Montneys in a Week

Ten years ago, a 5,000-metre Montney gas well would have taken 25-40 days to drill, and we drilled this one in six!

I woke up on the rig this morning, completely exhausted. I work as a single-operator directional hand, the compass guy. I work day and night when everyone else onsite has a cross-shift. I don’t know how companies get away with it, but that is the lament of the oil field.

With snow crystals sparkling and the underfoot crunch that comes with -18C, I chose a picture mission to help recover from the insane sleep debt of sleepless nights. My film camera, Mizuki, the legendary Nikon F3, comes everywhere with me. I find so much beauty in snapping frames with Mizuki in the Great White North.

The manufactured landscapes created by drilling rigs are, in their own way, awe-inspiring; iron, man, and technology working together to provide wealth and energy to our great country!

The photographs composed with Mizuki can't be rushed as they are a practice of patience and artistry, especially on film stock.

From the careful composition to the sounds of analogue and distant hum of my rig, film photography, like drilling, is a different world.

My sense of purpose is to capture the story of the oil patch firsthand. I don't know what could come from a little project like this, but Peter Tertzakian's Investor Visit inspires me to dig into the culture and people operating Canada's energy industry.