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Established in 2013 by MainStreetHost and taken on by Alex Luyckx Photography in 2015, #photochat is a community of photography professionals and enthusiasts who congregate to talk shop and discuss anything and everything photography. To participate in our weekly chat (every Thursday at 1:00 pm), search the #photochat hashtag on either Twitter or Counter.Social to see the conversation, or find me at @AlexLuyckxPhoto on Twitter and Counter.Social @AlexLuyckxPhoto for more info. Include the hashtag in your tweets to answer the questions and talk with the other participants. If there’s a topic you’d like to see covered in #photochat, hop onto Facebook, Twitter, or good oldRead More →

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At first glance, you’ll be confused at the placement of the former Petrolia Grand Trunk station. And honestly, I thought that the trains ran parallel to the downtown behind the streets. Or that the station itself had been moved. Neither of these is true, as the station remains in its original location! The trains arrived at the station’s rear and the line terminated at Petrolia. Petrolia had never been part of the original expansion to Sarnia by both Great Western Railway and Grand Trunk Railway during their construction in 1857. Despite the oil boom in the region continued to grow and attract more and moreRead More →

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It was raining in the city by the lake, a hard rain. A hard rain would wash the silver halides off any type of film. I was looking for something or someone for that matter. Someone contacted me about something new hitting the streets. A film stock would deliver the look of those old detective movies from the mid-century. I spent hours in the old one-screen cinema watching these films when I was a kid, growing up on the wrong side of the tracks. He called himself Shadow, Agent Shadow, although, given his love of cloak and dagger, I think the “agent” part was made-up,Read More →

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There are no saxophone solos in this episode because we aren’t heading into the Danger Zone, but rather the Dangerfield Zone. Join Alex, John, and Bill as they discuss cameras and films that just get no respect! Subjects include Miranda Cameras, the Nikon FM10, Nikkormats, 200-Speed B&W films, Fomapan 100 and Fuji Superia 200! Miranda Cameras When it comes to Miranda cameras, these have never been mentioned before on this podcast. But as a company, despite having a cult following now, they were a bit of a third-party player. Despite this, they remained rather innovative despite their short, troubled history. One of their early offerings,Read More →

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Established in 2013 by MainStreetHost and taken on by Alex Luyckx Photography in 2015, #photochat is a community of photography professionals and enthusiasts who congregate to talk shop and discuss anything and everything photography. To participate in our weekly chat (every Thursday at 1:00 pm), search the #photochat hashtag on either Twitter or Counter.Social to see the conversation, or find me at @AlexLuyckxPhoto on Twitter and Counter.Social @AlexLuyckxPhoto for more info. Include the hashtag in your tweets to answer the questions and talk with the other participants. If there’s a topic you’d like to see covered in #photochat, hop onto Facebook, Twitter, or good oldRead More →

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Like many still active historic railway stations, the Sarnia VIA station is lonely. The station, located far outside the downtown, is among the industrial wastes of the oil industry. Yet this station stands out, being a surviving Hobson Station and directly linked with Canada’s first underwater railway tunnel as it once bore that name proudly as Sarnia Tunnel. Since the earliest days of building railroads through Upper Canada (Ontario), Sarnia began petitioning for a railway charter. The community even paid out of pocket in 1836 to have Captain Richard Vidal go to York (Toronto), no small feat, to speak directly to the Colonial Parliament. TheRead More →

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If you want a simple answer to the question, why the heck am I reviewing a camera that isn’t precisely designed for use above the water, that answer is, I’m crazy. And by crazy, I mean some lenses work both underwater and on dry land with the Nikonos III, and the lens that only lens I have available isn’t designed for dry land. But the Nikonos line holds a unique spot in photography’s history, specifically Nikon. There are two reasons for this. First, the Nikonos line was the camera that made underwater photography accessible, and two, it was the last camera to have a foundationRead More →

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When people hear the name ORWO, they mostly think of their brilliant motion picture films, UN54 and N74. Their newer offerings include the recently announced but yet-to-arrive NP100 and NP400 plus NC500. But that is only a small cross-section of their original offerings. ORWO, or rather ORiginal WOlfen is built in Wolfen, Germany, the original Agfa plant that ended up on the eastern side of the iron curtain and continued to produce films and developers after World War Two through the Cold War. Their films became popular among photographers in East German and the Soviet Bloc. My first experience with ORWO films is one ofRead More →

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Established in 2013 by MainStreetHost and taken on by Alex Luyckx Photography in 2015, #photochat is a community of photography professionals and enthusiasts who congregate to talk shop and discuss anything and everything photography. To participate in our weekly chat (every Thursday at 1:00 pm), search the #photochat hashtag to see the conversation, or find me at @AlexLuyckxPhoto on Twitter for more info. Include the hashtag in your tweets to answer the questions and talk with the other participants. If there’s a topic you’d like to see covered in #photochat, hop onto Facebook, Twitter, or good old fashioned Email and let me know! Our TopicRead More →

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When it comes to locomotives and locomotive production in Canada, the history is long and varied. But for the city of Kingston, the manufacture of locomotives started at the start of the railroad age for Ontario, and the former Canadian Pacific locomotive 1095 is a reminder of the city’s industrial heritage. I will note that the locomotive has been named “Spirit of Sir John A” after Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, about his push to have the Canadian Pacific Railway and its transcontinental line completed in 1886. However, Sir John A MacDonald and his Government, along with future Canadian Governments, also pushedRead More →