The year, 1995, the shriek and howl of the dial-up modem sound through the library at Sam Sherratt Middle School in Milton, Ontario. For good or ill the Internet was here to stay. So with all the negativity that has been tossed around of late about the Internet and film photography the gang is here to talk about all the amazing things the Digital Age has to offer film photographers. From Scanning to Web 2.0, Internet Communities and Various Sharing platforms! Despite everything digital has done a lot of keep film photography alive and kicking well into the 21st Century and beyond. Want a subscriptionRead More →

If you haven’t heard of Palmerston, Ontario, that is perfectly understandable. It is a small historic town tucked away in the rural areas of Wellington County. But the town owes its existence in a major form thanks to the railroad and is one of a few communities that can claim that. At the railroad’s height, Palmerston was a major centre for Grand Trunk and later Canadian National during the golden age of rail and also found a place in history as the location of one of Canada’s first vaccine farms because of the railroad. The Wellington, Grey & Bruce Railway starts during the waning daysRead More →

This won’t be the first time that I have a Nikon camera that is Nikon in name only. Remember the Nikkorex? While not the same idea, while the Nikkorex line was contracted out to another manufacturer, the Nikon FM10 is a straight-up rebrand (with some modifications) of an existing camera. The Nikon FM10 is one of many cameras built on the Cosina CT-1 Super/CT-1G chassis and dressed up to look like a Nikon. And I’ll give Nikon and Cosina one thing, the FM10 seems a lot like a Nikon right down to the red stripe. Camera Specifications Make: Cosina Model: Nikon FM10 Type: Single LensRead More →

I had to go back into my archives to see if I ever posted anything directly related to my 2015 trip to Europe. And yes, the images did appear in several review posts, but I never made a great post about the trip. I don’t understand why! But it probably got caught up in my poorly managed posting schedule, which I only in the past couple of years got onto the right track and had some semblance of order. But either way, I think for this Friday, I get things in order and revisit a special trip of mine with some insights into that tripRead More →

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 →

The year was 2005; I was in my last semester of college and starting to explore my photography seriously. My grandfather, on a lengthy trip, had asked me to housesit for him in Guelph. Having nothing much to do, I would often take long walks in the city’s downtown. And looming giant next to the central train station is a rusting hulk of a steam locomotive. While I paid little attention to the engine, CN 6167 was among the luckiest and most photographed locomotives in Canada. Locomotives are classified under many different means, name, class, motive power, and most common wheel configuration. The wheel configurationRead More →

It’s been a while since I got to do a film of the month challenge put on by the team at the Embrace the Grain Podcast, mainly because some of the more recent ones have focused on colour films. And I’m not often one to jump on colour films. For a couple of reasons, first being I don’t like scanning colour film, and second, it’s difficult to get processed on time as I don’t keep colour chemicals at home. So when January’s film was announced as being Japan Camera Hunter Streetpan 400, I jumped, and I had a roll stashed away. I took the filmRead More →

Let’s face it, the idea of rebranding items, especially in photography, is nothing new. Kodak, Fuji, and Agfa have sold their films to resellers, even putting them in custom cartridges and boxes. Even some camera manufacturers build more cameras for other companies and sell under those names than under their name. And today, the trend continues, with Agfa still making films but as a contract manufacturer with names like Rollei under Maco Direct selling their product, or Fomapan producing films stocks for Kosmo Foto, New Classics, and Lomography. Plus, ORWO provides the sweet motion picture film for Lomography and our friends at Cinestill and theirRead More →

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 →

The interesting thing about the Guelph Central Station is that I have walked past it many times but have never been drawn to the structure. I’m more likely to walk past it to get a better angle on the armoury or move past towards the old city hall turned courthouse. But Central Station is one of only a few surviving propaganda stations built to instil confidence in the railway operator in the second decade of the new century. Guelph and the railroad share an interesting relationship since the first Grand Trunk Railway line rolled through 1855. Having acquired the Toronto & Guelph Railway, Grand TrunkRead More →