This photograph of McDermot's store near Fort Garry must be appreciated in the context of the photographic equipment that was available to Hime. At the time, photography was anything but spontaneous or haphazard. The wet-plate collodion process that Hime used required time-consuming preparations, heavy equipment, copious quantities of chemicals, clean water, and a supply of fragile glass plates. Emulsions were prepared just prior to, and were developed immediately after, their exposure in the camera. If Hime waited too long, the collodion-coating would dry and lose its sensitivity to light. Given the cumbersome nature of the technology, Hime's photographs are all the more remarkable when it is realized that they were created under exacerbating circumstances caused by prairie heat, dust, rain, and insects.