More April Showers

On April 17th I woke up to fresh snow... about two inches of the stuff.  The forecast was calling for snow in much of the southern and western parts of Alberta.  Some places were supposed to get over six inches, though I'm not sure if that materialized.

This day is also my 61st birthday.  I can remember lots of birthdays when I was young, and it was mild enough and dry enough that could have my birthday party outside.   But not this year.....  I seem to recall that when we have had these really mild El Nino winters, as we did this year, that the spring that followed it dragged on for what seemed like forever, and we got significant amounts of snow.  That certainly seems to be the case this year.

We got a bunch of new furniture delivered to the house on April 16th, so there is definitely no space for a party, even if I wanted one.  We got a new sofa and chair for the living room, and two mattresses with box springs.  The old sofa and chair are still in the living too.  So everything is pretty jammed up until we can deal with it all.  We timed this to happen after the weekend, as we had our friends Chris and Connie visiting from Calgary, and they were crashed on the living room floor.

Our old sofa has to be moved out and hauled away.  We actually plan on taking it down to East Coulee and setting it up in the boardroom, at the shop.  Our old living room chair has to go down into the basement, once we clean up and organize down there.  The mattresses and box springs are all for the guest cottage, so at the first opportunity they need to be hauled out to Nordegg.  In the meantime we will have to live in the cluttered mess.  But we lived with the dinette furniture, and a bunch of other Nordegg stuff stored in our living room last year, for many months, so we are somewhat used to it by now.  

I checked the cameras out at Nordegg and there was snow out there too.  I expected that out in the mountains there might have been a lot more than here in the city.  It seems that is not really the case, though the accumulation appears to be a little heavier.  The last of the images below is from out at the cottage this morning.

Printing for BP

Since it was snowing all day on April 5th I decided to spend the afternoon in the darkroom.  I made a bunch of prints for the Beer Parlour Project.  I printed four different negatives from BP 8.0.  This was our visit to the Fanny Bay Inn out on Vancouver Island, last October.  Here are a couple of snapshots from the darkroom, as I worked on those prints.  The first is obviously under the safelight, and it shows the still light sensitive prints in the process of going through the stop bath and being fixed.  The second shot was later, and shows the prints in room light.  Here they are in the process of being cleared and toned.

I promised Ken and Sebastien, the subjects in the photos, that I would send them some prints.  I also promised that I would send some to the Inn.  Our server that day was a young lady named Starr, and she was particularly helpful in getting our subjects to cooperate.  So I'll include a couple of extra prints in case she wants one too.  I hope to finish these and get them mounted and matted in the next week or so, and then get them on the way.

Card Game

This is another sheet of 4" x 5" Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 film, from the batch that I developed in PMK on March 2nd.  I ran this batch on my Jobo Processor for 9:35 Minutes at 20C.

My colleague Arturo and I were out exploring and came across an old, abandoned Community Hall.  Inside we found this old table and chairs, and part of a deck of cards.  It made for the perfect subject for our Apparitions project, and we both shot it from multiple angles.  It's likely one version of this will end up being included in our project.

I shot this on June 26th 2023, at about 1:45 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a wide 110mm lens.  A filter would not have made much difference given the subject and lighting conditions.  The exposure was F20.0 and a shutter speed of 1/2 second.

Cool Idea

I saw this post on Instagram a few days ago and took a screen shot.  Where do I sign up....?

Compressor Building

Same batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan as the last one I posted, and same trip.  This was also taken during our tour of the Turner Valley Gas Plant.  This is the Compressor Building.

I shot this on June 19th at about 11:00 in the morning.  I used my Ebony view camera and a wide 90mm lens, with no filter.  The exposure was F20.0 and a shutter speed of 1/.2 second.

Coolers

Back on March 2nd I continued with developing yet another batch of film on my Jobo Processor.  This time around it was the last of my exposed sheets of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 in 4" x 5" format, that required development in PMK.  This batch was given normal development, which is 9:35 minutes at 20C.

This shot was taken at the Turner Valley Gas Plant, last summer.  Arturo and I booked an all day private tour of the site, and photographed it for our Apparitions project.  I'm not sure exactly what the function of this apparatus is, but our guides referred to them as coolers.  I think I ended up with a couple of pretty good shots from our tour, and hopefully one of them ends up being included in Apparitions.  Our wives were along for the four day trip and we really enjoyed touring around southern Alberta together. 

I took this shot on June 17th 2023, at around 12:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a wide-ish 110mm lens, with no filter.  The exposure was F18.0 with a shutter speed of 1 second.

Color verses Monochrome - Bunchberry Blossoms

Here is another color shot, from the batch of E-6 processed on my Jobo on March 16th.  I used a Unicolor Rapid E-6 kit, which is actually quite simple.   The three chemical steps are simply a first developer for 7:00 minutes, a color developer for 5:00 minutes, and a bleach/fix for 7:00 minutes.  Before, after and in between there are just water rinses.  The process temperature is quite high, essentially body temperature, at 37C.  This is easily maintained with the heated water bath of the Jobo.

These bunchberries were blooming in the yard out at Nordegg, late last spring.  I dragged my big view camera out and took a few photographs of them, including this shot on a sheet of the now discontinued Fujichrome Velvia 50.  This film has been a favorite of mine for many years and I shot countless rolls of 35mm slides with it.  This particular sheet is old stock that has been sitting in my freezer for many years.  It hit its best before date over a decade ago, in October of 2012.

Like many photographers used to do, I rate this film at 40 iso.  The box speed of 50 iso tends to yield underexposed images.  Even with the extra exposure, the images tend to be very contrasty.  The film yields beautiful saturated colors so I will continue shooting with this old stock of mine until it runs out.  The largest of these blossoms would be just a little more than an inch across.  So I had to position my Ebony view camera and the 150mm lens that I was using, very close to the subject.  The close focus resulted in a long bellows draw of about 9 inches, and required exposure compensation of one added stop.  The exposure for this color shot was F19.0 and a shutter speed of 2 seconds.  Its a good thing it was a sheltered spot, and a calm day with no wind.

This is the black and white version of the same shot, and I really like it as well.  I've used this image on my calendar for this year, and also included it in a submission package for a gallery exhibition with the Monochrome Guild.  I printed a copy of this one and it currently hangs in Mimi's Restaurant.  I made some small contact prints of this negative, and they are offered for sale in small frames, or on greeting cards, at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg.

This one was taken moments before the color version.  The date was June 11th 2023, and it was about 10:15 in the morning.  For this shot I exposed a 4" x 5" sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 and developed it in 510 Pyro Developer.  The exposure for this one was F14.0 and a shutter speed of 1 second.

Ice Formations, Beaverdam - Ilford Delta 100 in PMK

This is the last of my scans from the batch of Ilford Delta 100 that I processed on the day of the Leap Year.  It is also the first of the sheets that I shot in the new year, 2024.  I gave these 18 sheets of 4" x 5" sheet film normal development for 11:45 minutes, at 20C, in PMK Developer, on my Jobo Processor.

This is a shot of the ice formations on Shunda Creek, at the spot where the creek spills out of Beaverdam Lake.  This is about a ten minute drive away from my cottage.  I shot this on January 2nd 2024 at about 1:30 in the afternoon.  I remember that it was a really mild and pleasant day, though down in the shade, by the open water, it was very humid and cold.  I fitted a long 300mm lens on my Ebony view camera in order to get in a little tighter on the ice formations.  A small aperture of F64.0 accomplished two goals.  It held depth of field from near to far, and also permitted a long 8 second exposure the nicely blur the water.  I think the rocks and ice stand out really crisply against that soft flowing water.

David Thompson Country Calendar - April Image

This is the image that I selected for the April page of my 2024 David Thompson Country Calendar.  There are only a few copies left of this calendar and they can be purchased at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg.  

This is an old shot taken up at the Nordegg mine site.  I shot this in the Spring of 2005, before the site was designated and secured and now made only accessible by guided tour.  The coal cars in the foreground lead to the small silver building in the right background.  Here there is a rotary dumper and a scale, where the coal wold be offloaded and weighed.  From there it eventually made its way to the tipple, the wash house and the briquette plant.  The building to the left is a winch house.  Here a large winch was  used to pull similar coal cars out of a mine entrance beyond the scene, further to the left.

Along the Trunk Road - Ilford Delta 100 in PMK

This is a scan of another of the negatives from the batch that I processed on February 29th, the day of the Leap Year, I set up my Jobo Processor and ran a batch of Ilford Delta 100 4" x 5" Sheet Film.  This batch received Normal Development, 11:45 minutes at 20C, in PMK Developer.  This batch of 18 sheets included images taken in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

I was out for an afternoon drive near the cottage, in late November of last year.  This was just after we received an overnight dump of fresh snow.  I took a drive north on the Forestry Trunk Road, looking for subjects to point my camera at.  I thought the fresh snow on the evergreens, in the clear afternoon light, made for a good composition.  I kind of keep an eye out for stuff like this as I am always scrambling to find enough winter images, when it comes time to put together my calendar every year.

I shot this on November 23rd 2023 at about 2:15 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a 150mm lens, fitted with a #25 Red Filter.  The filter brought up the contrast a little, and deepened the value of the sky.  The exposure was F20.0 and a shutter speed of 1/2 second.

Color verses Monochrome - Raymond Hill

Here is another color shot, from the batch of E-6 processed on my Jobo on March 16th.  I used a Unicolor Rapid E-6 kit, which is actually quite simple.   The three chemical steps are simply a first developer for 7:00 minutes, a color developer for 5:00 minutes, and a bleach/fix for 7:00 minutes.  Before, after and in between there are just water rinses.  The process temperature is quite high, essentially body temperature, at 37C.  This is easily maintained with the heated water bath of the Jobo.

This is a shot of some small hoodoos in the Red Deer River Valley, not far from our place at East Coulee.  I waited until evening light before setting out from the shop with my camera.  I took this on October 16th 2022, at about 5:45 in the evening.  I used my Ebony view camera and a slightly wide 125mm lens.  There was so much color in the warm evening light that I did not use any sort of filter to enhance it.  But I knew that the now discontinued Fujichrome Velvia 50 would render the scene with very vivid colors.  This particular sheet of film hit its best before date in October of 2012.  I loaded it, exposed it, and then unloaded it, ten years later in 2022.  It was March of 2024 before I accumulated enough exposed film to mix up the chemistry and run the batch.  In between I stored the exposed film in the fridge.  All things considered, it held up nicely.  

The color version of this image looks very different from the Black and White sheets that I exposed just a few minutes prior.

I shot several sheets of black and white film at this location, including a couple of traditional films as well as a sheet of Infrared.  I wouldn't necessarily say that the color version is better, but it certainly is different.  The first monochrome image is a scan of a sheet of Kodak High Speed Infrared.  I previously posted this one on my blog and compared it to some typical panchromatic black and white films.  The second shot here is a scan of a sheet of Ilford FP4 developed in Perceptol.  This film and developer combination gives a decidedly softer look than many of the other combinations that I use, and I thought it would work well for this scene.  Although I have not included it here, I also shot another sheet of 4x5, a sheet of Kodak T-Max 100 developed in 510 Pyro.  It is similar to the FP4 shot, but exhibits a little more contrast.

April Showers

Today the long suffering Mrs. Pohl celebrates her birthday.  Margarit turns 39 again today...!  I hope to be able to take her out for dinner this evening, and perhaps the girls will join us.

Now five days into the month of April we were looking forward to the arrival of spring.  It seems we are paying the price now for the very mild winter that we enjoyed this year.  As the old saying goes, usually April showers are rain, and are supposed to bring May flowers.  It seems unlikely that snow showers will accomplish that goal.  However, I am grateful for any moisture that we get as we have been experiencing drought conditions and need to see some precipitation, of any form, to alleviate the risk of forest fires this spring.  We do not need a repeat of the extreme fire season that we experienced last year.  Earlier this spring, Southern Alberta experienced a lot more snow that we have had here in Edmonton, and the forecast was calling for a lot more again with this current storm.  Drought conditions in the south were significantly worse than our area, so this is all very welcome.

Lookout Creek - Ilford Delta 100 in PMK

This is a scan of another of the 4" x 5" negatives that I processed on the day of the Leap Year, February 29th.  I set up my Jobo Processor and ran a batch of Ilford Delta 100 4" x 5" Sheet Film.  This batch received Normal Development, 11:45 minutes at 20C, in PMK Developer.  The 18 sheets in this batch included images taken in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Margarit and I were out for a day trip on a beautiful day last fall.  We headed north from Nordegg on the Forestry Trunk Road, and then turned west on the Chungo Road.  We made a few stops that afternoon along the Blackstone River, Chungo Creek, and here along Lookout Creek.  It was sunny and mild, and the water in the creek was getting low, as it normally does in the fall.  I saw a large school of trout darting around, and it made me wish I'd brought my fly rod with me.  
I took this photograph on October 8th 2023 at about 12:30 in the afternoon.  I shot this with my friend Rob's old view camera, which I bought from him, and which now takes up residence permanently at our cottage.  I used a slightly long 180mm lens, and fitted it with a #8 Yellow Filter.  The filter brought up the value of the fall grasses, and deepened the sky a little.  The exposure was F18.0 for 1/8 second.

Long Forgotten - Ilford Delta 100 in PMK

This is a scan of another 4x5 negative that I processed on the day of the Leap Year.  I ran a batch of Ilford Delta 100 4" x 5" Sheet Film on my Jobo Processor.  This batch received Normal Development, 11:45 minutes at 20C, in PMK Developer.  This batch of 18 sheets included images taken in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

This particular shot was taken on August 30th 2023, at about 11:45 in the morning.  I was out shooting with the Ebony view camera that I bought from my friend Rob.  This is my backup camera that I now keep out at my cottage in Nordegg.  I used a Fujinon-W 180mm lens with no filter.  The exposure was F22.0 with a shutter speed of 1/4 second.  I found this old car when I was out exploring on private property, with permission of the owners.

April Calendar Image

This is the shot I selected for the April page of my 2024 Fine Art Photography calendar.  I took this detail shot of the sprockets, chain and clutch on an old Threshing machine, in the spring of 2023.  I've tried to shoot stuff like this many times before, with limited success.  In hindsight I don't think this one is all that spectacular either.  But the light was nice, and the contrast and shadows add something.