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Last week I alluded to the rail lands in Toronto; these lands dominated the space between the lake and Union Station on Front Street. These lands grew up through the late 1850s as the anchor point to major and minor operators. Space was used to marshall, maintain, and store rolling stock fleets. And one of the most prominent buildings in these yards was the roundhouse. The idea of the roundhouse as a means to store and maintain locomotives is credited to Robert Stephenson. He designed the structure and used one with the London & Manchester Railway. While that roundhouse is long gone, the world’s oldestRead More →

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When it comes to instant film, there isn’t much that draws me to the medium. Other than the fact that it’s an instant film, it’s amazing that after Polaroid pulled the plug, someone was able to backwards engineer and recreate it. And I’ve been with them since the beginning from those early steps and some pretty terrible prototypes. And while Impossible Project turned to Polaroid Originals to reclaim the Polaroid name, the spirit of this has remained and started to produce normal repeatable products. Sure they may have lost their spirit of adventure, having a colour instant integral film in the 21st Century is somethingRead More →

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While we might be heading into the last days of Summer, that doesn’t mean we can’t look back and look forward to next year with the team’s favourite choices for film stocks during the hot and humid days of Canadian Summer. So join Alex, James, Jess, Bill and John and beat the heat with a cold beer. Film Mentioned on Today’s Show Lomography Purple Jess adores Purple in the summer. It has a way of turning the ordinary into the otherworldly. Although you want to shoot this in bright light with lots of contrast. When shooting under a canopy, the greens can get boring, andRead 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 1:00pm) 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 Topic forRead More →

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And perhaps the most incredible reminder of the grandeur of rail travel during the golden age of rail in Canada. If you have ever travelled by rail into, out of or through Toronto, you have more than likely passed through Toronto’s Union Station. While the railways that operate out of Union Station have changed since its inception, it remains a proper Union station with five railways continuing to call at the city. But the station we have today is the third Union Station in Toronto. But its location has been connected to the railway since the first years of the railroad in Ontario. The stripRead More →

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This was truly Minolta’s last hurrah; the age of the film SLR was starting to come to a close. Rather than let it go out with a whimper, Minolta took things by the reigns and rode out into the sunset with a sixth and final generation of film cameras before merging with Konica and leaving 35mm behind. Meet the Maxxum 70, elsewhere known as the Dynax 60 or α-70. While much of the final era of cameras from Minolta were continuations of their original three market segments, the Maxxum 9 (Professionals), Maxxum 7 (Advanced Amatures), and Maxxum 5 (Consumers). But this final subset of camerasRead More →

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If there’s something I’ve learned over the past six months is that the quote “The best camera you have is the one you have with you” is true, and the camera that almost everyone has is their mobile phone. The challenge for July from my friends over at Embrace the Grain podcast was 127 film, but I don’t shoot 127 film. Well, I have, but these days I don’t have any 127 cameras, and the film can be prohibitively expensive. They did cook up a plan B, using your mobile phone. But not just your phone’s stock camera, but one of the many film simulatorRead More →

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I have encountered certain subjects that have proven challenging to find a clear history throughout this project. Then there’s the London & Port Stanley Railroad Port Stanley Station, which has little information online about the history of the building. In contrast, there is plenty of history about the railway but little about the Port Stanley station. I would not be surprised if you have not heard of the London & Port Stanley Railway. The railway was among the first railways to form in the first railway boom of the 1850s. But it never had any significant publicity because it only ran from London to PortRead More →

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In today’s episode, joining James, Bill, and John are two fellow film photographers, podcasters, YouTubers, and generally all-around amazing people, Matt Murray and Lucy Lumen from Australia. The team talks about all things film photographers across two parts of the British Commonwealth. You can find them if you aren’t following Matt and Lucy on Socials. Matt Matt Loves Cameras: podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/matt-loves-cameras/ Instagram: instagram.com/mattlovescameras YouTube: youtube.com/c/MattLovesCameras Lucy Lucy Lumen’s Podcast Adventure: podcasts.apple.com/lucy-lumens-podcast-adventure/ Instagram instagram.com/lucy_lumen YouTube: youtube.com/c/LucyLumensAnalogAdventures Want a subscription to SilverGrain Classics and are a fan of Classic Camera Revival? Visit their shop online and buy a magazine or a subscription? Looking for a good spot toRead 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 1:00pm) 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 Topic forRead More →