1508_0002 Night Storm, Convent Inn
Opened in 1939 as a Catholic convent and school, the brick building still stands... but it has a convoluted history. Abandoned for years, with extensive water damage and a caved-in roof, it was about to be sold for scrap in 1996 when Robert Ducan, from BC, travelling across Canada with his son Adam, found himself in a campground just across the street, waiting for repairs to his VW van. He later said that he just couldn't allow such a beautiful old building to disappear. Instead, he went down to the village office to inquire, and within a few hours his offer of $1,000 had been accepted and he was the new owner.
Handy, energetic, and undoubtedly with a vision, he began renovating immediately, and eight months later The Convent Inn opened for business and housed its first guests. Much of the original woodwork and other features remain intact, including the original blackboards in what was a classroom. Chalk is supplied and guests are welcome to leave words of wisdom for others. I stayed there many times prior to buying my own house in Val Marie; it's a great place to host photography workshops and seminars, which I did for many years. Robert - who had been elected Mayor of Val Marie when I met him in 1999 - always supported the arts, and I became the beneficiary of this as Artist in Residence during the winter of 2000-01, which gave me a unique opportunity to do my first winter prairie photography. This led to my participation in a group gallery exhibition, and subsequently shooting a book for the writer Candace Savage, which directly led to my own book, Wild Prairie. That is only part of the chain of events in my life 20 years ago.
Robert died of liver cancer in January 2019, but his legacy continues. His son, Adam, and widow, Mette, now run The Convent Inn in the same spirit; countless guests have fallen in love with the old building and return again and again. With incredible birding and a national park figuratively a stone's throw away, The Convent is a landmark and a key cog in the local tourism infrastructure. And everyone sleeps really, really well there.
As for this photo, it was a dark and stormy night when I parked my car outside the property, hoping for a lightning flash directly above the building. That didn't happen, but I did catch an eerie purple glow in the sky. This was used as the lead photo in Judith Wright's story about The Convent in the current issue of Prairies North magazine (Summer 2021). Ten other shots round out the coverage. Truth is, I'd rather be photographing wildlife, but I do love the old building, and many of the images pulled from my personal photo files are the result of my incomprehensible compulsion to document everything of significance in my life. A job that feels more like play than work is the best kind of job.
The lack of EXIF data is because I used my ancient manual focus Nikon 24mm lens for this 88 second exposure at ISO 100, shooting from the imagined safety of my car. The storm wasn't all that close. And obviously I didn't get zapped.
Photographed in Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2015 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
1508_0002 Night Storm, Convent Inn
Opened in 1939 as a Catholic convent and school, the brick building still stands... but it has a convoluted history. Abandoned for years, with extensive water damage and a caved-in roof, it was about to be sold for scrap in 1996 when Robert Ducan, from BC, travelling across Canada with his son Adam, found himself in a campground just across the street, waiting for repairs to his VW van. He later said that he just couldn't allow such a beautiful old building to disappear. Instead, he went down to the village office to inquire, and within a few hours his offer of $1,000 had been accepted and he was the new owner.
Handy, energetic, and undoubtedly with a vision, he began renovating immediately, and eight months later The Convent Inn opened for business and housed its first guests. Much of the original woodwork and other features remain intact, including the original blackboards in what was a classroom. Chalk is supplied and guests are welcome to leave words of wisdom for others. I stayed there many times prior to buying my own house in Val Marie; it's a great place to host photography workshops and seminars, which I did for many years. Robert - who had been elected Mayor of Val Marie when I met him in 1999 - always supported the arts, and I became the beneficiary of this as Artist in Residence during the winter of 2000-01, which gave me a unique opportunity to do my first winter prairie photography. This led to my participation in a group gallery exhibition, and subsequently shooting a book for the writer Candace Savage, which directly led to my own book, Wild Prairie. That is only part of the chain of events in my life 20 years ago.
Robert died of liver cancer in January 2019, but his legacy continues. His son, Adam, and widow, Mette, now run The Convent Inn in the same spirit; countless guests have fallen in love with the old building and return again and again. With incredible birding and a national park figuratively a stone's throw away, The Convent is a landmark and a key cog in the local tourism infrastructure. And everyone sleeps really, really well there.
As for this photo, it was a dark and stormy night when I parked my car outside the property, hoping for a lightning flash directly above the building. That didn't happen, but I did catch an eerie purple glow in the sky. This was used as the lead photo in Judith Wright's story about The Convent in the current issue of Prairies North magazine (Summer 2021). Ten other shots round out the coverage. Truth is, I'd rather be photographing wildlife, but I do love the old building, and many of the images pulled from my personal photo files are the result of my incomprehensible compulsion to document everything of significance in my life. A job that feels more like play than work is the best kind of job.
The lack of EXIF data is because I used my ancient manual focus Nikon 24mm lens for this 88 second exposure at ISO 100, shooting from the imagined safety of my car. The storm wasn't all that close. And obviously I didn't get zapped.
Photographed in Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2015 James R. Page - all rights reserved.