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Well, here we are at the start of a new year and looking back at last year’s outstanding Frugal Film Project! I had a lot more fun with this project, and it helped nurture my soft spot for consumer 1990s/2000s SLRs. It’s funny; I never saw these as viable cameras before, yet they have a beautiful charm. You don’t have to worry too much because they can be a dime a dozen. Plus, they work with many lenses that most people use with their other autofocus systems. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Minolta (Sony) all have lenses that work on both digital (full-frame) and 35mm bodies.Read More →

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There are many cities and towns in Ontario that I feel connected to, primarily through my photography. They have been common in my photography projects, reviews, and videos. One of these cities is Hamilton, Ontario. I spent many years learning the art of photography and exposure by tromping through the many abandoned buildings the city offered to explorers through the early 21st century when I was active in the hobby. While most of my time was spent in either the downtown or industrial sectors, I had only a passing interest in a part of Hamilton, Concession Street, up at the edge of Hamilton Mountain—the ratherRead More →

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I first visited the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in 1995 on a March Break with my mom, brother and Oma. While this was post-fire, they were all crammed into the one surviving original hangers. I still am a bit of a flyboy. I logged countless hours in Microsoft Flight and Combat Flight Simulator. But seeing these warplanes up close and personal was a dream come true. The stunning array of machine guns at the front of a B-25 Mitchell (there’s a 4×6 print at my parent’s home of that) and the massive bomb bay of the Avro Lancaster. Since then, the museum has become aRead More →

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It’s fall vacation time! While yes, my family and I went away to Regina back in the summer. While we did some touristy things, it wasn’t so much a vacation as it was to visit family and introduce the little guy. In October, we went out on a real family vacation. It was the first in a long time for my little family of three. We decided to keep things simple and drove out to Ottawa, Ontario—the national capital of Canada, which is about a six-hour drive from where we live. The valley in which the modern city of Ottawa is located was formed whenRead More →

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This month is a weird entry into the project. for this year. I have focused on a single place to photograph, usually a town, location or event—something with a defined history and story, and yes, even a maple syrup festival counts. And no, before you ask, I’m not a closet K-Pop fan, and this has nothing to do with the band by the same name. Instead, B.T.S. is a term used within film/T.V./theatre to indicate behind-the-scenes. The idea came from a challenge that I gave to a person over on Twitter who wanted an idea for photography. I suggested that he photograph the backsides’ ofRead More →

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My first introduction to Old Oakville took place in 2002, when I was on the organizing committee for the 2002 PYPS (Presbyterian Young People’s Society) weekend that was hosted at Knox Presbyterian Church Oakville. While I did most of my photography at that event inside the church, it wasn’t until 2010 that I started to explore the historic downtown from a photographic perspective. I had photographed events through the downtown, but my focus was on the events, not the people. I actually shot my last few rolls of Kodachrome through the downtown, mainly a roll of Kodachrome 25 and a roll of Kodachrome 40 TypeRead More →

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The province of Ontario is more than big urban centres. Plenty of small towns retain their rich heritage of the 19th Century. One of my personal favourites is the former village of Elora. Unlike some small towns that are mere shadows of their former selves, Elora has maintained their architectural and industrial heritage with a twist on modern-day tourism. Add to this the natural beauty of the Elora Gorge, a fantastic craft brewery and distillery, and you have the perfect day trip on the Canada Day long weekend. A deep gorge marks the junction of the Grand and Irvine Rivers, a territory once the traditionalRead More →

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It has been a long time since my family, and I have taken a proper vacation. And while this trip was mainly to visit family, it was a vacation. The past few years have limited how far we can go from home. So taking advantage of parental leave, we took a flight out west to visit family who won’t be coming out east soon. We crossed the 100th Meridian into the great plains and visited Queen’s City, Regina, Saskatchewan. Formed out of an ancient sea, the great plains that spread out across the middle of North America saw their earliest human habitation, 6000 BCE. TheRead More →

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The city of Toronto offers many photographic opportunities, and doing a general Toronto post would be incredibly difficult. So instead, I will try to break it down into bite-sized pieces of history. So having to go into the city for an appointment at Sick Kids and being close to my birthday, we all headed out for a lovely walk over to one of the best examples of Victorian-era industries that survived in the city, the Distillery District. The history of the creation of alcohol dates back to the earliest parts of human history, but distilling spirit alcohol is something a little newer. First recorded inRead More →

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If there is one city in Ontario that I always like to visit on projects, it is Stratford, Ontario. While far smaller than most cities in Ontario, Stratford offers a glimpse of what cities looked like in the 19th Century, with plenty of historic buildings scattered throughout. The city still holds onto some of its historical past with the railroad and furniture making. But also fully embraces its Shakespearian tourist present. The part of Ontario where Stratford is found was once home to the Attawondernk Civilisation; these indigenous peoples were lumped together under the Neutral name by the first French explorers and fur traders whoRead More →