Another Nordegg Visit

My brother-in-law Shawn travelled with me to Nordegg on the afternoon of Friday May 10th.  We made a lunch stop in Rimbey at James' Grill, and then continued on our way.  A short time later we stopped in Rocky Mountain House and picked up some groceries, and some beer.  We were out at the cottage by late afternoon.

I brought along the Rockola Jukebox that I bought at a garage sale in Edmonton, about a year ago.  It is not working, and needs to be refurbished.  I have a guy lined up to take a look at it for me.  He lives in Lake Louise, so I thought it would be easiest to bring it out to Nordegg, and then arrange to have him stop by.  The unit must weigh about 300 pounds and it was all we could do to load and unload it.  In order to get it in the door of the guest cottage we had to turn it sideways, and so we solicited the help of my neighbor Rob to lift it in.

Once that was out of the way, we settled in for a relaxing few days at the cottage.  One night we had steak and lobster for dinner, the next night is was Enchiladas, and then the third night it was steak and chicken wings.  

The Nordegg Golf Course opened for the season on Saturday May 11th and we booked a tee time and played our first round of the year.  There were still a couple of patches of old snow in shady spots, and the greens weren't in very good shape yet, but we had fun.  My score wasn't great, but all things considered, a 50 wasn't out of line with what I shot last year.  With the recent snow and rain the fire advisory was lifted and we were able to have our first outside fire of the season.

I also puttered around on some minor plumbing repairs in the main cottage, and we split and stacked a little more firewood.  All in all it was a very relaxing and enjoyable five days.

Memorial

In early May my uncle Ben passed away.  He was just a few months short of his 99th birthday.  He had a long life, and remained relatively healthy until near the end.  Margarit and I attended the celebration of life in Wetaskiwin last week on May 9th.

At the age of 12 uncle Ben was sent away from his parents and siblings to live with his widowed grandmother and bachelor uncle.  Although their farm was only a few miles from his parents and siblings, he had a rather isolated upbringing.  Things were tough back in those days.

Uncle Ben's memorial started with a graveside service.  That was followed by a full funeral at one of the churches in Wetaskiwin.  Uncle Ben went to the church that his grandmother and uncle went to, which was not the same one that his parents and siblings attended.  His grave, and the service were at the Emmaus Lutheran Church.  We found the headstones of his grandmother... my great-grandmother, and his uncle... my great uncle.

Great Grandmother Anna Brauman was predeceased by her husband Herman in 1920.  She lived her remaining 49 years as a widow.  I vaguely remember her, as I was about six years old when she passed away.  I have a photograph of her holding me as a baby.  My great uncle Fred Brauman only lived to 45 and passed away long before I was born.

It was interesting to get this little reminder of my past.  And later, after the funeral service I got to reconnect with a number of my cousins.  Although it was a somber occasion, it was a good day too.

East Coulee and Springfest 2024

On the first weekend in May, Margarit and I headed down to East Coulee.  We drove down separately, as I headed out earlier than she did.  I wanted to move our trailer out of the shop, and set it up out in the yard for Hailey.  After that was done I helped her to get set up, and showed her how everything worked.

I didn't bother going to the music festival that evening.

Springfest seemed to be poorly organized, not well promoted, and somewhat lightly attended this year.  I think the organizers need to do a better job next year if they want to see the festival continue.  Hailey spent the weekend working in The Rock gift shop, and didn't attend any of the shows.  Margarit and I each had a weekend pass and we enjoyed some of the bands that played.  I caught little bits and pieces of a number of them, plus the complete set by Akina and the Wolf, Glen Brown and Heading West, Nighthowl, and the Sadlier Brown Band.  They were all great, and did not disappoint.  The snapshots included here were taken with my phone but I also did some shooting on 35mm film.

The rest of the weekend was just spent hanging around with Hailey, and checking out some of the work underway at Dinosaur Valley Studios.  In addition to the Blue Whale skeleton that they have been working on for some time, they are also building a steel sculpture of an Albertosaurus skeleton.  It's always pretty cool to check out what is going on.

On Sunday evening, after taking Hailey out for dinner, Margarit and I headed back to Edmonton.  We got a rather late start, and it was well after dark before we arrived back home.  As I get older I generally don't enjoy driving after dark, and my eyes get very tired, very quickly, so I tend to avoid situations such as this.  This time around it wasn't too bad as only the last hour or so of the drive was in darkness.

BP 11.0 A couple from Warspite

Back on April 12th, Chris and Connie travelled up to Edmonton for another edition of the Beer Parlour Project.  Actually Connie didn't make it up until the next day, when we visited the Viking Hotel.  On Friday the 12th Chris and I ventured out to the Warspite Hotel.  This visit is referred to as BP 11.0.

These are two of the first negatvies from that trip that I have developed.  Both were taken on Kodak T-Max 400 film, pushed to 1600 iso.  Development was in T-Max developer, 1:4, for 8:20 minutes at 20C.  I'm generally happy with the results.  The lighting in these old taverns is very sketchy and it has been very difficult taking large format portraits.  Pushing the film works, but the resulting negatives get pretty grainy and contrasty.  I'm thinking about experimenting with some additional artificial lighting.  I don't want to drag out my entire studio light setup... but perhaps a couple small light stands with LED bulbs.

The first portrait is a shot of Hope and her grandmother Steph.  Steph lives on a farm nearby, and the two were visiting at the hotel.  I shot this with my Ebony view camera and a 125mm lens.  It was taken on April 12th at about 4:45 in the afternoon.  The exposure was F11.0 at 1/15 second.

The second portrait is a local named Shane.  He visited with Chris and I and was able to provide a bit of history about the town and the hotel.  I shot his portrait with the same camera and lens, but it was a little later in the evening, shortly after 5:00, and the light had fallen off a little.  The exposure for this one was F8.0 and 1/15 second.

David Thompson Country Calendar - May Image

This is the image I selected for the May page of my David Thompson Country Calendar.  I have to check with the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg and see if there are any copies left....

This is a tributary to Shunda Creek, not far from my cottage.  The area was once flooded by a beaver dam, and all these trees were drowned.  The dam has since given was, and the flow of the stream has returned to normal, leaving these dead trees still standing.

I shot this with my Ebony view camera and a wide 110mm lens on June 23rd of 2022, at about 11:00 in the morning.  A #25 Red Filter darkened the sky and increased contrast.  The exposure was F25.0, to hold depth of field from the foreground trees to the background, and a shutter speed of 1/2 second.

That day was my 21st Wedding Anniversary and if I recall correctly Margarit and I were out together for a ride on the side by side.

Overgrown

I found this old car on private land last summer and took several shots of it... with permission.  This one was taken on Ilford HP5 4" x 5" sheet film, developed in 510 Pyro.  I processed the batch on April 15th for 7:25 minutes at 24C.

I took the shot on August 30th 2023 at about 12:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a slightly wide 125mm lens, with no filter.  The exposure was F32.0 and a shutter speed of 1/8 second.  This shows a little motion in the aspen leaves that were fluttering in the breeze.

BP 9.1 Dale at the Victoria

This is another shot from BP 9.1 at the Victoria Hotel in Bruderheim.  Dale lives in a nearby town and was checking out the Victoria for the first time.  He ended up sitting at our table with us, and regaling us with stories about his youth, growing up in Saskatchewan.  He was a very entertaining guy and we enjoyed sharing our evening with him.  I think this portrait really sums up his jovial personality, and I'll need to make a print for him.

BP 9.1 Beer Parlour Project - Return Visit to the Victoria

On the weekend of February 3rd 2024, Chris and Connie travelled up to Edmonton, crashed at our place, and we went on another outing for the Beer Parlour Project.  On Saturday February 3rd we made a return visit to the Victoria Hotel in Bruderheim.  This one will be officially referenced as BP 9.1.

I dropped off some prints that I had made from the negatives taken on our previous visit, in late 2023.

This time around we had arranged for a couple of locals, that weren't available last time, to be present.  We were able to interview and photograph them on this return visit.  My friends Arturo and Steve from the Monochrome Guild joined us on this outing, and we had a great time.

Willy is an elderly gentleman that lives in the area and frequents to the hotel on a regular basis.  He was pretty soft spoken and withdrawn, but we did manage to interview him and get a few little bits of information.  I also took this portrait of him with my Ebony view camera and a Nikkor 210mm lens.  I used Kodak T-Max 400 film, and pushed it to 1600iso.  Development was in T-Max developer, 1:4, for 8:20 minutes at 24C.  I took this at about 3:30 in the afternoon and there was some nice light spilling in an adjacent north facing window.  As a result the exposure was F11.0 for 1/8 second.

The second shot is of Hazel.  She still lives in town as well, and for many years worked as a waitress in the bar.  She worked for the former owners of the establishment and is not really associated with Al and Liza, the current owners.  I used the same camera, lens and film for the second portrait and it was taken about half and hour later.  By that point the winter light had started to drop off so I had to open up the lens by half a stop.

The final shot was staged using some old ALCB glasses that we brought along.  The owners Liza and Al graciously filled these with draft for us, on the house.  Back in the day the Alberta Liquor Control Board issued these glasses to all the licensed establishments in the province.  Similar glasses were used in other provinces.  The draft beer was filled to the line on the glass.  I believe that these contained about seven fluid ounces.  I understand that way back when, the beer sold for 10 cents a glass.  Later, by the time I became of legal age, it was up to about 25 cents.  A far cry from todays average of about 8 bucks for a 20 ounce glass.  Although today's draft beer is much better, and not nearly as watery.  For the shot of the glasses, I did not need to concern myself with subject movement.  So I stopped that 210mm lens way down to F51.0 to hold depth of field.  This resulted in an exposure of 40 seconds.  The camera, film and lens were the same as was used for the portraits, but this was taken much later in the evening, at about 7:45PM, under artificial light.

Badlands Fence Post

This is a scan of a recently processed sheet of 8" x 10" film.  I developed this one using stainless steel hangers in open tanks.  This was after my Jobo processor bit the dust, and before it's replacement arrived.

This was a sheet of Ilford FP4.  As the subject brightness range was limited to two stops, excluding the sky, I elected to give plus development.  The film was rated at 160iso and developed in Kodak HC-110 Developer, Dilution B, for 14:20 minutes at 20C.

I took this shot in the badlands of the Red Deer River Valley near Drumheller, on April 25th 2022, at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Chamonix 8" x 10" view camera, and a slightly wide Nikkor 240mm lens.  A small aperture was needed to hold depth of field from foreground to background, and the exposure was F32.0 and a shutter speed of 1/15 second.

May Calendar Image

This is the image that I selected for the May page of my Fine Art Photography calendar.  This is an old beaver pond along Shunda Creek, not far from our cottage.  I shot this on June 10th of 2022 at about 12:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a wide 90mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter lowered the value of both the water and sky, while also increasing separation and contrast.

I managed to distribute most of my calendars early in 2024.  But I still had a couple left that I needed to pass on to friends.  I finally got the last of these handed out in recent weeks.

 

New Car and the move to East Coulee

Several years ago, when my oldest daughter Hailey started driving, we helped her out with the purchase of a used car.  It was a 2010 Chrysler Sebring, and she quite liked it.  Sadly, when you purchase an inexpensive used vehicle, you also purchase all the problems associated with it.  Most of these are initially unknown to the buyer.  So, over the past several years we put thousands of dollars into maintenance and repairs to this car.

Recently Hailey was involved in a motor vehicle accident.  Fortunately no one was hurt, and the collision was not her fault.  The other driver made an illegal left turn across traffic in front of Hailey and she could not stop in time.  Unfortunately the old Sebring was a write off.  The insurance company paid out Hailey for the car, and she even got a couple hundred bucks more than we originally paid for the car.  But, lost was the two thousand dollars I had just put into the Sebring for brakes and struts.

Hailey decided this spring to quit her retail job at West Edmonton Mall and try something new.  She has taken a position in East Coulee, to run a gift shop for Dinosaur Valley Studios.  This is the company that I am involved in with my friend Frank, and that rents my shop space from me.  They are experimenting with a gift shop called The Rock.  It is set up in an old store just down the street from the shop.  Hailey will be spending the summer living in our trailer at the shop, and working at The Rock.  This first season is somewhat experimental as it remains to be seen if there is enough tourist traffic in town to support the shop.

The timing of the vehicle collision could not have been worse.  Not only did it write off my investment in the repairs, but it also left Hailey without her vehicle, days before her planned move.  Fortunately we have another vehicle that Hailey was able to borrow.  This is Margarit's old 2008 Honda Pilot, that we have elected to keep on the road and allow the two younger girls to use to learn to drive.  Last fall we replaced it with a new Toyota Tacoma for Margarit.

Hailey moved down to East Coulee in early April and we started the hunt for a replacement vehicle.  Margarit and I decided that with Hailey moving away from home, she needed something reliable.  So we elected to put the insurance proceeds towards a new vehicle, and helped out with the balance.  One of the most economical vehicles that we could find, that was available relatively quickly, was a Chevrolet Trax.  It is a small, front wheel drive SUV that comes very well equipped.  Many manufacturer's advertise vehicles with a low cost entry point but we soon learned that in reality the dealers don't order any of these in.  Everything that is brought in seems to come fairly loaded up with options, and a much higher price tag.  We found two of these Chevrolet Trax's that were just the basic model, with no upgrades.  But both ended up being sold before we could secure them.  The Don Wheaton GM dealership on Whyte Avenue was able to find us one that had just arrived at port in Vancouver.  These vehicles are manufactured in Korea for General Motors.  This one only had a couple hundred dollars worth of options over and above the base model.  So we grabbed it.  

It arrived in the city on April 27th and we were able to arrange insurance and pick up on April 30th, as the snow was falling.  We brought it home to our place for now, but in the coming days we will run it down to East Coulee for Hailey, and exchange it for the old Honda Pilot that she has been using.

Endless Winter

When March came in like a Lion, I was optimistic.  Usually the old saying holds true and when it comes in like a Lion, it goes out like a Lamb.  But this year that proved incorrect and March definitely went out like it came in.  Then through April I was hopeful that we would have a nice mild spring.  But the weather has remained unsettled and we had snow off and on through the month.

When I was in Nordegg from April 26 to 29, I arrived just after a dump of fresh snow, and it was still slowly melting on the afternoon of my arrival.  Then over that weekend it snowed several times.  Once I got back home to the city on the 29th we saw snow, and even some accumulation on April 30th.  So April came and went much like the month of March did.

Now here it is the beginning of May, and once again there is yet more snow.  In Edmonton it has mostly been rain with a little sleet mixed in.  Up at the cottage, it seems there has been accumulation of a couple of inches.  The only good part about all of this is that it will alleviate the drought conditions a little and hopefully reduce the risk of forest fires.  I would much rather put up with the white stuff now, then with the smoke of forest fires through the entire summer, as we experienced last year.  Here is a screen shot from the security camera up at the cottage that shows the significant accumulation on the morning of May 1st.

The Weekend in Nordegg

My most recent visit to Nordegg was a rather short one.  Mostly I needed to get the pile of new mattresses out of our living room at home and into the guest cottage.  I hauled them out on Friday April 26th and on Saturday got them all set up.

On Sunday, I had the day to myself.  I made a trip to the dump and got rid of all the packaging materials from the mattresses.  I had hoped to get out for a little while with my camera, and do a little photography.  The weather was mild, and the sun was struggling to bust out through the clouds.  Sadly it was pretty windy, and shooting with a large format camera was really limited.  I took a drive west on the David Thompson Highway and explored for a bit.  Although it is a drought year, and there is not a lot of run off, there were a few spots where water had accumulated.  One near the dump was visually interesting in the way that some grass had become flooded.  The ice on the lakes and ponds was mostly gone, but in one spot I noticed some cool patterns in the old melted ice.  I did make a stop along the highway and set up my big 8" x 10" view camera for shot of Mount Abraham.  It was quite windy and challenging to capture the shot.  To make matters worse, the clouds rolled in and the light went totally flat, just as I got set up.

Later in the afternoon I went back to the cottage.  I set up the wood splitter and continued with the ongoing task of splitting firewood.  I now have almost all of the old stuff, from the original clearing of the first lot, completed.  Soon I will be moving on to the stuff from the second lot, and cleaning up deadfall.

We use quite a bit of wood for winter heating, so I cut and split as much as I can.  At the moment I have six wood piles of various sizes around the property, and will be adding more over the summer months.

Later in the evening I hung up my most recently printed photograph.  This is the panoramic shot of the forest along Blackstone River that I just finished framing.  It hangs above the stairway on a narrow little strip of wall, adjacent to two old historical images of Nordegg back in the coal mining days.

New Jobo CPP-3 Arrives

On April 12th the new Jobo Processor that I ordered, was delivered to the house.  It was quite expensive and represents a significant investment in my photography.  But I made the decision to do it as I expect to be shooting and processing film for the rest of my life.

For those not familiar with what a Jobo is, I will offer a brief explanation.  It is a semi automated machine used to process film.  It can also be used to process prints, but my use is limited strictly to film.  There is a large water reservoir in the base of the unit.  It has a circulating pump to move water into an upper trough and keep it moving.  There is a heater, as well as a cooling solenoid, that keep the water accurately at process temperature.  A special processing tank is positioned on the head of unit.  The film that is being processed needs to be loaded into the tank in total darkness, but once the tank is closed the processing can take place in room light.  There are various sizes and types of tanks.  Some hold reels onto which roll film can be spooled for processing.  Others hold various sizes of sheet film.  

Once the tank is positioned on the head of the unit, the base of it rests in the trough filled with circulating water, at the proper temperature.  Chemistry can be dumped into the the tanks through the head, and then the head can be lifted and drained of the chemistry, prior to advancing to the next step in the processing regimen.  All the while there is a motor that agitates the tank back and forth.

There are numerous advantages to this system.  The agitation is very consistent and even... the process temperature is accurately and consistently maintained... once the film has been loaded, processing takes place in room light... and only small amounts of chemistry are needed as the agitation of the drum keeps fresh chemistry in contact with the film.  Really the only disadvantages are the cost of the equipment, and the large amount of space it takes up.

I bought my first Jobo about 20 years ago.  It was well used when I bought it from my friend Tom Webb.  Tom was an exceptional wildlife photographer and won countless awards for his photographs of birds.  At that time he was quite elderly and was moving out of his home into long term care.  He has since passed away but is fondly remembered by the local photo community.  He would have run hundreds of rolls of color transparency film, mostly medium format, on that Jobo before I bought it from him.  It lasted me for about 20 years before the agitation motor finally wore out.  During the time that I used it, I also bought a second used Jobo.  That one was purchased from a private seller in Montreal, and I have no idea how much use it saw before I got it.  This past winter I switched over to that second Jobo Processor and I ran about a dozen batches of film on it.  For me a batch consists of 20 sheets of 4x5 film, or 10 sheets of 8x10 film.  I ran some 4x5 black and white, including Ilford Delta 100 in PMK Developer, Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 in PMK, and Ilford FP4 125 in Perceptol Developer.  Once that black and white stuff was done I did a batch of 4x5 color negative film using the C-41 process, and a batch of 4x5 color transparency film using the E-6 process.  With the 4x5 stuff behind me, I moved on to some 8x10 film and it was while running those larger sheets that the motor of my backup processor also packed it in.

The Jobo system is manufactured in Germany.  It dates back to the days before the Berlin wall came down and was originally manufactured in what was then East Germany.  There were some known design issues with the units, and parts were difficult to obtain.  Since then the units have been upgraded, and are much more readily available, though still very expensive.

The Jobo 1500 and 2500 series tanks are around 5 or 6 inches in diameter.  There were all sorts of different sizes and configurations that were available for processing various sizes and quantities of roll film.  Mostly this involved spooling the film onto a reel and inserting it in the tank.  Jobo also manufactured some 3000 series tanks, called Expert drums.  These are considerably larger at about 8 inches in diameter.  The inner compartments of the tanks were tube like, and a sheet of film was rolled up and inserted into them.  There was an outer compartment to the tank, that was separate from the tubes, and into this the process water could enter and maintain a water jacket around the tubes, to better control the water temperature.  But the large diameter of these tanks, and the added weight of the water jacket, put a lot of stress on the rotational motor and they were know to easily burn out.  This is what ended up eventually happening to both of mine.  The smaller 3010 Expert Drum for 4x5 sheet film wasn't too bad, but the larger and heavier 3005 Expert Drum for 8x10 film really seemed to strain the motor. 

The new CPP-3 Processor that I just purchased, looks very similar to the older CPP-2 Processors that I previously used.  But it is redesigned and now includes a more modern electronic timer, and a stronger motor that is supposed to stand up to the power and torque requirements of the larger Expert Drums.

I will be parting out my two old ones and selling the pieces on Ebay to try to recover some of my investment in the new unit.  Even used parts still command a rather high price, so I hope to be able to do fairly well at this.  The drums, tanks and reels are all very costly too, with most items selling for hundreds of dollars.  But all of the original components fit the new processor, so fortunately I already have these items, and won't need to buy anything beyond the processor itself.

Here are some snap shots of the various drums and my old Jobo Processors.  The last photo is the new CPP-3 unit, set up and ready in my darkroom sink.

Late April in Nordegg

On Friday April 26th I loaded up the four mattresses... actually two mattresses and two box springs... that we recently purchased.  These had been delivered to our house about a week ago, and we had them temporarily stored in our living room.  There sure was a lot more space once I got them out of the way.  I also brought out a few other odds and ends that we had been accumulating.  New comforters, a second bedframe, a framed photograph, etc.

It was a cool and overcast day, with a brisk wind, and it felt more like early spring than the end of April.  There had been fresh snow out at Nordegg the night before, and in the late afternoon, shortly after I arrived, it started up again.  There was a little accumulation overnight before I arrived, but by the time I got there, it was mostly gone, and what came down on Friday evening didn't stay.  Winter sure is having a hard time letting go this year.

Right after I arrived I managed to get the mattresses off the truck and stuffed into the guest cottage.  Then I settled down and made something for supper, and watched the NHL playoffs.  My Edmonton Oilers soundly defeated the Los Angeles Kings by a score of 6 to 1, to take a 2 games to 1 first round lead.

On Saturday morning I finally got around to dropping off the last couple of my Fine Art Photography calendars to a couple of neighbors that I had not been able to connect with.

After that I went to work setting up the beds and mattresses in the guest cottage.  Margarit previously bought an antique headboard and footboard for the west bedroom.  I had to make some brackets in order to jerry rig these and attach them to the modern bedframe that I previously set up.  Then I put the mattresses and a new comforter into place.  I did the same thing in the east bedroom, though we do not have a headboard for this one yet.  There are a bunch of tools and supplies that are kind of in the way in the east bedroom and I will need to get these out of the way before this space can be used.

The La-Z-Boy recliner that I brought out last time is now set up in the dinette.  I'm not sure if it can stay here, as I still need to find a spot for the old juke box that I plan to bring out next time.  This chair used to belong to my Dad when he lived in long term care.  Every time that I sit in it now I'm reminded of him.