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Another episode of our isolation series continues, in part 3 James sits down with Neil Piper of the Soot & Whitewash Photography Podcast for an in-depth discussion on his photography journey.  The pair discuss Neil’s perspective on art and photography and Project Box Camera.  Not focused on any camera(s) in particular, this episode is truly out of the box! Photography is a personal journey and is unique to each of us both as humans and photographers, in this episode we take a glimpse at one really cool photographers journey.  Whether you’re professional or just starting to explore the world of photography and film it’s alwaysRead More →

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From the big cities to the small towns across Canada there is always some form of war trophy usually near the town’s cenotaph. Some little, other’s big, not to mention various pieces of material donated or captured during one of the many significant conflicts that Canadain troops fought and gave their lives. Milton’s gun is one of three guns designated for the town and the only one that arrived in town; it’s unknown what happened to the pair of machine guns. This particular piece of artillery is an FK16, a 7.7cm field gun that came to Milton in surprisingly excellent condition. Captured by Canadian troopsRead More →

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When it comes to reviewing film cameras when I first started back in 2015 I thought was among the first to be doing so, as it turns out I probably was based on the times that a few fellow alliance members have been around reviewing film cameras. Throughout the previous 120 camera reviews, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve considered a hand-built camera, that number is one. Reviewing a homemade camera is difficult mostly because there’s a strong chance no one else has reviewed it or in the case of today’s camera even shot it outside the person who builtRead More →

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Last year I joined a group of talented film photographer to produce a group project ‘zine organised by my good friend and fellow film photographer Dan Novak. The goal of the project was to shoot using a lens rated at 135mm on a 35mm camera. I ended up working with my Nikkor 135/2.8 (the review of that lens comes out in a few weeks). And while 2020 has been a bit of a gong show, Dan decided to launch a follow-up project this time using Twin Lens Reflex cameras. After the success of the first project, a tonne of people jumped on board, myself included.Read More →

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One thing that I like about Milton is the fact we have a downtown, not just a city centre but a downtown, that historic core when the town sprung up from. Today there are a couple of pubs, restaurants, shops, and churches. But it wasn’t always so, the downtown of Milton used to have plenty of industry. From the original mills built by the Martin family, the PL Robertson factory. And take, for example, this building here, if you travelled back to 1892 Milton you may not recognize the place. It was built as the Winn Shoe Company, it also served as the Model KnittingRead More →

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It’s a rumble in the mechanical jungle! Last year I pitted my Nikon F5 against the Minolta Maxxum 9, and I had a lot of fun doing that review, not to prove which camera is better but to show the difference between the two top dog professional cameras. And I have been waiting for a chance to repeat the format for some other cameras. So why not take out two iconic small-format SLRs that came out in the 1970s, sadly I had very view from that era, at least until recently when I got a pair of them. Today we’re going to compare the OlympusRead More →

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In our second part of our isolation podcasts, Alex discusses the Nikon FM and Nikon FE, two cameras that came out in the aftermath of the Olympus OM-System. The history behind these cameras, how they compare and their use in the field. Also, we welcome long time member of the Toronto Film Shooters Meetup and member of the Mississauga Leatherworkers Guild Mr Mark Rossi to discuss his own leatherworking business and the creation of Due North Leather. Due North, as you may know, is producing fine leather camera straps for a reasonable cost! If you are a regular of the Toronto Film Shooters Meetup youRead More →

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Some of my earliest adventures exploring abandoned buildings were taken here in Milton, small farmhouses mostly. But what would have been amazing to check out was the Milton Pressed Brick Company. Formed in 1877 as one of the early large scale industrial setups in Milton. Milton Pressed Brick by the name not only baked their bricks, but they also pressed them. Which in the world of brick production produced a higher-quality product. By 1901 it was said that the company was producing some of the best bricks. The plant continued operation until 1974 and at the peak employed some 200 people. Yet today there’s littleRead More →

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If there is one developer that is the closest thing to a magic bullet in my chemistry set, that developer is Pyrocat-HD. While Rodinal is the oldest commercial developer, Pyro based developers pre-date Rodinal into the early days of photography, being used back in the days when plate-based photographic media were the norm. And while the developers changed overtime, Pyrocat-HD is among the newest in the category being developed by Sandy King as an improvement over PMK Pyro. Sandy promotes the developer as giving 1/3rd of a stop in film speed with about 10-15% less developing time. Along with consistent staining action and lower toxicity.Read More →

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Okay, so things are weird right now, nothing seems right, days, time, rules all have no meaning anymore. But there is one thing that has kept me going, and that is my photography. When I learned that there would be an FP4Party is June, I felt pleased. Sadly the party never came into being, but that didn’t stop me from having a party for one. I had to come up with some sort of idea of what I would do for the party. Thankfully I had a couple of rolls of Ilford FP4+ in medium format hanging around from a project that never got offRead More →