Foma:52 – Week 09 – By the Bay

After several weeks of bouncing between two different locations, a little change in scenery is always welcome. Burlington offered something both familiar and different from bouncing between Milton and Oakville with a stay-at-home order forced a reduction in mobility. This week took place during the second virtual Toronto Film Shooters Meetup event, and having shot last month’s event in Milton, I needed someplace else. My original plan was to go to Acton, but having skipped Burlington back in Week 7, I decided to use Burlington instead. The secondary reason is a supply run to Burlington Camera. Also, with moving into the third month, I’m switching film stocks to Fomapan 200, an odd duck int he Fomapan line, given that it is a t-grain emulsion instead of a traditional cubic grain like Fomapan 400 and 100. Fomapan 200 is also my least favourite, so I’ll have to see which of my usual developers help turn my opinion of the film around.

The large natural harbour and the long shoreline is what attracted the first settlers to the region. Like many of these Lake Ontario settlements, the first permanent human settlements began in the early 15th-Century. The proximity to the Niagara Escarpment, vast Carolinian forests, and rich soil made it ideal for these first peoples. The French arrived in 1669, Rene Robert Cavalier Suir de La Salle landing at what is known as La Salle Park today. British colonial expansion through the late 1700s promoted small settlements to spring up; colonists brought in by constructing the Dundas Road. The name Burlington was given to the large natural harbour by Sir John Graves Simcoe. While there were plenty of European settlers in the area, most of the land that makes up Burlington’s historic core today had been granted to Thayendanegea. From the Mohawk or Eastern Haudenosaunee people, Haudenosaunee had risen to the rank of Captain and served in the British military during the Seven-Years and American Revolutionary Wars. However, he is better known by his English name, Joseph Brant. Thayendanegea would build a handsome house on the lake’s shores and live out his days there, dying in 1807. And probably for the best, because in 1809, the Wilmot survey would divide up his landholding, forming the township of Nelson and European settlement began to expand. Three small settlements grew up in the area, Port Nelson, Port Flamborough, and Wellington Centre. Burlington would prove to be a strategic location during the War of 1812, with an army fortification on Burlington Heights that served as a fall-back position during the 1813 campaign and the protection needed for the Royal Navy Squadron during the Burlington Races. The post-war years allowed for further expansion, with timber and farming forming the local economy’s backbone. With these goods sent out by ship to the other settlements. But by the mid-century most of the area’s timber reserved were depleted. The arrival of the Great Western Railroad and improvements in ship technology meant that many cargo ships need not stop at the three settlements, and the peers slowly shut down and were demolished. Farming quickly took over as the primary driver of the economy. But the vast tracts of what was once ancient forests gave way to rich soil, and soon fruit cultivation and orchards took over. The village of Burlington formed in 1874, with Centre Wellington and Port Nelson amalgamating. By the early 20th-Century, the Brant Hotel, completed in 1902, brought a wild entertainment scene to Burlington. Burlington boasted a newspaper, library, and even a railroad that brought people to and from Hamilton. Beaches allowed residents and visitors alike a chance to escape the crowded streets of Hamilton. Burlington incorporated as a town in 1915. During the war, fruit continued to be the region’s cash crop, with some of the first examples of peaches cultivated in Canada being grown in Burlington. The Department of the Militia would annex the Brant Hotel in 1917 using it as a Military Hospital; the hotel would be rebuilt again in the 1930s to better serve its role as a hospital. This also saw the demolition of the original Joseph Brant House due to extreme age. Still, a replica was built as a local museum, which recently underwent a great deal of renovation and improvements and reopened in 2019. The rapid expansion in the mid-century brought cheap electricity from Niagara Falls, better road access (Queen Elizabeth Way), and improved railroad access. Burlington would annex almost all of Nelson Township in 1958, including Aldershot (formerly Port Flamborough). The old Brant Hotel was demolished in 1964, and the new Joseph Brant Hospital built in its place. And while farming remained key, the industry quickly gained a foothold in the area, the last farm in the core closing in 1967 and is now the Burlington Centre’s site (formerly Burlington Mall). And in 1974, Burlington was incorporated as a city. Burlington is my birth town; I was born at Joesph Brant Hospital. And for several years, I would accompany my dad on Saturday morning to Snowden Ford (now Discovery Ford) and explore the galaxy in box-built starships in the parts department’s back. And my wife, Heather, spent much of her childhood in the city, as did her parents.

When it came to picking the images I included, I ended up with a decent number of keepers in the roll. I quickly remembered the images I wanted to include in this post as soon as I pulled the negatives from the developing tank. The featured image was the hardest; I originally wanted to include the Joseph Brant House but realised that some wouldn’t associate the museum with the city. Instead, I went with the iconic Burlington Peer; I didn’t bother wandering out onto the peer as there were too many people gathered around the entrance. I did include the Joseph Brant House’s image, now moved and renovated with a new entrance. The electrical wires do make it difficult to get a decent clean photo of the building. Another inclusion I did not expect was a memorial to the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope, I had never noticed the marker before. Fox arrived in Burlington on the 13th of July 1980; he would not make it out of Ontario. Another one I had to choose is the iconic Sunshine Doughnut sign. While not the best photo, Heather and I have been enjoying their treats since the earliest days of the Pandemic. And despite the horrid weather earlier, the lineup was still massive. The Village Square is an outdoor shopping mall that doesn’t look like much from the outside, but once you duck inside, the outdoor mall has a serious European vibe and another recent discovery. The final two were a little harder to pick; see, the downtown has little in the way of nice buildings to photograph along Brant Street, which is why I didn’t include or even bother photographing much on Brant. However, I needed to include St. Luke’s Church, something different than most area churches being from 1834 and a white clapboard church. And probably what Milton’s Grace Anglican Church once looked like. The final image is one of two war memorials in Burlington. Still, my favourite, the Sailor’s memorial in Spencer Smith Park, lists the ships serving in the Royal Canadian Navy and Merchant Marine and remembers the sailors who served.

The trouble with projects like this is that you go out no matter the weather. And the day I was out, didn’t exactly have good conditions. This isn’t very pleasant because the days leading up to the weekend were rather pleasant. But I’ve also learned not to let the weather get to me and get out and shoot. I learned that from my first project when prompted by a friend and ended up with some great photos, including a favourite. But when I noticed that the rain was coming down strong and a storm was happening, I delayed heading out until after the rain stopped. This week instead of going with a multi-lens kit that I initially planned, I stuck with a single lens to make life simpler. I ended up going with my trusty 50mm f/1.4 and adapted my usual style of shooting wide to looking for more detail shots. While you’ve seen a lot of ASA-200 shooting these past couple of months, expect to see it a little bit more because I’ve swapped over to Fomapan 200 for the next nine weeks. But unlike Fomapan 400, where I over-exposed by a stop, shooting at ASA-200 is box speed. Now Fomapan 200 and I have not had the best history, so I’ll be doing some experiments, starting with Ilford Perceptol. Usually, with Perceptol, you need to over-expose and pull in development, but today everything is normal. The results proved excellent, some of the best I’ve gotten out of Fomapan 200. And given the lighting conditions, I’m happy I had that 200-speed plus the fast prime lens I could get in and close, look for those shots that ask for a narrow depth of field.

The change of scenery is short-lived as I bounce back to Oakville to explore a ghost town that is no more, with only one reminder left that it even existed.