The air certainly had a chill to it and if you didn’t know the date you might have laughed if I said it was the end of April. But it certainly didn’t feel like the end of April, it felt like the fall. I should have gone back up to the condo and gotten a sweater but I decided to soldier on. Despite the fact, the official Spring Toronto Film Shooters meetup was the next day I decided to scrap my initial plan for the day which was shooting solo in Elora and headed into the city for an informal TFS meetup in the beach organised by Bill Smith. I must have miscalculated the amount of traffic or waiting time using transit because I arrived at nearly the furthest point on the 501 route an hour before the meet had been scheduled to start. And while the skies were a light destroyer grey, there was a decently bright light, so I killed some time by firing off a roll of Portra 160 before heading into Bud’s Coffee to wait.
Bud’s is an iconic hole-in-the-wall coffee shop in the area and despite the easy-to-miss storefront, the coffee they serve is excellent. What surprised us was how many people showed up despite the cold and dull grey sky there ended up at least a dozen or so people showed up, including Bill’s brother Alex. The event was the idea of Bill’s and I’m glad it got the traction it did because we got some new faces out, new as in new to the social meetups but let us put a face to some of the names we see online in the facebook group. From the coffee shop, we headed south to the lake and onto the boardwalk. I kept the m645 loaded with the next roll I had up for review while I focused the Maxxum 9 on the people around me with a bit of the scenery thrown in for good measure.
For me, the walk ended at the iconic RC Harris Water Treatment Plant, and while the group walked back to the Stone Lion for lunch for me it was a quick dash to a 501 at Neville Park and riding it back into the downtown. A quick stop in at the new Downtown Camera location to get some filters but ended up getting some film instead. I had to get home as Heather and I got to be the cool Aunt and Uncle and help take care of my brother’s two daughters while he and his wife spent some well deserved time away with friends. If you’re interested in joining us, our next event is in Peterborough, Ontario on the 22nd of June (RSVP on either Facebook or Photowalk.me). You can join our community on both Facebook and Flickr!