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One of the first things that struck me as odd when I was building my A-Mount lens collection was the 50mm, after getting the two zoom lenses (35-70 and 70-210) I went for a fast prime and what lens collection wouldn’t be complete with the fast fifty while companies like Nikon, Olympus, and Canon produced their 50mm at f/1.8. Minolta, well they’re different they went with the f/1.7. But let’s not quibble over that, I just happened always to like the fact Minolta was different. And back when I was first shooting SLRs with an SR-T 102 I had the 50mm lens; in fact, IRead More →

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If you’re thinking to yourself, haven’t you already reviewed the Canon F-1? Like back in the first year of writing camera reviews? The answer would be yes, I did review an original 1970 F-1. But when it comes to camera names, Canon wasn’t always that creative; this is the New F-1. Which if you dig deep into the camera’s functionality, is a whole other camera, thus needing a review of its own. The F-1N, like the F-1, is Canon’s answer to the rise in electronics in cameras that happened in the late 1970s and the introduction to the Nikon F3. And when it comes toRead More →

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When it comes to political change in Canadian history, there has always been two behind any major change. Robert Baldwin and Louis La Fontaine for example, and while George Brown would play a major role it would be George-Étienne Cartier who would provide political support to John A MacDonald but ensure that French-Canadien culture would not be lost. Born the 6th of September 1814 in Sainte-Antonie-sur-Richelieu in Lower Canada. Baptised with the name George in honour of King George III. But George’s family already had a long history in the new world, even claiming relation to Jacques Cartier (although there is no evidence to supportRead More →

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Before we get into all this, let me start by staying Ortho Plus is not a new film, it’s just now available in different formats. Originally I shot a box of the stuff in 4×5 when it was only available in sheet format, and it was the first film that I shot that had no real rating set. In fact, most entries for developing times on the massive dev chart simply had a question mark for the ISO rating. I found that this gave me a lot more latitude when working with the film. I could rate it higher or lower depending on the situationRead More →

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When you’re in the film photography community, you celebrate things differently. I mean, sure you’d do the usual birthday traditions with your family but among your film photographer friends, you get together for a photo walk. No? Maybe it’s just the Toronto Film Shooters group. The morning started particularly cold, but at least it kept the traffic light or it was actually the early hour. The trouble with being in Milton there’s no easy way I’d like to drive into Toronto, plus having to leave my car somewhere and needing to loop back to the start doesn’t always jive with my general flow of theRead More →

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When you compare the age of Canada’s army to that of other nations, our military is relatively young. As a nation of just over 150 years old, we depended almost entirely on our defence from the home government, France first and then England. And while a bulk of the soldiers in what would become modern-day Canada were regular professional soldiers and sailors, several locally raised regiments came to the defence of the territory should the need arise. The Canadian militia and Provincial ‘feasible’ troops fought in the War of 1812 and again during the Upper Canada Rebellion and Patriot Wars with varying degrees of success.Read More →

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One of my favourite things to do in both new and familiar cities is to simply wander, get lost even. In fact, this tactic has yielded some amazing photos on my previous trips. And while my wife does not share this same affinity to simply ‘get lost’ in a city she does enjoy the wandering parts. As long as we can stop for coffee or pop into some of the stores along the way. But out of all the cities, I’ve visited my favourite to simply wander around in is Chicago. To be more specific, the loop and the museum campus. These two areas areRead More →

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The film that started the whole Svema craze with the Film Photography Project, Svema Foto 200. Свема is a film stock that is relatively unknown here in North America unless you are of course fans of the Film Photography Podcast. The name comes from the combination of two Russian words, Светочувствительные Материалы, translated means Photosensitive Materials. While Svema collapsed when the Soviet Union died in the 1990s, another Eastern European film manufacture, Astrum, continues the legacy of Svema using some of the old machinery in a new factory in Shostka, Ukraine. Now I did try a roll or two of Foto 200 when it firstRead More →

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Sometimes it’s good to keep things fresh and new, and having great success hosting a photo meetup in Niagara-On-The-Lake last year and having gotten a connection with a fantastic photographer in the region Bryan who is about a year into his journey into film photography with the offer to host the group I took the chance. Unlike past photo walks, this time, we had three lovely models along. Nat, Millie, and Carolyn, having worked with Bryan in the past came along to give the group a chance to trial their model photography work in a low-key situation. Now I’ve done some model work in theRead More →

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If there is a single piece of infrastructure that changed Canada in the early 1850s, the railroad is that single piece the spurred the Province towards a modern industrial location in the British Empire. While the Welland and Rideau Canals provided a fast link they both were tied to the waterways they were built out of. Rail, on the other hand, could cross areas where canals could not. Rail could run nearly the year-round, bridge water, and move faster. But railroads were not new in the province, having existed in some form or another since the early 1820s. Rail technology had been used in theRead More →