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It’s always fun to revisit trips on anniversaries. Last year, I posted about the ten-year anniversary of my epic three-week trip to Europe to participate in the 200th Anniversary Reenactment of the Battle of Waterloo. And I was recently thinking about the last time I did a big trip, and after someone favourited an old image from my NOPEX trip back in 2011, I realised that this year marked the 15th anniversary of that trip. So, for a bit of context, NOPEX, or “Northern Ontario Products Exposition,” was a week-long car-camping trip through Northern Ontario with my good friend James. The groundwork had been laidRead More →

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When it comes to camera systems, I have only switched systems once. There was a brief attempt to go with Sony E-Mount, but it never got very far. That one switch has always been from Minolta SR-Mount to Nikon F-Mount. Now I have since added systems like the Minolta A-Mount and Canon EF-Mount, but these have always been secondary. As I mentioned in a previous entry, the Nikon F80 is the camera that got me into the autofocus world of the Nikon F-Mount and eventually into the manual focus world of the F-Mount as well. Last month, I wrote about my entry into the digitalRead More →

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So here’s the thing: faster films are better known for their latitude, but mid-speed films are often overlooked for it. And I’ll have to say I’ve done some wild things with FP4+ in the past, and it responds well to over- and underexposure when developed right. But can FP4+ stand up to its faster brother, HP5+, in terms of quality and performance? Well, the answer is yes! While it can’t go as far as faster films, it can still do a lot more than people give it credit. Film Specs Manufacturer: Ilford Photo Name: Ilford FP4+ Type: Panchromatic B&W Film Base: Acetate Film Speed: ASA-125Read More →

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One of my long time favourite events to attend is Doors Open Hamilton. If you’ve been following my writing for a while you’ll know that the Hamilton Doors Open event was my first taste of these architectural tours. Where buildings open their doors to the public, even those places that are often closed off. Of course, the group that introduced me to the event was the Urban Exploration community. Which shouldn’t surprise you, a group dedicated to taking a look behind closed doors, suddenly had open access without too much chance of getting in trouble. That being said, there were several events where explorers tookRead More →

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Abandoned hospitals in Ontario were few and far between, especially in my part of the province. While many hospitals were still expanding or constructing new buildings, these were often on active properties with lots of security. But when word got out of a fresh location, and by fresh, it had only closed three years before my getting in, you tend to jump on any chance you got. In an interesting turn of events, I ended up exploring the hospital where my father was born, both cool and weird at the same time. While our modern healthcare system in Ontario is not without its faults, itRead More →

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I’ve been looking to review a Hanimex camera since I discovered that it was a Hanimex camera that captured my early childhood memories. I really wanted to find the same model camera, the Hanimex 35SE, but sadly, the only ones I could find were for parts only or untested. Throughout last year, I kept my ears to the ground and ended up at Kosmo Foto’s shop, where I saw a massive amount of Hanimex cameras available. After confirming that he could ship to Canada, I began to look more closely. While a 35SE was available, it sold before I could pull the trigger. So IRead More →

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A few years ago, I reviewed a rather interesting developer, Diafine. Diafine is a universal black-and-white film developer. Universal in that it will develop all films using a fixed set of development times, which also requires that the film be exposed at a specific exposure index. But what if you could make this even simpler? Well, that’s where the fine folks at Flic Film come into play with their Elementary Developer. Like Diafine, Elementary is a two-bath developer with parts A and B, which you use as separate steps, but you only have one exposure time for all films and no need to expose theRead More →

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My introduction to photography came in the early days of digital photography entering the mainstream, so my medium of choice had always been film. You could pick up decent film cameras for cheap while digital cameras were still the realm of professionals or the rich. And the early options were low-quality. I had used digital through high school and my first years of college; my high school had the early Apple digital camera and also the Sony Mavica (the one that took 3.5″ floppy disks). And my dad had won an early HP digital camera through work. But I realised it was only a matterRead More →

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If there’s one thing that Double-X has is a wide latitude, being a cine-film you can punish this film with all sorts of conditions and still get some amazing results. Of all the films I’m running through these tests or reviews, Double-X is one that I’ve actually put through its paces. I’ve shot it at ASA-1600 and developed in both Diafine and D96 with excellent results. I’ve also over-exposed it and was presented with superb results so I have high hopes about these results! I also will note that this roll was from the Canadian company Flic Film as a respool! Film Specs Manufacturer: EastmanRead More →

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My first experience with downtown Oakville was in 2002, at the PYPS Fall Convention hosted by Knox Church, where I was on the committee that ran the event. I had a blast, but like any PYPS event, I didn’t stray far from the church itself. In fact, most PYPS events we didn’t stray too far from the church. There were a couple of times when we ventured further afield, but those were few, and my focus was on the PYPS event rather than the area around me. Since then, I have gotten to know the historic areas of Oakville well, having been coming and goingRead More →