The Toronto Film Shooters | Take Hamilton

It’s been a minute since I ran a Toronto Film Shooters Meetup, let alone getting one outside the city. My good friends Bill and John have been killing it with the meetups, especially those inside Toronto. I love getting the group out beyond the GTA. While Hamilton is close, the TFS group has representation across North America. I also love exploring Hamilton with its stunning heritage architecture, so I organised a walk through Jamesville and into the historic downtown core at the start of June.

For the walk, I went with a couple of cameras; first up is my beautiful Minolta Dynax 600si with the 24-105 “elevated” kit lens loaded with Kentmere 100 and my Rolleiflex 2.8F loaded with Kodak Tmax 400. It took me a bit to figure out a place to start, especially since some members requested to start the event closer to West Harbour GO station. Now, I need to become more familiar with the Jamesville area. The station is about halfway between the downtown core and the Hamilton Harbour. The area is improving, but there is still a way to go. But it has some options for coffee. I had checked out a few possibilities last month before settling on SYNONYM. A small coffee shop that looked more like it would belong in Toronto than the north part of Hamilton.

We headed north with twenty people in tow. We stopped first at the beautiful beaux-arts Canadian National Railway station, now restored as LiUNA station. I wanted to look inside the front lobby, but sadly, the doors were locked. Crossing James Street, we walked along the West Harbour GO Station and the old Customs House, the oldest government building in the city. Giving people a chance to look down into the CN Yards off Bay Street, then in a roundabout way along MacNab. On a recent trip to Hamilton, I found this block of beautiful Italian-style houses between Murray and Barton. From Barton, we rejoined James Street to head back into the downtown. James Street always presents something for everyone, from people walking to beautiful storefront architecture. Hamilton’s downtown still feels like a proper downtown.

Hamilton, despite being on the rebound, still struggles as a city that once was highly industrialised. The amount of poverty, not just in homelessness but also food insecurity, is still a big reality for many in the city. Having visited the city many times over the weekend, I remembered the food back popup in Gore Park, kept the group to the other side of the street, and warned people from getting into these people’s faces. While I did get some shots of the crowd, it was from the other side of the street as we walked past King and Main. Then, it was under the beautiful Art Deco railway bridge and onto Augusta to wrap up the walk. Now, with twenty people, putting everyone into a single restaurant in any part of Hamilton is not a good idea. If the walk had been smaller, then we could have, so it was there that I split the group up to do as they wished.

James, his son, my father-in-law and I all decided to walk back to eat at HAMBRGR on King William by the Lister Block. And let me say, the burger I had was massive and rather tasty when paired with perfectly cooked fries and a cold beer to wash everything down. After that, I didn’t do much shooting, having wrapped up the rolls in my Rolleiflex and Dynax, and it was getting later into the day, so we both wanted to get back home.

I had forgotten how much fun it was to attend these walks and plan them. Especially getting the group out of the city occasionally for something fun and special. So, who knows where I’ll take the group next or when! Only time will tell. You can check out all my photos over on Flickr. Of course if you’re interested in joining us, you can join our Facebook Group!