Monday, March 18, 2024

Hemlocks

Another negative from the recently processed batch.  Once again, this is Tri-X Pan 320 4" x 5" sheet film, given N+1 Development in PMK.  I ran the film for 16:40 minutes at 20C on my Jobo Processor.
This shot is from the Vancouver Island trip last fall.  It was a rainy day and Chris and I ventured out and got wet, while Arturo stayed behind in the rental house and did some online work.  In the afternoon we found ourselves in the forest at Englishman River Falls Provincial Park.  This was a conscious attempt on our part to stay out of the open and hopefully not get too wet.  It didn't really work as by the end of the day the camera gear was all soaked and so were we.
I shot this on October 24th 2023 at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a slightly wide Fujinon 125mm lens.  A number 8 yellow filter raised the value of the maple leaves.  I think this worked quite well and I may take a stab at printing it someday.  It could possibly be considered for the Apparitions project given the fact that there is a fence visible in the background?



Sunday, March 17, 2024

Ford Cove Rocks - Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 in PMK

This is another negative from the batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 4" x 5" processed on my Jobo in PMK Developer.  This is the batch that I ran on February 25th, that was given one stop expanded [N+1] development. 
These eroded rocks are on Hornby Island.  This particular spot is right beside the marina at Ford Cove where I shot the previous images of the Tug Boat and La Fille.  I took this photograph on October 22nd 2023 at about 10:30 in the morning.  I used a long 250mm lens to get in tight on the eroded formation and create some compression between the foreground and background rocks.  A #25 Red Filter bumped up the contrast even more than was already expected from the extended developed.  A small aperture of F41.0 was needed to hold focus from the foreground to the background.  Fortunately the rocks weren't moving and the resulting long exposure of 1/2 second was not an issue.



Saturday, March 16, 2024

Old Tug - Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 in PMK

This is another scan from the batch of Tri-X, given plus development in PMK.  I developed this batch of 20 sheets on my Jobo processor back on February 25th.
This shot is of an old Tug moored at Ford Cove on Hornby Island.  I shot this one when I visited Vancouver Island last October with my friends Chris and Arturo.  This was taken on October 22nd 2023, at about 11:30 in the morning.  I used a rather wide 75mm lens on my Ebony view camera.  The exposure was F32.0 for 1/30 second.



Friday, March 15, 2024

Washed Ashore

Through the latter part of February, and into March, I've continued running my Jobo film processor.  I usually set up this apparatus about once a year, and then run all the film that I have accumulated since the last go around.  In between running batches of film I have been puttering around on various other chores.  Some stuff for the Beer Parlour Project, Monochrome Guild and Apparitions, all photography related projects that require significant attention.  I've been busy with trying to fill the roster for my Renegades hockey team, and getting registered for the summer season.  On top of all that I just returned from a quick trip down to East Coulee.  My oldest daughter Hailey will be moving there for the summer to work and we are in the early stages of getting her set up.
On February 25th I ran a batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 4" x 5" sheet film on my Jobo Processor.  The film was given N+1 development.  This is extended development to increase contrast by one stop, and is generally reserved for images that were shot in flatter light.  The development time was increased from the normal 9:35 minutes to 16:40 minutes, at 20 degrees C.  All twenty of the sheets in this batch were exposed during the trip to Vancouver Island last fall.
This particular shot is of the hull of an old boat that washed ashore near Union Bay on Vancouver Island.  I thought that this image might work for the Apparitions project.  That project is a collection of photographs that depict a human presence, without people included in the image.  I shot this on October 23rd at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a slightly wide 125mm lens.  A red filter was used in an attempt to increase contrast, and the plus development pushed  that even further.  It had become overcast and the light was rather flat on this afternoon.  The exposure was at F20.0, to hold depth of field, resulting in a shutter speed of 1/8 second.



Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Garry Oak and Rail Fence

This is the last scan from the batch of negatives that I processed on February 20th.  These were Kodak Tri-X Pan 320, 4" x 5" sheet negatives, developed in PMK on my Jobo Processor.
This last one is also from the Vancouver Island trip.  There is a species of Oak Tree there called Garry Oaks, and they are locally common.  This was shot out on Hornby Island, and is not far from Ford Cove where we photographed some wildly eroded rocks, and some boats at the marina.
I took this shot with my Ebony 4x5 view camera and  wide 90mm lens.  A #8 Yellow Filter brightened the fall foliage and the grasses, and lowered the value of the sky a little.  I shot this on October 22nd 2023, at about 12:45 in the afternoon.



Tuesday, March 12, 2024

La Fille

Back to that batch of Tri-X Pan that I processed on February 20th on my Jobo.  I gave Normal Development in PMK for 9:35 minutes at 20 C.
This shot was taken on the trip out to Vancouver Island last October with my friends Chris and Arturo.  We wandered around for a while in the Ford Cove Marina on Hornby Island and photographed some of the boats.  There was really no one around, so we were free to point our cameras at anything we wanted.
I shot this on October 22nd just before noon.  It was taken with my Ebony view camera and a wide 90mm Rodenstock lens.  No filter was used.  The exposure was F20.0 for 1/15 second.



Monday, March 11, 2024

Father of the Year

In an attempt to secure my position for the Father of the Year award, I took another of my daughters out drinking with me to a small town hotel tavern.  This time around it was my oldest daughter Hailey, age 21, that came along with me.
We left the city on the morning of March 8th and headed out to Lamont.  I had to stop at the newspaper office there and pick up a couple of copies of the Lamont Leader from February 14th.  This is the one that included the article about the Beer Parlour Project and our visit to the Victoria Hotel in Bruderheim.
After that we just drove around for a while, looking for things to point the cameras at.  We did find a couple of old school houses, as well as a pile of old vehicles, and managed to take a few photographs.  I don't think I captured anything spectacular, but will probably return later in the spring once the snow is gone.
We made a stop at a small town hotel tavern and had lunch and a couple of beers.  Last time I did this with my other daughter Anna, my colleague Chris nominated me for the father of the year award.  This time around I thought I'd try again.  I was scouting this location for the Beer Parlour Project.  I made some introductions to the owners and we are going to try and arrange for a formal visit the next time we are in the area.  Stay tuned for the announcement on where and when that will be.










Sunday, March 10, 2024

Lamont Leader

When the Beer Parlour Project was in Bruderheim in early February, for a return visit to the Victoria Hotel, there was a newspaper reporter, named John Mather there from the Lamont Leader.   He interviewed Chris and me and wrote an article for the weekly newspaper.  He proved to be very helpful and later called me with additional information about the hotel, and some contacts for us to reach out to for further historical information.  The article about us was published in the Valentines Day edition of the paper.  I saw a copy of it online, and managed to reach out to the paper, with John's help, and secure a couple of hard copies.  While I was out an a scouting trip on March 8th, with Hailey, I managed to stop in at the office in Lamont and pick them up.



Saturday, March 9, 2024

Denman Rocks

Another morning shot, and another negative from the batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan that I recently developed in PMK.  These 4" x 5" sheets were developed on my Jobo Processor for 9:35 minutes at 20C.
I shot this image out on Denman Island.  We had already taken the ferry from Buckley Bay on Vancouver Island, across to Denman Island.  Then we drove across Denman Island and had to wait about an hour for the ferry from there, and I believe the terminal is called Gravely Bay, to catch the ferry over to Shingle Spit on Hornby Island.  While we were waiting I wandered around down on the shore and took this shot with my Ebony view camera.  This images was taken on October 22nd 2023 at about 8:30 in the morning.  I used a slightly wide 125mm lens.  The exposure was F20.0 for 1/8 second.



Friday, March 8, 2024

Royston Sunrise

This scan is of another one of the Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 negatives that I developed on February 20th.  This batch of 4" x 5" sheet film was processed in PMK Developer on my Jobo processor.  Normal Development was for 9:35 minutes at 20C.  I thought the staining effect of this pyro based developer would nicely hold the highlight detail in the rising sun.
This was the first set up that I did with my Ebony view camera on the Vancouver Island trip last fall.  I headed out to the Island with my friends Arturo and Chris.  Mostly we were trying to shoot subject matter for our Apparitions project, but is was generally just a trip to photograph any subject matter we could find.  I suppose this shot of the old log dump in Royston, with that section of old rail fence, could qualify for the Apparitions project.
I shot with with a wide 90mm lens and no filter.  It was taken on October 21st 2023 at about 9:00 in the morning.  The exposure was F25.0 and 1/8 second.



Thursday, March 7, 2024

The Casket

This shot is another from the batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320, given normal development in PMK, and processed on my Jobo.  I processed this batch of 4" x 5" sheet film on February 20th and development was for 9:35 minutes at 20C.  This shot was taken in the undertakers building at the same museum as the previous shot of the old church.  The museum is now closed and sits on private property.  We had permission from the landowner to photograph the remaining structures and artifacts.  That was some time ago, and much of what was there at the time has now been removed.
I shot this image on August 16th 2022 at about 1:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a wide 75mm lens.  A filter would not have made any appreciable difference, so none were used.  I had to use a small lens aperture to provide adequate depth of field.  I wanted the photographs on the corner of the foreground table as well as the background door to all be in focus.  The exposure was F32.0 for 50 seconds.  Fortunately the subject was completely stationary and the long exposure was not an issue.  The staining pyro developer nicely retained some detail in the highlights around the door as the subject brightness range was quite long.



Wednesday, March 6, 2024

BP 4.0 - Big Valley Train Station

Here's one from the recent batch of Tri-X Pan 320 in PMK Developer.  This is a shot from the Beer Parlour Project, taken last year in Big Valley.  This was the outing that we call BP4.0 and it was last spring, when Steam Engine No. 41 made it's first visit of the year to Big Valley.  The Big Valley Inn, and our destination for the Beer Parlour Project, was right across the street.
This shot was taken on June 3rd 2023 at about 4:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a longish 240mm lens.  As the light was rather flat and overcast a filter was of no benefit.



Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Museum Church for Apparitions.

In early February I set up my Jobo processor and commenced running numerous batches of film.  The Jobo that I have been using for nearly 20 years finally gave up on me.  But I had a backup unit that I bought on Ebay some years ago, and got that running earlier this winter.  I've now run about eight batches of film with it, and it has been working fine.  I think I have another batch or two of 4x5 black and white film left to run, and then I will switch over to some color stuff and some 8x10.
I like to use this processor with PMK Pyro Developer and with Perceptol Developer as both require vigorous agitation.  The processor is also ideal for color as it maintains all the chemistry at the required high processing temperature, with a water bath.
On February 20th I ran twenty sheets of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 4" x 5" in PMK Pyro Developer.  The processing time for normal development was 9:35 minutes at 20C.  This was a mixed batch that included some images from the trip last fall to Vancouver Island, as well as some older stuff from closer to home.
This shot of an old abandoned church was taken at a now closed historic village north of Edmonton.  We had permission from the landowner to go in and photograph, and I thought that some of the images might work nicely for the Apparitions project that I'm involved in with my friend Arturo.  Apparitions is a selection of images that depict a human presence, without any people included in the images.
I took this shot on August 16th of 2022 at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  I shot it with one of my Ebony view cameras and a wide 125mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter was used to increase contrast.  In hindsight I obviously did not pay enough attention to the camera movements.  The significant rise that I imparted on the front standard resulted in the upper corners falling slightly outside of the image circle projected by the lens.  The result was the obvious vignetting that is visible.  In this case it gives a bit of an old fashioned look to the image, though in printing I would probably dodge those corners down a little to soften the effect.



Monday, March 4, 2024

March Image - David Thompson Country Calendar

This is the image that I selected for the March page of my David Thompson Country calendar.  I took this shot on March 12th of 2023 at about 1:45 in the afternoon.  This is Abraham Lake, not far from Nordegg.  The ice on the lake both last year and this year has not been as good for viewing bubbles as it has been in the past.  I took this shot with my Ebony view camera and a wide 90mm lens.  A #22 Orange filter was used to increase contrast a little.  Copies of my calendar are available to purchase at the Beehive Artisan Market in Nordegg.



Sunday, March 3, 2024

Another IR Shot

Here is a scan of another Infrard negative.  Once again this is Kodak High Speed Infrared 4 x 5" sheet film developed in T-Max 1:6.  I don't have a scan of the panchromatic version of this one handy to use as a comparison.  This is an old blacksmith shop that is part of a now shut down rural museum.  
I shot this on September 11th of 2022 at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a slightly long 200mm lens.  That focal length yielded this tight composition.  A #25 Red Filter was used, with no filter factor.  
This is one of the negatives that worked reasonably well... that is, without too much fogging or uneven development.  The film was loaded in the holder on August 15th and not exposed until almost a month later.  It was unloaded three days after being exposed, but not processed until just recently, on January 14th of this year.