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In: A Faded Glory
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The Niagara River has never been the easiest obstacle to navigate in Ontario, the main reasons being the current, the falls, and the gorge. Bridges were neither cheap nor easy to build but possible. The easiest means to get trains across the river were through the use of rail ferries. Steamships were designed to carry large numbers of cars, but the process was slow, bottlenecked the line, and there was also the tendency for ships to sink or get caught in the current and swept away. All major operators initially used rail ferries, while Buffalo & Lake Huron had the easiest route between Fort ErieRead More →

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I like a camera with history, something unique, a variant or a failed move forward. While I’m a Nikon shooter, Nikon cameras are fairly dull in the broader picture of photographic history. Sure, Nikon cameras often set the standard for photography and technology, but they often played it safe. On the flip side, Canon tried different things, they experimented, and sometimes it worked. Other times it was too early. The Canon Pellix is a fine example of the engineers at the company in the 1960s who wanted to try everything to improve photography. Sadly they were several decades ahead of the game. Thanks to OriRead More →

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Heading into the big city is a rarity these days between no major events running yet and mainly shooting for review purposes and parenthood. My travel circle is limited these days, not that I’m complaining. But having a random mid-week trip into Toronto with a bit of free time allows me to get out, stretch my legs and camera gear and head out for some enjoyment of the craft. It also helped that I was again shooting for the Embrace the Grain film of the month challenge, which for March was Kentmere 100. So I packed two rolls of film, two cameras, and two lenses.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 1:00pm) search the #photochat hashtag to see the conversation, or find me at @AlexLuyckxPhoto on Twitter for more info. Be sure to 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!Read More →

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One of the jewels in the collection of Westfield Heritage Village is plenty of memorabilia and buildings related to the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway. They probably have the second largest collection next to the museum on the second floor of the Hamilton GO Centre. But they do have one thing that the GO Centre does not have, an original locomotive that once served on the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo line, Locomotive 103. The first example of a 2-8-0 saw construction in 1865, an improvement of the 0-8-0 design and completed by John P. Laird for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Originally known as the Bedford, ConsolidationRead More →

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It’s not often that something new hits the market, especially something that comes out of Canada. If you haven’t heard of Flic Film, that’s okay; I only recently discovered this Canadian film lab out of Alberta in 2021. They mainly focus on selling rebranded motion picture films, the Eastman Vision3 series and Eastman Double-X; they have a chemistry production side. But their chemistry has a twist; they’re working on making it more environmentally safe. And that should come as no surprise given they are based out of Alberta with many rural properties and reliance on septic systems. And that is where Black/White & Green (B/WRead More →

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Join the crew from Classic Camera Revival as we sit down to a round table episode to discuss anything and everything. We welcome Bill from Studio C-41, Gabe and Jeff from I Dream of Cameras and Andre from Negative Positives for this episode. Buckle up for an alcohol-fuelled marathon episode! We at Classic Camera Revival are horrified about the ongoing illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine by forces directed and ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Know that we at CCR stand with the brave defenders of Ukraine, those fleeing the conflict and those in Russia who are being arrested, suppressed from speaking out againstRead 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. Be sure to 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!Read More →

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In: A Faded Glory
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If you’re a fan of the show Murdoch Mysteries and are a sharp-eyed viewer, then the station featured today will be recognizable, having appeared in the episode The Annoying Red Planet, where the titular character visits the community of Jerseyville. Jerseyville is no work of fiction but is a rural community between Brantford and Hamilton and was only ever served by the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway. The Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway saw its original charter in 1884 to construct a second line between the three cities mentioned in the name as an alternative to Grand Trunk, which by 1884 had full control overRead More →

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While I’m not always a fan of third-party lenses, every so often, one comes along that impresses me as an alternative to an OEM lens. And the Osawa is one of those lenses that I probably would have used more if I had known what a sleeper I was sitting on. Unlike Vivitar, Osawa is a lens manufacturer in their own right and produced lenses starting in the 1970s when many SLRs were beginning to gain popularity in the consumer market, and many were clamouring for inexpensive alternatives. While working with this lens in an OM-Mount, they also produced for other major camera makers likeRead More →