Zine feature on The Art of Photography

 01 August left Abbotsford for Ponteix, Saskatchewan ... a 1500 Km + trip one-way east across the Rockies, foothills and on into the familiar prairies of home.  In light of the fact that my plans to go home last year didn't materialise and with the outbreak of a global pandemic, this was a trip I was really looking forward to.

I had made sure I had the camera gear needed and my film reservers were well stocked.  All-in-all, I exposed about 20 rolls of Provia 120 slide film including one precious roll of aerochrome colour infrared; 2 rolls of Ilford FP4 plus 120, black & white; 2 bulk loaded rolls of Ilford HP5 plus in 135 format.  In large format about 10 sheets of FP4 plus and 20 sheets of Provia colour slide film.

When I got back, I bought two E6 kits from Beau Photo in Vancouver to process all the colour slide film.  With my first kit I successfully processed 22 rolls of 120 film.  The kit cost about $70 each and if I sent my film out to a lab for processing, it would cost about $11.00/roll.  So, you can see that by bulk loading my small format film and processing my own E6 film aside from all the other processing I do, I can save a substantial amount of my precious little hard earned money.

It was so wonderful to be back out on the prairie and feel the wind, hear the crickets and the shwoosh from the seas of wheat in the fields.  It was also very satisfying to hear the sound of silence ...

One the first day, we drove as far as Calgary and spent the night at a hotel there that was near the direct highway to Dorothy, Alberta as that was one of the destinations for day two.  From Dorothy we drove north of the number one highway straight into Saskatchewan where we met up with Saskatchewan highway number 44 and then south on #21 into Leader/Sceptre and the Great Sandhills.  

From here we travelled down #32 into Swift Current passing many little villages along the way.

Aside from visiting my parents and remanising of my school years, my dad accompanied me on a few of my short trips to photograph some of the ghost towns and hamlets within a two hour radius of Ponteix.

As well, my dad and Yula built a beautiful and strudy step stool.  Dad was also kind enough to make me picture frames with inlaid cedar strips - two tone wood colour is really nice.

14 August 2020 ... finally the day to return to the rat-race came, why does time go so fast when I'm home on the prairie.  On the way back to Abbotsford, we spent our first night in Golden and then onto Abbotsford the next day.