When it comes to podcasts, Classic Camera Revival may not be the biggest out there, but like any Internet project, you’re sort of shouting into the void and hoping that someone might hear you. And in the case of CCR, people heard and we have a group of listeners. And a group of fans that reach from beyond Canada. Not bad. So in light of our first meet, we promised that we would host the second meetup in 2018. So, using details from my own trips into the historic downtown of Cambridge, formerly known as Galt, and from the daily walks by Tom Fournier, aRead More →

I’m sure sitting on my parent’s shelf is the book that inspired this title, The Church Mice Spread Their Wings, but in this case, I’m not talking about a book, but the Toronto Film Shooters Meetup. Usually, when these events are run they stick closely to the Greater Toronto Area. I made a choice, on the suggestion of James Lee to change up a couple things with the Summer 2018 meetup, and by a couple things, I mean all the things. Location, Time, even starting and ending points. I went full radical, must have been the influence of reading up on the Upper Canada Rebellion.Read More →

Other than the location, one of the best parts of Photostock is the people! This being my fifth event and having missed last year’s event for an awesome reason (having just gotten married), it was good to get back and see old friends to reconnect and to meet new friends in the process. While I did spend more time away from the Birchwood than I did at the hotel itself. The weather on Saturday morning kept me in (both to take in people’s amazing portfolios and the Print Exchange) I managed to capture many of the faces at the event. Photostock is first and foremostRead More →

It’s been just under a year since the gang visited the Riverdale/Leslieville areas of Toronto. And again I found myself as a participant in the walk rather than the organiser. For that, I left it up to Bill Smith who knows the area like the back of his hand, though this time around we took a much different route. There’s something about getting started early as we gathered at the Rooster Coffee House for our start, after an Atomic Rooster Brew and some discussion. And of course, snapping photos with our cups of coffee and our cameras we started off. The day had promised toRead More →

When it comes to the Winter meetups, the weather is always a crapshoot. But unlike last year, we were blessed with beautiful blue skies, bright sun, and temperatures above zero. I think that helped bring out a dozen shooters to invade the historic downtown of Unionville, Ontario. I had first discovered Unionville thanks to one of my co-workers who mentioned that he and this girlfriend enjoyed the historic downtown. So last summer I hit it up on what turned into a hot summer’s day and I saw why. And the group that showed up completely agreed. The small size of the downtown, about a five-minuteRead More →

PYPS, Presbyterian Young People’s Society, Pick Your Potential Spouse. However you want to call it, yesterday I learned of some news that I never expected to receive. And while I have, like many before me, aged out and ultimately drifted away from the organization a friend whom I met through PYPS posted the following on Facebook. THE FUTURE OF PYPS Hello PYPS family, Recently the Synod of Central Northeastern Ontario and Bermuda had their annual meeting and decided to pull funding from our ministry. We felt that, in the face of declining attendance, the money that has been allotted to PYPS in the past couldRead More →

The trouble with photo walks is that you’re walking, this pretty much takes the idea of bringing large format cameras and tripods along. I mean, I love LF and have a press camera which allows me to shoot the Crown Graphic Handheld as I did back at the Summer Toronto Film Shooters Meetup. But again, when making a meet up especially for large format, you can’t call it a photo walk because it’s hard to walk with an LF camera and I know that many members don’t shoot press, technical, or field cameras they use monorails. You don’t walk around with a monorail, while youRead More →

The Beach neighbourhood in Toronto is not one that I have explored much. Sure I’ve done a wedding there, the 2015 spring Toronto Film Shooters Meetup happened here, had a week of my latest 52-Roll project there, and even recorded an episode of Classic Camera Revival out there. Okay, so maybe I have spent more time in the Beaches than I thought I had. But, it’s always fun to go and check out a part of the city I don’t often have a chance to visit. Bill Smith, while an Oakville resident often finds himself in the area, and offered to host a little photoRead More →

This previous year I took two chances to visit the lovely historical village of Elora, Ontario in Wellington County. The first trip with my lovely wife in the summer, and a second time on a very dreary Fall day with the Toronto Film Shooters Group. Both trips in addition to shooting plenty of black & white film I shot a roll of colour film each. And in my own typical fashion, that film sat on a self. Now, in my own defense I thought I was going to shoot a lot more slide film this summer than I actually did, so when I realized IRead More →

Ah the dog days of summer, and yet there’s still the draw to get out, no matter the weather, and just enjoy shooting. This summer meeting saw me visit two areas of the city for some shooting. The first part of the meet was in a part of the city that I don’t often explore, the Riverside neighbourhood on the eastern side of the Don Valley. Fellow film shooter, Bill Smith, did the heavy lifting in planning out the meet. The day started with coffee at the lovely Rooster Coffee Shop. The whole area is a hidden gem in the city with lots to seeRead More →