Submissions and Rejections

I have not found a lot of time for my photography in recent months.  Although I've shot are fair bit of film, and processed a little of it, I haven't done any printing for ages.  And my backlog of unprocessed film continues to grow, some of it dating back to 2009.  I need to dedicate a little more time and energy to my art and get serious about it again.  The last couple of submissions that I made were rejected.  My work was not accepted by the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute for their quiet. rooms, and a recent group submission by the Monochrome Guild, to McMullen Gallery, was also turned down.  There have been numerous other submission opportunities in between that I just didn't find the time to respond to.  This past week I submitted five images to the Open Juried Photography Exhibition being coordinated by the Visual Arts Alberta Association.  This one was easy as I only had to e-mail in my images in digital format.  If any of them are selected for exhibition, then I will have to print and frame them.  The selected images are displayed for about a month at the Kaasa Gallery in the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium.  Last year one of my images was accepted.  This year I sent in these five...

Summer Hockey - Game 13

Yet another loss this week, this time at the hands of The Ice Kings.  Once again by a score of 7-2.  Although we had a full bench out for this one, and penalties and officiating weren't an issue [for a change] we just did not play with any jump or determination.  This loss leaves us in 6th place, barely in playoff contention, with only two games left.  Hopefully we can turn things around and put on a push going into the post season.

Dad and Kids Weekend

It has been a challenge to get out camping this year.  Usually our first spring camping trip is the May Long Weekend, and then we get out pretty regularly after that.  This year the weather conditions were not great on the long weekend, and I did not have our trailer out of storage and ready to go in time, so we stayed home.  I think this was the first May long weekend in twenty years that I did not get away!!!  The weekend following was supposed to be the annual "Dad and Kids" camping weekend.  This ended up getting postponed due to poor weather and limited attendance.  We finally headed out for a re-scheduled "Dad and Kids" camping trip this past weekend.  A lot of Dads that had originally expressed interest, ended up making excuses and bailing out.  The weather forecast was not great, but we headed out all the same.  I left with my trailer in tow and my three daughters in the back seat, on Friday right after work.  We met up with my friend Frank down in the badlands along the Red Deer River.  He was already there when we arrived at the campsite around 9:00PM.  Frank had his trailer there, his daughter, and her friend.  It was cool and overcast, there were a lot of mosquitos, but it wasn't raining.  We set up camp and relaxed around the campfire before turning in relatively early.

The next day, after breakfast, we were just hanging around the campsite when a brief shower rolled in.  It didn't last long and eventually the weather improved.  Later in the afternoon my co-worker John, his two sons and his daughter rolled in.  Some of the kids ended up going fishing, while others went and checked out the horses at the nearby dude ranch.

 

That evening we threw together a BBQ, stoked up the fire, and settled in for the night.  It quickly became obvious that our festivities were going to be limited to three Dads and eight kids.  Frank made a beer run to nearby Trochu, while I got the BBQ going, and John took some of the kids fishing down to the Red Deer River.  When we were here last year, with a similar turn out, the Dads stayed up all night working on the stock pile of beer that we had brought along.  Sunday breakfast that year was a bit of a spectacle.  This year it was a little more tame.  We stayed up pretty late, and put a good dent into the beer supply, but things didn't get out of hand.  Maybe it was because the weather was a little unsettled, and it was sprinkling a bit off and on.  On Sunday morning, after breakfast, three of the girls wanted to go for a trail ride, while the rest of the kids wanted to go fishing.  We split up into groups and kept everyone happy.  My two oldest daughters, and John's youngest went for a one hour trail ride in the badlands.

 

 

While that was happening, the rest of the kids went fishing.  The weather was pretty good on Sunday morning and everyone had a great time.  After lunch, we all decided to give fishing one last try.  We walked the quarter mile from our trailers over to the old fishing hole and cast a few more times.  A couple more goldeye were landed, in addition to the eight or so that we already had.

 

 

My girls finally got down to the river, made a few casts, and then the clouds opened up.  We were hit by a heavy thunder shower, and it just poured.  By the time we packed up and walked the quarter mile back to the trailer we were soaked to the skin.  We were a little concerned about how hard the rain was coming down, and how muddy the trail out of the camping area was going to get.  We quickly packed up all our gear and just tossed everything into our trailers.  We watched as a couple of other campers struggled to negotiate the trail out of the campsite with their trucks and trailers.  We left together, and it took four-wheel-drive to drag our gear out of the pasture and back onto gravel.  There we stopped and properly packed up before hitting the road for home.  It was great to finally get back out camping and to spend some quality time with my girls.  When I asked them later what they thought was the best part of the weekend, the concensus was that the horseback riding was number one, and getting caught in the rain was number two.  I hope that this weekend together is something that they will fondly recall for years to come.

I had hoped to be able to get out camping right away again on the two upcoming weekends but it appears as though that will not be possible.  Not only do the girls have a soccer tournament and a wind-up soccer party scheduled, but the weather is once again very cool and wet.  It seems as though we may have to wait until the end of the month and the Canada Day long weekend before we are able to get out again.  Hopefully this does not turn into a cool, wet summer like we had last year!!

Vancouver Disgrace

What a disgrace to the game of hockey that was put on display to the world last night in Vancouver.  All through the drawn out Stanley Cup playoffs I had the feeling that the Vancouver Canucks were eventually going to hold true to their record and choke.  They had been lucky earlier on and managed to win some of the previous playoff rounds.  But, when they came up against the Boston Bruins in the final, their luck ran out.  I thought that the Boston goaltender, Tim Thomas played extremely well.  The Canucks just shit the bed...!!

The idiots in downtown Vancouver that went to the streets last night after the Canucks loss and vandalized property, overturned and burned cars, looted stores, and basically just displayed their stupidity are a disgrace to the wonderful game of hockey.  Unfortunately Canadian fans may end up being painted with this brush in the eyes of the world.  These jackasses used the playoff loss as an excuse to go wild in the streets and demonstrate to the world what a bench of jerks they are.  It is a shame that this behavior is associated with such a classic and Canadian sport.  I hope the authorities hold true to their intentions to investigate, seek out, arrest and charge as many of those responsible as they possibly can.  With all the news media coverage, security video, and cell phone images, it is my sincere hope that most of them can be apprehended.  Enough said....  I don't want to dedicate any more attention to such a collection of assholes and hope that people are intelligent to realize that this is not what the sport of hockey is about.

Summer Hockey - Games 10, 11 & 12

Very busy times these past couple of weeks.  My daughters have been playing community league soccer two nights each week, and my work has become very busy.  A number of hockey games have been crammed into the last few days and I just haven't had the opportunity to report the results.  But, here we go...

On Wednesday June 8th we played a game against the Spartans at Knights of Columbus Arena.  The game ended in a tie in regulation, but we were victorious in a shootout, winning by a score of 5-4.

On Monday June 13th we played a late game, at 9:30PM against the Chiefs, also at Knights of Columbus.  We were leading the Chiefs by a 4-2 score late in the game.  They pulled their goalie for an extra attacker and we managed an empty net goal to win the game 5-2.

Last night, on June 15th we played The Wild again at Knights of Columbus.  Coincidentally this was also the night of game 7 of the Stanley Cup final between the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks.  We played a much younger, faster team in The Wild, with a very short bench.  We only had three defense, six forwards and a goaltender.  Being one of our defensemen, I was on the ice for two-thirds of the game.  I served a couple of minor penalties, maybe just to get a rest??  We were pretty even through the first half of the game but then ran out of gas and eventually lost by a score of 7-2.

Summer Hockey - Game 9

The Renegades had a re-match against Papa Johns Pizza on Wednesday night at Knights of Columbus Arena. This time around we lost, by a score of 7-4.  This puts us in fifth place in our division [of ten teams].  It appears it is time to try and set out on a push into the playoffs.  With six games remaining in the season we can not continue to miss opportunities like this.  Since being soundly defeated by the Raccoons at the time of all the divisional moves we seem to have lost our confidence, have been taking too many penalties, and have not been playing together as a team.  We have a chance next week to turn things around when we match up with the Spartans on Wednesday.  Stay tuned...

Sunday Day Trip

Last Sunday my eldest daughter Hailey and I headed out for a day trip with my friend Rob.  We left the city fairly early, around 7:30AM.  We headed off into east central Alberta, out near the Saskatchewan border.  It was our intention to explore a couple of dying small towns.  We did that, and also found an old church and a few abandoned farm yards.  It was a fairly productive day and I think we all came home with some good images.  Hailey was shooting B&W film with her 35mm SLR and getting used to a new tripod.  My friend Rob was shooting 4x5.  I was shooting with my 4x5, as well as with my Gaeorsi 624 Panoramic, and I also captured these snapshots with my digital "point and shoot".

Summer Hockey - Game 8

All the teams seem to be settling in to the new divisional line up.  On Monday evening we played the Mighty Peking Ducks at Terwillegar Arena.  We had a very short bench, only 10 skaters and a goalie, and had a slow start.  By the end of the second period we were being outshot 15-3, but were only down by a 1-0 score.  We finally managed to turn it up a notch in the third, the shots ended up 28-21 for them, and the score was tied 2-2.  The game was a little chippy and there was a steady parade to the penalty box so we didn't have time for a shootout or overtime and the game ended in a tie.

New Film

It never ceases to amaze me that manufacturer's continue to introduce new products to the traditional film based photographic market.  Granted, for every new product that comes a long, a number of old ones go the way of the Dodo bird.  Yet in this era of digital photography there are a few niche market suppliers that continue to support artists working with traditional materials.  Kodak continues to discontinue all sorts of things, originally black and white paper, and then several films.  Yet, they recently introduced a new color negative film, Ektar 100.  Ilford has recovered from bankruptcy and continues to support the black and white market maintaining their offering of film, paper and chemistry with only a few casualties.  Perhaps they are only new to the North American market but several European manufacturers have made new product available.  This includes Efke, Maco, Adox, and Rollei.  I recently experimented with Rollei ATP 1.1.  This is "advanced technical pan" film that is supposed to be very similar to the old Kodak Technical Pan film that was discontinued a number of years ago.  This film features extremely fine grain, and depending on the developer used, can be developed to provide continuous tone negatives for pictorial applications, or very high contrast negatives.  I chose to process my two rolls in highly dilute Rodinal, with minimal agitation.  I extended the development, and increased the processing temperature a little, thinking that I didn't give quite enough exposure to the film.  It was my goal to acheive some smooth toned pictorial images.  The resulting negatives were a little too contrasty for my liking so I need to scale back on development a little.  The first roll was taken at the Crooked Trees in Saskatchewan with my Gaeorsi 625 Panoramic Camera...

The second roll was shot with my Hasselblad, partly on day trips around Edmonton, but also at the family reunion trip to Jasper a couple weeks ago...

Summer Hockey - Game 7

In light of the complaints that they were getting about divisional placement of teams for the summer season, the Edmonton Recreational Hockey League re-aligned the divisions once again.  Division 5 was eliminated and the Renegades find ourselves in the lowest Division, number Four, with nine other teams.  The Raccoons, who throttled us twice in recent days, have been moved up to a higher division.  The Renegades played a game last night at Millwoods Arena verses the Ice Hawks.  I was unable to play as I have a very sore and swollen foot and was unable to even get it into my skate.  So the team played with somewhat of a short bench, but managed a decisive 5-0 victory.  It was nice to get back to a winning role, and even nicer to see our goaltender get the shutout.  This was small consolation for the 14 and 12 goals against in the previous two games against the Raccoons.

Triple Bypass

A few weeks ago my Brother-In-Law suffered a heart attack.  This was another in a series of them that he has had over the past few years.  This one was pretty serious, and he was admitted to hospital for a bypass operation.  On May 17th he had the surgery, a triple bypass.  The surgeons had to split his sternum and deflate his lungs in order to do the surgery, after which he was patched back together.  He has been doing well and was released from hospital this past weekend, on May 22nd.  He came to stay with us at our place for a couple of days as he needed to be monitored in the event of any complications.  All has gone well and he has since returned to his own place, although it will be a while before he returns to work.  These studio portraits were taken on May 23rd.  These events have convinced him that it is finally time for some lifestyle changes.  He has quit smoking and vows to improve his diet and get more exercise.  I intend to make a large print of one of these portraits which will hopefully serve as a reminder if he ever feels tempted to slip back into his old lifestyle.

Saskatchewan Panoramas

On the long weekend I processed a few rolls of medium format film.  This time around it was Fuji Neopan Acros.  Most of these were shot with the Gaeorsi 624 Panoramic Camera.  I've scanned and attached a few images taken a couple of weeks ago at the Crooked Trees in Saskatchewan.

May Long Weekend

I think this was the first May Long Weekend in about 20 years that I did NOT go away camping.  It was somewhat depressing!  We were so busy last week that I just didn't have time to get our trailer out of winter storage and ready to go.  And, with the recent dry windy conditions there was a province wide fire ban in place.  The forecast for the weekend was OK, but rain was forecast for Monday.  So, we stayed home.  I did manage to get out and do some shooting one evening at Clifford Lee Natural Area.  And I processed some film.  My brother-in-law was released from hospital after triple bypass surgery last week and came to stay with us for a couple of days.  I did manage to get the trailer out of storage on Monday, so that we can have it ready to go for next weekend.  Next weekend is the annual "Dad and Kids" camping weekend so we need to be ready for that one.  I can't get stuck at home again next weekend!

Summer Hockey - Game 6

The Renegades played a re-match against the Raccoons at Millwoods Arena on Wednesday night.  We didn't fare much better than the first game, this time losing by a score of 12-5.  We brought out our best spare, and he scored all five of our goals, but it just wasn't enough.  The Raccoons started the summer season in Division 5, just like us.  They were moved up to Division 4, after the fifth game, along with the Renegades, The Chiefs and Papa John's Pizza.  We are lobbying the league for another divisional move.  They don't necessarily need to move us back down, but they certainly need to move the Raccoons up.  The Raccoons roster is very different from the team they iced last year, when we were competitive against them, and now includes a group of highly skilled players and fast skaters.  The league has agreed to look into it so we hope for things to be balanced out and the hockey to become fun again.

Saskatchewan Polaroids

These images were captured last weekend with my 4x5 view camera on Polaroid 55 film.  This is always the first film that I get around to processing because it is so quick and easy.  That's not my reason for choosing it.  I really like the rather unique tonal range that it possesses.  I don't know what I'm going to do when I use up the last 50 sheets or so that I have in stock.  Polaroid discontinued the production of this film a few years ago, and it is no longer available.  I definitely going have to ration the last few sheets that I have left.

These shots are from the Crooked Trees in Saskatchewan.  The last few shots were taken back in Alberta, at Heinsburg.