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If there is a single figure in the lead up to the Upper Canada Rebellion, the opposite of William Lyon MacKenzie, a Tory among Tories, that figure is Sir John Beverly Robinson. There is no better example of a loyalist and the perfect man to head up the Family Compact and pull the strings of the Provincial Government for many years. While having no love of power, he was a man of strict ideals, and for that, he took the role seriously and refused to allow anyone to deviate from his moral compass. John’s family’s legacy traced back to the Robinsons who were among theRead More →

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If there is a singular group that I had a clue about going deep into this project, that group would be the Family Compact. And how you view them relies on your view of Canadian History. To some they are the antagonist of this particular branch of Canadian history, to others, they represent Canadian loyalty to the British Crown in the rebellions. But for me, they now stand as the opposite side of the same coin during the Upper Canada Rebellion. The Compact represented the colonial elite, the new ruling class. They controlled every aspect, every part of the government, the law, and the church.Read More →

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Out of all the projects I have done in the past, this is the only one I can say has been a long time coming. But when I look back at how long it took me to prepare this project from conception to final project, it has not been that long. I mean I spent five years working on my War of 1812 project, but that was a logistical mess from the start. Acts of Confederation has been a slow burn, I started working on the framework in 2017, completed most of the writing in 2018 while collecting all but a single final roll ofRead More →

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The idea of a monobath is not a new one. If you’ve followed my online work you’ll know I’ve made my own based on a formula first put forward by Donald Qualls back in 2004 based on the HC-110 developer (a favourite of mine). When Michael Raso (of the Film Photography Project) started talking about their own Monobath I didn’t give it a second look (to be honest). While I enjoyed the ease of a single step that will develop, stop, and fix a roll of film a welcome break from the amount of work that goes into developing a roll of film, it feltRead More →

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Through 2016 I did a 52-Roll project where I shot the Rollei RPX films for each week, out of the three flavours available my personal favourite remained RPX 25, a spiritual successor to the iconic Agfa APX 25. These days in film photography there aren’t many offerings below ASA-100, Pan F+ is a solid choice, but sometimes you want something sharp, fine-grained, and slow. And for that, you have Rollei RPX 25. While the thin polyester base might make it hard to handle in the bag and widely thin in sheet formats, the results are worth the trouble. Film Specs Type: Panchromatic B&W Film Base:Read More →

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Finally, we have snow here in Southern Ontario which for me is wonderful! The cold weather is only made bearable by the presence of the white stuff. It also makes it more fun to go out tromping in the snow! But I shot most of my FP4 back in December, and with a deep freeze settled into the area after Christmas I really didn’t want to take any chances. But the arrival of the Secret Santa gift from the Emulsive gift exchange included a roll of FP4+ in 120 and with five sheets of 4×5 I was ready to go, on a much-reduced scale. GroupRead More →

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Well, looks who’s back! It’s the FP4Party! This time around I have no outstanding projects so unlike in the final FP4Party I can actually work hard on this one, unlike the last time I gave a rather lack-lustre performance. I sat down early and planned out my week, collecting five ideas of where to shoot and what I wanted to shoot with. The film, of course, a favourite of mine, Ilford FP4+. I came up with one roll of 35mm, three rolls of 120 and a box of 4×5. Now in the past, I’ve usually stuck to one day of shooting for these parties. ButRead More →

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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 →

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Without a doubt, there’s plenty to do in Toronto. And while many prefer to stay in the downtown core, there’s a particular draw to see what the city is like on the outskirts. One such location is right on city’s north line with Vaughn, and that’s Black Creek Pioneer Village. Black Creek is a living history museum, and a ‘false’ village in the sense that it is an amalgamation of many historical buildings from around Ontario gathered into one spot and dressed to look like a small settlement of the 1860s. If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, you may remember seeing this placeRead More →

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Not doing an overall film project over the course of the year has not stopped me from getting out and shooting and it’s freed me up to join in on the year’s film contests that the fine folks over at Emulsive have put on, well, for the most part, I joined in on their TMax Party for the two months, although I missed the Acros Party. But with the sun finally starting to shine I decided to make a point to get in on the Summer Film Party. Running the three summer months here in North America with June being the first up. Now theRead More →