marvel at these digital shooters and had to scoff just a little at the so-called pro that they had hired.  She was shooting with a Canon SLR and a long telephoto lens.  But, everything was handheld and there was not a tripod to be seen.  And as I watched them I noticed that every shot was taken into the sun, with the subjects heavily backlit.  Thank goodness that PhotoShop can solve all these problems.  Alternatively if a little thought would have gone into it, she could have just taken better images in the first place, and not had to spend hours on the computer editing later.  

I guess that's why whenever I'm involved in a photoshoot, the feedback I get always praises my work and I am told that my shots turn out better than what the pros shoot....!  A little foresight, planning and understanding of light goes a long way...

Cabinet Building

For the first couple of days that I was out at Nordegg last week, I set to work in the guest cottage.  There was one really mild day early on, and I was able to set up my table saw outside and cut up a sheet of 1/2" MDF.  These particle board pieces will become the door panels and drawer fronts for the kitchen cabinets in the guest cottage.  

After I cut everything up, I put the table saw away and went to work inside the guest cottage.  It is getting rather crowded in there, and working is a challenge.  I have three sections of cabinet standing around, plus a temporary work table, plus an air compressor, and a chop saw, and some kitchen appliances.  Of course there are also lots of materials and supplies, and smaller hand tools.  Once some of these components get installed into proper position, it will become a little less crowded.

I used my router to round over all the edges of the door panels and drawer fronts.  Then I set to work finishing everything.  First there was a coat of primer and then paint.  I put two coats of paint on the backsides of everything, and three coats on the exposed faces.

Snowmobiles

I bought my Skidoo Tundra new in 2015.  For the first year or two I stored at my skylight shop.  Later, when we bought the property out at Nordegg, and built our cottage, I moved it out there.  I also still have my old 1979 Yamaha ET300 that I bought used back when I was a teen.  Recently I restored that one and had the engine and carburetor rebuilt, the seat reupholstered, and the skis replaced.

The Skidoo never saw a lot of use.  I took it out for a spin once near Battle Lake shortly after I bought it.  Then I took it out for an second spin out at the cottage.  In between all that both of the snow machines mostly remained parked at the cottage.  Some years we did not have a lot of snow, and when we did the temperature was bitterly cold.  Other years I was just too busy working on the cottage to get out riding.

On this most recent stay at the cottage I decided that both machines needed to get out for a rip.  We have quite a bit of snow this year, and I would guess there is about two feet this winter.  It melted somewhat during the warm spell in February, but then we got some fresh stuff later in the month.  That was combined with some winds, that whipped up some nice drifts.

The battery was dead on the Skidoo when I tried to start it earlier this winter.  I put a battery maintainer on it a while back and that has helped, but it doesn't seem to accept a a full charge so I think I will need to replace the battery.  But there is also a pullstart, so I'm never really stuck.

When I got it going this past week, there were only 9 miles on the Skidoo.  After getting it out on the trails a few times, it had about 27 miles on it by the time I put it away and headed back to the city.  I also got out for a couple of spins on the old Yamaha, but didn't take any snapshots of it this time.

It was a lot of fun and I look forward to doing a lot more trail riding.  It may be coming to an end for this season, as it is already mid March, and the snow likely won't last much longer.  I will have to see if there is enough left to get out for another spin, then next time I head out to the cottage.

Trunk Wells

I just returned home after spending a week out in the mountains at my cottage in Nordegg.  I forgot to take the power supply cord for my laptop along with me on this trip and therefore was unable to download any snapshots from my phone, or post anything to my blog.

Other than that is was a very enjoyable and productive week.  I managed to get out to the rink in town and play outside hockey with a bunch of my neighbors.  The first time was on the evening of Saturday March 11th and it was rather cold.  The rink was exposed to a cold breeze out of the east, and by the time the game got going, the temperature was down to about -15C.  We had two goalies and about a dozen skaters.  The rink is not full size, and it would have been too crowded for everyone to skate at once.  So we played mostly 3 on 3 and 4 on 4.  It was comfortable enough when you were skating and moving around, but when it came time to take a shift off and ride the bench, it got pretty chilly.  We played again on Sunday night, and it was quite a bit warmer, but we didn't have quite as many players out.

I got a bunch of work done in the guest cottage, and also got out a couple of times with my cameras.  

I found this detail shot on my property, just a few yards from my cottages.  I thought it was kind of cool the way the wind had excavated a well in the snow around each of the aspen trunks.  I also took a shot of this with my big view camera.

Mission Accomplished

I got word this week that my donation to Knitted Knockers had been received.  The organizers sent me a very nice thank you note, and posted this message on their Facebook page...

Apparitions - The Art Gallery of Alberta - THREE

This is the third of my prints that will be going to The Art Gallery of Alberta.  These floor scrubbers are up at the mine site near Nordegg and Arturo and I shot there in the fall of 2022.  We were specifically looking for subject matter that would work for the Apparitions project.  I shot this one with a 200mm lens on Kodak T-Max 100, developed in 510 Pyro.  This is a relatively straight print with just a little dodging along the left edge, and a bit of a burn in the bottom right corner.  I did use an unsharp mask for this, as well as for the other two prints in the set.  The title of this one is simply... "Floor Scrubbers".

I'm quite happy with the way that all three of them turned out and hopefully this contributes to a future working relationship with the Art Gallery.

Apparitions at The Art Gallery of Alberta - TWO

This is the second print I have framed for the Art Gallery of Alberta.  This one is called "Hudson".  This old wreck lies at the bottom of a steep hill, along a mountain highway.  It has been there since the late 1950's, and it is surprising how intact it is.  I shot this one in the fall of 2022 when Arturo and I were out exploring.  This one was taken with a wide 90mm lens on my Ebony 4x5 view camera.  This film was Ilford FP4, developed in Perceptol.  There was a large contrast range between the sunlit trees in the background, and the foreground that was in shade.  The softer development of Perceptol I think may have helped this a little, but despite that I still had to burn in the background in printing.

Printing Again

It seems I've been printing a lot this winter.  I typically do most of my printing over the winter months.  Once the weather warms up I prefer to get outside and go shooting.  I tend to keep up to some film processing over the summer months, but mostly that gets done in the fall.  Unless I have a specific project to print for, I generally don't print a lot in the summer.

Earlier this winter I was printing for the changeover of my work at Mimi's Pub.  Then more recently I have been printing for the Apparitions project, for the work going to the Art Gallery of Alberta.  Now I am working on another project.  Dinosaur Valley Studios in East Coulee has a contract with the local Tim Horton's restaurant.  We are doing some dinosaur themed displays for inside the restaurant.  Part of that contract includes a selection of 15 framed pictures.  Thirteen of the 15 will be prints of mine, and I am currently working on those.  It took a long time for the consultant to decide which images they wanted, and how they wanted them framed.  Now that they have reached that decision, the rush is on to get the work done in time.  The prints won't be ready to hang by the time the restaurant re-opens following the renovation, as that will be next week, and I only got the final instructions a few days ago.  But I'm doing my best to have everything ready by the end of the month.

Apparitions at The Art Gallery of Alberta - ONE

Arturo and I entered into a contract with the Art Gallery of Alberta, for our Apparitions project.  It is with their Sales and Rental Department.  We will be providing SIX framed prints from the project.  These will be made available to the public and may be purchased or rented.  Hopefully there is some interest and some activity occurs with respect to these images.  It adds credibility to our project, and if anything sells or gets rented, the Art Gallery of Alberta will be more likely to consider exhibiting Apparitions at some point in the future.  Of course we are not ready for an exhibition just yet... but this is a good start.

I spent all day on Sunday March 5th, drymounting my prints and putting together the frames.  The prints were made back in February, and I chopped up the frame stock last time I was out at Nordegg.  On Saturday March 4th I cut all the mounts and matts.  These will be ready to deliver this coming week and I'm just waiting on Arturo to finish up his three as well.

This one is simply titled "Old Yard"  I've posted it before here on my blog, but this is the first time that I have framed a print from the negative.  I shot this in the fall of 2021.  It was taken on 4x5 large format film and cropped to panoramic proportions.  The print itself is approx. 10 x 20 and the overall frame is approx. 18" x 30".  I shot this with a longish 200mm lens on Kodak T-Max 100 film, developed in 510 Pyro.  A #8 yellow filter was used to provide a little separation in the sky, and to lighten the foreground stubble field.

Apparitions

The Apparitions project is now officially underway.  The project description explains... An Exhibition of Black and White Silver Gelatin Prints Depicting Scenes that Conjure a Human Presence from the Past.

My friend Arturo and I are working jointly on the project.  It is a major undertaking and will take us a number of years to complete.  In fact we have already been shooting images for the project for the past couple of years, and will continue for a couple more.  But, the other aspects of the project are now officially underway.

We will shoot over a thousand images for the project and perhaps as many as two thousand.  From those we will select what we feel are the strongest 30 to 40 images and put together a travelling gallery exhibition.  All of the images will be taken on film and printed on silver gelatin paper by traditional analog methods.  These images will be professionally framed for presentation at gallery exhibitions.  

We hope to see the show tour to eight or more galleries throughout Western Canada.  We have a publisher lined up who is going to print a Fine Art Photography book containing around 100 of the images from the project.  The book is scheduled to go to press in late 2025.  The gallery exhibitions are intended to take place in conjunction with the release of the book, although some shows may be initiated a little in advance.

We have an agreement in place with a small but prestigious publisher of Fine Art Photography books, based in South America.  In fact we have already purchased the paper on which the books will be printed.

In addition to that we have commenced making some gallery submissions so that we can begin the touring exhibition for our show.  The galleries that we have submitted to so far are looking to book exhibitions for 2024 and 2025.  We have also just completed some grant applications in the hope that we can secure some funding for this ambitious project.  The overall budget will be five figures, so this is significant.  There will be some revenue in the form of gallery exhibition fees paid to artists, hopefully some print sales, maybe some donations, and eventually book sales.  But that will not be enough to fully fund the project so some expenses will be paid out of pocket by us as artists.  Hopefully some funding will minimize the out of pocket expenses.  If we are successful in our grant applications we may attempt to send the exhibition to galleries in other parts of Canada and the world.

This is all very exciting and I'm thrilled to be working on a project of such significance.  In the short term I'm really itching to see winter come to an end so that I can get out and shoot more images for the project.  Arturo and I have a trip to the West Coast planned for late 2023, and at some point this spring we hope to travel to southern Alberta.

The images below are examples of the type of subject matter will be included in the project.  Some of these date back to before the project officially began, while others are being considered for inclusion.

March Image - David Thompson Country Calendar

This is the image I selected for the March page of my 2023 David Thompson Country Calendar.  The calendar is available to purchase at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg.  I also have a couple of copies left so if anyone reading this is interested, please reach out to me.

Donation

The "Rosie the Riveter" project is now complete.  It was late August of last summer when Margarit and I travelled down to southern Alberta.  Margarit was one of 13 young ladies that dressed up as "Rosie the Riveter" and posed on the World War II era Spitfire.  The photograph that I captured at that event turned out really well, so I made 15 prints from the resulting negative.  Four of those prints ended up getting framed.  One of those I gave to Margarit, and a second one to my friends Chris and Connie, who organized the whole thing.  A third one went to the charity that the shoot was done for... Knitted Knockers.  I still have the fourth one, and need to deliver it to the owner of the aircraft, that donated the use of it, for the shoot.

There were 11 more copies that ended up getting printed, dry mounted, matted and distributed.  I suggested that everyone that got a copy send me a small donation and I would forward the money to Knitted Knockers.

That process took a lot longer than I expected.  I had all the prints sent down to Chris and Connie late last year, but it took quite a while for them to all get distributed to all the Rosie's, and then a little longer still for all the donations to trickle in.  In the end I raised $448.69 and donated 100% to the charity.  I donated my time and materials and did not retain anything for myself.

The project was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed it... as did Margarit.  I was happy to contribute my efforts to raise a little money for this worthwhile charity.

Knitted Knockers is a group that hand knits breast prostheses and distributes them free across Canada to mastectomy patients.

knittedknockersab.com

Eight and a Half

Hank is now 8-1/2 months old... and we've had him as part of our family for about 6-1/2 months.  He is certainly developing his own personality.  Most of the time he is full of energy, and wants to play.  He destroys every toy that we give him, and some don't last more than a day or two.  In the mornings he tends to be quite drowsy and will actually lie still.  The rest of the time he is on the go.  The other day he got into something that made all the fur on top of his head all crusty.  We washed his head in the kitchen sink and he was not very impressed.  He is not impressed in general with baths.  He still does not come when you call him... unless there is food.  And he does not like to be covered with anything.  But he is full of energy, and lots of fun...

March Calendar Image

This is the image I selected for the March page of my annual Fine Art Photography Calendar.  I found this old doll in an abandoned building last year.  Some told me that I should have used this photo on the October page of the calendar, because it is so creepy and would have fit with Halloween.