This Years AFA Art Buy Ambrotypes

 

Here are this years submissions to the Alberta Foundation for the Arts buy.

14x14 Inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, Tree Abstract, Elk Island National Park, Alberta, 2024

14x14 Inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, Keyera Alberta Envirofuels Petrochemical Plant, Edmonton, Alberta,  August 2024

11x14 Inch Clear Glass Ambrotype #2, Keyera Alberta Envirofuels, Edmonton, Alberta, 2024

14x14 Inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, Calgary Cityscape, Calgary, Alberta 2024

11x14 Inch Clear Glass Ambrotype, Boilers Keyera Alberta Envirofuels Petrochemiical Plant, Edmonton, Alberta, 2024

Swimming Felt Good Today!

I am enjoying my workouts! I went to the gym/pool today the third straight day and have gym/pool visits already planned for Friday and  Sunday. I think it is very possible I can reduce my weight from 240lbs to 200-210lbs, and increase my aerobic conditioning and maybe my muscle mass and flexibility.

3.5 work shifts before I am officially retired!! So I will have more time to exercise.

Improved physical conditioning should help my photography, especially the AMBROTOS KANATA project.

Note* I always wondered how people could be so comfortable at freestyle swimming (front crawl) that they could swim over lakes, or across the English Channel. It always tired me out, hurt to do the stroke. Today was the first time, I kinda felt comfortable doing front crawl. It seemed easier, even calming. I enjoyed it, and kinda felt bad when I stopped to climb into the hot pool. Easy freestyle swiming is weird sensation when you have been swimming all of your life and you make that discovery at 60. I hope this feeling continues and gets stronger. Allowing for longer and longer swims with FLIP TURNS :)!!!!

8 More Shifts!

After tonight, it will be 8 shifts till retirement, after 30 years onsite as a guard. It all feels so strange, dreamlike and not real. Saying goodbye to a lot of good people now.

Video: Homemade Exhaust Fan Build Completed

 It might not be pretty but it works! This version is also much more durable than my previous cardboard box setup. The woodworking tools are coming in handy. Many more better built projects ahead!

Workout’s Begin!

So am starting my workouts to get into better shape. If I want to do AMBROTOS KANATA into my seventies, I need to be in much better overall physical shape condition.

Cheaply Exhaust Fan System for the Darkroom Trailer

 With 10 shifts until I am unemployed (retired). I need to get my wet plate trailer up and running!

Been working on a simple homemade exhaust fan. I tried this last year with a cardboard box and it did seem to work but the box broke down as expected. When I ran it the fume levels/smell did seem to go down in the trailer. The fan looks shitty but works fine, a $15 CAD Goodwill find.

I decided to upgrade the box to 1/4 inch plywood. I found a very old board in the garage, it worked fine. Put some paint on to help preserve things.

The two exhaust fans sit in the plywood box then exhaust the fumes down a flexible plastic pipe to a hole (used for the power cable) to outside. My trailer door and roof vent allows new air into the trailer. It will be completed in a few days, then I can test it out.

Every year the trailer gets refined and upgraded. This years trailer should be the best yet, I am having a bit of work done on the ”BEAST“ 1 Ton, which I use to tow the “FREDDY” the darkroom trailer. When both are 100% I can start to make Ambrotypes again. I need to do some shooting before I go to Asia for two months of photography.

1 Month to Retirement!

 

Yearly Pass?!

Did my second work out today, at a very nice gym/pool facility. In retirement I will probably get a yearly membership, allowing for exercising to every Edmonton operated fitness centre/pool in the city. To make it worthwhile, I will need to attend at least twice a week.

Getting in shape will help me create the Ambrotypes for the AMBROTOS KANATA project, into old age.

AMBROTOS KANATA Camera Positions

Some past camera setups from the AMBROTAS KANATA wet plate Canada project. Post retirement we are planning a long trip to Vancouver island and the West Coast of British Columbia, possibly a 2 month trip. More camera setups there!

Cezanne & Pissarro Book

Fairly cheap and beautiful book buy. The reproductions are quite lovely. 

Back when I started studying the Impressionists work, I was not a Pissarro or Cezanne fan. Now I am! It’s funny how tastes change with time. 

Hopefully their compositions can help the AMBROTOS KANATA project.