The Welland Canal attracted a wide range of industry. But most of the industry used the Canal as a way to bring in power to drive the machines, transport in raw materials, and ship out finished products. But if there is a single industry that not only depended on the presence of the Canal but also provided goods and service to the Canal, it is the shipbuilding industry. Shipbuilding in Canada was nothing new; ships were the cars of the day as water was the highway. And with most the communities that existed in Canada were on the water. While Mills drove inland communities onRead More →

After last month’s debacle with FilmWashi D and the ultra-thin base, I made a point to check Z before even loading it up into the camera, thankfully, the base while thin, is a little closer to what I’m used to working with JCH Streetpan and Rollei RPX films. Like D, Z is designed for aerial surveillance specifically for the mapping of vegetation. To aid in this, the film has a near-infrared capability. While this might not have been used in spy satellites but you never know, it could have been used in spy planes? Knowing that the film has infrared capabilities, I decided to shootRead More →

Most will overlook the third Welland Canal, and with good reason, of all the canals it is the least interesting, the least preserved and is, to be honest, boring. The Third Canal came at a moment of transition, a move from a colonial province to a world power for Canada. Plus the end of the age of sail. The Second Canal by the 1850s had just completed their depth increase to put it in line with the improved navigation along the St. Lawerence, Detroit, and St. Clair Rivers. But the increased depth, increased size in ships only showed the need for an improved water sourceRead More →

If you’re a long time listener to the Film Photography Project, you might recognise the name of the camera I’m reviewing today, but that is not the camera I’m referencing. There’s a certain soundbite used in some earlier episodes the Agfa Clack as said by one Dan Domme. The Click-II is the younger cousin to the Clack, unlike the Clack, the Click and Click-II shoots 6×6 and is a bit of a strange duck given that the Click-II saw production starting in 1959 long after the days of the simple box camera. Yet, even today cameras like the Click-II see a level of popularity amongRead More →

Despite everything, the past couple of years have been wonderful for film photography. Both with films being reintroduced like Kodak E100 and a new version of Fuji Acros (Fuji Acros 100 II). Plus you have folks like Lomography re-rolling iconic motion picture films ORWO UN54 (Potsdam) and N74 (Berlin) and there’s the new production level run of FilmFerrania P30. You have Ilford introducing Ortho Copy as Ortho Plus in 120 and 35mm formats, it’s been a good year! We are joined again today by the awesome Jess Hobbs! Ilford Ortho Plus While certainly not a new film in Ilford’s lineup, Ortho Plus is only recentlyRead More →

Any modern historical narrative is incomplete without the inclusion of the human cost to any historical event. The Welland Canal, despite being a thing, impacted the human condition in the corridor where the canal runs. It took a great deal of human effort to build all three canals. Not only is there the cost of human lives but also impact on the communities, land, and political landscape. One thing that you have to remember, the Welland Canal came in the days before labour laws and protections for workers. In many cases, the men who did the dangerous work did so without safety equipment, medical attention,Read More →

When you think of all the developers out there, D-76, D-23, HC-110, DK-50, Rodinal, these are all designed specifically for developing standard black & white films, but there is another developer that often flew under the radar mainly because it proved so industry-specific that the home photography wouldn’t even think of using the developer in their own processing. That developer is D-96, originally created by Kodak for use to develop black & white motion picture film. But the average photographer cannot get small quantities of D-96 but that’s where Cinestill stepped in releasing their own version of D96 along with the Film Photography Project. IRead More →

Since the first arrival of European settlers to the American continent, the drive to develop a local economy and industry. The new continent proved a wealth of raw material through timber, fur, and minerals. Open untouched space allowed for large farms and rivers teamed with fish. The first industries in the area were all related to the extraction and processing of these raw materials. The business owners made a fortune and grew into a new world nobility. Electricity remained decades away, and these industries relied either on animal power or better, water power. Water power relied on running water to drive massive wheels which turnedRead More →

Last month when I reviewed the classic 105mm f/2.5 Nikon lens I mentioned that I’m a big fan of the 105mm focal length. And while I could use the classic lens on my modern cameras, the smaller size looks funny on my larger autofocus cameras, namely the Nikon F4, F5, and D300. On my first trip to New York City and a visit to B&H Photo resulted in the purchase of this beauty. And immediately did a photoshoot in Central Park with a friend and her then partner. a new version of the classic lens that has more than a few tricks up its sleeve.Read More →

While the construction of the canal inspired a great deal of urbanization of the Niagara Region, but not all towns came into being because of the canal. Even before the canal came to the region, the area attracted a great deal of colonization in the days during and following the American Revolution mainly by Loyalists. Officially today they’re called United Empire Loyalists, and they formed the core of the original European population in Upper Canada, created out of the Province of Quebec. Quebec had been under British occupation since the end of the French-Indian War, and the government was maintained to match that of NewRead More →