Kodak Gold 200 on the Cowboy Trail

The last weekend in May was a mixed bag here in south Alberta. I've been taking vacation days on Friday's to help balance having my office at home during these times. I have regular office hours that I'm good at managing, but it is nice to have that extra day at the end of the week to provide a little space.

Now that spring has settled in and the temperatures are nice I've been using the extra day to do a little exploring. Last Friday was beautiful in Calgary and I went on a little adventure along the river, I didn't take any photographs on the day, I've shot that area of Calgary a lot and there was nothing exceptional that caught my eye, it was just nice to be out for a long walk.

Saturday I ventured out to Longveiw to check out some old Nikon lenses at the Film Experience Camera Store. Dave Marshall has a great selection of vintage gear at reasonable prices. I have been searching for a manual focus zoom lens to use on my little Nikon EM camera. Dave set me up with a great lens for $100. I also seemed to come away with some extra stuff not on my list. Along with some film I found a little Nikon FG, the successor to the EM that has the same small size, plus full manual exposure, it's a great little camera as well!

The plan for the day included a drive on the Cowboy Trail to shoot some Kodak Gold and capture the bright greens and yellows of the spring palette. I shot a roll in each of my little budget Nikons and as always, I'm pleased with how the film performed!

Sunday was dark and stormy so I took the opportunity to develop the film in some well seasoned C41 developer. I routinely develop about 20 rolls of to a batch of C41, the recommendation in the package is 8 rolls, that just seems wasteful. Anyway on this batch of C41 chemicals, I decided to stretch it a little, the two rolls I had shot on Saturday were rolls 23 and 24. I didn't notice any difference on the previous 2 rolls, but I think I found the limit with these ones, on a few of the shots the some of the brown shades started to go a little purple, enough to notice. I have included 1 of these unedited at the end to show what it looks like when you push the developer to the limit! Now that I've done that, I think I will settle into a maximum 16 to 20 rolls for my own C41 photography.

I'm generally pretty pleased with the results, I've only cleaned up some dust spots on these shots from the day on the Cowboy Trail and west to Vulcan.

Enjoy!
Dean

Some Sunshine and a roll of Kodak Gold 200

After a week of rain in Calgary today brought a blue blazer. I took the opportunity to throw a roll of Kodak Gold 200 into my Nikon EM and head out in search of some color and coffee. I found my coffee at a shop near the Kalamata Grocery where I picked up some delicious olives, feta and olive oil for a salad and some baclave for desert. 

I love the look that Kodak Gold 200 gives me, and that I can get it locally at a great price. The film did not disappoint me today in my quest for color in the Beltine, the week of rain has started to green everything up, helped out by the color always present in the Beltine I managed some shots I thought I would share.

It’s nice to have a blue blazer on a day off to get out in the sun during this never ending work from home situation. That’s all for now. Enjoy!

Dean.

Exploring Saskatchewan - Robsart to Big Beaver

After 2 months of self-isolation and working from home in downtown Calgary, the Beltline has taken on a decidely Mad Max atmosphere. There is a strip mall near where I'm at that has been re-zoned for condos, it sits empty waiting for the world to return to normal. The homeless, and there are many in the Beltline, have set up a little tent city in the back lot of the strip mall, I've noticed this is becoming common through the area.

Police activity has picked up as well, although not focused on the homeless, they really aren't causing any problems. About 3:30am the Calgary police did a sizeable take-down in the parking lot of the grocery store across the street. 4 or 5 police units moved in on 3 cars parked over there, transacting whatever business that people do in a dark parking lot at 3:30am. There were lights and sirens on arrival, the whole show. It lasted about a half hour.

I decided about 4am on Saturday to head out to explore the the small towns in southern Saskatchewan.

The Red Coat Trail is the approximate route from Winnipeg to Fort McLeod that was taken in 1874 by the North-West Mounted Police to bring law and order to the Canadian West.

I considered locations to visit on the way and had settled on an approximate route that roughly follows the Red Coat Trail from Robsart on the west end to Big Beaver on the eastern side. That would be all the time I would have on this short adventure. Many of the towns are on the posted route for the Red Coat Trail, others are not far away, this trip wasn't so much about the Red Coat Trail as it is about exploring the small towns of southern Saskatchewan.

I have explored a little of the southern area of Saskatchewan in the past, and I've been wanting to get out and do a little more pinhole photography of the small towns, many of which are fading, and some ghost towns whose buildings are doomed to the sands of time.

It was a refreshing couple of days to get away from noise of the city and explore a great part of the country. I got the film shots on the pinhole cameras I was looking for, but I also took a series of photographs with my Nikon DSLR that I’m sharing today. I'll be putting a post together on the pinhole photography I shot on this little escape, that will show up over the next few weeks.

Enjoy!
Dean